Angel Of Mercy

Chapter 16

Karin could not sleep. There was nothing odd about that, but it was more than her usual bouts of sleeplessness. For years, She had been used to napping in short bursts and getting up multiple times at night to care for her daughter, Lisa. The habit had not died along with the little girl.

Karin had only experienced this type of sleeplessness once before. It was at her first science fiction convention when she was seventeen. Her body had been aching with exhaustion then, too. But with her brain still hyped up on adrenaline (and then caffeine) and her mind going a thousand light years per minute, she just could not settle down enough to rest.

Like now, she fretted silently.

Not even the huge sleeping warm mound of hair with his arm draped so protectively over her was helping her to relax. She envied Maurice's deep slumber, even if part of it was artificially induced.

I should have asked Sparrow for some of whatever she gave him, Karin thought ruefully. Wonder if I can get a six pack of it from her when I go home?

Cuddled safely against Maurice, Karin lay perfectly still for a long time, breathing in and out with great care, trying to wish herself back to sleep. She quickly gave it up. It had been a long time since she tried, and truthfully, she had never come close to mastering the skill. Finding inner peace was not one of her strong points.

So, she shifted her body ever so slightly, and Maurice's breathing immediately changed, so she stopped and waited. When his breathing went back to normal, she tried again ... and again. It was a painfully slow and tedious process. All in all, it took her almost five minutes to gently extract herself from the sleeping orangutan's protective embrace, and inch out of the healing nest.

Karin stood by the nest and gazed down fondly at her companion. She carefully tucked a heap of soft pelts against him in her place. She would be back long before he fully woke up to realize her pathetic deception, she hoped.

She checked the time on her Father's old battered TimeX watch, then made her way on tip toe to the door of the hut. But when she slowly drew back the thick animal skins, another large looming mound of fur was standing there, directly in front of her. She shrank back and gave an involuntary gasp of sheer terror, but before she could cry out, the ape quickly reached out and put two fingers gently over her lips. Before she could even thrash her head in protest, a deep familiar voice spoke softly in her ear,

"Karin, it is Caesar," he grunted softly.

"Oh, Jesus!" She hissed, and he released her. "Caesar! You scared the ... the petunias out of me. What are you doing here?" She groaned.

"I was—" he began, but Karin touched his hand, shot an anxious look back at the healing nest where Maurice lay, and shook her head firmly at the ape king. She was sure the ape king was speaking as softly as he could, but it was not soft enough to suit her frayed nerves.

"Please, if you want to talk, can we please go outside, Caesar?" she whispered. "I don't want him waking up."

Also shooting the slumbering orangutan an anxious look, Caesar winced in sympathy, and Karin thought he did not want to deal with a suddenly awakened Maurice, either. She watched and waited a little impatiently as the ape king moved silently past her to gaze down at his old friend. When he came back to her side, he stretched out his hand, and she let him lead her out of the hut. One of the old gorilla twins, Karin could not tell which one, put her head out of the hut next door, but Caesar signed something to her. The older gorilla woman signed something rather curtly back to Caesar. The venerable gorilla lady did not look too pleased, but she went back inside with only a small grunt of displeasure.