Bliss

10 - Ingrid

"Siena!" I cry out to her and kneel beside her. She looks exactly like I did. Pale, and tired. But it seems so much worse. Siena is clutching her stomach, and a tear rolls down her cheek. A tear rolls down mine too? I wipe it from her face, I remember doing the same to mine a few times. The only time I've ever cried three times, when I fell off my bike twice, and broke my finger. I've never cried emotionally. I touch her forehead. It's burning.

"It hurts," Siena says. "My tummy. . ." Her voice cracks and it seems to shatter into a million pieces. My Siena, my baby, is terribly sick. No, she's not sick. She's much worse.

"I've never seen anything like this, lately," Maya says examining Siena's body."These illnesses were only around when I was your age."

I knit my eyebrows together. "That can't be though. That's impossible." Oceania has completely cured all illnesses in the past.

"It is impossible," Maya says. "Unless. . ." I look to her for an answer, but she doesn't respond. Sky quickly comes into the room with a wet towel.

"Will she be alright?" Sky asks nervously. I watch as Siena's eyes flutter shut, she is sleeping now. I think.

"It's hard to say," Maya says. "We need to get her to a hospital." I instantly pick Siena up from the bed. The hospital is sort of far, but I can make it fast enough to get her. Siena is not heavy; she's as light as a rag doll. Sky comes with me out the door, running with me. I look at the sky. The sun is about to set, dipping to the horizon. Maya shuts the door behind us.

"I can't believe this," I say.

"What's going to happen?" Sky shouts. Her voice turns to a whisper. "Is she going to die?"

"I don't want to think like that, Sky!" I yell at her. The wind is blowing in my hair, and my arms are getting heavy.

"I can't carry her anymore," I say. Sky instantly scoops her off from under my arms and runs faster. There is a possibility Siena could die. Many children who get more serious illnesses die if their immune system isn't strong enough, which is the case with nearly all of them under ten who aren't old enough to get the immunizations. I look over to Siena. Luckily, she's breathing normally. I take another turn to hold Siena when she's too heavy for Sky and we finally arrive at the hospital.

"Please help her," I say to the nurse at the front desk. I sit on the nearest chair in the waiting space and Sky talks to another woman at the desk. I turn down to Siena's beautiful face. "Siena . . ." Instantly she is grabbed from my arms and into a gurney. I instantly stand up and watch her being taken away. My baby. I start to follow the gurney, but Sky stops me.

"Let her go," Sky says. "They'll take care of her. Let's go home." I don't answer her. My heart hurts.

"We have to wait for her," I protest.

"They'll keep her overnight," Sky says. "C'mon, we'll be late with our curfew." She takes my hand and we walk out of the hospital. It is dark now. I feel like I am dragging my feet all the way home. Suddenly, I look at Sky. The words can't help but burst out of my mouth.

"This is all your fault!" I snarl at her. I immediately regret it.

"What?" Sky gapes. Something inside me tells to me to apologize but I don't. "How in the world is this my fault?!"

"If you hadn't spent all those time with those soldiers, we could have been there for Siena." I say.

"How does that have to do with anything?" Sky screams/whispers. "I can't believe you're still mad about that. I thought we were over that."

"As did I," I say. "Look I'm sorry. This all just happened so quickly. And we need to be there for Siena."

"Yeah, I know."

"But you had second thoughts about seeing them again," I says. "What we--what they were doing as well, we're breaking the law. Sky, we can't visit them again. Besides, what's the point?"

Sky doesn't answer me, but she keeps walking. "The point? I don't know. What was so bad about them?"

"They're soldiers," I hiss. "We cannot interact with them." Sky looks away from me.

"I know," she whispers finally. "I didn't know what I was thinking. Just forget it."

We come home and already Maya and Lily are sleeping. I can hear the soldiers upstairs as they snore away. Sky's jaw is clenched when she walks past me. I completely forgot to have lunch or dinner, I'm completely starving. I take Siena's pink blanket and fold it. I remove a red piece of curly hair from the blanket and set it down. Tomorrow's Sunday. We'll have our sunday meal as usual, no work, and then on Monday we will return back to work. Though this Sunday won't be the same. Siena's gone.

For breakfast, I eat a whole lot. Lily calls it 'eating my depressed feelings'. I look over at Maya who chews on her bread. Sky walks into the room in a yellow dress.

"Why are you all dressed up?" I ask.

"It's Sunday," she replies. Oh, right. I hear Lily sigh from behind me.

"It's okay, dear,"" Maya says. "Siena will be alright."

"I wasn't worried about Siena," Lily spits. She continues to eat her breakfast silently. I know she's lying. I probably care about Siena most, but Lily's next. Lily looks like she cares about nothing, but you never know if she's hurt inside.