Crucible Crisis

by Amberley Faith

  "I will find it," Julien replied. "Before I leave, where is your cell phone? I'll put it by your bed. Call if you think of anything else you need."

  "Oh," Ellie said. "I think… I dropped it in the studio. I remember hearing it shatter. Anyway, I didn't pick it up. I was frantic."

  Amidst the doctor's shocking news, Ellie had temporarily forgotten all about the phone and the mysterious text message that had landed her in the hospital in the first place. What a shame, she thought. Now, I'll never figure out who sent that text.

  "At least it was only a phone that was ruined. I'll leave mine with you. Call the house if you want anything." He placed his mobile phone in her right hand and turned to go. He paused at the door to look back and give her a quick smile, but Ellie couldn't help noticing that the smile didn't reach his eyes. His eyes, rather, were somewhat narrowed and pinched in an expression that she recognized could be nothing else but doubt.

  Ellie lay there for a few minutes trying to imagine where the toxins could have come from. Could she have bought a mislabeled mint plant? She would have to ask at the town greenhouse. What about the other herb, though? Kava, was it? A knock at the door interrupted her thoughts.

  "Come in," Ellie wheezed. A petite red head peered around the door without opening it completely.

  "I only intended to drop off something for you. You sure you want me coming in?" Zyla asked. Ellie nodded her assent. Zyla stepped into the room, taking in Ellie's bandages and giving a small gasp, "Oh, Ellie! I had no idea it was this serious! Are you okay?" She approached the bedside.

  "I want to hug you, but I'm afraid I'll hurt you!" Zyla cried in dismay, noting her friend's numerous injuries. "Where doesn't it hurt? Is there any place I can squeeze?"

  "Here," Ellie said extending her right hand. Zyla grasped it in a gentle clasp and held it for a moment eyeing Ellie's tubes, cast, and sling. "Oh, my poor dear!" She said at last. "The last thing you'll be wanting is your school bag, and here I was thinking I would be the hero by bringing you a distraction." Zyla frowned.

  "No, no. You're right," Ellie countered. I really do want my school bag. I just asked Julien to find it for me. I wanted –" she broke off in another fit of coughing.

  "Oh no! Don't say another word. We'll do this the old-fashioned way. I'll ask you a yes or no question, and you simply nod or shake your head. Will that help keep you quiet?"

  Ellie nodded and gave a half smile. Leave it to Zyla to figure out an easier way to communicate. Zyla started right away. "Are you going to be okay despite how awful it looks?"

  Ellie nodded and cringed.

  "But it hurts a lot right now, so you do actually want a distraction?" Ellie nodded again. Zyla handed her the school bag.

  "I can't believe you want to work on school stuff," Zyla commented. Ellie shook her head and held up a finger, signaling Zyla to wait. Ellie dug through the bag with her one good hand and closed her eyes in relief when she pulled out the old leather anthology. She clutched it to her chest for a moment, then handed it to Zyla.

  "What is this? Is it that journal you wanted me to see? The one you found at the studio?" Ellie nodded as vigorously as she could without jostling her injuries. Zyla studied the front cover and ran her fingers across the emblem embossed there.

  "Well, to judge a book by its cover, it's definitely a leather one. That could place it as far back as the late 1700s. Cloth wasn't used as a binding material until the early 19th century, but that doesn't mean that leather binding was no longer in use, so it's not a certainty." She paused and ran her hand over the cover. "This symbol is rather interesting. I've seen it somewhere before…I just can't remember where. Let me look inside."

  "Oh my," Zyla remarked with a gleam in her eye and in her voice. "It's written on vellum." Ellie pinched her eyebrows together. "You know - animal skin. It could be from a goat or lamb, but it's usually from a calf. I mean, technically, it must be from a calf to be called vellum instead of parchment, but that's probably more than you want to know. Anyway, see the hair follicles and the veining of the sheet? That's how we can tell it's from an animal." She leaned over to show Ellie.

  Zyla continued studying the dates and the handwriting. "You know, Ellie, you could have something fairly valuable on your hands here, depending upon the content. If these dates are correct, you're looking at writings from the 1600s and earlier. Pretty much anything before 1650 is considered special. Boy, I bet the preservation society at the college would love to get their hands on this! You realize they've always dreamed of publishing a book on the local history, right?"

