Linh let out another whimper. The nightmares were back again. Her parents hadn't expected their precious nine-year-old daughter to have any allergies at all - and certainly not to some unidentified substance the doctors had never heard of.
Linh still couldn't get that moment out of her head. She had just tripped - it shouldn't have made her hear things.
But now she heard every worried thought her parents and doctors had. And everyone else. She heard what people really thought about their wives, friends, coworkers. The world was a messy place. Everyone had dark thoughts.
Everyone except their nextdoor neighbor, Mr. Forkle.
He didn't have any thoughts that Linh could hear. And although it gave her some quiet when he took care of her and her parents were gone, it was a weird mystery.
She curled and uncurled her fist, remembering that she could now. The allergic reaction had frozen her limbs, and she hadn't been able to move anything, even her lungs. That was obviously a problem. She took a deep breath.
Mr. Forkle poked his head in the door. "Linh? Your parents told me to give you this if you felt better."
Linh sat up.
Mr. Forkle helped her eat the soup he had brought, and she barely noticed the weird taste until her head started to spin and she fell into a deep, quiet sleep.
When she woke up, everything was back to normal. She could even hear Mr. Forkle's thoughts - not that she could remember a point where she hadn't heard thoughts, of course.
If only someone else understood.