Page 42 of Homebound
She obediently scooped another spoonful of the goop and raised it to his lips. He accepted it, but swallowing the food took an effort. His breath hitched and he nearly choked, his slitted nostrils fluttering wildly. He even closed his eyes, the action revealing blue-tinged third eyelids popping across the corneas from the inner corners. His face showed the strain of the effort.
Gemma watched him closely. “That bad?”
He didn’t reply but motioned again at the food. They repeated the tortuous procedure one more time and then he was done. Gemma set the bowl down. Simon rearranged his body by lowering his legs down to the floor and flattening his palms on the edge of the cot, bracing himself. His bony shoulders hunched.
Gemma frowned. “Are you uncomfortable?”
“I’ve been uncomfortable for a long time,” he slurred, the fluid accent running the words together. “But this vile slush that you call food is a new kind of torture.”
And then he puked.
Gemma slumped in her seat.
“I guess I’ll go get the mop,” she said when he stopped heaving.
Strangely uplifted, Gemma suffered through the interrogations of Marigold on why she needed cleaning supplies during an unscheduled time, and what happened to the inmate on the third floor to make him throw up.
The cell block was quiet when Gemma came back except for the clicking and farting sounds coming from Little Green Man’s direction that had long become a white noise of their floor. Moving along the corridor, she received intense looks from some of the inmates. Number 34 followed her progress to Simon’s cell with reserved interest.
“Signs of life aren’t always pleasant, eh?” he commented as she was unlocking Simon’s door. “I told you, he was better undisturbed. Or dead.”
“Your compassion needs work, Arc.”
He gave her a cheeky smile. “Not interested in compassion. But I’m happy you called me by my name, beautiful Gemma. We’re making progress.”
Gemma chuckled as she went in to clean up Simon’s mess.
He was sitting in the same position and his eyes glittered when she came in. The new wet sheen in them was disconcerting. It changed his whole face from peculiar and vulnerable to eerie and unnerving.
“Beautiful Gemma?” he asked quietly, and the words rolled off his tongue like water. He also managed to make her self-conscious.
“He was joking.”
“Joking?” Simon asked blankly. “Are you not beautiful?”
“Well, what I look like isn’t the point.” She dipped the mop into the bucket and wrung the excess water from it. “It’s flattery. A compliment.”
“Is it sincere?” Simon clearly didn’t understand flirtation when he saw it.
“It doesn't have to be. It sounds nice, though.”
“He isn’t nice. He would harm you if he had a chance. He would kill me if he could.”
Gemma plopped the wet mop on top of his puke and started swishing. “I see you have trust issues.”
“I don’t have issues. I don’t have trust, either.”
“Figures.” She scoffed and looked closer at something strange that caught her attention in the mess on the floor. Bright blue streaks laced the gruel vomit. “Even your barf is weird, Simon. There’s blue stuff in it.”
To her surprise, Simon’s upper lip curled revealing his top gum, toothless and dark-blue, dotted with brown spots. A pretty distasteful sight until you realized it passed for a smile. Then it became quite horrifying.
She hastened to cover up her recoil. “So, I take it blue’s normal?” she said with forced cheer.
“Yeah. I’m not dying anymore.”
Earth tilted on its axis. Gemma dipped her head low as elation so powerful her eyes watered from it had overtaken her. She clumsily rinsed the mop and wrang water out of it, elbowing the bucket in the handle, sending it rolling toward Simon, water sloshing over the rim. He saved himself from being drenched by grabbing the handle and stopping the bucket’s wild run. He had a strong hand. Gemma stared fixedly at the thick bones of his wrist and the six long fingers wrapped around the handle.
A shiver passed between her shoulder blades. Simon let the bucket go and the moment passed. Gemma turned her back on him while fiddling with her mop, sorting through her emotions.