  Ellie shook her head furiously and reached out for the book.

  "Okay, I get it, Scrooge." Zyla replied with a chuckle, handing over the book. "You don't want to share it yet. I guess it does belong to you and Julien since you found it in the studio you own." She held up a professorial finger and spoke in a sing-song voice. "But you would be doing your civic duty, preserving a piece of history, if you handed it over to the local college when you're done." Ellie shook her head again with widened eyes and raised eyebrows.

  "No, no. No pressure here." Zyla stepped back with both palms up. "I'm just saying that it could be interesting for the whole town if it really turns out to be a primary source from the 1600s." Zyla's wink softened the heavy hints she was dropping as she backed out of the room. "Happy reading, then!"

  At Zyla's departure, Ellie got down to business. She opened the anthology, turning pages with her good hand. She didn't know if she was looking for another journal entry to distract her or another recipe to amuse her, but she'd know it when she saw it.

  She glanced at each heading as she flipped past pages of notes, recipes, and journal entries. She saw the charm she had used to curtail her bad dreams. As she turned the pages, she thought about her anxiety over the rumors surrounding Julien and Tai. The look on Julien's face as he left her room reflected at least as much doubt in his mind as what she had been dealing with.

  Great, she thought. She had been so busy doubting him that she never considered how it would feel to be on the receiving end. He doubts me; I saw it on his face. She closed her eyes for a moment in exasperation, but her fingers kept up their rhythm. As she continued turning pages without looking, she gave a tiny jump. She opened her eyes in surprise.

  While her eyes were closed, she'd been able to sense the pages. It wasn't just the feeling of flesh to vellum. Each page emitted a physical sensation to her fingertips. Something like electricity buzzed through each entry. She studied a few pages, trying to find a reason for the feeling. There was nothing visible to the naked eye that could explain what she had felt. Had her accident jarred her brain? Was she experiencing some type of synesthesia?

  Ellie shut her eyes, slowed down, and tried again. The feeling was so faint she could almost be convinced that she'd imagined it the first time, but there it was. With closed eyes, she could perceive the subtle differences of each page. This was much more than the tingling sensation she had first attributed to excitement. Some pages felt warm, some cool. Some tingled, and others prickled. Some buzzed; others burned.

  Ellie opened her eyes. Could she still perceive the twinges from the pages when her eyes were open? She rubbed her forefinger and thumb across the corner of a page as she studied it. She felt a very slight sensation.

  Using her right hand, she slid all five fingers down the page. This time she definitely felt sparks. So, that was the trick, to feel each page rather than just look at it. But what did it mean?

  She shook her head to clear her thoughts. The book seemed to have personality. It was trying to communicate with her, and since she didn't understand via the written text, it was sending her physical cues.

  Ellie suddenly felt bone weary, and it wasn't just physical. Although she hated to admit it to herself, life recently had become overwhelming- relocating her entire family, teaching a new subject, trying to fit in with the locals, remodeling the house, opening the studio, reacting to poison ivy, the video fiasco, and now a fire had ruined al
l their work at the studio, not to mention her body.

  She closed the book and tucked it under the hospital blanket where she could reach it with her one working hand. Her mind spiraled from one worry to the next. She felt restless, trapped, exhausted.

  As she lay back on the pillow and closed her eyes, Ellie tried to empty her mind of all the thoughts zooming around inside her head. She remembered a technique that suggested writing each worry on a piece of paper and then burning all the pieces. Since she couldn't access paper and pen, Ellie took each thought and imagined it fluttering in the air.

  In her mind, she released one worry at a time. The wasted effort at the studio was a charcoal-colored, smoky swirl that traveled in downward spirals, hovering. An intense mustard-yellow worry zoomed out next – the fear she had felt during the fire. It was so strong that it made her jerk her eyes open.

  To her complete astonishment, two translucent colors hovered over her belly at eye level. One was charcoal grey. One was mustard yellow. She blinked and rubbed her eyes with her right hand.

