Chapter 2
The nurse hasn't suspected this sudden outburst from Galinda and was so startled that she accidently dropped the bowl with water onto the floor.
"My dear girl, what has gotten into you?" Nurse Clare asked a little bit shaken.
"The water!" Galinda said quickly. "It's the water that caused the burns on Elphaba's body!"
"Nonsense girl, water can not burn skin, that is scientifically impossible," the nurse replied "We have no time for such silliness now; I have to refill the bowl and bring it to the doctor."
Nurse Clare picked the bowl up and headed into the other room, but Galinda followed her with tears running down her face. "Please Nurse, this is not a joke, water really burns her skin! I found her out in the rain and saw it with my own eyes!" Galinda said crying harder.
Nurse Clare was very surprised about the reactions of the small blonde and started to finally believe her. "Alright, I believe you; please calm down my dear, but I can't promise you that Dr. Bradburn will do. Now we have a big problem: How can we clean her wounds when she is allergic to water?" the nurse said to Galinda.
That question hit Galinda like a rock. She never saw Elphaba bathing and Elphaba haven't told her about the allergy, but then she remembered something: a wooden box under her roommate's bed. She never saw anything in the bathroom that could be used instead of water, so it was possible that it was in that box.
"Maybe I know where she hides her bathing stuff, but I am not sure," Galinda said to the nurse. "There is a box under her bed that I saw once, that is the only place I can imagine she could hide something from me," she said.
"Why would she hide something like that? It would be much easier for her when people know about her allergy," Nurse Clare said, looking very confused.
"I have no idea why she would hide something like that," Galinda said equally confused.
The nurse pondered this for a moment then turned to Galinda and asked, "Can you run over to your dorm room and fetch this box? Whatever is inside, it could help her."
"Of course, I will be as quick as I can," Galinda said and ran at top speed to the door. Galinda ran across campus and within minutes arrived at their dorm. She sprinted up the stairs, taking two steps at once. It was a bit difficult to unlock the door, because of her shaking hands but finally she managed. When she was inside Galinda ran over to Elphaba's bed and fell onto her knees to look under the bed. At the far end of the bed she saw the box and reached as far as she could to grab it. She managed to get it out from under the bed and didn't bother to look inside.
She ran out of her room and down the hallway to the exit as she heard an overly perky voice calling her name. Oh not now! Galinda thought and turned around, hoping that she could get away as quick as possible.
"Galinda! Oh it is so nice to see you!" a girl from her sorcery class said, quickly stepping up to her.
"Oh hello Jennica, it is nice to see you as well."
"I would be delighted if you want to join me and some other nice girls in the common room to play some games and have some girl talk," Jennica said. "The weather is too dull and cold to walk outside don't you think?"
"Uh… It would be my pleasure, but I have some urgent assignment to do right now. I am sorry. Maybe when I have done this I can join you."
"Oh," Jennica said "Is this assignment so urgent that you can't do it later?"
Galinda kept herself from fidgeting to much as she thought about the time the she lost with this unwelcome interruption. "I am sorry but this is really urgent and I am afraid that I can not do it later today. I have to run now before I am late and the professor will be angry with me."
"Since when are you bothered if a professor is angry at you or not?" Jennica said, confused.
Galinda was getting really angry now and shot a very angry look at her classmate. "Why is everyone thinking that I don't care about anything? You don't really know me then!" Galinda said with fury in her voice and stormed away, leaving a very stunned Jennica behind her. "Now I can finally bring that box into the infirmary and be where I am really needed," Galinda muttered angrily and stormed as fast as she could back to the infirmary.
Z
Dr. Bradburn wondered what kept his head nurse for so long; it was crucial now that they started to clean of Elphaba's wounds.
Just then Nurse Clare came in and hurried over to him. "We have a big problem doctor," she said. "The girl who found her on the grounds told me that the young girl got the burns from the contact with the rainwater. She was very upset as I told her that we would wash the wounds with water."
"Water burns her skin? That is ridiculous!" Dr. Bradburn exclaimed and shook his head. "We will proceed as always and clean the wounds with sterilized water. Elphaba's clothes were completely dry by the way."
