Chapter 22: Cleaning Up

The party over, Val was at the door thanking each guest for coming. The last to leave was Abel.

“Mom’s going to make fun of me when I get home, and she sees your lipstick on me.”

“So, you don’t want a goodbye kiss?”

“Nope. I mean YES. Please kiss me, Val.”

There hadn’t been that many, but this kiss was one to remember. For almost two minutes, they were wrapped tightly in each other’s arms. After the first half-minute, Val got brave. She ran the tip of her tongue across his closed lips. Fortunately, Abel realized he needed to respond properly.

Now they were in open-mouthed tongue warfare, where both were on the winning side. Then Val stepped back.

“You’d better go home, precious, while your pants are still on. Bye!”

Drew was discreetly watching from several paces away with a big smile.

Then, they were all occupied cleaning up after the party, finishing around 3 o’clock. Drew put together a spaghetti dinner around 7:30, and he sent Val back to call Nia for dinner.

“Nia, wake up. Dinner’s ready.”

“That’s OK; I’m not hungry.”

“You didn’t eat anything at the party. Not even cake, and you love cake. C’mon, you need to eat, even if you don’t feel well. Fasting will make you feel worse, trust me.”

“Alright, I’m coming. I’ll see you out there after I pee.”

Feeling awful, Nia sat on the toilet, hoping to finally get some pee out. She had felt the pressure for a long time, but she just couldn’t seem to get any to come out. She was dizzy and frustrated, and had this terrible pressure in her lower abdomen. Frustrated, she left the bathroom (after washing her hands) and headed for the dinner table.

Five minutes after she had gone to wake her sister, Val was relieved to see that Nia was coming out of the hall and heading for the table.

“She still looks bad, but at least she’s up,” Val thought. Leah noticed Val’s distraction and followed her eye-line to also watch Nia approaching.

Nia came out of the hallway and started for the table, but with her last bit of energy, diverted toward the sofa. She almost didn’t make it. Her pain was blinding.

Nia’s legs collided with the front of the sofa. Then she pitched forward bonelessly onto the edge of the cushions and fell off on her side, with her face against the sofa. Luckily, she missed the coffee table, and her body lay between the two pieces of furniture.

Val screamed her name, then stood up so quickly that her chair tipped back and fell behind her, unnoticed. Rushing to her sister’s side, she literally flung the table away and gently turned Nia onto her back.

Nia was fully unconscious and had been since her knees hit the sofa a moment earlier. Leah joined Val, and they saw that Nia was really out and could not be roused. Then Val felt her forehead.

“Leah, she’s got a terrible fever; she’s burning hot! See?”

Drew was leaning over them, concern all over his face.

“Drew, call 9-1-1, she needs an ambulance! Val, what can you tell me?”

Val told her that Nia had been “acting weird” for several days, but she wouldn’t talk about it (to Val). Then, the firefighters arrived, ready to give Nia first aid, but there wasn’t much they could do for an unconscious 9-year-old girl.

But then the paramedic and the emergency medical technician arrived in their ambulance. They measured her temperature at 41.6° (107° F) and jumped into action.

“Frank!” addressing the nearest firefighter, “get as much ice as you can. She’s going out on the lawn so we can get her wet with the garden hose and ice her down. Sheila, help me get her clothes off. The rest of you are going to help by holding up a blanket so she isn’t exposed to the neighbors and the traffic. Where are this girl’s parents?”

They took two minutes to ice her little body down, then they loaded her into the ambulance and sped for the hospital with Leah beside her, holding her hand. Leah couldn’t interpret the monitor they had her on, but the tense faces on the crew told her enough.

As the ambulance screamed through the twilight, Leah was fearful. It was beyond her imagination that her little sister could be dying. The paramedic’s behavior was adding to her fright. He kept looking up at the monitor, then looking down at Nia with obvious concern and agitation.

According to the monitor, her blood pressure was only 80 over 50, and falling. Not only was Nia his first little girl in such critical condition, he was afraid he wouldn’t be able to keep her going until they reached the emergency department. He just couldn’t keep his misgivings off his face.

Four miles in the speeding rig passed fairly quickly, but to Leah, it seemed like hours. At least Nia’s temperature came down a couple of degrees. What she didn’t know yet was what caused her little sister to be so sick, so suddenly.