She was in a deep sleep when she heard a knock on the door. "Go away, Mr. Monk! There's no murder!" she mumbled. "The guy was just… pretending."
"Mom, it's me."
At the sound of her daughter's voice she opened her eyes and squinted at the blurry alarm clock beside her bed. "Oh, sorry honey. What time is it?"
Julie laughed. "It's a lot later than the last time you were awake!"
"What?"
"You've been asleep for like ten hours!"
"WHAT?" Natalie yelled, louder this time. She sprang out of bed nearly breaking her other wrist in the process. "Why didn't you wake me up?"
"I tried so many times. Mr. Monk insisted on talking to you, but I told him you were out cold."
A strange and sudden sensation went through her. "M-Mr. Monk?"
"Yeah. He called like twenty times!" I finally had to let your phone go to voice mail so there's probably like a million messages!"
"M-Mr. Monk? H-he called? Here?"
"Mom, are you all right?"
"Yeah, I'm just-."
Julie's eyes went to the dresser where Natalie had placed the tiny bottles of medicine neatly in a row, directly in front of their corresponding boxes. "Whoa,
where did you get all that?"
"I-um…"
"Mom, don't tell me that you went to the store! I have a license now and I told you I would take care of it! How did you drive anyway? I thought Dr. Patton said
you weren't supposed to drive anywhere!"
Reluctantly (and thankfully) Natalie climbed back into bed. "I-I didn't. I… It was Mr. Monk."
Julie scoffed. "Right, Mom. Mr. Monk-a man who doesn't drive-drove over here and brought you all of those boxes of medicine. I don't think so."
"Um, no… he… uh… sent Captain Stottlemeyer."
"Oh… Really?"
"That's what I said. Pretty hard to believe, but then again nothing that Mr. Monk does surprises me anymore."
"Me either. Well, let me know if you need anything."
"Actually can you get me some crackers and that bottle of ginger ale out of the fridge? I'm not feeling too well."
"Sure…"
When Julie disappeared Natalie lay back against the headboard and stared at the wall, willing the strange feeling to go away. But no matter how hard she tried,
she couldn't get his face out of her mind. This was crazy. Maybe she was delusional.
If she hadn't been so tired she would cross the room and read the ingredients on each and every one of those boxes of medicine. There was no telling what was
in them. And how had he even known which ones to get? He must have driven the store manager crazy over the phone, pondering what medicines he wanted to
buy. She couldn't imagine how much the stuff must have cost him, but it couldn't have been cheap. And it was essentially money wasted, since all she really
needed was some generic aspirin and some sleep and she would have been perfectly fine.
Before she could think about it any further, Julie appeared holding a glass of ginger ale and a box of crackers. "Here, Mom."
"Thanks, sweetie. Hey, what's that?"
Julie glanced at the envelope in her hand. "Oh, it was in the bag. I didn't mean to pry. It was sitting on the counter and I was putting it in the recycle bin and
this card fell out. It has your name on it."
"Really? Thanks." She took the envelope from Julie. "You'd better get on your homework."
"Sure, Mom. But where did the ginger ale come from? It wasn't there before."
"I-It was in that bag from Mr. Monk. I put it in the fridge. I don't know how I missed the card, though."
"Well, let me know if you need anything else."
"Thanks honey."
Natalie opened the envelope, amazed at how carefully her name was written on the front in black ink. And then she slid out the card. The front was printed with
bright, fluffy blue clouds and inside was a paler shade of blue. The words 'To cheer you' were printed across the middle and underneath, in perfect handwriting
was a short message.
'Feel better. Miss you, Monk.'
She brushed away a tear, and smiled at the faint pencil lines that he'd obviously forgotten to erase. He'd used a ruler to make sure that his handwriting was as
straight as possible. Normally she would find it ridiculous. But now she was touched beyond measure. She took a sip of the ginger ale and ate a couple of the
crackers. After a few moments she felt a lot better.
But she still had a strange feeling whirling inside of her. And it had absolutely nothing to do with her health.