"Yes, I wondered about that too, but please trust me Doctor; the girl was very upset and actually cried when I wouldn't believe her. She is actually on her way to fetch something from their room. She thinks that Elphaba has some supplies hidden in a box," the nurse said firmly.
"So you believe her?" Dr. Bradburn said "Then I will trust you and will suppose that Elphaba is indeed allergic to water, as weird as it sounds."
The nurse breathed a sigh of relief. "I hope that her roommate will arrive with the supplies soon, she is gone a very long time now" she said. "I hope that she has no difficulties to find those supplies. We need them to properly treat the poor girl."
At this moment there was a knock on the door and Galinda called from outside.
"You can come in if you want" Dr. Bradburn called.
Galinda tentatively opened the door to the room; she was not sure if she could bear to see all of Elphaba's injuries right now, but she knew that they needed her help so she stepped inside. She went over to Dr. Bradburn and quickly began to introduce herself. "My name is Galinda Upland, and …" she trailed off and gasped with horror as her gaze fell onto Elphaba on the examination table. "Oh sweet Oz! Her injuries are far worse than I thought!" she said and her hands with the box still in it started to tremble.
"I know that it is looking not very nice, but I am positive that we can help your roommate if we have the right supplies. Can you show me that box now please, so I can have a look inside?"
"Of course!" Galinda said and handled the box over to him.
Dr. Bradburn opened the lid and saw up to 15 bottles of oil, all of them labeled and neatly sorted. "Ah! She uses oils to clean herself, why haven't I thought about that?" he said shaking his head. He looked through the wooden box and found a bigger bottle labeled with "mineral oil". "I think I have found something to clean her wounds with. The only danger is that we don't know if these oils are antiseptic. But we must do something now and have no time to experiment," the doctor said.
Galinda was a little dumbstruck as she saw the assortment of oils in the box; why had she never seen Elphaba using them. And why had Elphaba kept all of this completely secret?
Nurse Clare poured some of the oil into a bowl and got some soft cloth from a cabinet. She asked Galinda to sit behind the examination table because she believed that she would be a comforting presence if Elphaba should wake up during the process.
Galinda agreed and took place right behind Elphaba's head. "These burns are really looking horrible," she said.
"I know that it looks worse right now, but with the proper treatment, we will hopefully get a handle on them," the nurse said reassuringly.
"I really hope so, I am very fond of her and don't want her to suffer, Galinda said. What happened with me that I would say anything like this? A few months ago I loathed this girl to death! Galinda thought very confused about her sudden strong sympathetic feelings towards Elphaba.
Dr. Bradburn began to carefully apply the oil onto Elphaba's burns, removing the debris of skin in the process. Soon after he started, Elphaba's vital signs began to get worse again. Her breathing picked up and her heart rate also increased. The doctor was very concerned about that, but waited if the green girl calmed down of her own. But that did not happen.
"Nurse we need another shot for her immediately!" he commanded and the nurse hurried off to get the shot as quick as possible.
Galinda was appalled that Elphaba's condition was getting worse and moved over to her roommate's side, gently taking her hand into her own. She hoped desperately that the shot would help to stabilize her.
Z
Elphaba managed to escape the deathly ring of fire and saw for just a moment the soft features of Galinda's face and heard her voice telling her that everything will be alright.
But Elphaba couldn't hold her eyes open and found herself near the flames again.
As she tried to move away from them, the ring opened and the flames suddenly began to change into figures she could not describe. They began to move towards her and she panicked and ran away as fast as her hurting body allowed. But as fast as she ran, the flame figures came nearer and nearer.
Her heart was beating rapidly and she was out of breath. Nobody was there to rescue her; she would have to die painfully in the flames. She had no strength left to run away and fell onto the ground. She waited for the inevitable to come.
Suddenly the heat from the flames was gone and there was silence around her. Elphaba lifted her head a bit to see why the flames haven't approached her and saw instead Galinda, holding out her hands to her.
"Please come back to us Elphaba!" she said and came to her and took her hand. At this moment she was pulled back into consciousness again and looked into the very concerned eyes of her little blond roommate.
