Where the Forest Meets the Star - Glendy Vanderah Page 0,88
lady, but she didn’t have Ursa listed. She looked at my toy and asked if the patient was a child. When I said she was, the lady said Ursa was probably at their children’s hospital a few blocks away. She checked for me, but they didn’t have her listed either.”
“That’s weird.”
“That’s what I thought. I went to the ICU in this hospital to look around, but the doors were locked. I waited until a nurse came out with a guy in a wheelchair—”
“You didn’t.”
“I did. I ran in. Before anyone realized I wasn’t supposed to be in there, I went looking for Ursa. That was when I saw her room.”
“How do you know?” Gabe said.
“There was a cop guarding her door.”
“A cop!” Jo said.
“Are you sure it was her room?” Gabe said.
“Before I got to the door, a nurse stopped me and asked who I was. I said I had a gift for Ursa Dupree. I told her I was supposed to deliver the toy and balloon and sing her a song. I assumed the cop was guarding Ursa, so I started walking fast toward him. The nurse yelled Stop her! and guess what happened?”
“Oh my god,” Jo said.
“Yeah, the cop drew his gun on me. I got hauled to some security office, and they asked me a bunch of questions about how I knew what room to go to—which means that really is Ursa’s room. She’s probably not in the children’s hospital because the police know that’s too obvious.”
“How did you lie your way out of security?” Jo asked.
“I didn’t. Lying was too dangerous. I told them I knew Ursa through you, and I was upset because the hospital wouldn’t let me see her. I admitted I hatched the plan to sneak in.”
“What did they do?”
“They took my name and address, but they were only trying to scare me. And they said I’d be arrested if I tried it again.”
“I can’t believe this,” Jo said. “Ursa is under police guard.”
“I believe it,” Gabe said.
“So do I,” Tabby said. She lowered her voice and leaned forward. “I bet the government knows she’s an alien in Ursa Dupree’s body!”
32
Jo had looked through every magazine in the ICU waiting room, even Guns and Gardens, which would have amused her pacifist-gardener mother. Her favorite seat was the one next to an adjacent table on which she could support her bandaged leg. She exercised every hour, walking in circles on her crutches around the room. She used the handicapped stall in the waiting-room bathroom to bathe and brush her teeth, and she slept on the couch. She ate when Gabe brought her food. He was still at the nearby hotel, and he washed and dried her clothing in his room every night.
Tabby had wanted to join Jo in her sit-in, but she couldn’t be away from her job any longer. Gabe wanted Jo to leave. He said the police would never let her see Ursa, but Jo couldn’t accept that. She needed to see Ursa again. She knew without the slightest doubt that Ursa wanted to see her, too.
Word of her sit-in had spread through the hospital. Jo’s surgeon came to talk to her on the third day. He said she was risking infection from stress and maybe a blood clot from sitting too much. Hospital security also came the third day. They told her to leave, but Jo said she wouldn’t until she saw Ursa. They said they’d have the police physically remove her, but that hadn’t happened yet.
Jo watched everyone who went down Ursa’s ICU corridor. She took note of police and official-looking people who went through the doors. A woman with a white-streaked Afro visited frequently, and Jo began to suspect she was Ursa’s court-designated counselor. The woman often looked at Jo while she waited for the ICU doors to open. At first she assessed Jo with apparent coldness. But by the third day, there seemed to be some grudging admiration in her stare.
Gabe came in with lunch on the fourth day of her sit-in. He had dark circles under his eyes, and his cheekbones seemed more prominent. He was in contact with Lacey and his mother, but he didn’t tell them the truth, that Jo had been discharged from the hospital after three days.
Gabe took off his backpack and sat next to her. “Turkey, provolone, avocado, and lettuce on wheat,” he said, handing her a white paper bag.