Vortex by Kimberly Packard

Author:Kimberly Packard [Packard, Kimberly]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780999201565
Publisher: Abalos Publishing
Published: 2019-01-30T16:00:00+00:00

24

The tinkling fountain in the corner was meant to calm nervous families. To call up images of tall grass blowing gently on a warm day next to a bubbling creek. It was intended to break the hushed silence so lurid that ears would ring just to ensure they still worked.

All that thing succeeded in doing was making Elaina squirm against the pressure of her overflowing bladder.

There must be a chapter in an interior design textbook on how to decorate a hospital waiting room. Muted colored chairs, comfortable yet not too cozy. A machine belching out bad coffee.

The TV with chipper talk show hosts, the audience on a hushed laugh track. A piece of thought-provoking, yet non-offensive art.

And, the damned fountain.

But she couldn’t leave. Not even for a bathroom break.

The doctor had promised he’d be out with an update as soon as possible. After four hours, soon had to be getting close. And if he came out while she was gone, who would he update?

There was no one else. They only had each other.

Elaina leaned her head back on the chair and let another round of tears pool. It would be great if her bladder was tied to her tear ducts, and she could just cry it out.

Grit still coated her face and neck from when the medical helicopter had taken off, leaving her alone to watch the diminishing vessel carrying her mom.

Once she’d realized her mom’s heart still beat and her lungs filled with air, everything had laser-focused clarity.

Her cell phone was close at hand in her back pocket. She’d told the 9-1-1 operator her mother likely had a stroke, and they quickly dispatched transport to take her Oklahoma City. No matter how much she begged, there’d been no room for her in the helicopter. Connie had looked alien, as they rolled her past Elaina; pale, listless, shrunken.

Why did she have to do it? It could’ve waited. She could tell her mom was sick, but she chose to push it. Her selfish drive to understand what was behind the visions had blinded her to the fact that her mom was ill.

Connie was lying in a hospital because of Elaina, and for all she knew; her mother could have exhaled her last breath, forever having the angry accusations as the final words to penetrate her brain.

She balled up a fist and pounded her thigh. Pain rattled her bone.

Good. I need to hurt. I need to look as ugly on the outside as I am on the inside.

Elaina switched to the other thigh, beating it with the same ferocity.

The whoosh of an opening door jolted her upright.

Heath paused before catching her gaze and running toward her.

She attempted to stand, but when her boots hit the floor the pain of a thousand needles flared through her feet.

“I’m so sorry.” Her partner pulled her into a tight hug, holding her up long enough for the stinging to subside. “Can I do anything?”

She inhaled her best friend’s scent, a musky shampoo with his cinnamon gum

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