Page 337 of Nobody's Girl

I look at Eden as he drives me back to their house. “Do you think that they were poisoning her?”

“I don’t know. God help them if they were,” he says.

“God won’t help them if they were,” I say. “Then we can kick ass and take names.”

The little ducks quacking in the box next to the bed wakes me up from a dreamless sleep. I rub my eyes and look over to see Eden sleeping next to me, his leg draped over mine. I gently move his leg off of me so I can get the ducks something to eat.

I pick up the box and take it downstairs to find their duck food. Each little ducky eats like they were starving when I put the feeder down for them. I stroke each one’s little head as they quack and eat, leaving the box on the table as I go to get ready to go up to the hospital.

“You’re up,” I say as I walk in to find Eden sitting up in the bed.

“Yeah,” he groans, then stretches.

“Meet me in the shower,” I tell him as I walk into the bathroom.

I hear him get out of the bed and walk to the bathroom. I turn on the water in the rather small shower, then stand under the water as it helps me to clear my head.

Eden steps into the shower with a smile on his face. “I noticed you slept dreamlessly,” he says.

I smile back at him as I put a dollop of shampoo in my hand. “No dreams,” I say as I raise my eyebrows. “I had a quiet night in my head for a change.”

He presses his body up against mine, holding me back against the wall, his forehead touching mine. I feel his hands moving over my wet skin.

“I suddenly feel very happy to be awake,” he tells me.

“You’re making me pretty happy too,” I tell him, then his hands pull me closer to him and I am lost.

I button my shirt as Eden walks past me, delivering a slap to my bottom as he does. “Let’s get a move on, Alyssa. It’s almost time for visiting hours,” he says.

“Eden, you are very promiscuous this morning. What has gotten into you?” I ask him.

“I don’t know, maybe the fact that a whole twenty-four hours has gone by since I’ve had to watch my wife making love to her dream husband has perked me up some,” he says.

I smile at him, but inwardly I feel sad. “I hope the dreams are over for good. I hate that you have to see that.”

“I hope they are too,” he admits. “I don’t like to share you, even in a non-existent reality.”

I walk to take his hand. “I love you, Eden. You understand even the craziest things. Now let’s go see how Laura is this morning.”

“She’s in room 222,” the lady sitting at the desk tells us.

“I can’t believe she’s still here. I thought they would give her some fluids, and boom, she would be better,” I say.

“We’ll find out soon enough why she’s still here,” Eden tells me as we get in the elevator and go up to the second floor.

The elevator doors open and we see the room number right away. “Here she is,” I say.

Eden knocks lightly on the door. The door opens and Kyle’s unshaven, very tired-looking face peeks out at us. “Oh, good, it’s you,” he says as he stands back for us to come in.

“Kyle, you look terrible,” I say.

“I haven’t slept,” he tells us.