by Dave Ferraro
Spending three days in the hospital had not been on the to-do list. What had happened? One minute I was completely fine, having a normal conversation with friends. The next, I’m on the floor getting the Heimlich from Reese to no avail. Other than that, there was no recollection of the past two days.
When I woke up, Memaw was by the hospital bed muttering something in her native tongue, Gaelic. “Uh, hi,” I croaked, repositioning myself slightly. My head spun from the minor movement.
Memaw jumped. “Ashlyn! Oh, thank God, you’re alright.”
Tears wound down her weathered face and dripped off onto her hand that held mine. Shocked she was holding my hand, I pulled away without thinking. A small smile played across her lips in acknowledgement. “You’re all right. You really are a McVean, fighting through this. I didn’t know if Reese had gotten to you in time,” she shuddered. “I need to go get your mother. She’ll want to know you’re awake. Will you be okay?”
“Yeah, that’s fine. What happened, though?”
Memaw stopped short of the doorway, her hands going white from squeezing her cane so tight. She didn’t turn, but replied in a clipped tone. “There was egg residue in the cookies somehow. Mrs. Williams said she mixed cupcake batter in the bowl a few days earlier. She thinks that’s where it came from. She’s very upset with herself. You had an allergic reaction to the eggs, not to mention you needed six stitches in your head. You’re hard-headed, but not quite hard enough to beat the dinner table it seems.”
With that, she sighed and crossed herself like she always did when around me. You’d think she was in the presence of a demon or something. She leaned on her cane for support as she limped out of the room.
Chris found Jamie to be overwhelming without someone to temper her extreme buoyancy. We caught up while Memaw was away finding Mom. “Ash, Jamie’s been staying at the house. She’s driving everyone nuts. I don’t think anyone would miss her if my snake accidentally got loose tonight…”
I laughed. “I’m pretty sure someone would notice if she went missing, if nothing else because the world would be a much quieter place.”
“We’d all have more oxygen. It could be considered an act of humanity. I might even get the Nobel Peace Prize or something. Jamie nearly had a nervous breakdown while you were out. She started Googling your symptoms to make sure the doctors weren’t incompetent, irritating everyone within a twenty-room radius. The person next door had a rare South American disease according to her, when the doctors had confirmed it was a bad case of shingles. Dr. Jamie’s been on a warpath.”
I shook my head, stifling a laugh. “She’s my best friend. Give her a break.”
“Well, it’s crazy enough around the house without Jamie sleeping over all the time, jabbering away like a parrot. Mom’s mad at me right now.”
Grinning slightly, I rolled my eyes. “Mom’s mad at you? Her prince? What’d you do?”
He looked to the ground. “I kind of asked her if we should put Memaw in a nursing home, but she’s not hearing it. She says Dad wouldn’t want us to ship her off.”
“Whoa. Why would you wanna put her in a nursing home?”
“Well, it’s been kind of weird. I’ve found Memaw in your shower three times since you’ve been out.”
“Wait, what? She was in my bathroom downstairs?”
“Yeah. I don’t know how she got down there; you know she’s bad with stairs. Mom couldn’t find her and she was freaking out, so I went down just because it was the only place we hadn’t looked. She was there. It was weird. She was all shocked when I found her and kept saying she didn’t know how she’d gotten there. It kind of worried me. She’s not that young, you know?”
Jamie interrupted our conversation with her arrival, her eyes swollen and rimmed with red. I felt horrible to have caused her carefree world to crash in on her, even if it was for just a moment. Chris looked at me and rolled his eyes as he got up and left the room. “I’ll leave you two to catch up.”
Chris shut the door as he walked out, leaving Jamie to rock on her heels awkwardly in the middle of the room.
“James, you look like crap. When’s the last time you slept?” I asked.
She looked at her watch and shrugged. “I don’t know. I was too worried to sleep.”
“Well go get some beauty rest. It’s gonna be okay. Your doctoring skills are superb according to Chris.”
She smiled. Looking away for a moment, she did a double take. “Do you really think anyone here in the hospital cares about your eye color? You’re way too self-conscious, girl,” she teased.
“What are you talking about?”
“Well, I just didn’t think you’d be worried about putting contacts in, considering the circumstances.”
She really needed to sleep if she thought I had put contacts in. “Sis, I haven’t worn contacts for two days. Comatose, remember?” I said jokingly while tapping my head, assuming she would laugh as well. She didn’t. Instead, she inched closer and for some reason seemed afraid.
“Look in the mirror,” she commanded as she fished a small compact from her purse and handed it to me.
I took it from her with curiosity. Those eyes couldn’t be mine. Where there were only black irises before, they were now emerald green, like Memaw’s.
“Um, wow. Mom?”
Walking in from right outside the door, she must have been giving Jamie and me time to catch up. Her eyes were puffy and red; between Dad being gone and my trip to the ER, she must not have slept in a few days. “What’s wrong, hon?” she asked as she gently pulled the hair out of my face and placed it behind my ears.
“My eyes. Look at them.”
Taking her focus off the rat’s nest of hair and glancing at my eyes, her own bugged out of her head. “Emily! Come here!”
Although she hobbled in slowly, Memaw made it clear she was the matriarch of the family. No one could ever forget it, but she hip-checked Jamie on her way over anyway. Hovering inches above the bed, she placed her hands on either side of my face, holding it in place as though I might try to pull away.
Her face mimicked the shock that had been in Jamie’s a moment ago. She seemed uncertain as to what to think. Instead of betraying her usual confidence, she made a joke. “Well, apparently the eggs gave you a little color along with nearly killing you. Not a bad trade-off, if you ask me.”
Memaw could joke, but the worry on her face was evident. Realizing she had given herself away, her face once again became a hard mask. She knew something, and I needed to know what it was before leaving for Ireland.
To learn what comes next for Ashlyn, read Bridger, the first book in the Bridger Trilogy.
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Beg For Mercy
(Cambion #1)
By Shannon Dermott
Chapter One: Beg For Mercy