Honeymoon

Chapter 54

NURSE BARROWS’S EYES left the page of the medication log, her head whipping in the direction of the scream. She recognized Nora’s voice right away.

Hurriedly navigating the corner of the nurses’ station, she yelled out for Patsy, who was in the supply room.

Reaching the hallway, Emily saw Nora frantically waving her arms. There were about thirty yards separating her and Olivia Sinclair’s room, and Emily began covering them faster than her chunky frame should’ve allowed.

“What is it?” Emily yelled out. “What happened?”

“I don’t know,” cried Nora. “She’s—”

Emily ran right by her and into the room. What she saw was a scene straight out of The Exorcist. Olivia Sinclair was convulsing on the bed, her body fully extended while her arms and legs trembled and twitched with spasms. The rattling of the metal-frame bed was now a near deafening noise.

But for all that was happening—including Nora’s complete state of panic—Emily Barrows instantly became calm. She glanced over her shoulder to see Patsy just arriving at the doorway.

“Give me a hand,” she said to the younger nurse.

Patsy joined her with quick, nervous steps.

“Is this your first seizure?” Emily asked.

Patsy nodded.

“All right, here’s what you do. First, you roll her on her side so in case she vomits, she won’t choke on it,” said Emily. She folded her arms and nodded at Patsy, who again seemed frozen. “Don’t just stand there, dear.”

Sputtering into action, Patsy lifted Olivia onto her side. “Okay, what now?”

“Now you wait.”

“For what?”

“For it to stop.”

“You mean, this is all I do?”

“Exactly. Don’t try to restrain her in any way. Simply keep track of the clock. Nine times out of ten it won’t last more than five minutes. If it does, we call for a doctor.”

Nora stood there, her shock doubled by the fact that Emily had turned her mother’s seizure into a teaching lesson. “There’s got to be something more you can do!”

“There really isn’t, Nora. Trust me, it looks a lot worse than it is.”

“What about her tongue?! Isn’t there a chance she can swallow her tongue?!”

Emily shook her head, trying to remain patient. “That’s a myth,” she said. “It’s not even a possibility.”

Nora was still not satisfied. She was about to insist on getting a doctor when suddenly everything stopped. The bed, the noise… her mother’s convulsions.

The room fell silent. Emily eased Olivia over onto her back again, propping her head on the thin pillows. Nora rushed over and grasped her mother’s hand, giving it a squeeze.

For the first time she could remember, she actually felt a squeeze back.

“Everything’s okay, Mother,” said Nora softly. “Everything’s okay.”

“There, there,” whispered Nurse Barrows, and she had a calming hand on Nora’s shoulder. “I know you thought she was dying, but trust me, dear, you’ll know when somebody’s dying. You’ll know.”