Marie raided Edd's kitchen for a small snack and glass of water. Edd had completely passed out in his bed. He still had a fever, though it's gone down some, probably due to the medicine Marie saw on his bathroom sink. She had no idea what it was, but it said to take once every eight hours. Thanks to a handy post-it note she found on the bathroom mirror she knew Edd had taken a pill at 10:20am. So she would have to make sure he took some again at 6:20. Convenient for her that Edd kept track of everything and always wrote it down.
After she made sure Edd looked comfortable, and wasn't dead, she picked up the 'Summer Vacation' journal she found. Edd hadn't mentioned much of his vacation, only that he traveled around with his parents. He had mentioned a few of the places he went, but Marie couldn't recall what they were. She skimmed through the pages and stopped midway through the journal, and started reading.
Venezuela:
The contrast between the rich and the poor here is truly remarkable. Within merely a few blocks you would see lavish housing and hotels, then the most deplorable of conditions. One poor family told me how their home, which was built on a hillside, just slid down the hill after a particularly strong rainstorm.
Mother and father were sent here because of an accident at a recently opened hotel. Poor construction caused a rather large chunk of the building to fall apart. An important man, he may have been the owner of the hotel, or the company that built it, I can't recall. He was severely injured, as were several others. Mother was sent down to assiston theirprocedures. I only saw a brief glimpse of his face, and that was enough to deter me away from staying. If they feel the need to call my mother, I cannot even imagine how bad their injuries may be.
Looking on the brighter side of this trip. While my mother is working on the business men and women from the hotel incident, father gets to take some time and provide care to the less fortunate. That seems to be the way their business works. The doctors in their company are so skilled and in such high demand that they'll get paid virtually any price to get sent out. A lot of that money goes to treating people who can't afford the same care as the high level clientele my parents and the other doctors of their company work for.
I accompanied my father to a series of Palafitte, sometimes referred to as Stilt houses (I believe?). They are structures built on top of a body of water. There I assisted him in treating some young men and women. Nothing as serious as what my mother was dealing with. There was no need for any sort of invasive surgery or anything of that sort. At worst, someone needed some stitches. My father actually guided me through stitching a small arm wound on a young man named Julian, and I must say, it was one of the best moments of my life.
Now, my Spanish is far from perfect, but I was able to do my fair share of communicating with a lot of the patients. Sure, many of them spoke some degree of English, but I thought it was only right to try speaking in their native language. After treating him, a man named Gabriel invited me and my father to an area of a nearby River for a small celebration. We were quick to accept his offer.
The remainder of the day was spent trading stories and observing the wonderfully diverse wildlife of the area. A Sloth found it's way, slowly, onto me and promptly fell asleep. My father played some type of water sport with some of the other adults. A small pack of River Dolphins even joined them for a brief moment. One was pink! What a remarkable sight it was. However, once one of the women joked about piranhas, my father swiftly made his way out of the water for the remainder of the trip.
'Vrrrrr'
Marie's attention from the journal broke when she heard a vibrating sound. She looked over at her phone, which she left out on Edd's desk, but that wasn't the source. She looked around and found Edd's phone on the floor beside his bed. It must have fallen out of his pocket when he went to answer the door. He wasn't one, even when sick, to just leave something like a phone lying around. Marie had no intention of answer the phone. At first. She just wanted to silence it so she could get back to reading. That changed however when she saw who was calling. It was Edd's Father. Marie let the phone go off a few more times, debating whether or not she should answer. She figured his parents knew he wasn't well. But what if they left early, like Edd told her they often did? She had to check and be sure his parents were aware of the condition Edd was in.
"Hello." Marie answered the phone in a very nervous manner.
"Hello? Eddward?" Edd's father responded, confused at the high pitched voice on the other line.
"No. This is Marie".
"Marie? Well, good afternoon to you. Might I ask why Eddward didn't answer his phone?" he had a surprisingly cheerful tone. Marie had thought his parents would freak out if someone other then their son answered his phone.
