“I think we should put up as many shelves as we can along here,” said Georgi, pointing to one of the long walls of the cabin.
Georgi began coughing. She did her best to stop the tickle in her throat.
“Are you sure you want to do this today?” asked Rosemarie. “You look like you might fall down.”
Georgi was putting the first nail in a shelf, when Randy poked his head out of the tent.
“You’re making too much noise,” he said groggily.
“Sorry,” Georgi sighed. She paused before hammering the next nail. “Hey, can you mimic voices?”
“What?” asked Randy. “Uh, no. Why?”
“No reason,” she said.
“Yeah, I believe that,” said Randy, staring at Georgi for a moment.
Georgi started banging fiercely on a nail. Randy huffed and disappeared out of the cabin.
“I think you got it,” said Rosemarie.
Georgi stopped whacking the nail. “Yeah,” she laughed nervously.
*
Later in the day, Georgi’s throat started to feel like she had swallowed a desert. Cactus and all. Her eyes felt like that desert had somehow leaped out of her mouth and into her eyes. Her head throbbed and she felt so cold. She was freezing and she shouldn’t have been. It was so hot in Alabama. So very hot. She had to quit working for the day. After climbing slowly into the treehouse, she collapsed onto her blankets.
Her sickness was getting worse. She couldn’t breath without coughing. She had coughed so much that her jaws were aching. The sneezes burned her throat and made the pressure in her head almost unbearable. She was drifting in and out of sleep. She was having strange dreams. In one dream, she was a very old woman who kept dying over and over again. The dream eventually changed to her being younger. Then a bear was trying to push its way through the bottom of a door that she was trying to hold shut. She was screaming for Randy to help her, but he wouldn’t come. She jumped back so fast that she jumped herself out of sleep. She could hear whisperings. It was probably the TV.
Maybe not. Wasn’t I in the woods? Doesn’t matter. I am going to die. Again, she thought.
It hurt so bad that she started to cry. She felt a cold little hand touching her face. Her daughter was singing a little lullaby.
“She needs a chance,” whispered Georgi.
“What did she say?” asked Rosemarie.
Darkness swallowed Georgi.
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