I slept until two o’clock and woke up ravenous. Room service remedied that with a chilled pasta salad and breadsticks. I ate slowly, trying to ignore the throbbing in my head. When I was finished, I decided to clean myself up. It took a lot of nerve to step into the water and bathe my scratches, but after the initial stinging sensation, the warm water was therapeutic.
When I rinsed my hair, I was startled for a moment as the water draining in the shower turned pink. My head must have bled more than I thought. I lowered the shower setting again to something that didn’t feel like needles on my scalp. I carefully towel-dried my hair and applied more salve to my cuts and scrapes. The ice Luke brought had melted so instead I used a chilled washcloth on my head. I heard a text message come thro
