A Sort of Fever
Late one summer, Izumi seeks respite from a feverish heat that refuses to be forgotten.
The heat in Dublith had never been a problem for its community. It was warmer than most parts of the country, being farther south, but the majority of the locals had been born there, even had their family roots there, and so had acclimated themselves to the slightly elevated temperatures. No, the heat was never a problem – it was the humidity they complained about. No one owned anything heavier than a raincoat (because rainy was as close as Dublith came to cold), and most of the year gentlemen just walked around in their shirtsleeves and the smallest children went close to naked.
This particular late July night was more unbearable than most. The thermometer was still at a record high for the day, and the moisture hung thick in the air. There were rain clouds just off to the east, rumbling blissfully on the horizon, but as much as they teased, not a single drop of rain had yet to fall.
As the sunset faded from dark orange, to purple, and finally to black, and the lamps came on – new electric ones, installed earlier in the year – the large town settled down to sleep. A young couple, the butcher and his wife, were saying their goodnights and exchanging their kisses before lying down for the night. They had opened their bedroom window, and thrown the curtains back as far as they would go, but the room remained stifling and the air was just as sticky as ever.
The husband, a great ox of a man, was asleep before his head hit the pillow. His wife, a slender woman whose pretty face was at odds with her somewhat callous nature, laid awake for much longer, tossing in the heat as she vainly tried to find an accommodating position. After half an hour, she pushed herself up on her elbows with a deep groan. She was uncomfortable, she was irritated, she was swimming in sweat, and she was six months pregnant.
With an annoyed sigh, Izumi kicked off the light cotton sheet that had tangled itself around her legs, and sat up. She reached for the glass of water sitting on her bedstead, and was disappointed, though not surprised, to find that all the ice in it had melted. Beside her, Sig let out a loud snore, and rolled over. She was tempted to dump the water on him, but it probably wouldn't have done anything anyways.
Swinging her legs over the bed's edge, Izumi stepped into her sandals and hauled herself onto her feet, grabbing the glass off the nightstand with enough malice to send the lukewarm water sloshing out over the rim. She had barely taken a single step when a wave of gut-wrenching dizziness swept over her, little white lights bursting across her field of vision. A sharp pain sprang up in her lower back, squeezing the air out of her lungs, and forcing her to sit down so heavily that most of the remaining water spilled out into her lap, soaking her white nightdress and plastering it to her legs. She gripped the bedpost with her free hand until her knuckles turned white, and the spots that had tiptoed across her vision began to spin and twirl until the only thing she could hear was her own blood rushing in her ears and the room began to shrink and tighten, closing in, the rafters and wood beams pushing out the light and the air, pressing inward, choking-
-and just as soon as she realized it was happening, it stopped. With a shuddering breath, Izumi pried her fingers from the bedpost and caught the cup just as it began to slip off her lap. The water was running down her legs but there wasn't enough of it to reach the floor, and it was cooling enough to be more of a blessing than a curse.
Behind her Sig snorted and rolled over again. Tomorrow, she thought to herself as she grabbed the bedpost again and made her second attempt at standing. I'll tell him tomorrow. He would only be up all night worrying anyways… When the room remained stationary for a count of ten, she let go of the bedpost and took a soft, hesitant step, letting out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding when nothing remarkable happened – though the baby did kick her viciously in the ribs.
She padded out of the bedroom on silent feet, making her way swiftly down the darkened hallway, one hand braced and trailing along the bare white wall to her left. The branches on the trees outside cast long shadows in the lamplight, stretched and distorted on the floorboards beneath her as she shuffled through the dining room and into the kitchen. The air was not any cooler here than it had been in the bedroom; if anything, it felt warmer, as though the room remembered the heat from the stove when she had made dinner that evening.
Izumi downed two glasses of water in quick succession, then filled a third to nurse as she sought relief from the heat. She let the faucet run for a few moments, willing the water to get colder, her right hand resting in the sink as the water streamed over it. The baby kicked again.
"Stop that," she admonished gently, rubbing her wet hand over the spot where the child's heel had connected, rather painfully, just above her left hipbone. She received another kick, a scant inch higher, in response.
With a resigned sigh, she ran her wet hand along her forehead and cheeks, beneath her chin and along the back of her neck. The water seemed to help a little, taking the edge off her nerves even if it didn't really do anything to alleviate her discomfort. The only thing that would truly unwind her and allow her to sleep well was a sudden cool front the strength of which had never been seen so far south so late in the summer. If only those rain clouds would hurry up and arrive.
Thankfully, Izumi had the next best thing not more than twenty yards from where she stood: the large, walk-in freezer that was nestled in the crook formed by the store's back and the house's front. She'd only been in there twice in the past three months – the doctor had warned her away from sudden and extreme temperature changes – but every time the thermometer crept above ninety-five degrees, she hadn't been able to help herself.
Turning off the running water, and laying her half-empty glass down on the counter with a decisive clink, she tiptoed out of the kitchen, down the short hallway that ran to the back of the shop. A sharp right and three long strides had her standing just outside the open doorway that led out into the store itself, but she passed it without more than a glance, and off to her left, ahead just a few more steps, was the big silver door to the freezer – it was so big, in fact, that Sig didn't have to stoop to get around the frame.