Z
As Nurse Clare returned with the required shot, Dr. Bradburn immediately administered it into one of Elphaba's arms. He hoped that it would be enough to help his patient's body to recover.
Galinda still had Elphaba's hand in hers and called for her like she did when she found her first. "Please come back to us Elphaba! Please don't leave me!" she silently added.
"Her heart rate is slowing down doctor," the nurse said as she checked her pulse.
"Miss Galinda would you please try to call her again, it seems to help a lot?" Doctor Bradburn asked.
"Of course doctor," Galinda replied. After repeatedly calling her name, the blonde felt Elphaba's hand squeezing hers and gasped. "Elphaba, can you hear me? Please open your eyes for me!" she said.
"Do you think she's awake?" the doctor asked.
"I felt her squeezing my hand, so I think yes" Galinda said.
Just then, Elphaba opened her eyes again and looked directly into Galinda's bright blue ones. She groaned from pain like she did earlier.
"Elphaba! I am so glad you are awake!" Galinda said and stroked the back of her hand to comfort her a little bit.
Elphaba was getting more awake and became slowly aware of what happened around her. As she saw the doctor and the nurse she started to panic. She tried to squirm away from their hands, horror was written all over her face.
"Elphaba everything will be alright, there is no need to panic right now," Galinda said to her soothingly and carefully stroked her hand again.
"No doctors! Please no doctors!" Elphaba managed to whisper very quietly.
"What did you say?" Galinda asked her in response.
"You must not be frightened young lady; we will not harm you in any way. We all want to help you to feel more comfortable," Dr. Bradburn said moving into Elphaba's line of sight.
Instead of helping to soothe her, it unfortunately added more to her panic.
"Galinda please make them go away," Elphaba whimpered and tried to squirm away again but the nurse gently held her in place.
"Elphaba they need to clean your burns so they can start to heal."
"No water! They can't use water!" Elphaba whispered frantically.
"They know this already and they are using your mineral oil to do it, so please calm down. It's not good for you to be so upset right now."
After that Elphaba seemed to calm down a little and leaned back again and closed her eyes as she started to feel the intense pain all over her body. Nurse Clare constantly watched her vital signs while Dr. Bradburn was working on her wounds. "You must be in unduly pain right now; we will give you some analgesic to lessen it, so we can continue with the treatment of the wounds," Nurse Clare said and went to a cabinet to get the required pill.
"This is a fast working analgesic; it will hopefully kick in within five minutes," the doctor said as he assisted the nurse with sitting Elphaba a little bit up so that she was able to take the pill with some tea. Although they moved her very little, the pain was almost unbearable for the green girl and she turned a very pale green in the process.
"The analgesic will make her very drowsy, so there is a chance that she will sleep very quickly. This will lessen the stress she is feeling enormously," Dr. Bradburn said quietly turning to Galinda who was very upset to see her roommate in so much pain.
"I hope that she will be alright, it was so frightened for me to find her on the ground under that bench."
"Understandable. When we have time you need to tell me the whole story, because we wondered about something that came up during the initial examination," the doctor said.
"I will explain everything to you then, I am aware of the lack of information you got from me about what happened."
Elphaba was indeed getting drowsy as soon as the pill started to work and the pain that throbbed all over her body lessened a little bit. She started to fall into a thick haze and managed to whisper to Galinda before she drifted of: "Please don't allow any experiments on me, promise me!"
Galinda was a little taken aback by this and was not sure what she should respond to this at first. "Of course not, I won't let that happen, you are very safe here," she replied at last hoping that would help.
When Elphaba was asleep, the doctor continued to tend to her wounds. Her shoulders and arms were burnt most and looked very bad. On her face were also burns on her forehead and cheeks, which were angry red but not blistering. Nurse Clare was working at a table at the other side of the room. She mixed some powder into a creamy substance.
"What are you mixing for Elphaba?" Galinda asked.
"I am mixing some aloe powder into some cool cream to cover the wounds with. We hope that it will work fine on her," the nurse answered. As she saw the concerned look on Galinda's face she added, "Of course we will test the cream on a small part of Elphaba's forearm first; we don't want to hurt her further." At this Galinda relaxed a little bit.
