He starts to laugh, but he stops short when Betty bursts in the room. “Austin Mitchell, how did you get past the nursing station? You know you’re not supposed to be in here.”
He smiles sheepishly. “Sorry, Betty, just trying to break this story.”
“Well, you won’t be breaking it on my watch. Out you go. Cleo, are you okay?” She eyes Austin Mitchell as he drops his business card on my bedside table before leaving.
I nod gratefully. “Thanks, Betty.”
She holds up a slip of paper. “I know who was in those ambulances,” she says. I sit up. “One of them is the diabetic boy.”
I leap out of my bed, the pain in my bandaged feet barely registering. “He’s okay?” I say, breathless.
“He’s in rough shape. But he’ll be okay.”
“Can I see him?”
“When he’s stable.”
“And Sue-Ellen?”
“The one in the rocks?”
I nod.
“Her name’s not on the list.”
I sink back into the bed, and cry again—tears of relief for Kei, and fear and guilt for Sue-Ellen.
I wait, straining my ears for more sirens. After an eternity, I hear the ambulances come back again, and Betty reports that Harmony is with this group. After a few tense minutes, she tells me I can go see her. She wheels me down the hall, and into one of the shared rooms with six beds. The curtains around the beds are drawn.
“I’ve got someone here to see you,” Betty trills, as she pulls back the curtain and wheels me in.
Harmony and I lock eyes and both immediately start to sob. She holds her arms out to me, and I hobble out of my wheelchair and into her embrace.
“You did it,” she warbles into my hair.
I pull away, wipe my eyes, and climb into bed beside her. “So, what happened after I left? Did you guys get up to anything fun?”
She smiles and rolls her eyes. “Oh yeah, it was a real blast.” Her smiles drops, her face suddenly serious. “I thought I’d never see you again,” she says, her eyes filling with tears. “It was so scary, Cleo, watching you guys swim away. We could see you drifting, and it was so horrible because there was nothing we could do to help. Once you guys were out of sight, it was like we all came to the conclusion that you had drowned. And no one could say or do anything to make it better. It was a nightmare. We basically sat on the beach all day, waiting—I don’t know for what. Sid volunteered to cook, but he scorched the bottom of the pot on the fire, so the rice was burnt, and it was disgusting. So we went to bed hungry. It was so lonely in the Bunkhouse without you across from me, and without Damian…” Her voice trails off.
“They’ll find him,” I say, trying to sound confident. “He’ll be here soon.”
Harmony nods, her lower lip trembling. “So, this morning, we wereback on the beach, and all of a sudden this boat comes ripping into view, and for a moment, we weren’t sure if it was coming for us, so we all start jumping up and down and screaming like crazy, and then it made this sharp turn and started to come right for us. It was like a scene in a movie—they had those reflective blankets and they gave us these gel packs.” She shivers. “They told us you were okay but that Kei and Sue-Ellen weren’t with you, but they didn’t know why.”
I nod. “Kei is here. He ran out of insulin, so I had to go on without him, but they found him. But Sue-Ellen got stuck in some rocks.” My voice breaks.
She brushes a tear away from my cheek. “They’ll find her,” she says, parroting my words. “She’ll be here soon.”
There is a commotion in the hallway. Betty pops her head in and says, “More new arrivals.”
“Can I see Kei?”
“Not yet, but some of your friends are in the TV room—why don’t you go visit with them?”
Harmony helps me into my wheelchair, and wheels me down the hall to the TV room, which has six seats, all occupied. It takes me a moment to recognize everyone as campers, their bathing suits and sundresses switched out for the same pale blue hospital gowns both Harmony and I are wearing.
They’re all watching TV. Harmony clears her throat, and Isa turns around.
“Cleo!” He jumps up and comes over to me, enveloping me in a hug. And then Valeria is there, with tears streaming down her face. She nudges Isa out of the way so she can come in for a hug.
