Chapter 13

"Oh, come on! You surely can't be this slow ordinarily?!" Shouted Rodney, pounding on the door at 6:30 A.M. "You woke up at 6, so I at least give you credit for that, but why does it take you thirty minutes to take a shower?!"

"You want me to wake up tomorrow morning around the time you do and get to the shower on time? Be thankful I woke up earlier than usual. I could make you wait."

"You are making me wait!"

"I'll be out in a second."

"You said that, oh say, only a few thousand seconds ago!"

"If you must be so impatient, I'll take my sweet time in here."

Rodney bit his lip, and simply sat outside the door for a few moments.

"Much appreciated," Amelia said in a singsong voice. She unlocked the door, threw it open, and walked out in a large robe wrapped around her, a towel bobbling on top of her head.

"Thanks," Rodney mumbled.

"No problem," Amelia giggled, and went into Rodney's room, shutting and locking the door. There were no girl clothes for her, so what to do? She threw on a pair of briefs and a tank top under a small shirt that would substitute as a bra. As expected, the pants were much too baggy, but she threw on a dark pair of jeans, lowered to her hips, and belted them to keep them in place. "Boy, this is a little weird. When am I gonna go get all my stuff?" she asked herself.

"I'll see if I can go by your home this week and retrieve some clothes from your home," answered Anita outside her door.

"Is that okay with you? I'd really appreciate it."

"No problem at all. You may have to go a few days with Rodney's clothes, though."

"I would ask to borrow clothes from you, but you're more endowed than I am."

"Not to mention I'm taller. Go ahead and get out the fact that I'm more larger in the waist, too."

"Nah, not really, but you are taller, and.. you don't exactly have the same taste as me."

"Like I told you, it's no problem for me to go get your possessions."

"What can I take for the first day of school? I don't have a backpack, paper, utensils, anything!"

"I'll take you to guidance to have you confirmed, and then I'll bring you home."

By this time, Rodney had gotten out of the shower, and kicked Amelia out of his room, locking the door behind him. "See? It took me five minutes to take a shower, and in cold water, too!" he shouted.

"Well, the water was nice and hot, so I enjoyed using it," Amelia sarcastically replied.

"Aye," he said, rolling his eyes. Why was she being this way?

"Alright," Anita shouted, "you guys have everything ready? We'll need to be leaving within a little while."

Amelia was dressed and in the living room, staring at the television and watching the morning news.

"Well, it looks like it's going to be a nice day today, but it won't be lasting long. Tomorrow, a dreary day with Hurricane Ivan making it's way up the coast. The warm front hovering over North Carolina seems to be what's drawing Ivan up the East Coast. It's projected path, as mentioned earlier, was to sweep to the east of the Bahamas, then quickly up into Canada, where it would dissipate, but it seems the Eastern states are going to have more problems with another hurricane, especially North Carolina, which is experiencing major flooding problems," said the weather forecaster. "John, what do we have on the situation in Asheville?"

"Health advisors," John said, "are still warning everyone within forty miles of the city of Asheville to not drink water from their spigots, and will still have to buy bottled water. They say the risk of contamination has actually spread down the river, and they're now warning anyone within sixty miles of Asheville not to drink the water."

"That's a little strange. Any ideas as to why?"

"The contamination is due to the traffic wreck earlier this week where a BP truck spilled gallons upon gallons of gasoline, and it'll take a long time to filter it out. The crash supposedly damaged the sewage plant as well, and so anyone drinking the water will be drinking sewage and gasoline-contaminated water, and I don't believe that will leave a good taste in your mouth."

"There have been reports of people drinking the water, hasn't there?"

"Unfortunately, yes. There have been two reports of people drinking water, and they've been hospitalized for serious nerve damage due to the high bacteria contained in the water, and will most likely not live."

"This is how serious this is, folks. I know it's a little inconvenient that you have to buy your own water, but it's less risky as well."

"How do you suffer nerve damage due to high bacteria, whether it be from gasoline or sewage?" Amelia questioned.

"What do you mean?" Rodney asked, leaving his room and joining her on the sofa.

"There are two people dying from nerve damage due to that water being contaminated. If you were to drink water with gasoline in it, you might suffer from poison, and with sewage water, bacterial health problems, but nerve damage?"

"It is a little odd. There may be something they're not telling us," Rodney said, stroking his chin.

"There you go again, swearing the government is hiding things," Anita scoffed.

"The government isn't going to look into this. We're too independent and try to fix it our way. We don't want anyone worrying about our problems, so the news is going to cover it all up," Rodney explained.

"Is that the same crash.. mom and dad died in?" Amelia asked.

Rodney thought for a moment. Come to think of it, that was the only crash he'd heard of in the last few days, so it possibly was the "crash Amelia's parents were in."

Why would the hospital still lie about that? And Amelia would remember the truck. She was in the crash, after all. She, perhaps, held the answers to the holes that needed to be filled and the world assumed was real, but it would still be a long journey to recover that memory.

(Yay, Golden Gal is back on my reviewer list. Glad I could help out '.'!)