“Oh yeah.” She laughs. “For a while, I thought I’d never meet a girl he hadn’t dated. But that was my own insecurity I had to deal with. He’s never given me any reason to doubt him. Not once. But we’ve definitely been through a lot in our two years together, and I have no doubt you and Cole will make it through this too.”
Amber starts twitching, first her eyebrows, and her mouth, followed by her hands, and now almost her entire body. She flaps around like a fish on dry land. She moans but doesn’t open her eyes.
I gasp.
“Help me, Grace; she’s having a seizure. We have to protect her head and try to hold her down.”
Grace does exactly what I ask her to do, and I kneel down, resting my butt on my heels so I can place Amber’s head on my legs and hold it still. As soon as my hands touch her face, I yank them away.
“She’s burning up,” I say.
“What should we do?” Grace asks with panic in her voice.
“To the showers. If we don’t get her temperature down, she’ll keep seizing … and possibly die.” And like a soldier carrying a wounded man, I get behind Amber, giving her a bear hug and locking my hands across her chest, as Grace grabs her legs.
We lift her up.
Amber’s thrashing, and sweat drips down my neck. Her body’s like a sauna. Her head rolls to the left and then to the right, then front and back. I tighten my hold on her because she’s getting harder to control.
“I’ll open the door with my back,” I say. Luckily, it’s not a door with a knob, or I’d have to drop her.
Grace nods, eyes wide.
Slamming my back into the door, it swings open, and my adrenaline races.
“Okay, open a stall, start the water, and let me know when it’s lukewarm.”
“Why not cold?”
“Cold water only cools the skin, and shivering would just cause her core body temperature to spike.”
“How do you know that?”
“Luckily, I paid attention to the nurses when I worked in the hospital.”
I kneel down as Grace lets go of Amber’s legs. She goes into the closest stall and turns the knob. Brown water spits through, but eventually it starts dripping nearly clear water.
“While it’s warming up, can you grab some towels? They’re in the corner cabinet by the sinks.”
“Got it,” Grace says.
Amber’s still seizing, so we have to work fast to remove her clothes and get a steady stream of water to lower her temperature.
Grace comes back with an armful of towels.
“Oh, that’s perfect.”
“All right, just tell me what to do.”
“Okay, fold one, and when I lift her head, put the towel underneath.” Grace follows my instructions.
Lowering Amber’s head to the ground, I kneel down, sitting on my heels, and hold her head in between my thighs.
“Good, now sit on her hips, face me, and hold her arms down.”
Grace breathes hard and her arms shake as she holds Amber down. I draw my knife and hold my breath as I begin to cut Amber’s shirt down to her midsection.
“This time, sit on her shins facing away from me, and yank her shoes and socks off.”
As Grace does this, I hear a gurgling sound. I look down, and Amber’s about to heave. Scooting back, I hold her head with just my hands now and turn it to the side as she vomits. The smell of curdled milk sickens me. I force the bile burning in my throat back down and notice Grace gag.
“Breathe through your mouth and try to get her pants off.”
Amber continues to puke. Grace sits on her thighs and unbuttons her pants, and then she moves backward, still sitting on her legs, pulling the pants further down with her.
“Amber, can you hear me? Open your eyes. I need you to open your eyes for me!” I say. But she doesn’t.
“I’ll check the water,” Grace says.
Using my pointer fingers, I pull open Ambers eyelids and see her eyes have rolled back into her head. Using the towel next to me, I wipe the sweat off my face and neck. My tongue’s dry, and my muscles ache.
“It’s ready,” Grace says. “I put towels down to cover the floor, hopefully it’ll be a good enough cushion.”
“Good thinking.” I smile a weak smile.
We pick her up the same way as before. I back into the shower, getting drenched, and slide down, leaning my back against the wall. I spread my legs apart, and Grace hands me the towel for under Amber’s head. I allow her head to rest on my pelvic bone and hold it with my trembling hands. Grace sits on her legs and gets wet as well.
“I don’t want you getting cold,” I say.
“I’m fine; I’m just praying this works.”
Suddenly, I hear a loud banging noise. Fearing the worst, I reach for my knife, but something streaks through the bathroom so fast, I don’t have time to react. Not far behind, Bill follows, cursing up and down about something I don’t understand.
“It’s loose!” he says. “Take cover!”
A huge, dark animal of some kind darts across the floor and hides behind the lockers. Its nails on the floor sound like nails on a chalkboard.
“Bill, what the hell was that?” I scream. Grace sits frozen in place, unsure what to do.
“Fantastic! It worked. I knew it!”
“What are you talking about?” I ask through gritted teeth.