Nobody

Symptoms

I woke up spitting grass out of my mouth. I was face down on my lawn, naked from the waist up. Night had fallen and I was cold, shivering.

Sunstroke. I'd been swilling energy drinks, skipping meals, and working in the heat.

I hadn't been taking care of myself, and I'd gotten heat stroke.

I was goddamn lucky to be alive.

I sat up with a groan, my arms shaking, barely able to hold my weight till I sat up. My head was ringing and my vision blurry. I could see the hose coiled on the holder on the side of the house and started crawling toward it. My stomach kept cramping and I had to stop and rest twice, my head pounding like it was going to crack open.

I could remember being completely confused, thinking Pru was still alive. I remembered looking for, thinking we'd gone to visit some acquaintance.

I found out I still had enough water for tears.

I fumbled the hose down, reaching up with one weak hand to turn the handle. The water sprayed into my face and I greedily began gulping it down.

I threw it back up.

I drank more, then turned off the water, feeling my stomach cramp.

I laid in the wet cold grass, shivering, waiting for the stomach cramps to ease up.

I could remember buying a riding lawn mower with a bag attachment and riding around the property, throwing away debris when I found it, emptying the clippings into the dumpster. I'd built another shed so the smaller shed could be where the riding lawn mower lived and the other one could act as a workshed. I'd had the garbage hauled off three times, then called in a dump truck full of gravel to gravel the road and a parking area. I'd replaced the firewood and loaded the woodshed by sawing down two dead trees and chopping them up.

I'd gotten heat stroke after laying down the flagstones for the front walk.

Stupid stupid stupid.

I'd only thrown up water. God only knew the last time I'd actually eaten.

I remembered feeling like Pru was chasing me. Any time I wasn't working she was behind me, staring at me, blaming me for letting her die.

I curled up in a ball and cried, my chest hurting so bad I honestly thought I was having a heart attack.

Light washed over me and I managed to sit up before flopping back in the grass, my muscles refusing to work. A beat up dented pickup truck came to a stop in the gravel. I tried to sit up and fell backwards again.

"You all right, Texas?" Old Pete called out, walking around the front of his truck.

"Over here," I managed to say.

Of course, I chose that moment to throw up again.

"Yer sunburnt all over pretty bad, Texas," the old man said. He squatted down near me. "You get drunk and pass out?"

I shook my head, heaving up more water.

"You haven't been in town a couple days. You missed coming by the diner for your lunch," he said. "Madison and her pa asked me to come on up and check on you. Said you hadn't missed a lunch in over a week."

"What's today?" I managed to gasp out, then started dry heaving.

"Second of July, Texas," The old man said. "I'm gonna call Doc Rutheford," He told me, pulling a cell phone out of his pocket.

I just heaved up another gout of water.

"Hey, Doc. Pete here," the old man said. "Yeah, I'm up at Mary-Beth's ol' shitty trailer. Got a boy here with sunstroke. Can you come out?" He put his hand on my back. "Yeah, he's still burning up like he's got a fever. Yeah? OK. How about if I spray him with water? All right."