All the Slivers of Red

Chapter 1

I am in the hospital. Once again. It wasn't too serious this time, just an occlusion in my leg, but it hurt like hell. All occlusions do, and most of them end with me in the hospital. They even have a reserved room for me.

On the bright side, I get to see my best friend, Linny, again. She's a year younger than me, but we've known each other since before we can remember. And we were both diagnosed with sickle cell disease at the same time, so we met each other in the hospital. I was a year old when I was diagnosed; Linny was just 2 months old when she was diagnosed.

"Linny," I whisper, and I slide my fingers through the curtain that separates our rooms. From my bed, I push the curtain away quietly. She is sleeping. This sort of worries me; lately, she has been sleeping a lot, even for someone with sickle cell.
"Linny!" I say a little louder. I can see her eyes roll beneath her eyelids even before she is fully awake. I raise my eyebrow at her, trying to ask her what's wrong.

She yawns, "Shuddup, Hunter. I was trying to sleep."

"Obviously," I say without sarcasm. "Lillian Grey, what is wrong with you? I've been here for two days, and I've only talked to you once. You've been sleeping the whole time, and you didn't even wake up yesterday when Sarah told me to try walking. Both she and I wanted you to come along too, but you were completely asleep. Even for us, you've been sleeping a lot!"

Linny grimaces, like she's in pain. It's pretty common for us, but somehow I know that this time, my words were what hurt her, not her blood. "I'm sorry, Hunter," she looks at me, her face apologetic. "Um do you want to go on a walk now? I could use the exercise."

I sigh, "I'm being discharged tomorrow, so why not?" But I'm not totally satisfied with her sleeping explanations. I know something is up, but I decide to drop it for now.

As we walk around the hospital hallways, I try to stretch my legs. My right leg hurts really bad at the moment because of the recent occlusion, but I know that in a few minutes it'll feel a little better. I notice that Linny is walking very gingerly, and closes her eyes every few steps.

We pass Sarah, who smiles and says, "Oh good, you got her up!" Linny doesn't even say hi back.

"So how is school?" I ask Linny.

She bites her lip, "Oh, well actually, I was unenrolled two weeks ago. Mom has been... homeschooling... me." The words sound foreign coming from her, because Linny has always been so strong to push through going to public school.

"Oh. How do you like it so far?" I have been homeschooled since I was seven, so I know what's it's like, but it has to be a hard change for Linny, the social butterfly.

"Not too bad so far," she consents. "It's way easier to learn, but so not as fun."

I laugh. I knew she would miss the socializing. We get back to our room, but before she goes to her side, she asks, serious, "Have you found it yet, Hunter?"

Of course I know what she's talking about. I rub my hand through my hair. "Not yet, Linny," I sigh sadly. "Not yet."