CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
It was full light in the morning when I woke. I was real hungry. I got dressed, made the bed, went to the bathroom. Loaded myself down again with everything, including Eli’s clothes, which were still dirty. I hadn’t had the energy to wash them. The shirt couldn’t be mended anyway.
The house was silent.
I wondered if Nurse Allen was already at the hospital, or if she had the day off and planned to catch up on her sleep. I left a five-dollar bill on her kitchen table to thank her, and I left as quietly as I could.
My plan was to eat breakfast and go see Eli at the hospital. I would have all day to figure out what we’d do next. I stowed Eli’s stuff in the car as I passed, and it felt good to have my hands free.
There were only a few people in the nearest restaurant. Maybe people were scared to come out after the day before. The waitress looked kind of jumpy, but at least the place was open for business, so I ignored that. I drank as many cups of coffee as the waitress would pour. I also packed in the pancakes and eggs and bacon.
I got to the hospital just a bit before visitor’s hours. I couldn’t see anyone over the counter barricading the duty nurse from the public. But I looked over it to see a woman slumped over the desk, asleep.
I froze in place.
Hospitals are noisy places.
But I couldn’t hear a sound.
I leaned against the wall and slipped off my boots. I went to Eli’s room very quickly, very quietly, my socks padding over the boards.
There was someone bending over Eli when I eased the door open, a short man wearing a hospital gown. In another second the man had a gun in the back of his skull.
“You idiot!” said Felix, keeping his voice low but mean. “I’m here to get him out before they kill him.”
“Last night he was doing fine. They made me leave. I came back this morning and everything’s strange.”
“I’m going to turn around really slow,” Felix told me.
“Arms away from your sides.” Just in case he… where were his clothes? Why was he dressed in a gown like Eli’s?
Felix actually did what I told him, to my surprise. He turned around as slowly as I could have wanted. But then he snarled, “Where did you spend the night? Did you find some other man?”
“Could you be any more of a…” I couldn’t think of a word bad enough. I took a small step back, all that the room allowed, and said, “I stayed in Nurse Allen’s extra bedroom.”
“What was she like when you left this morning?”
“Too quiet. I didn’t see her or hear her.”
“I hope she’s alive,” Felix said.
“Why wouldn’t she be? Has Dr. Gimball been by?” I asked, still keeping my voice very low.
“Yes.” Felix smiled broadly, but there wasn’t any mirth in it at all.
“What did he say?”
“He tried to kill Eli.”
“Where is he? The doctor?”
Felix said, “He’s dead. I put him in my bed.” Jerked his chin toward the curtain around the other bed next to the window.
“You killed Eli’s doctor?”
“I told you, woman. He was going to kill Eli.”
“Why didn’t he just mess up the operation last night?”
“Too many eyes on him, I suppose. I think Nurse Allen is a good woman, or at least an upright one.”
“What are you going to do if I holster my gun?” My arm was tired. Also, I was feeling silly, because I believed Felix was telling the truth. Though it didn’t make sense.
“I’m going to tell you to help me get Eli out of this place before someone else shows up to kill him. I can’t keep everyone asleep forever. And the other grigoris are coming nearer every moment.”
That tipped me over onto Felix’s side. I stared into Felix’s little brown eyes, wanting—real hard—to call him a liar and hit him in the head. But I couldn’t do it. “Get your clothes,” I said.
Felix disappeared behind the curtain and reappeared within five minutes, fully dressed. Since I didn’t want to have to kill any of the nurses, I was relieved. Eli’s color was better than yesterday, but he still seemed to be unconscious.
“Why isn’t he awake?” I asked Felix, since he was being so quick with the answers this morning.
“He will be soon,” Felix said, real shortly.
“Where were you wounded?” I said, suddenly realizing I ought to know why Felix was in the hospital.
“I became unconscious,” Felix said. “Too much magic use.”
In other words, he had fainted.
“You full strength now?”
“No. Close enough.”
“Should I get a stretcher for Eli?”
“We should put his arms over our shoulders and walk him out. They’ll all be waking up soon. Except for Dr. Gimball.” Felix actually smiled.
“The car is out front.”
“Drive around to the back door.”
I set off down the hall again. I gave the reception nurse a sideways glance. She hadn’t moved, but her fingers twitched. I took a fast detour into the women’s ward. Maddy looked a lot better. I put half my money into her hand. Then I ran.
I pulled up under the awning at the emergency entrance. Two orderlies were sitting on wooden chairs outside the big doors, sound asleep. One was white and one was black. Surely that was unusual; maybe Moses the Black had made a lasting difference, here in Sally, at least.
I jumped out of the car, leaving the doors open to be ready for anything. I hurried inside, to find Felix sort of dragging Eli. Felix was so short and Eli so tall that it would have been comical… if anything could have been. I ducked under Eli’s free arm and took my share of the weight. We moved much faster. When we came to the door, I pushed with my left and we sidled sideways out under the awning. Eli stirred at the brightness.
We shifted Eli into the back seat. I was getting good at the maneuver. He was lying down, as much as we could arrange him. His knees had to be drawn up a bit. Felix got in the passenger’s seat, and I scrambled behind the wheel, put the car in gear, and off we took.
In the rearview mirror, I saw one of the orderlies rub his face. I made my turn out of the parking lot very smooth and slow, because the last thing I wanted to look like was fugitives escaping.
“Do you have a goal?” I figured I better find out.
“Get out of this town as fast as we can without attracting any attention.”
I could do that. For a few minutes we were silent as we drove through the streets of Sally. The town was not silent, like the hospital, but it was what I’d call subdued. Despite the cleanup of the big objects yesterday—cars and bodies—there was still plenty of evidence of the violence: broken windows, overturned trash cans. But the rain had washed away all the blood.
The statue of Moses the Black stood in front of the courthouse as if it had always been there. People of both races were standing before it, gazing upward at the terrible and beautiful face.
I drove real careful. After what seemed like way too long, I was on the highway west out of Sally. There was still debris scattered in the field where the train had crashed, but there was a crew at work laying new tracks.
“You put everyone at the hospital to sleep,” I said. I’d been thinking.