The next day, Max was riding her bike slowly down the street when her pager chirped. She tilted it and read the number. Logan. She stopped at the next payphone and dialed.
"You beeped?"
"Max, I just got a call from Chris. He's down at the hospital. Eva's taken a turn, and he thinks you should go."
"Oh, God…"
"Don't worry…" she heard Logan say as she hung up the receiver and sped away.
+++
"Chris?"
"Max! The doctor says she… it got infected. They think…" Max strode to the room where she had sat the day before after work, playing cards. Eva lay silently. Her face was flushed.
"What are they going to do?"
"The doctor said they'd give her courses of antibiotics and try and get the fever down."
"Is this big? Is this going to be trouble?"
"Yeah."
"For sure?"
"Almost."
"Why did you call me? Is she…going to…"
"They don't know. I just thought you'd want to know."
Eva's eyelids fluttered slightly.
"Max…."
"What?"
"Max… tell my…" she trailed off. Her eyes closed again. Max waited, but Eva showed no sign of speaking again. She stood and faced Chris again.
"I've got to go to work. I'm already about to lose my job as it is," she said, bewildered.
"Are you sure? Can't you stay?"
"There's nothing….I can do here anyway."
+++
The next few days passed. The infection resisted the antibiotics. Eva would whisper things occasionally, but never anything coherent. The doctors warned the fever might maker her delusional. Chris, Max, and Logan spent increasing amounts of time at the hospital, trading around, sitting, and mostly waiting. There was nothing to be done. Then one day, it happened.
Max was walking down the street on her way back from the farmers market. Her sack was heavy, filled with pears. She couldn't wait to eat one. Why wait then? she thought, pulling one out and biting into like an apple. The juice ran down her fingers and dripped from her wrist. It was sweet and tangy. Her pager rang out. She wiped one hand carefully on her pants, then tilted it to see the display. It was Chris, at the hospital. She felt panic seize at her chest. Better, or worse? She dialed the payphone with trembling fingers.
"Chris?"
Silence. Then -
"She's gone."
+++
"I'll….I'll be right there." She hurried up to her apartment to drop off her groceries, then mounted the Ninja, heading for the Logan's. Once there, she didn't bother to knock. She strode in, trying to look purposeful. Logan was at the computer. He looked up at her. He searched her face, saw her fighting back tears.
"She's dead."
