She went out searching every day, desperate to find some overlooked sprout as she began to develop headaches and nausea. What was briefly a grinding pain in the back of her skull seemed to expand by the hour. It worsened week by week until she couldn’t read, her vision swimming in an aura of pain.
The heavy winter drapes were kept closed, blotting out all light. She ate less and less. When she couldn’t eat or drink or get out of bed for two days, Ferron reappeared.
“You said you’d eat,” he said.
She scoffed, and her head throbbed so painfully it was as though someone had driven a metal rod into her skull. Her vision turned blood red. She moaned, hardly able to breathe until it passed.
“If I could even think of anything that sounded edible, I doubt I could keep it down,” she said in a s
