"My head hurts!" little Sonya moaned Friday evening after dinner. Erica felt her forehead and found that she was burning up with a fever.
After making hurried arrangements for Jed and Carrie to take care of Toni, she took her younger daughter to the emergency room, where they were signed in and left to wait.
Erica held Sonya, who slept fitfully, occasionally awakening and whimpering. Several times she nearly dozed off herself, only to jerk awake at the last minute.
As she sat in the hard plastic chair in the waiting room, surrounded by the din of shuffling feet, rolling wheels, beeping machines, and subdued voices, and the omnipresent antiseptic smell, Erica found it hard to believe that only six years previously, she'd been a typical high school student, primarily concerned with homework, exams, and whether or not she had a date for the weekend. The war had changed everything, permanently. Toni. Even after all this time, it was still so hard to accept that her sister was gone for good.
At last she heard Sonya's name being called, which jerked her out of her reverie. She carried the sleeping child to the examining room, where the physician on duty quickly examined her and checked her vitals.
"I'm very concerned about how high her temperature is," the physician told Erica. "I'll need to do a spinal tap to rule out meningitis."
"Meningitis?" Erica felt a cold chill running up her spine. Meningitis could cause blindness, deafness, brain damage, or...Erica's brain automatically blocked out any further possibilities.
She wasn't able to watch as the needle was inserted into Sonya's back, and the little girl's scream pierced her heart.
Afterwards Sonya was moved to a room, and a cot was set up beside her bed so that Erica could stay with her. Totally exhausted, Erica was asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.
Awhile later, she was awakened from a vivid dream in which she was wandering through a crowded mall in search of Yuri. The physician had news.
"The spinal tap was positive," he told Erica. "Sonya does have meningitis."
Suddenly Erica was convulsed with sobs. "Is...is she..."
"She'll have to stay here for several days while we administer antibiotics through an I.V.," the physician told her. "Since we seem to have caught it early, the chances that she'll make a complete recovery are excellent."
Tears coursed down Erica's cheeks as she watched her small daughter's sleeping form, her chest gently rising and falling. My baby...What if Sonya was left with permanent damage? Oh, Yuri...But she had no way of contacting him, no way of telling him about his daughter...if he himself were even still alive.
Erica reached for the telephone and dialed Jed and Carrie's number. Carrie answered the telephone.
"Thank goodness you're home!" Erica exclaimed. "How's Toni?"
"She's fine," Carrie told her. "She had fruit loops for breakfast, and she's watching the Smurfs with Elijah right now. How's Sonya?"
"She has men...menin..." She couldn't get the word out.
"Meningitis?" Carrie gasped. "Oh, no! Poor baby!"
"She has to stay here for three more days while they give her antibiotics through an I.V.," Erica said miserably.
"That's all right," Carrie replied. "Toni can stay with us for as long as she needs to."
"Oh, I couldn't ask you to..."
"You're not asking me. I'm telling you."
"Thanks, Carrie. You and Jed are the best." Erica could feel tears stinging her eyes again.
"Don't mention it. We're your friends, and we're here for you any time you need us, Erica."
It wasn't until much later that Erica remembered her date with Chuck, then realized that she had no way of telling him what had happened, as she hadn't taken his telephone number with her to the hospital.