Stork 03 - Flock by Wendy Delsol

Author:Wendy Delsol [Delsol, Wendy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780763662134
Publisher: Candlewick
Published: 2012-09-25T07:00:00+00:00

I didn’t notice the eerily quiet house when I got home. With Faulkner to read for English and my dress to work on, I grabbed a PowerBar and a vitaminwater and headed up to my room. My mom, believing it was important for Leira to get fresh air and be exposed to external stimuli, often took her on afternoon outings. When it got to be dinnertime and there were still no sounds in the house, I got suspicious and checked my — oops — dead cell phone. I plugged it in and, once it had a little juice, discovered I had three texts from my mom, all of them telling me to call her ASAP. The last ASAP had been two hours ago. Oops again.

“Hey, Mom, what’s up?”

“I don’t want to alarm you, but it’s Leira.”

“Why? What happened?”

“We had to take her to the emergency room. She was running a fever.”

“Is she OK?”

“They suspect an infection. Possibly pneumonia. The good news is that she’s stable now.”

“There’s bad news?”

“They admitted her, and she’s back on a ventilator. Her compromised lungs aren’t quite getting the job done.”

Of course it had to be lung related. It led me to fear that Leira — because of her special selkie ancestry — was never intended to have lungs. That her long-term prognosis on earth, even should I be successful in thwarting Marik, wasn’t good.

“Should I come to the hospital?” I asked.

Even through the phone, I could hear her release of pent-up air. “I don’t think so. It’s late. There’s nothing to be done here. I’ve even talked Stanley into going home; he has an early lecture. If she takes a turn for the worse, I’ll have Stanley wake you. But if she’s holding or improving, you should go to school, and then we’ll see what’s to be done tomorrow.”

“I don’t feel right carrying on if Leira is sick,” I said.

Following a couple more rounds of my mom and me debating this, I finally agreed to stay put. I had spent enough time at the hospital over the summer to know that the night shift was long and tedious.

Immediately after hanging up with my mom, I phoned Jack. It was an entirely spontaneous response, as reflexive as covering a yawn.

“I’m coming over,” he said, after hearing the latest.

“It’s late,” I said, sounding scarily like my mom. “Besides, you know the rule.” It was a stupid one, but Jack wasn’t allowed over unless my mom or Stanley were home.

“It’s an emergency situation, though. Martial law, right?”

“I’m not sure that applies when the emergency’s someone else’s,” I said.

“Well, then, we’ll make it a covert op.”

This disobedient side wasn’t like him. I kind of liked it. And I definitely liked the burly quality to his voice. I went all tingly just thinking about how, in person, he’d follow that up.

About twenty minutes later, as I finished a plate of cheese and crackers, I got what I was secretly hoping for: the real Jack, husky voice and all.

“Did anyone see you?” I asked, looking both left and right down the street.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.