Lonely

Chapter 36, Sadie

I woke up in the morning to find Libby lounging in a tree, reading a style magazine with another whole pile on her lap. “Where’d you get those?” I asked as I stood up and stretched. She didn’t look up from her magazine. “Your back pack.” I looked inquisitively up at her. “I don’t remember having any of those in there.” She glanced over the top of her magazine at me. “That’s because I had to ask for them.” I nodded slowly. The bag really did contain anything I could want, but I would have to ask for it. I noticed she was also wearing new clothes. I was glad to see her looking a little better seems as how we couldn’t go shopping. She smiled at me and climbed down the tree on a twisted metal latter she must have made. She pirouetted once on the ground, showing off her designer jeans and frilly top.

“You like it? I wasn’t what to get, but I wanted something that would say, I’m fun, but also something that would say, I’m stylish and sophisticated. Not to mention the fact that I needed it to be rugged for out traveling-” I cut her off before she could really get on a role. “I’m going to get changed.” I stated. I thought up a new outfit, basically a new pair of jeans and a white shirt. Sure enough, when I opened the bag, right on the top there was a new outfit.

Libby pulled random bolts out of her pocket and began to fumble with them. “How’d you get into all of this?” She asked me suddenly. I frowned. UI had thought that I had nothing to do with it, but I was wrong. Apparently I had just as much of a role as Hanger, but it felt different to me. Hanger knew it better than I did. Thinking of him made me want to curl up in a ball and cry, and I struggled to ignore it.

“Arianna told me it was the plan they had for my entire life. She didn’t give me many details, so I don’t really know why, I guess.” She nodded slowly. “How did you?’ I asked. For once, she didn’t respond right away.  “It’s really more of an air line thing with me. My mom was different, my grandmother was different. It just got passed down to me.”

“They’re all girls?” I asked curious. “That’s the thing. There was a curse sort of. The first male born was going to suffer, to die. I had a brother, an older brother. He was killed by them, and they killed my mother too. I was much younger, so I don’t remember really well. That’s when Arianna came in and basically saved my life.” She finished with a sigh. I smoothed the hair back from her face. “Soon, they’ll be sorry.”

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“You’ve got to be kidding me.” I said. We were standing in front of a hospital, where the pulling feeling had led me to and this was, supposedly, where I was supposed to be picking up Jett Henson. The feeling was still there, but faint. I knew it would probably just lead me through the floors of it. Libby was focusing on the sing that showed the name of the hospital. “St. Anthony’s Healthcare Hospital.That name sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Why did they call it a healthcare hospital? Aren’t all hospitals, uh, healthcare hospitals?” Libby asked. I ignored the second part. She was right. The name was familiar. I stared at the sing, my eye brows furrowed, as I tried to remember where I had heard the name. Finally, it hit me.

“This is the place where there were miraculously fast healing times periods. People say it was a hoax, and others say it was God, and others say it was a new type of medicine illegally being tried out on the patients.” I remembered. My father had claimed that it most certainly was God doing the fast healings. Libby nodded excitedly. “That’s right! I remember now!” she exclaimed and started running towards it. I caught the collar of her shirt and almost choked her to death, but dragged her back.

“We can’t just waltz in there and grab some sick kid named Jett! The hospital staff will never allow it.” I hissed in her ear. She nodded solemnly. I stared at the sky while I thought. Suddenly, I remembered I had a gift. I snapped my fingers and started dragging Libby towards the sliding glass doors. She didnt protest even though I could tell she was confused. In the lobby, there were nice little chairs set up with magazines and people passing through. A clean, anti-septic smell filled my nose. Libby scrunched up her face. “I always hated going to the doctors.”

I stopped a passing nurse. “Can you tell me where that section of the hospital is where those amazing healings have been happening?” I asked. She looked slightly annoyed. “Are you another one of those reporters?” she asked. Ah ha! I wanted to thank her for my new alibi as to why I needed to go down there. I smiled brilliantly at her. “Why, yes! I just wanted to take a few notes, and I’ll be out of your way!” I said cheerfully. She looked me up and down. “Aren’t you a bit young for that?” Damn grownups and there stupid logical questions. When I didn’t answer, she sighed. “I’ll need to see some identification before I let you go there.” She drawled out in a bored voice. Uh oh. I hadn’t thought of that. Hoping my skill would work this way too; I grabbed a business card out of a stack of them sitting on a nearby coffee table and held it up to her face. I looked deep into her eyes.

“Here’s my identification. You can let me go through now.” I said in a solid voice. Her eyes glazed over and she took the card. She looked it over, then handed it back and nodded. She walked away without a word. Libby grinned at me. “That was awesome.” I smiled back down at her as we stepped onto the elevator. It clicked, then finally dinged and we stepped off. It was quiet, with only the occasional nurse coming through. The pulling feeling told me to keep going. I looked in every room anyways, just in case. It stopped right in front of a door that was wide open. I poked my head inside, prepared to see a child lying in the bed.

There wasn’t. There was a old man, sound asleep. I stood in the door way. Libby tugged on my wrist. “What’s going on?” She begged. I shook my head and walked into the room silently. Maybe there was another bed. There wasn’t. There were chairs lining the room, and the only other bed was empty. He had to be here somewhere. I remembered how when I was little, I used to hide under my parents bed. Maybe he was hiding. I got down on my hands and knees and prayed that no nurse or doctor came in. Libby was standing at the foot of the old man’s bed. There was nothing under the bed, so I stood up. There was a closet. I opened it, flinching at the creaking noise it made. There was nothing inside. I shoved clothes out of the way. Suddenly, Libby was right beside me. “This is an old hospital. There’s a dumb waiter behind the wall they never removed.” She whispered. I wasn’t quite sure what dumb waiter was, but I didn’t care. I looked closer. Sure enough, there was a tiny crack in the dry wall, a square added in to block something. I dug my finger nails in, but Libby simply moved it with her talent.

Behind the wall, in a metal box, was small, five or six year old boy, with dusty, mousy brown hair, a dusty once white shirt, and faded jeans I rocked back on my heels. This must be Jett Henson, I thought.