Doctor Bradburn turned his attention to his head nurse and asked her if the cream is ready now.
"Yes it is ready to be tested," the nurse said and walked over to them again.
Galinda held her breath as she gently dabbed a tiny amount of the cream onto the green girls forearm. After a few seconds the cream was removed to reveal a totally unharmed spot of green skin. "It works!" Galinda said very relieved that there would be no problem with the further treatment of her roommate's injuries.
"Very good, now we can coat her burns very thickly with this cream. It has cooling and healing properties and has also an analgesic in it. I am afraid that this analgesic will not dampen all her pains and we need to give her more in form of pills," Dr. Bradburn said to Galinda.
"How long do you think her burns will need to heal Doctor?" Galinda asked.
"I think they will need up to four weeks to heal, but I am not sure if her skin color will affect this or not," the doctor said. "Your friend here has some big blisters we need to puncture in order to relieve the wound from pressure. Then we need to cover them with the cream like the rest of her burns and put them into sterile bandages. It is very important that she gets no infection."
"Poor Elphaba, she will be out for a while don't you think?" Galinda said sadly. She knew how much she hated to miss just one class.
"She will need to be here at least for three days, so that we can be sure she gets no infection and that her circulatory system is strong enough. She unfortunately got a big shock to her system due to her injuries," Dr. Bradburn said.
"Is she in danger right now?" Galinda asked concerned.
"Not right now, she was in a dangerous condition earlier, but we managed to stabilize her for now. It was important to relieve her from the immense pain burns like hers cause."
Galinda was very sad that Elphaba has to suffer so much and thought about a word the doctor used earlier: your friend … Just this morning she had thought about her relationship with her odd green, sulky and sarcastic roommate. She never dreamt that she would consider her a friend, but it sounded not bad as she heard that word. Maybe this rainstorm will change both of their lives forever.
During Galinda's musings about friendship, Doctor Bradburn and Nurse Clare started to puncture the big blisters and coat the wounds with the aloe cream. They covered them with special sterile bandages designed for the treatment of burns, so that they would not stick on them. The only part of Elphaba's body they left out was her face, because it would heal better without them.
When they were finished, Elphaba looked more white than green with all the bandages all over her upper body. Some burns on her feet were also treated, but they were not too bad because of her heavy boots she wore all of the time. Galinda liked this boots not very much until today …
"We are finished now," Nurse Clare said to Galinda and patted the still upset looking girl on her shoulders. "We will bring her to a hospital room now where she can be looked at if the need arises. She will probably be out for a few hours and that is very necessary for her body to recover from the shock."
"Can I stay with her? I don't want to be her alone when she awakes. She seems to have big problems with being here," Galinda said, hoping she was allowed to stay. After all what happened, she was not ready to leave Elphaba yet.
"Of course you can stay with her, but we would you to clarify something we wondered about," Doctor Bradburn said.
"How can I help you?" Galinda asked.
"We are curious why Elphaba's clothes were relatively dry when your dorm porter brought her in earlier," the doctor said.
"Oh that! There is a simple answer to it: I used a drying spell in my panic when I saw the effects of the water drops on her skin."
"Ah! Why haven't I thought about something like that, after all we train sorcerers at Shiz," he laughed, trying to lighten the mood a bit.
Galinda was very relieved that she didn't do nothing wrong when she found Elphaba and relaxed considerably. Doctor Bradburn gently took the still sleeping green girl into his arms and carried her over into a friendly decorated room at the end of the short hallway.
He gently laid her down on the only bed that was in there and settled her on soft pillows.
"I hope it is soft enough for her back to lie on, we can settle her on her stomach should it be too uncomfortable for her when she awakes," Nurse Clare said and covered her up with a thick comforter. "I will leave some tea for both of you, please call us when she awakes and if anything happens," the nurse said.
"Of course I will do that," Galinda replied and settled herself into a comfy char beside Elphaba's bed. After the doctor and nurse left, she looked at her sleeping friend and took her green hand again. "I will look after you Elphaba, don't be afraid," she said while some tears silently ran down her cheeks.