Page 62 of The Gods Will Sing Our Song

He is framed in the doorway, a backlit silhouette. Starlight shines on his shoulders and hair. For a moment, I almost think he’s become something else, something eternal, something like Akira. A drop of liquid runs down his wrist and pitters onto the floor. My heart lifts at the sight of him, but I’m confused. Why is he bleeding? Why is he at our barrack in the middle of the night?

“What’s wrong?” Mama gasps.

“It’s Emi.” Ren’s voice is so weak and hoarse that I almost don’t recognize it. “She’s gone into labor and—and—she’s hemorrhaging. She needs blood. We’ve given everything we can, but she needs more. She’s A negative. Please, can you help?”

Before Mama can respond, he lists forward, lurching into our room. Mama catches him as his knees buckle and wraps her arms around his waist.

“Violet! Come help me get him to the bed.”

I jump up, the straw tick mattress crinkling from my panicked movements. I rush to Ren’s other side. His skin is cold and he’s shivering but drenched with sweat. A small, round incision on his forearm bleeds freely. He manages to stand again and take a few more steps before collapsing headlong onto my bed, unconscious.

“Ren!” I cry, terrified.

“He’s fainted from giving too much blood.” Mama takes a washrag and ties it around his arm. She puts my pillow under his head and yanks my blanket over him.

“We need to give blood,” I say, but Mama is already pulling on her coat, not even stopping to change out of her nightdress.

“I will. You stay here with the boy. He’ll wake up soon. Give him water when he does.”

“No,” I protest. “I’m coming with you. Emi might need more.”

“You’re B negative.” Mama speaks to me like I’m a stupid child as she puts on her shoes. “You aren’t a match. I’m O negative. Stay with him. He’ll be confused when he wakes up.”

“But Emi is my friend! I—”

“No. Listen to me.” She pauses. A scuttling cloud reveals the moon through the still-open door. Just as it illuminated Ren, it highlights Mama’s face as she stands sidelong in the threshold. Every feature is set, but I see it, hidden behind her strength. Fear. “Please, Violet.”

Mama never says please. Not to me. I take a breath.

“All right. But if there’s anything I can do to help, promise you’ll come get me,” I say.

“Hai,” Mama says.

She leaves, and I’m alone in our room with Ren.

Chapter Seventeen

Ren

I think I’m dreaming. I think I’m awake. I think…I can’t think. Fog fills my brain. Makes me think I must’ve been clocked in the head—no, that’s not right. No one’s slugged me…this time.

Emi calls me. Which is strange because she used to wake me up for school, but since I’ve taken the job unloading fruit deliveries before school, she isn’t up early enough to get me going.

Slowly, I open my eyes.

“Are you all right?” Violet leans over me.

Everything rushes back in a single moment, like a mudslide crashing down Malibu Canyon Road that will either bury me or sweep me away. I’m in the Aratanis’ barrack. I came here after Emi went into labor. We’d hurried her to the hospital, passing cots arranged outside. Dr. Suzuki was there and he washed his hands in a basin because there’s no running water and I wanted to scream because while I don’t know anything about childbirth, I do know this isn’t right. Worry filled his face, and he sent Nurse Rose to the WRA offices. An ambulance was called from Independence, but then things…they progressed. Badly. Dr. Suzuki said it’d be too risky to move her but that she needed blood. As much as possible.

Mama wasn’t a match.

I gave as much as I could.

Mama got Mr. Nomura. He and Nurse Rose were willing, but they weren’t matches, either. Dr. Suzuki sent for Kai, and he gave blood. I told them to take more of mine. Told them to take it all, if they must. I was frenzied. Dr. Suzuki was grim. They’d finished taking my blood but hadn’t removed the needle. I grabbed the rubber tubing attached to it and yanked it out. Blood spurted. Mr. Nomura shouted gruffly at me. I didn’t stop. I rushed out into the camp. Went to the only person who I thought might help us.

Violet.

Must have made it because I’m in her barrack. Violet sits next to me on a crate. I sit up. The world spins and bends in and out at the same time.