Midnight Run by Charity Hillis Read Free Book Online Page B

an hour.
    Settling back into her seat, Nora squeezed
her eyes shut and tried to will herself not to worry. Mom’ll be
fine , she promised herself. Dad’s just scared, that’s
all. But even though her mind desperately wanted to believe the
words, her heart wasn’t so sure.
    ***
    Nora’s parents lived a little over an hour outside
of Philadelphia, but Mercy Hospital was in the center of the city,
so Nora didn’t even bother contacting her dad for a ride.
Shouldering her duffle bag, Nora dug out her bus pass from the back
of her wallet and navigated her way to the hospital. Part of her
hoped it would be a wasted trip, that she’d get there only to
discover her mom had already been discharged and was waiting for
her in the family’s slightly run-down farmhouse. When she got to
the tall, sterile building, Nora stood outside for a moment,
staring up at the mirrored windows and trying to steel herself to
go in and find out how her mom was doing.
    She’d always hated hospitals, ever since her
three-day stay to have her tonsils removed when she was seven, and
she considered herself lucky that she hadn’t had any close friends
or family fall ill enough to require hospitalization…until now.
    Taking a deep breath, Nora walked through the
automatic doors. Despite how early it still was, the hospital was
filled with nurses in scrubs moving quickly through the halls, and
patients and their loved ones waiting and wondering. While Nora
waited at the information desk, she glimpsed a couple of doctors
hurrying in one direction or another, and her stomach clenched. Did
one of them know what had happened to her mom? Maybe they were on
the way to look at her test results right now. Maybe they were
headed to a private room to give her father bad news.
    “Yes?” A tired looking nurse in pink scrubs
motioned to Nora.
    Nora swallowed. “My mom had a heart attack.
Is she—is she still here?”
    “Name?”
    “Nora Willson.”
    The nurse raised an eyebrow. “Your name, or
the patient’s?”
    Nora flushed. “Sorry. Her name is Marjorie
Willson.”
    Turning to a computer, the nurse hit a few
keys, and Nora held her breath in tense silence. Finally, the nurse
nodded. “Third floor, room 305. You know where you’re going?”
    Nora exhaled in relief. “I can find it.”
    Pointing over her shoulder, the nurse
offered, “The elevators are back there. Next!”
    Dismissed, Nora headed in the direction the
nurse had indicated, but when she pushed the button on the elevator
for the third floor, she noticed that her hand was shaking. Get
a grip, she told herself. There’s no reason to
panic.
    Feeling as if she were seven years old again,
Nora stepped off the elevator and glanced nervously down a hallway
that smelled like rubbing alcohol and sweat. Swallowing the lump in
her throat, she turned left, breathing shallowly. When she reached
the room her mom was in, Nora stood outside for a moment, slowly
counting to one hundred in her mind. Her nerves weren’t any better
when she got through, but she drew a deep breath and realized that
she had to quit stalling.
    Pushing the door open silently, Nora crept
into the dimly lit room. She glanced at the woman on the hospital
bed in front of her and frowned; silver hair framed an unfamiliar
sleeping face.
    “Mom? Dad?” Nora called softly, wondering if
she’d got the wrong room.
    Her dad poked his head around the curtain
dividing the room. “Through here, sweetie.”
    Tiptoeing past the other patient, Nora
inhaled sharply when she saw her mom. She was propped up in the bed
with tubing coming out of her arms and nose, and the woman in front
of Nora looked pale, frail, and dangerously ill. She gripped her
dad’s hand for a minute before moving closer to the bed.
    “Mom?” She leaned over her, and her mom’s
hazel eyes fluttered open.
    “Hi, sweetie,” she said, her usually strong
voice a breathy whisper.
    Nora swallowed. “How’re you feeling?”
    “I’ve been better.” Her mom smiled