by JL Terra
“And now you’re not.”
He nodded.
“You look awful.”
His lips spread into a wide smile. “I caught a cold. A couple of days ago, I got this sore throat. Boy does that scratch get annoying. Then I got all stuffed up. It was great.” He laughed.
She had to laugh with him. It was preposterous. “You got a cold?”
“I think I have allergies.”
Bryn bent double laughing. Daire moved close enough to take her arm. He said, “Easy.”
She straightened, nodding. “I feel like I could go back to sleep.”
“Food first. Then I’ll take you somewhere you can rest.”
“What did you have in mind?”
He lifted his hand, holding a key fob. He pressed a button. The car parked at the curb beeped and the lights flashed. “Dinner? I’d like to talk with you. There’s a lot to say.”
“No dragons. Or trees.” She remembered a place she’d been to once. “I don’t think I’ll ever be able to go to that restaurant that’s like a rainforest, you know, where there’s a thunderstorm, like, every twenty minutes.”
“Agreed.” He nodded. “There’s this great café on the beach not far from here, if you want. No trees.”
“This is weird, right? It’s not just me.”
He stepped close enough she had to look up at him to see his face instead of the buttons on his shirt. “Like I said, there’s a lot to say.”
He moved to the car and opened the passenger door, then stood waiting for her. “Want to go?”
Bryn climbed in. She didn’t know what the future would hold. She didn’t know what next week would be like. Or a month from now. Or five years. There was no plan, but she had plenty of time to sort through everything. Get to a place where she could move past it. Live her life.
Daire climbed into the driver’s seat, and they set off.
Toward the future.
Epilogue
Shadrach gripped the steering wheel. The back window of the pickup was open, and Dauntless pushed his nose through the gap. He breathed hot, dog breath on Shadrach’s ear until he reached back and scratched the animal under the chin.
“You’re such a good dog.”
He took the exit for the freeway, itching to put as many miles between him and the team as he could. There was no other option for him. Not now, when it was getting worse.
He couldn’t feel the steering wheel with his left hand. Not the way he could with his right. Not the ridges and bumps. He could squeeze his fingers, and he could make his muscles move. But there was nothing. No feeling at all below his elbow.
He pulled up at the stop light on the on-ramp and let go of the wheel with his left hand. He bent his elbow and then straightened his arm. Flexed it a couple more times. Poked it with his right hand. Scratched the skin until a red mark should have appeared.
Nothing.
The light went green, and he hit the gas.
He’d had no feeling in that arm since the cold of the museum. The limb still worked but only in an abstract way. As though it were going through the motions. He’d dropped his cup of coffee on the street as he climbed in the truck.
His phone rang. Shadrach looked at the screen.
Remy.
He rolled down the window and tossed the phone out. The wind whipped his collar. He pressed the gas all the way to the floor until the engine roared.
There was nothing she could do.
There was nothing any of them could do.
COMING Spring 2020
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