Page 77 of Crossroads Magic
My toe bumped up against something under the bed. I bent and peered underneath. A plastic ice cream bucket. I pulled it out and drew backwards at the stench wafting from the contents. “Lord…!” I muttered. I put the bucket aside and shook Ghaliya firmly.
“Ghaliya!”
“Mom…” she murmured weakly. “Sick.”
“Yeah, I can smell.” I rested my hand on her shoulder. “How long is it since you’ve been able to eat and keep anything down?”
Her answer was a long time coming. “Don’t know.” Then, “Thirsty.”
I squeezed her shoulder. “Hang tight. I’ll be right back.”
I flew down to the kitchen, skipping steps and almost sliding down them three or four times. I made myself slow down. It wouldn’t help Ghaliya to break my own neck.
In the kitchen, I grabbed a sleeve of salt crackers, and bottled water from the carton sitting next to the cold room door. I went into the bar and said to Hirom, “Let me have the coffee flask.”
Hirom looked at me, at what I was carrying, then back at me. Silently, he pulled the flask up from the shelf below the counter.
“Thanks.” I took it and hurried back upstairs.
Ghaliya hadn’t moved. I took the disgusting bucket into the bathroom, emptied and rinsed it, then put it back where she could reach it. Then I washed my hands and broke the seal on one of the water bottles. I got my arm underneath her and made her sit up.
“Ghaliya, honey, drink the water.” I put the bottle to her lips.
“No, makes me sick.”
“I’ve got crackers to help with that. But you have to drink, honey. You’re dehydrated. I don’t know what that does to the baby, so you must drink.”
She opened her lips enough for me to trickle some water into her mouth. She swallowed it and parted her lips for more. After a dozen sips, she closed her mouth. “Feel sick,” she croaked.
“Eat a cracker.” I tore the cellophane open and held out a cracker.
“Bucket…!” She tried to reach passed my knees.
I grabbed the bucket and thrust it into her hands. Ghaliya opened her eyes long enough to sight the bucket, then bent over it and vomited up the little bit of water she’d just swallowed.
She pushed the cracker away weakly.
I got up and cleaned the bucket once more and returned it. I brushed her brow. “I’ll figure this out,” I told her, but I’m not sure if she heard me. She was lying very still again, and her face was bluish grey.
I went out into the sitting room, and sat on the front edge of the wing chair, my hands gripped between my knees. Ghaliya needed a doctor, or an ER, but both of them were far beyond my financial means. Even so, I’d figure it out. I could use my credit card, even though I had no idea how I’d pay it back.
But I didn’t know where to find either a doctor or an ER. Perhaps the nearest ER was in Syracuse, two hours away. Perhaps the nearest doctor was, too.
I picked up my phone, to use Google to find out what I could do here to help Ghaliya rehydrate and eat something, and not lose everything. But the phone showed only one bar, and the network was out.
Of course it was. Juda was not himself right now, and Ghaliya was the one other person who could reset the router.
I tried calling up Google using the phone service network, but the browser sat with a blank face, the loading symbol going round and round. One bar just wasn’t going to cut it.
A tap on the door made me jump. I put the phone down and opened the door.
Benedict spread his hands. “Ghaliya is ill?”
Hirom had told him. Or he had guessed from the water and crackers I had been carrying when I went into the bar for the coffee.
I bit my lip. “She can’t keep anything down. Not even water.”
“Let me see her. I can help.”