"Um. Well. I came by today, to check on Double D. He seemed a little off last night. And when I got here, he answered the door, but, then passed right out. I had to carry him up the stairs and put him in his bed. He seemed to have taken some medicine a bit ago that helped drop his fever, but I'm not really sure what I should do. I wanted to stay here until one of you got back. To make sure he's alright and everything." Marie took a long gasp of air after her long reply.
"Well that figures. We were afraid something like this. A friend, a business partner, stopped by yesterday. He was traveling and caught something nasty. My wife and I managed to avoid it, but, it looks like Eddward wasn't so lucky. And to make matters worse, my wife and I won't be returning home until next Saturday". Wonderful. Marie thought to herself. "I hate to ask this of you, but would you mind staying there and helping him out. At least until he's able function by himself"?
"Sure. I don't mind". I'm going to be responsible for killing Double D.
"Oh, thank you so much Marie! Now, there's a pharmacy in town that a friend of mine works at. I'll give him a call and tell him what's going on. He'll get the proper medicine ready for Eddward, but I'll need you to pick it up. Eddward is going to be a little, delirious, for the time being. At least until the medicine can fully take effect. So whatever nonsense he spews out, just ignore it. Oh, and wear a mask. I'm sure Eddward has some somewhere in his room. We can't thank you enough Marie. I'll give my friend a call, then call Eddward's phone to let you know when he'll have the medicine ready. You're a lifesaver"! He hung up.
Marie went to Edd's dresser and opened a drawer labeled "Medical Supplies". There she found a mask. She received another call from Edd's father shortly after the first one ended. She had to pick up the medicine in two hours. She took a look out Edd's bedroom window and saw snow falling from the sky. She wasn't looking forward to that trip. Not one bit.
A hour went by and Marie was passing the time going through Edd's journal. She couldn't read for long as Edd was starting to shout things in his sleep. Weather it was from being sick, or a bad dream, she didn't care. It was pretty annoying. So she went downstairs and poured a glass of orange juice. It seemed like something that would help him.
Marie was preparing for her walk through the sludge outside. She was going to stop home and grab a big jacket, a hat, scarf, whatever else she could find. She was not a big fan of the snow, being cold, the nasty sludge on the ground. Any of it.
"Double D. You hear me? I have to run and get your medicine. I'll only be gone for ten minutes alright"? Marie was going to all the windows in Edd's room and locking them. She didn't want to take any chances of him jumping out one while she was gone. She wasn't even sure Edd was hearing a word she was saying.
"No Don't go!" Edd pleaded, grabbing her waist. Apparently he could hear her.
"No no no, no touching. I don't want your germs. Good god, I sound like you now".
"I'm so hot. I need to sing you a song".
"You can sing me a song when I get back. Nurse Marie has to go. I'll be right back.". Marie felt like she was talking to a child.
"You're not wearing a nurse outfit".
"I left it at home. I'll go get it".
"But, but I have one in my closet". Marie stared blankly at him. "Yeah, you can just wear that one. Eddy made me and Ed wear them once. He really wanted some jawbreakers that day. I should bring him some next time I visit"! Marie patted him on the head and headed for the stairs. Not before taking a quick look in his closet though.
"I'll be damned. He really has one".
"Nurse Marie".
"Yes Eddward?" she was getting really annoyed.
"I love you". Marie's heart skipped a beat.
"I'll be right back. Don't die!" she yelled as she ran towards the front door. She stood outside, strong winds and snow hitting he face. Did Edd just tell her he loved her?
AN: Sorry for the lack of updates. The past few weeks have been crazy and I'm not in the best of health right now. Was hoping writing this would sort of take my mind off it ;_; Thanks for reading!
Oh, if anyone from Venezuela reads this, sorry if I completely missed the ball on writing about it. I read a bunch of articles about it before I wrote this but I'm not sure how accurate some of what I wrote was.