Dionne
For the rest of the night I did what I could, which wasn't enough and I knew it wasn't enough, but I did it anyway because that was all there was to do.
I changed the cool compresses every time they warmed. I coaxed water past Nora's lips a little at a time, her swallowing reflexively even when she didn't fully wake.
Violet sat on her own bed and talked quietly, filling me on everything that had happened in my absence. The latest kitchen gossip, a book she'd been reading, a dream she'd had about a dog she'd owned as a child, and I was grateful for it even though I wasn't taking in a single word.
The sound of her voice filled the room with something living. Somewhere close to midnight, Nora stirred.
Not the feverish half-waking of before. This time her eyes opened slowly, and they managed to focus, when they landed on me, her lips turned up in a shaky smile and something in my chest that had been in a fist for hours slowly released.
