Dark Night

Recovery

"She is ok, really?" Mr Maradona asked before I could say anything. "You'd tell us the truth? Sera would sugarcoat the truth to keep us from worrying."

"One of the guys on our floor had an Epi-pen and she was taken to the hospital, where they treated her and released her. She's got the new epinephrine and I talked to a nurse and red her discharge information."

"You know that the reaction can come back, don't you?" Mrs Maradona asked anxiously.

"I do, the nurse told me. So I know what to look for and believe me, I"ve got my eye on her." That brought a strained chuckle from the parents. "I won't hesitate to take her to the doctor if necessary, but I don't think it will be. The university is taking care of cleaning everything in the room, Gail and those two boys are in trouble with both the university and the law, and our hallmates really pitched in. One of the girls went with Serafina to the hospital and other guys helped me wash our clothes and the bedding, somebody took things to the dry cleaners and we 've been given a clean room until we can get back into ours. We'll take it easy the next few days." There were a few more minutes of conversation, then I handed the phone back to Serafina and went to the bathroom, then brushed my hair and freshened my makeup.

Serafina was just finishing up, and after she hung up she also spruced herself up and we went over to John's. "I had a hard time keeping them from charging up  here and making a ruckus," she said. "It wouldn't help, but I gave them West's phone number. Maybe he can get through to them." She poked me and I flinched. She has pointy fingernails. "But they feel better knowing that a responsible adult is looking out for me."  

"Leia's either got the answers or knows where to look to find them," he agreed, and ran his hand down my hair.

"Ha," I said dourly. "This went from irritating to holy-crap-nuclear in a heartbeat." A cute guy poked his head in the room.

"Hey, Tang, Simon's got Deadpool cued up on the lounge TV." He winked. "Bring your pretty friends." That sounded fun, certainly nicer than wallowing, so John gave us each a water bottle and he popped a couple of bags of popcorn to take with us. There were about fifteen people, a good number for fun without it being too rowdy.

When Serafina was talking to other people, John asked if I was really ok. "I'm not happy, that's for sure," I said. "I wish Serafina had told us about her allergy. I've never seen anaphylaxis before and it's scary. I'm going to have to replace things like textbooks, and I kinda wish I'd gone home for break."

He nodded. "But at least you're on top of it," he said encouragingly. "And you guys will have fun at Disneyland, and there's the beach party to look forward to. You know you can depend on me for help. You're my best friend."

"I know, it's just that things are such a mess right now and I don't have any of my stuff and I'm upset." He put his arm around me and rubbed my shoulder.

"It's ok for you to be upset, it is a mess. But think about this; after this it's ten weeks and we're finished with our freshman year at college. That's a real achievement. Then we can go home covered in glory and sleep in and recover. You'll have your grandpa and Stan. What are you going to do for the summer, do you know?"

"Actually, yeah," I said, brightening a bit. "Marc said that there's some openings at the rink for help at the desk, skate rentals, all that. I can't go back to the library, there aren't any openings, and this will at least keep me busy."

"Really?" John chewed that over a bit. "I might ask about that too. I wanted to ask if you wanted to go ice skating this week sometime, just the two of us, get away for a bit."

"Really?" I looked at him.

"Yeah, I miss it, and I finally feel like it's something I want to do. The physio here finally pronounced my ankle fully recovered, finally."

"That's good news. Then yeah, sign me up. Friday, Saturday, or Sunday?"

"Let's do Friday. I'll check times at the rinks, find something that isn't too early."  We grinned at each other. I felt better and watched the rest of the movie in content. I made it through Dark Knight, the next movie up, then I was played out. Serafina was also dragging so we left afterward and went to our temporary quarters. There wasn't any reason to loiter, no real distractions, so we went to bed and I was out like a light.

I slept in the next day, and  peered at Serafina until I could see she was still breathing, so no secondary reaction. Yay. When I got out of the shower, Serafina was munching on a Pop Tart and we discussed what we wanted to do. "Bookstore," I said grimly. "I don't see how they can get the smell out of our textbooks. Fortunately, while I take notes on paper, I immediately transfer them into a computer file, so at least my notes aren't lost too."

"I don't see why you don't take your laptop to class," she said.

"I'm a terrible typist," I shrugged. "Plus it helps me to learn the material when I type the notes."

"I hadn't thought about that," she said. "I'll come with you. It's a mercy we're only two quarters in, we haven't lost years' worth of books, anyway." I nodded. There was that. I slugged down a diet Coke, breakfast of champions, and got dressed. A couple of replacement books weren't in as good condition as the ones that were contaminated, but at least I could get all the ones I'd lost. Serafina had to order one. The people at the bookstore were really nice when we explained what had happened and the manager gave us a ten percent discount. I picked up new notebooks, and then since I was there anyway, got my texts for the next semester. The only good thing about taking three quarters of calculus was that we only had one book for all of it. I also picked up a racer-back tank top; the UCLA light blue looked terrific with my hair and it was getting warmer again. My arms and shoulders were looking good with all of the yoga and weight lifting I was doing and I wanted to show them off too. We went to lunch, then to the dry cleaners to pick up our stuff. As far as I was concerned, the fewer things I had to remember to do the rest of the week, the better.

The lady showed me a couple of small places on one side where the mud had stained, but they were light and I could flip it to the reverse side anyway. "I'm just glad it's ok," I said, relieved. "My grandpa got it for me on a trip we took last year. It feels like a hug when I get homesick." Which I didn't, much, but when things were rocky, I kinda wanted my grandpa around.

"I'm glad we were able to save it," she said.

"They went to the Olympics last year, her brother was competing in figure skating," Serafina said.

"Oh, really? That's quite a special memento then." She rang up the bill; we did it separately so that Serafina could pay me back later. "Delia Knight... that sounds familiar." I signed the first slip. "Oh, I remember! My daughter followed your Instagram account. She thought it was funny and she wants to go to China herself."

"Totally worth it," I said, signing the second slip. "I'd like to go back too."

When we got back to the room, there was a surprise waiting for Serafina. Her parents and her little sister had come up from Santa Ana. They had met with Mr West when we'd been out and now that they could see for themselves that Serafina was really ok seemed to relax. Her mother had her get receipts and promptly wrote me a check for what I'd spent, then Serafina took them on a campus tour and I went to the weight room to work off some stress. I almost always feel better after a workout. I'd gotten back and cleaned up, sticking the few clothes I had from the dry cleaners in the closet. I'd have preferred to leave them in the trunk, easier when it came time to move back, but I didn't want to risk somebody breaking into my car. Serafina and her family came back and they took me to dinner. Her parents thanked me for my help, and dropped us back at the dorm with a box of chocolate truffles. Man. I'd avoided a big weight gain so far, but this week was really testing me. Serafina was going to stay in that night; her dad had brought her a tablet to amuse herself with, so I found John and joined him and some of his friends exploring Westwood.

I slept better that night having my comforter back.