All but bouncing in excitement, Izumi reached for the handle and gave it a hard tug. She was sorely disappointed when it barely budged, and realized belatedly that the heavy iron padlock she herself had put there earlier was still firmly in place. She cursed slightly for her own forgetfulness, wondered where her mind had wandered off to in the past few weeks, and backtracked to the kitchen as quickly as she dared. The key was in the top right drawer of the sideboard sitting against the far wall in the dining room; the same place it had been for years. She retrieved it with deft hands, and made the walk back at an even quicker pace. The air - the heat and humidity - made it feel like she was swimming through boiling water.
The key slid home on the first try, with none of the usual jiggling and shimmying it required, and the lock popped open with a faint click. She hauled the door open just enough to slip the lock back through the hole drilled in the latch, so that it wouldn't close on its own when she was inside. Nerves tingling, all but singing for joy in anticipation of the relief that was about to come, Izumi pulled the door ajar so that there was a gap just barely wide enough to let her slip past. Then, pushing aside the slats of the heavy rubber curtain that hung from the top of the doorframe all the way to the floor, she stepped into the freezer. The door fell closed with a dull thud that went completely unnoticed.
The sudden chill of the icy air swept over her bare limbs, crawling across her uncovered toes and flying through the cotton of her nightdress like it wasn't even there: it was like stepping into the coldest winter Dublith had ever seen after walking through its hottest summer. Her breath puffed in front of her in a misty little cloud as the lingering heat faded from her arms and legs. Soon goose bumps were crawling across her shoulders and back. She was losing the feeling in her nose, and the tips of her ears were following fast. Her cheeks began to burn. In less than a minute, it seemed the baby was the only source of heat left in her body. The large fan set in the opposite wall stirred her hair and clothing as it thrummed away, cooling the little room.
And it was wonderful. Almost instantly, her nausea (which had never really left her after the second month, like the doctor had promised it would) abated, and she was able to take what seemed like her first deep breath in days. Her head felt clearer, her limbs felt lighter, and she smiled to herself even as the first tiny shiver began to work its way up her spine.
She leaned back against the door, flinching as the cold, hard metal bit into the exposed skin of her neck, sending another shiver down her spine that had nothing to do with the freezing temperatures. The baby started kicking again.
"All right, all right," she soothed, smoothing the still-wet patch of nightgown over her belly. It felt deliciously cool against her skin. "Five more minutes." She didn't relish the idea of walking back out into the furnace that the rest of the world had become, but she would have to go back to bed eventually. The relief from the heat was worth having to stare at all the frozen beef and pork carcasses.
Unfortunately, her five minutes was cut short a full twenty-seven seconds early when the door groaned on its hinges and swung open. Sig stepped inside, rubbing his eyes with one giant fist as he mumbled incoherently.
"What was that, sweety?" Izumi asked blithely, turning to face him.
"I said," he repeated around a yawn, "what are you doing in here? It's freezing."
"Yes, isn't it nice?" she replied with a smile.
He stared at her for a few moments, frowning slightly from the unpleasant after-affects of awaking at an unreasonable hour. "Come back to bed," he said finally.
"In a little while," Izumi responded shaking her head.
"You're going to catch cold," he argued softly, reaching out to take her arm, pulling her gently but firmly toward the door.
"The heat is making me sick," she protested, digging in her heels. It didn't do her any good.
"The nausea will go away," Sig insisted, planting his other hand on the small of her back. "You're going to get sick for real if you stay in here."
Finally managing to maneuver the both of them back out into the hall, he shoved the door closed with his foot while Izumi gazed longingly over her shoulder at the freezer's fleeting interior as it was lost from view.
"It's like an oven out here," she grumbled as he led her back down the hallway and through the kitchen.
"You could use a little thawing," he muttered, the hand on her arm now rubbing vigorously, trying to work some warmth back into her skin. "You don't even have a housecoat on. What's the matter with you?"
She gave a little huff, and exclaimed irately, "It's got to be ninety degrees in here!"
"It's sitting right by the bed," he went on, as though he hadn't heard her. "It would have taken you ten seconds to pick it up."
"Wait, hold on," she interrupted as they passed the sink. "I want a drink of water."
"I'll get it," he told her, urging her gently toward the bedroom. "Go lay down."
Still holding onto his arm, Izumi pulled him down just far enough to press a kiss to his chin, and murmured, "Ice, please," before breaking away.
Sig headed into the kitchen, and she made her way back toward the bedroom, letting her right hand skim over the surface of the dining room table as she passed. She was tracing a worn line in the varnish when the same biting, stinging pain burst to life in her back again. She stumbled a little, catching herself on the back of the nearest chair even as she barked her knee on it. The room began to spin and shrink, and became suddenly, unbearably hot, burning all the oxygen right out of her lungs.
I am going to faint now, her rational mind supplied calmly before darkness closed in.
She came to a few seconds later, awoken by the sensation of being carried, but she didn't have the energy or drive to do more than open her eyes – and even that only lasted a few brief moments.
When she was lying down in bed, with only a vague idea as to how she'd gotten there, a cool, calloused hand placed itself against her burning forehead before sliding down to cup her cheek. There was another hand laying against her swollen belly, where the baby was kicking furiously. Someone was calling her name.
"'m all right," she told the voice blearily, opening her eyes again and blinking up into her husband's worried face. He was shaking his head at her.
"I'm calling the doctor," he told her, kissing her briefly before hurrying from the room. Izumi didn't have the strength to call him back.
AN - stunned silence GOD I'M SORRY! I DON'T KNOW WHAT POSSESSED ME!!!!