If Angie thought Tokyo was crowded, she'd seen nothing. It came nowhere near the madness that was New Delhi. Cars, bikes, motorcycles, rickshaws, all bustling about in a blaring chorus of horns. The buildings were grey and crowded, and she had the distinct feeling they were about to topple into the street like giant dominos and put a stop to the madness.
It didn't help that she hadn't slept in hours, but she couldn't. Not until she made some sort of progress in locating Tom. So far, all she'd had was the approximate location of the crash and she'd spent the time waiting for the plane to leave Tokyo searching on line for both accommodations and the hospitals nearest to the crash site.
The area was near the slums. Of course it was near the slums, because that's how her life had worked so far. Fortunately, she'd found a decent, cheap motel close to one of the hospitals. One of the over one hundred hospitals. The more she thought about it, the more helpless she felt.
It's not like you have something better to do. So suck it up!
As she made her way between street vendors, scooters and masses upon masses of people, Angie felt like fainting. She was too tired and the smell of different foods and sauces were turning her stomach in the most unpleasant way possible. But before she started the search, she needed a map. Her phone had died in Tokyo and she hadn't gotten around to charging it yet, but she wouldn't be using it as a map anyway. Not with the flaky internet signal. So she needed printouts. And for that, she needed a computer and a printer. Which had started her on her search for an internet café in the first place.
Hours later, she finally managed to find a place. It looked like a public bathroom, but it advertised 'The fatsetst Internet in Delhi'. It didn't really matter. They had a printer. Angie had a seat in front of one of the beat-up computers and stretched her legs. Even if in her most comfortable sneakers, her soles felt like filled pin cushions. With a great big sigh, she started mapping out the hospitals and trying to weed out as many of them.
No private ones, because those didn't take people in without cash. No specialty ones either. Definitely no cancer. Maybe she should try the emergency hospitals first. She spent hours noting them all down, figuring out where they were and how to get there before finally printing everything she needed.
Her eyes barely staying open, she made her way out of the cramped room and headed towards the nearest hospital, eager to at least cross something on her list. Maybe she should sleep, but she couldn't without feeling she'd at least done something for the day. Three hospitals later, she gave up and went back to the motel to sleep.
The next morning brought no improvement. Angie woke up with her clothes soaked and mind buzzing with confusing nightmares about fire and Tom slipping away from her. Her stomach rumbled loudly. Yup, she needed food as well. She'd read someplace that it was a very bad idea to eat meat in India. She'd just check really quickly to confirm. But as he reached for her nightstand to grab the phone, she hit wood.
What the? Her phone wasn't there. She couldn't remember taking it out last night, so it was maybe still in her pocket. But even as she headed for her jeans, her stomach twisted. It wasn't there. It wasn't anywhere in the room. She'd lost it or it had been stolen.
"Why? Why does this always have to happen to me?" she yelled to the ceiling. The ceiling didn't give a shit. She just hugged herself and cried.
A half an hour later she finally managed to pull herself together. Thank God she'd printed out everything she needed and didn't necessarily need her phone. Except she had all the phone numbers in it and now was practically stranded. She hadn't memorized any of them, she didn't see the point.
Don't think about that. Hospital search time. As long as she'd stay focused, she could keep it together. Tom was the most important thing in the world now, and all her efforts should go into finding him, not crying like a moron and thinking bleak thoughts.
YOU ARE READING
Lost Stars (The Jewel Project #3)
Adventure"You youngsters are stupidly adorable with your stubborn obsession with love. Love doesn't lift you. It destroys you." For Sam Grant, his family has become his sanctuary and the team that joins him on death defying adventures. But after everythi...
