Chapter 24: Warm Coats Required, Again

It snowed on the morning we opened the ward.

Meadowland has no winter, but this one morning it had snow.

I stood on the clinic steps in a long wool coat with a fur hood.

Under it I wore a heated vest, and I had warm boots on my feet.

I was not cold.

My father stood beside me in a suit that did not fit, and the socks under his good shoes matched.

I looked twice to be sure.

"They're the best pair," he said. "Don't say anything."

The new ward stood behind the clinic, a low building of pale wood with a green door.

Over the door hung the sign he had painted in the spring, only bigger.

Cold Agglutinin Ward. Warm Coats Required.

A crowd had gathered in the yard.

There were wolves from Meadowland and the villages around, all in scarves.

A few families I had never seen before had driven for days.

There were seven children with blue-tinged lips and padded sleeves.

The girl from the first day stood at the front, in a puffy pink coat.

She held a knitted scarf that was mostly holes.

"Is it time?" she hissed.

"Almost."

The oldest elder came up the steps, and she handed me a pair of scissors.

"The council is proud of you," she said. "Meadowland has said so in writing."

"I will take it in writing," I said.

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