  They were like visible, colorful ribbons of air, whirling, waiting. She reached out to touch them, but her hand passed straight through as if they were made of light. Ellie realized she hadn't imagined the scenario at all. It was playing out in front of her, and all she could do was watch.

  More smoky ribbons fluttered out of her. Each one was a slightly different color. Ellie recognized the fierce magenta as her determination to protect her girls. It hovered above the other colors, nearly suffocating them, finally intertwining itself into the others.

  A dingy, sickly green joined the twisting mass of emotion; it was her concern over having ingested toxic herbs.

  The ribbons of light whorled and coiled in mid-air. They leaked out of Ellie's mind and flitted through the air to join their comrades. They spun and formed a sphere, like a loosely wound ball of yarn - except this ball was translucent, moving, and made entirely of light.

  Dark, black anger raced out of her mind, penetrating the ball of ribbons to become its core. A frustrated, purple stream of religious hypocrisy appeared, quickly followed by a pumpkin-colored ribbon of anxiety about her mistaken expectations of rural life. A bright, scarlet-red ribbon of rage was her loss of control. Like the swirling ball of light, her life was spinning out of control.

  The colors started pouring out faster: the poison ivy experience was light green; Julien's doubt of her, deep burgundy; her doubt of Julien, espresso brown; curiosity about the text message that led her to the fire, pale lilac.

  The colors undulated and hovered in the air above her stomach. They had temporarily formed a ball, but now they started reshaping themselves, stretching wide at the top and narrow at the bottom - like a tornado. They revolved faster and faster with each new ribbon that joined the colorful, swirling vortex.

  Snatches of thought continued to stream out of Ellie's mind - Tai and her sneaky ways, dark green; the mysterious floral arrangement, bright yellow; the work awaiting her at school, light pink; worry over Julien believing she'd aborted a baby, blood red.

  The whirlwind of ribbons was twirling faster; the colors blended together as more thoughts and worries rushed out of Ellie's mind and merged to become a brilliant, painful-to-look-at, white light that wobbled indecisively for a moment.

  It hovered in front of Ellie's face, just out of reach of her good hand. Ellie knew it was waiting for more worries to emerge. When the mass seemed satisfied that no more were coming, the whirling funnel stretched itself out long and thin. The bottom tip reached under Ellie's blanket and siphoned itself into the anthology, disappearing entirely into it and finally allowing Ellie to get what she needed most at that moment -- sleep.

  CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

  RIDICULOUS REMEDY

  A distant siren was calling out to Ellie. Muffled by a blanket of haze and fog, it was an insistent sound that she knew she must mute. It was a mildly familiar, shrill chirping that she wished would go away. She tried to roll over to get away from it and gasped in pain as she dislodged her left side. The pain jolted her awake, and she realized the harsh ringing was coming from Julien's cell phone on her bedside table.

  She fumbled with her right hand, slapping around blindly trying to stop the piercing noise. She managed to hit the touch screen and heard a tinny-sounding, female voice.

  "Hey, Jules. I'm trying to get Mel to eat breakfast, but she is refusing. I thought maybe you could tell me what to do to get her to eat something."

  Ellie bolted upright, momentarily ignoring the jarring pain that shot through her entire left side and grabbed the phone to her ear. Alarm bells were ringing, this time in her head. A thousand thoughts hit her at once, none of them pleasant.

  She glanced at the time. It was 8:00am. "This is not Julien. This is Mrs. Pelletier." Ellie snapped. She didn't have the energy or the mental fortitude to pretend to be nice about it.

  "Why are you calling Julien's cell phone so early this morning?" Ellie spat out. She was pleased to hear that her voice, while still a bit hoarse, was much improved from the day before and was glad that, even in her fury, she had managed to croak out the entire question without coughing.

  "Oh, I thought you knew," Tai responded in a sing-song voice. "Julien asked me to watch the girls while he sorted through the damage at the studio. I was calling to get some advice on Mel and her breakfast." Tai was using that innocent-sounding, girlie voice that Ellie detested.

  Ellie's blood boiled. Since when did Tai start calling Julien by his first name? When did she get his personal cell phone number? What was she doing at Ellie's house playing mommy with Ellie's kids?

