Throbbing. Incessant and all-consuming, my brain is on fire. I must escape… wakefulness evades me, my eyes are unresponsive. So are my hands, my mouth… everything. A cloud of murmuring envelops me, changing, growing. Voices.
“Oh my baby boy…”
“Calm down, Gracie. His doctor said he’ll be fine, he just needs rest. How’s our girl?”
Yes, Abi… where’s Abi, is she all right? There are fingers at my forehead… my mother’s… they brush away the pain, dull it slightly. “She’s doing better. That fever may have saved her life, but the ordeal has lowered her immunity considerably. She’s on a strong antibiotic among other things, though the gash on her leg was fairly superficial. We’ll have a clearer picture when she wakes up.”
“She had those puppies bundled in her robe, Grace. She was keeping them s
