The hospital room smelled of lemon-scented bleach and the cloying, sweet rot of dying flowers. It was a clean smell, a "normal" smell, and I hated it with every fiber of my being. I lay pinned under the starch stiff sheets, my skin itching where the IV tape pulled at my arm. Leo was still sitting there, peeling an orange, the zest spraying a sharp, citrus mist into the air. He looked so calm. So grounded.
"You need to eat, Esther," Leo said, offering me a wedge. "The doctors at Muhimbili said your blood sugar was dangerously low. All that writing, all those late nights... you pushed yourself too far."
I looked at the orange wedge. It looked like a bloody kidney in his hand. I pushed his hand away, my fingers trembling.
"Where is he, Leo? Stop playing this game. Where is Sasha?"
Leo sig