  "Well, Tai," Ellie responded just as sweetly. "I'm sure Julien thought you could assist, but I'll be home shortly – and I will help the girls with their breakfast. They probably just don't like your cooking. Are you trying to give them that awful pickle-flavored soda of yours?" Ellie laughed.

  "Actually," Tai said, "I was trying to get them to eat leftovers. I guess they don't enjoy your cooking either." Tai replied in her sugary voice.

  Without missing a beat Ellie countered, "Oh, the crepes? I guess you didn't know that they eat them with my homemade strawberry sauce. Don't trouble yourself, though. I'll be home shortly."

  Ellie pressed the end call button before Tai could respond. She dragged her legs over the side of the bed. She had to get home. When she pulled the oxygen tubes out of her nose, an alarm started beeping. She stumbled out of bed, nearly crashing to the floor when the pain caught up with her. Before Ellie took more than a few wobbly steps, a female nurse and a male orderly rushed into her room.

  "Just whut are you doin', ma'am? Ya need ta get back in bed," the orderly said while the nurse grabbed her arm and tried to steer her back to bed.

  "No, I don't!" Ellie wrenched her right arm free. "I need to get home. Now!" She hobbled away from the nurse, looking at the orderly for help.

  "Ma'am, it's Miz Pellahteer, right?" The nurse tried reasoning with her. "You need to calm down. The medicine may cause you to feel aggressive, but everything is fine. The doctor prescribed twenty-four hours of oxygen, and so far, you've only had sixteen hours. Now, get back into bed, and we'll get you settled."

  "You don't understand!" Ellie cried out. "My girls are at home with an unreliable, sneaky, untrustworthy sitter. I must get to them! I will not let her mother my children!" Ellie was yelling now.

  "Look, lady -- we got orders ta fahllah." The orderly was much sterner than the nurse had been. "I'm shore yore kids are fine. You hafta focus on taking care of yoreself right now. Get back in the bed, or we're gone hafta git the doctor."

  "Fine! Go ahead and get him!" Ellie shouted. She was worked up, bordering on hysteria. How dare they keep her here when her family was threatened? "I'm sure the doctor will let me get back to my children who need me!"

  Part of her couldn't believe she was making such a scene, but Ellie couldn't stop herself. She was worried and furious at the same time. She would give Julien a piece of her mind after she
kicked that conniving little hussy out of her house.

  Ellie continued to struggle and did not see another nurse approach from the rear until it was too late. She felt the prick of a needle at the exact moment that she realized someone was behind her.

  "Arugghh!" She groaned. She turned to face the nurse who had given her the injection. "You drugged me!" She gasped. "Don't you think I've been through enough? This is unacceptable. Patients have rights! Call my husb-"

  Ellie collapsed mid-sentence, and the orderly half-carried, half-dragged her back to bed. Ellie could still see them and hear them, but she could no longer put up any resistance.

  When the orderly yanked back the covers, Ellie's anthology fell off the bed. When he and the nurses finally got her tucked in and reconnected to the oxygen supply, the nurse bent over to pick up the fallen book.

  "This looks old. It must be what she was readi—ouch!" The nurse flung the book away from her, startled, and it landed in the window ledge beside Ellie's bed. "That book just shocked me! What in the world?" She rubbed her hand and looked at the other two. They just rolled their eyes.

  The male nurse chuckled. The orderly added, "What's really shockin' is this lady. You wouldn't think it to look at'er, but she ain't no delicate flower. Handlin' her is more like handlin' a boll of cotton – soft and fluffy on the outside, but that seed will cut ya' ever'time."

  "Hmph," replied the female nurse. "Prickly she may be, but that shot ought to keep her down for a while." She sighed. "I guess we have to call her husband now and explain what happened. I'll go get Dr. Patel. He can tell the husband. I'm not doing it. My shift ends in five minutes." She walked out and went to look for the doctor.

  Ellie watched in forced silence as they all left the room. She tried to hold on to her anger but felt it ebbing away along with her energy. Finally, she could hold her eyelids up no more. Once again, she slept.