Unbeliever: Love is Magic is Love by Karin Kallmaker

Author:Karin Kallmaker [Kallmaker, Karin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: lesbian, romance
Publisher: Karin Kallmaker
Published: 2017-12-06T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

I started awake and looked up in time to see the lunch cart pass the open door of Kylie’s room. The hospital seemed oppressively quiet and the moment I’d sat down I’d had trouble staying awake.

Kylie made a soft noise, like she was trying to surface out of her meds-induced haze.

“I’m here,” I said quietly. “Do you want some water?”

She nodded and sipped when I slipped the straw between her lips. A grimace of pain crossed her face as she swallowed, but she sipped again and the next wasn’t so bad.

“I don’t think they’re going to let me take you home today. I haven’t seen the neurologist yet, but they’ve got you really doped up, haven’t they?”

Her attempt to answer was a croaked affirmative.

“Are you hurting?” Another croak. I gently touched her shoulder as I rang for the nurse.

She was too jovial in her red and yellow scrubs for my mood, but she quickly checked Kylie’s vitals and noted them on the chart. “I’ll page the doctor. I need instructions before I can give you anything more,” she told Kylie.

We waited an interminable fifteen minutes. I babbled on about my classes that morning and the weather. I wanted in the worst way to tell her about the book and Aurora. If she weren’t under the influence of the meds, she’d happily speculate with me about what really happened. She’d be thoughtful and funny. We’d laughed together over the account of a grilled cheese sandwich, half-eaten but appearing to have the visage of the Madonna, which had been auctioned for tens of thousands of dollars. I clutched my stomach as I waited, not wanting to face the fact that the Kylie who would help me make sense of what I’d experienced might be gone forever.

The weary neurologist from the night before came in with the customary bustle of a man with too much to do. He addressed us both, though his gaze settled more on me. “I’m afraid the news is not good.”

I wanted to shut off his voice, leave the building, but I forced myself to listen. I didn’t want to translate his long, technical words into ones I could more easily take in, but I did it. He droned on for several minutes and I boiled it all down to the fact that Kylie’s vertebrae were disintegrating more quickly than anticipated.

There was a little silence when he stopped talking, then Kylie’s rasp made me jump.

“So we can tell the oncologist to kiss off?” It sounded as if she were smiling, but I lacked the courage to look at her face. “It’s the bone thing that’ll get me?”

“The pressure on your spinal cord can have unexpected results. But you’ve got the most common – partial paralysis.”

“Next I get the whole deal? My brain’s messages get blocked? Heart stops?”

She was asking all the questions I could not. Brave, fierce, determined to know the worst, while I cowered from truth.

“Possibly. I can’t tell you how likely because your other conditions are probably accelerating the deterioration in ways we don’t yet understand.

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