Chatoyant College, Book 1: New Student Orientation

Chapter 41: Explanations

It was a cool morning, but still being August, that meant it was only about 75 degrees out. Dawn was just glad it wasn't foggy. The campus was still quiet as they walked toward the parking lot, but she heard occasional voices and sounds of people walking along the paths. She couldn't help but keep glancing toward the woods. They looked calm and quiet, but she was still sure that appearance was deceptive. She didn't see the odd creature she thought she'd seen the day before, but she had the prickly feeling that someone was watching her.

The parking lot was full, and Corrie was parked near the back of it. Her car was a small but new-looking compact of some sort, painted bright green. Corrie grinned proudly as she unlocked it. "Isn't she adorable?" Dawn and Edie made agreeable sounds, then caught each other's eyes and grinned. Dawn had a hard time thinking of any inanimate object as adorable.

They climbed in, and Corrie carefully started it and drove toward the parking lot exit. "Do you know how to get there, Dawn?"

"Yeah. It's not really very far, but farther than I wanted to walk."

Corrie nodded distractedly, watching the traffic on the road. "Right. Especially since we might be in a hurry. Which way out of the lot?"

"Right."

They drove in silence for a while. There weren't many turns off the main highway. Since it was a Sunday morning, traffic wasn't too bad, but a few cars whizzed past them on the left. "Okay, it should be the next street," Dawn said when she noticed the street name that she had made a mental note of as the one before the hospital.

"There it is," said Corrie moments later, slowing down and putting on her turn signal. "St. Margaret's Hospital Road. Easy enough." She drove slowly down the quiet street until she found a parking lot marked "Visitors," pulled into a spot close to the door, and turned the car off.

They walked quietly into the building. It was big, antiseptic, and intimidating. Dawn wrinkled her nose at the distinctive hospital smell. It reminded her of having tongue depressors forced into her mouth as a child. Taking a shallow but calming breath, she marched up to the front desk, Corrie and Edie right behind her. "Hi," she said to the woman at the desk. "Um, I'd like to visit Lorelei...?" Her mind went blank. She turned to Corrie and Edie in a mild panic, hoping to communicate to them with her baffled look the fact that she had no idea what Lorelei's last name was. They shook their heads at her--if they knew what she was asking, the answer was that they didn't know, either.

She turned back to the desk. The receptionist, a middle-aged woman with too much lipstick and a too-tight bun, stared at her with pursed lips. "Are you family?"

Dawn shook her head nervously. "No, a friend. She's my RA. We go to Chatoyant College, just a little bit down the highway."

The woman sighed and typed on her computer for a few moments. "Was she brought in yesterday afternoon?"

"Yes, that's right. Asthma attack."

The receptionist seemed to decide that Dawn was really who she said she was--her disapproving expression softened. "All right. She's in room 201. You can visit her if she's awake. Only one at a time, please." She handed them each a nametag reading "VISITOR", and they scribbled their names with the pen on the desk.

They got on the elevator to the second floor. Room 201 was easy to find; there were nurses and doctors busily moving about in the hallway, but it was close to the elevator, and no one gave them a second glance.. Naturally, they didn't have to discuss who would go in first; Dawn walked straight into the room, while Corrie and Edie waited outside. It was a small single room, but obviously not ICU. To Dawn's relief, in fact, she didn't see any strange-looking tubes, just a few machines. A TV was playing softly. She walked over to the bed. "Lorelei?"

Lorelei's chestnut hair, splayed over the pillow, was disturbed as she turned her head. Lorelei smiled hugely. "Dawn! Hi! Oh, it's so good to see somebody." She picked up her remote and turned off the TV, then pressed a button on the side of her bed to raise the back of the bed. "But I guess you're not just here to visit me."

Dawn sighed, taking the seat next to the bed. "Well, I am glad to see that you seem to be doing much better."

Lorelei nodded. "I was actually fine by the time I got to the hospital. They want to keep me here for observation, though." She took a deep breath. "The problem is, I can't actually tell you what happened."

She had been afraid of that. "Are there rules or something?"

"Not rules." Lorelei shook her head, her smile fading. "It's more that I physically can't." She gestured to her throat. "Just saying that makes it a little hard to breathe..."

"Don't say anything else, then!" Dawn told her hastily. "I can ask you questions, and you can just nod yes or no..."

"I actually thought I'd just write things down for you." Lorelei picked up a pad of paper and a pen from the table next to her bed and started to write.