“I know you. You prefer to shower at home unless you’re really gross. The sub only had us walk the track, so I know you couldn’t have broken a sweat there.”
“I ran the track, thank you very much,” Wendy replied stiffly. “New personal record.”
“And?”
“And… I jumped the fence.” Wendy glanced over at Eddie and winced. “What? I saw something. I thought it might’ve been my mom, I went to go check it out.”
“What, are you stupid? Wendy, those woods are full of eucalyptus and there’s a lot of wind today. You know better than that.” Eddie tucked his cell away. “You could’ve been hurt.”
“Hey, after all those accidents last fall I thought they cleared out all the eucalyptus!” Wendy protested. “But you’re right. There’s a guy back there.” She grimaced. “It’s gross.”
“And you didn’t do anything about it?” Eddie straightened and slapped the dashboard. “Wendy, that’s probably illegal or something!”
“Hey, I took care of him!”
“You mean that you took care of his soul. Not his body. Right?” He glanced at her face and shook his head, disgusted. “Of course you didn’t. Shit.” Eddie sighed. “I thought you weren’t going to go around just reaping any ol’ soul anymore. Didn’t you say that you have more important shit to do now?”
“I do.” Wendy sighed and rubbed her eyes. This entire day had left her exhausted and it wasn’t even over yet. She longingly considered skipping the evening patrol, but knew she wouldn’t. She couldn’t. “Look, I’m tired, I had a crappy night last night and a crappy day today. I saw a ghost and I wasn’t exactly thinking straight. Mom took me training in those woods more times than I can count. I just figured that maybe it wasn’t out of the question that if her soul got lost, it was wandering around there, okay? Lay off.”
“Sounds like your mom was the one who was nuts,” Eddie said. “She trained you out there? I mean, it’s not exactly grizzly central, but there are snakes and shit, yeah?”
“I may have seen a snake or two,” Wendy conceded, “but it’s not like we did
“Huh. I guess I just figured you did it all in graveyards.” Eddie shook his head.
“Let me tell you a trade secret, Eds.” Wendy leaned conspiratorially forward and pitched her voice low. “Ghosts hate graveyards. Unless it’s right after a funeral, the chance of finding a ghost in a graveyard is nil. Vampires, on the other hand…” Laughing, Wendy ducked the playful punch Eddie sent at her shoulder. “What? Don’t you believe in vampires?”
He snorted. “With you around, I’d believe almost anything, but I draw the line at vamps.” He glanced up. “Oh, hey, there’s Jon. You ready?”
Wendy grabbed her backpack. “Let’s go.”
As they passed through UCSF’s Neuro-ICU doors, Wendy took a deep breath and squared her shoulders, wishing that she had just caught the bus home after all. A new nurse was on duty. She was stricter than the nurses normally were and wouldn’t let them onto the ICU floor until both she and Eddie had signed in and she’d jotted down the addresses on their driver’s licenses.
Eddie returned his wallet to his back pocket and waited until they were well away from the nursing station to whisper in Wendy’s ear. “A little power-hungry, methinks.”
“Shh,” Wendy whispered, stepping past him into her mother’s room. The neighboring bed was surrounded by baskets overflowing with pansies and roses, marigolds and cheerful carnations. Cards and stuffed creatures cluttered the bedside table and the window was open, the curtains parted. A fresh breeze scudded the aroma of fresh-cut greens in thick clouds across the room. Behind her Eddie coughed and waved a hand theatrically in front of his face.
On the other side of the curtain, her mother’s side of the room was empty of furniture except for the bed, the table, and two plastic chairs stacked against the wall. Eddie navigated various beeping and wheezing machinery to unstack the chairs as Wendy leaned over her mother and pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead. “Hi Mom,” she said and took her mother’s hand. The skin was loose across her knuckles and the bones under Wendy’s fingers felt delicate, breakable.
“Hi,” Eddie echoed, nudging the chair against the back of Wendy’s thighs. She settled on the edge of the chair and he sat beside her, quiet for once.
Wendy sniffed and squeezed her mother’s hand again. “So,” she said, “I think you’re looking better. Isn’t she looking better, Eds?”
“Much better,” he agreed easily. “Up in no time.”
“And Dad came by yesterday,” Wendy continued, as if Eddie hadn’t spoken, “so I know you’re not getting lonely over here. You’ve even got a new neighbor, right?” She glanced over at the curtain separating the beds and was unsurprised to note the young woman in a gaping hospital gown peering around the edge. The silver cord dangling from her navel was thin and brittle, worn away in places, literally hanging by a thread in others. The woman, no more than twenty or so, seemed tired and weak, and her shape drifted away into nothing at the knees.
“Though,” Wendy added in a softer tone, “not for that much longer, I guess.”
Eddie, catching her glance at empty space, winced. “Bad accident?”
“Looks like. She’s hardly there. She’s gonna fade pretty fast.”
A brusque rap on the doorframe made them both jump. Wendy dropped her mother’s hand. A young doctor, one of the few Wendy didn’t know, lifted the clipboard off the wall beside the door, sweeping aside her strawberry- colored braid to rifle the papers. Even in scrubs she was tall and elegantly put together, the sort of long-legged, cool-eyed beauty you’d expect to see strutting a catwalk instead of perusing charts. Beside Wendy, Eddie shifted uncomfortably, and Wendy felt a flash of irritation. Just that morning he’d been declaring his undying love and now he was shifting so the long tails of his overshirt covered his lap. Wendy snorted.
The doctor’s eyes flicked over the room, pausing a moment to consider the neighboring side, and then she smiled apologetically. “Sorry to interrupt, but I’m here on my rounds.”
“No problem,” Wendy said, rising. It didn’t seem as if the doctor had overheard them, but the last thing she wanted was another person thinking she was crazy. “I’m Wendy.” She glanced at the bed and the emaciated shape of the woman beneath the sheets. “This is my mom.”
“Oh, you’re one of Mary’s daughters?” The doctor crossed the room in three quick strides and offered her hand. When Wendy took it she pumped brusquely twice and dropped it. Her palm was hot to the touch. “I’m Emma Henley. I’ll be assisting Dr. Shumacker on your mother’s case during my residency.”
“Nice gig,” Eddie interjected. “Liking it so far?”
Emma looked coolly down her long nose at him. “Yes.”
“Don’t mind Eddie,” Wendy said. “He’s an old family friend, and my ride out here. Dad leaves me the car, but I don’t like driving around the city and Eds is good company.”
“Yes,” Emma said, glancing at her clipboard and moving to the side of the bed. “I met your father yesterday. Very nice man. He’s well-liked around here.”
The soul of the woman in the neighboring bed drifted closer and peered at the clipboard. “Where are my charts?” she asked, waving her arms wildly. “Where is my boyfriend? He was driving. Is he here? Can I see him?
One of her flailing hands passed through the clipboard. Wendy tensed; sometimes the living could feel the cold when the dead or dying were near. The doctor, concentrating on the papers in front of her, didn’t seem to notice anything amiss.
“Well, that’s Dad, you know,” Wendy said brightly. “He’s always been, you know, super friendly.” She paused, struggling for a way to answer the soul’s question without appearing morbid. “Looks like there’s a new neighbor for my mom, huh?”
“Hmm?” Emma glanced up. “Oh, yes. Things were busy in here for a few days, guests coming and going.”
“Car accident?”
Emma raised one slim, perfectly manicured eyebrow. “I really can’t say.”
“Right, right,” Wendy agreed. “Silly me. It’s just, uh, I got a look at her and it doesn’t look like…it just looks
