Chapter 9: The Fever

The emergency room doors at the children's hospital slid open on their own.

Holt stopped three feet short of them.

It was the same set of doors, the same blue floor, the same smell of floor wax and hand gel.

He had not been through them in two years.

The last time he had run.

"Dada," a small hot voice said, from somewhere far away.

He went in.

Poppy lay in Mavis's arms on a molded plastic chair with her cheeks flushed dark pink and her curls stuck to her forehead.

She was awake and miserable, tugging at her right ear.

Mavis did not stand up.

"They've taken her temperature twice," she said. "A hundred and three point one."

"They'll see her soon."

"Why didn't you answer earlier?"

"I was on the range."

"I know where you were."

Holt took Poppy into his arms.

She was heavy and burning and she wrapped both fists in his shirt.

"I've got you," he said. "I've got you, baby."

They saw a nurse in ten minutes.

They saw a doctor in forty.

The doctor looked into the small ear with a lit scope and said, "There it is."

"Infection, pretty bad. We'll start antibiotics now and bring the fever down."

"Is she okay?" Holt asked.

"She's a tough one," the doctor said. "She'll be fine in a couple of days."

He said it kindly, and Holt's whole body went weak with the word.

Fine.

Mavis went out to the parking lot to move her car.

Poppy fell asleep on a hospital bed in the pediatric bay.

A paper cup of medicine sat on the table and a damp cloth lay on her forehead.

It was after midnight.

Holt walked into the hallway and put his back against the wall.

He slid down it until he sat.

He could see the vending machines and the elevator at the end of the hall.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Ace! The Golf King's Reconquest from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.