After what seemed like a long time, Amy said softly, 'We're good friends. That's nice.'
Kirk and Brent didn't speak.
Slowly Kirk's and Amy's breathing lengthened and they drifted into sleep. Brent lay awake in the darkness awhile. He couldn't see the ceiling even when he squinted. He felt his fingers intertwined with Amy's and the rise and fall of her breathing beneath his hand.
Time, stop! he thought. Let this go on forever.
He too finally floated into sleep.
Amy awoke coughing. She ached all over. She glanced at the clock and the glowing hands told her it was after four. She tried to stop coughing but she couldn't. Her chest seemed filled up and she couldn't clear her throat. Her head throbbed. She put her hand against her forehead and it was hot.
She sat up, but the coughing continued. She saw that both Brent and Kirk were asleep.
She slid the covers down and climbed to the bottom of the bed. When she swung her feet to the floor and stood up, she almost fell over. She had to hold onto the edge of the bed to keep her balance. She quietly left the room and crossed the hall. She climbed into her own bed and fell asleep.
Chapter Eight
Brent felt great when he woke up. What a night's sleep, he thought and stretched. Kirk was sitting in his own bed.
'Morning,' Kirk said.
'Where's Amy?' Brent asked.
'I don't know. When I woke up, she was gone. She must have left sometime during the night.'
'That's probably just as well. I can imagine what Nurse Rush would have said if she had found Amy here.'
'I can also imagine what she would have said if I hadn't woken up and moved back to my own bed too. That would have looked cute.'
'I never thought of that,' Brent laughed.
'I may be weird, but not that weird.'
'Hey, did you fix those flowers up?' Brent asked.
They were arranged in the Styrofoam water pitchers.
'Yeah. They were all wilty and half dead hanging out of the sink when I woke up. I figured Amy would be ticked if we let them just die, so I stuck them in the water pitcher there. I'm no great flower arranger, that's for sure, but maybe they'll live a while longer.'
'I wonder how Amy is this morning?'
'I don't know,' Kirk said. 'She'll probably be over for a visit later. Let her sleep now. Last night might have been awful tiring for her.'
Just then the door burst open. Amy's mother stormed in. Her eyes were wild and she was shaking, Brent could see.
'You little bastard, if she dies, it's all your fault. How could you have done this to her?' she screamed at Kirk.
She rushed across the room. Her elbow hit the pitcher of flowers and it tipped over. The water spilled down the side of the cabinet. The flowers scattered across the tile floor. Amy's mother didn't stop. She stood by Kirk's bed clenching and unclenching her fists. Brent thought she was going to hit Kirk.
'Amy?' Kirk said.
'You know goddamn well who I mean.... Oh, God, in there with another transfusion... the oxygen... so helpless she can hardly breathe... all those tubes...'
'What...?'
'What? You know what, you son of a bitch,' she yelled. 'You better hope to God she lives. Oh, God, let Amy live....'
'I don't know... it can't...' Kirk tried to say.
'It goddamn right can't happen. She was doing all right. The doctor said she was doing all right. Didn't you want her to get better? The bleeding... the pneumonia now. If she dies...'
'Dies? From mono? You're hysterical.'
'Mono, nothing. Mono! You fool! What the hell did you expect me to tell her?'
Brent shifted in his bed. Say something, he thought, but he couldn't.
'If only I'd known,' Kirk said.
'It wouldn't have made any difference to someone like you... dragging her out at night. Yes, the night nurse told me. So help me, if Amy does pull through, I don't want you ever, do you hear me, ever trying to see her again. If you so much as set foot inside her room, I'll see to it...'
Nurse Rush appeared in the doorway. 'Go to your daughter,' she said. 'She needs you now. I don't want my other patients disturbed.'
'Not until...'
'Not until nothing. Please leave this room immediately,' Nurse Rush said.
Amy's mother turned and ran from the room.
Kirk shouted after her, 'Don't you think I give a damn too?'
'I'm sorry, Kirk,' Nurse Rush said. 'Amy's very sick. I know it's not your fault, although it was a stupid thing to pull last night. Don't try to visit her. Things are bad enough over there without having her mother fly off the handle again. Amy shouldn't see anyone now anyway. You'll be kept posted.'
'Thanks, Nurse Rush,' Kirk said.
She left the room.
Brent and Kirk were silent for a long time.
'Nurse Rush isn't so bad, is she?' Kirk finally said.
'No, she's all right, I guess,' Brent said. He knew he should say more.
'Yeah, well. What a shitty world,' Kirk said. 'Why does it have to happen like this to the good guys? Poor Amy. I wish I'd known.'
'Listen, Kirk, it's not your fault she's so sick. She wanted to go out last night.'
'I know, but I shouldn't have let her.'
'You couldn't have stopped her.'
'It was a stupid idea.'
'Relax, there's nothing we can do but wait. She'll be fine,' Brent said.
'Don't give me that patronizing shit like all the others. I've had enough of that shoved at me all my life. You've had it made from the start. Just shut up, why don't you?'
'Okay, sorry,' Brent said.
They waited in silence for another long time.
'Maybe I should go over and see how she's doing,' Kirk said.
'Don't. You don't need her mother screaming all over the place again. The nurse will tell us if anything happens.'
'I'd like to see her. I feel so shitty about the whole thing.'
'She knows.'
'Yeah, maybe...'
After a long while Jewel came into their room.
'Amy?' Kirk asked.
'Amy's dead,' she said.
A cold wave washed over Brent and left him empty.
'Oh, Christ,' said Kirk. 'Why Amy?'
