I Went Down (NaNoWriMo Read-Along)

23 Emmy Jane

“Emmy Jane.” Luessa was standing the doorway. “Emmy Jane,” she whispered again. When she saw that Emmy Jane was awake she came and knelt down beside her bed. “Cal got you some medicine.” She held out a small bottle.

Emmy Jane sat up and took the bottle. When she undid the stopper the strong smell made her wrinkle her nose. “It smells like medicine.”

“Drink half of it,” Luessa said, still whispering.

It was thick and bitter. The bitterness stuck in her throat and Emmy Jane coughed. On the other side of the room Davina stirred and mumbled in her sleep.

“How do you feel?” Luessa asked.

“It hurts where he--” Emmy Jane saw the worry on her friend’s face. “Not too badly,” she said quickly. “Don’t worry.” She slid out of the bed, on which someone had put fresh bedding while she was in the shower room. The polka dotted dress had disappeared too. But there was soreness between her thighs that did not let her forget what had happened to her. “It will get better, right?”

Luessa squeezed her hand. “That part goes away.”

“And the blood?”

“That too.” Luessa smiled at her in the half-light seeping through the faded curtains. It was a sad smile. “But I have more for you than medicine,” she said.

“What?” Emmy Jane put her hands into her hair, working to untangle the curls.

“Harlan said there’s a man for you at the door.”

“A man?” Her fingers seemed to have gotten tangled in a particularly dense snarl. Had he come back already? What should she do? How could she look at him?

“An Ibai man. I bet it’s Russ. Would anyone else be looking for you?”

“No.” No one else from home knew where she was, unless Russ had given her away. And he wouldn’t have given her away, she was sure of it.

“I can tell him to go away for you,” Luessa said. “I’ll say you’re sick.”

“No,” Emmy Jane said. “Don’t send him away.” Yesterday she had been so happy with him, laughing about pomegranates and staining her hands with the red juice. Maybe he could distract her from the new red stain that threatened to cover her whole mind. “I want to see him.”

“Okay,” Luessa said. “I’ll go tell him to wait for you.”

Moving quietly so as not to wake Davina, Emmy Jane put on a simple blue dress that reminded her of home. She dug through the top drawer of the wardrobe until she found the green scarf she had worn around her hair when she traveled down the river to Delta Mouth. She was smoothing it over her hair when Luessa returned. “It is Russ,” she said. “He’s waiting for you.” She looked Emmy Jane over with a worried eye. “Put on a coat, it’s raining.”

Emmy Jane gave herself a quick look in the mirror. For Russ, at least, she did not need to worry that she had not put on any makeup. She closed the bedroom door carefully behind her and went out to the front door. Harlan was there as usual. It wasn’t clear if he ever left his place by the door, but surely he must occasionally go to the kitchen to eat, to a bedroom perhaps to sleep, even to the bathroom for a moment. He stood in the entrance with arms crossed and looked down at her.

“Are you sure you want to go out there?” he asked in his deep river dredge voice. “You don’t have to go out if you don’t want to.”

As if she was safer inside. “Yes. I want to go.”

Harlan let out a great sigh. It was a little surprising that he did not creak as he did so, but he was only flesh and blood like anyone else in this city. Even Harlan would not stand up to Jimmy Primrose.