Burlap

8 - Ride The Wings Of Pestilence

Numb.

Dizzy.

Cold.

Dazed.

Gone.

Not even Power’s seductive voice could break through the heavy fog enveloping my mind and body. My fingers glided over the silver surface of the bristled object the woman with black hair had given me.

I should know what this object was.

I should know what it’s for.

But, how could I figure it out if my eyes wouldn’t even focus on it to study it?

What was it she’d said to me when she’d put it in my hands? Oh, yes… “Brush your hair, honey.”

I flipped the intricate handle over in my palm. I knew that I knew how to brush my hair - using this object that I still couldn’t remember the proper name for - but the individual steps eluded me, shying away from my inquiring mind. It was really quite rude, the way the knowledge pranced away from me, huddling in the deepest portion of my brain so I couldn’t access it.

“Oh, Kate,” a voice sighed from above me. I looked up, slowly. “Those meds are hitting you harder than they do for most. Maybe because you’re so petite, nina. John’s going to be worried sick over you all day. You poor darling.”

Why did this black haired woman’s voice echo so loud inside my head?

Why couldn’t I just focus on her? What was wrong with my eyes?

And where was Power? Shouldn’t she have had something to say about this whole situation by now?

“Come on, let’s get you to the lounge. I suppose it doesn’t really matter that you’re in those over sized pajamas for today. You most certainly won’t care, anyway,” the woman babbled on, taking the silver object from my hands and running it down the shafts of my hair over and over again.

That’s right. That’s how to brush my hair. Silly me.

My head fell forward, suddenly far too heavy for my neck to hold up.

The woman tilted my head back up, two fingers under my chin. “Kate, honey, you get in this room by seven-thirty every night from now on, you hear? You’re a walking zombie. You can’t let them give you those meds again. We’re lucky it’s Sunday and you have no classes or appointments today.”

She spoke far too much for me to hang on to even a single syllable of it. The words floated up into the air above me, disintegrating into microscopic particles of nothingness. I looked up, squinting my unfocused eyes as I searched for evidence of the sentences that had fallen from the woman’s scarlet lips.

Nothing.

What had she said, again? Something about perfume?

No, that’s not right.

Medicine. Some.. Kind of…

How was I in the lounge all of a sudden? Why was the radio so loud?

“Kate? Good grief, the meds did this to her? How did this happen, Esther?”

I was drowning in warm, earthy chocolate. How could something so simple be so beautiful?

“She came in from her shower at the same time the nurses came by last night. There wasn’t an opportunity for her to fake sleep. I had no idea it would be this bad, though.”

Warmth. Safe, comforting warmth caressed my face, and only a few seconds later did I realize that warmth was from two hands smoothing my hair away from my eyes. Hands… Connected to strong, tanned arms. I smiled at them. Safe, safe, safe. That melted chocolate seared into me again. I withered beneath it, wishing I could immerse myself and live there. Safe.