And whether or not he followed through on all that talk… well, that was out of her hands.
She could only focus on what she could control. And looking around, she realized that everything in her control was a success. She would try her best to be happy with that.
She wouldchooseto be happy with that.
22
Halia
The night before the big annual fundraiser for A Place of Refuge, Halia didn’t sleep at all. Her sinuses were on fire, and by midnight she was burning up with fever. The night passed in a miserable, sleepless haze.
By morning she had sweated it out and the worst of the pain had passed, but she still felt like she had been hit by a truck.
It was times like that when she wished that she could hire a full-time employee. But keeping the shelter open was already a precarious endeavor. The grants and donations that kept it running barely covered her salary, low as it was.
There was no room in the budget to hire someone else. And day to day, she didn’t need anyone else. She managed. And she almost never got sick.
When shedidget sick, though… then she was in trouble.
Halia sat huddled over her kitchen table, nursing a cup of black coffee and force-feeding herself a bowl of white rice with an egg on top, when a knock came on the door.
Still clutching an old quilt around her shoulders, she stood and shuffled over tothe door.
Anne was there on the lanai, bright-eyed and smiling.
“Good morning! I have the wristbands you wanted.” Her eyes narrowed. “You don’t look well.”
“I’m fine,” Halia said – but her voice came out as a croak.
“You’re sick,” Anne accused.
“Maybe a little.”
“You can’t run the fun fair today.”
She shivered and pulled the quilt tighter around her shoulders. “I have to.”
“Halia, listen to yourself. You sound awful.”
“There’s no one else to do it.”
“Um, hello. There’s four of us, and we’re all here. We can run it this year.”
“I can’t ask you to do that.”
“I’m not waiting for you to ask. Go back to bed.”
It was a mark of just how sick Halia was that she obediently shuffled back into her bedroom and climbed under the covers. She was too tired to even look at her phone. She just put her head down and drifted somewhere between sleeping and waking.
Out in the kitchen, she could hear her little sister on the phone –herphone, she realized – fielding calls from local business owners who were pitching in at the fundraiser.
A little while later, Anne walked in carrying a tray.
“You awake?” she asked quietly.
“More or less,” Halia mumbled.
“Here, why don’t you finish your food? Then you can get some proper rest.” Anne propped some pillows up behind Halia’s back and set the tray on her lap.
