Born of starlight and shadows

~Part nineteen: Maria~

Maria awoke to an amazingly loud world, full of sound that jumbled together in a confusing tangle. A word she'd read in a book recently floated to one clear patch of her brain: cacophony.

That was a pretty accurate description, she thought. A cacophony of noise.

She was lying on the couch in the living room, as she was vaguely sure she'd been before. The TV was still on-the same movie that was playing earlier was going strong. She could think of the name-why had it escaped her earlier? Yes-Tangled, that's what it was.

Her mind felt groggy, but she'd seen the movie enough times to know it was nearly over. Mom had turned it on right before she had-fallen asleep? Was that what she had done?

So how long had she been out for?

Her attention was directed to a pair of arguing voices.

"So you get a phone call from a total stranger-total stranger!-" 

"She said she was a friend of-"

"And had you ever met the girl before?"

"Well, no, but Stella doesn't seem like the type of person to introduce her friends to her parents!"

"Assuming she even had friends..."

"Matthew!"

"What? I'm not saying it was right, or ideal, but don't you think if she had, she would have mentioned them, at least once?"

"Yes, but-"

"And we aren't her parents."

"No. That's not the point!"

"Exactly. The point is, some random girl calls, someone neither you or I have heard of, met, whatever, before, claims to know Stella, and you agree to let her invite her over to her house."

"I had a lot on my mind! And I thought we agreed that we'd try to make it up to her the best we could! Don't you think allowing her to go to a friend's house would help?"

"Yes, I suppose, but-"

"But what?"

"There's no way to reach her now, and I'd feel better if she was at home right now."

"Did you try calling her?"

"She never answers her phone!"

"Did you at least try?"

"Yes. There wasn't any answer."

"Did you call the other girl?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"I was a little bit preoccupied with taking care of our other daughter!"

"Maria? What's wrong with her?"

"I don't know-I checked her temperature, and she's running a bit of a fever. She seemed pretty out of it when I tried to talk with her, though-it didn't seem like she understood anything I was saying. And I found her on the floor in her room, unconscious."

"So it happened again."

"Yes, well, last time, it only lasted for a little while, and responded to fever medication, so I hoped this time would she'd be all right soon."

"Maybe we should have taken her to a doctor-"

"If she doesn't improve, we may have to."

"Right. And in the meantime, call Stella again-call her friend, too. I don't suppose there was a number for the girl's parents, either?"