IDrakula - Bekka Black [7]
I only got sketchy news from the embassy. They said that you are sick and upset. I can’t tell if it’s worse than I think or better.
So, I’ve decided to go with better.
I miss you, but I’ll see you very, very soon. Then we’ll bust you out of that nunnery (isn’t that supposed to be your job, busting ME out of nunneries?) and get you home.
Love,
Mina
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Text message from Mina Murray to Lucy Westenra
From: Mina Murray
To: Lucy Westenra
Subject: Serious stuff
Sent: June 20 5:18 AM
* * *
Lucy,
We’re finally back! It’s nice to be around real doctors and not Romanian nuns. They wore these old fashioned wimples with a top like a pillbox hat and a point under their chins like something from another century (a bad century). So, I’m sitting in this whitewashed room with a stone floor (it really WAS just like a nunnery from the movies) and this old lady with a face wrinkled up like a dried apricot comes in.
Nun: He is well, child.
Me (thinking he looks terrible and I can’t wait to get him to a real hospital with beeping machines and guys in lab coats with stethoscopes): Thank you.
Nun: We have cast it out. The taint is gone.
Me (pretty impressed by her English but confused): Taint?
Nun: If he dies now (!!), he’ll be innocent and pure.
I just stared at her with my mouth open, and then she said a prayer (in Latin, I think) and wandered off.
Getting him back was hard. We had to dope him up so much to keep him from yelling, we had to practically carry him on and off the plane. We had this same exchange about fifty times, but here’s the gist of it:
J: It was full of skulls. Baby skulls.
Me: There were no skulls. The police searched the Count’s castle. It was empty. Everything is fine.
J: I’m sorry for what I did to you.
Me: You didn’t do anything to me. I’m ok. Everything’s ok.
Then he would squash my hand so hard that my fingers practically went to sleep.
I just kept talking to him like he was a little kid or a horse or something. His dad was no help at all. He was more upset than I was.
But we’re here now, and Jonathan’s doctors say that he has “idiopathic autoimmune hemolytic anemia.” Plus his psychological problems. As if those weren’t enough.
He is super pale and has huge dark circles under his eyes. He looks like crap.
I’m scared.
Will tell you when I learn more. He’s coming out now. Gotta run.
Call if you can. I need somebody sane. And you know how bad things are if I’m expecting YOU to be the sane one.
xoxo,
Mina
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From: Mina Murray
To: Lucy Westenra
Subject: More serious stuff
Sent: June 20 6:23 AM
* * *
Lucy,
They are rushing Jonathan into surgery to remove his spleen. Usually they try steroids, but they say there’s not time.
His mother is trying to get in from Canada for the surgery, but I don’t think she’ll make it. His father is here but useless. Still a mess.
The surgeons say he’s super weak. I don’t think they are hopeful about his recovery. But I’m trying to be.
Please call me. I need you. Besides Jonathan, you’re my best friend.
What if I lose him, Lucy?
Mina
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Text message from Mina Murray to Lucy Westenra
From: Abraham Van Helsing
To: Mina Murray
Subject: Re: Delicate question
Sent: June 20 1:56 PM
* * *
Hello Mina,
I am sorry to report that Lucy is gravely ill. She was brought by ambulance to Lenox Hill Hospital Manhattan. She asks me to contact you.
She has acute idiopathic autoimmune hemolytic anemia. It is a very rare disorder, but they say it is almost never life threatening. She is being treated aggressively with steroids, and her doctors are cautiously hopeful.
I wish that there were another way to deliver the news to you, but I do not have your telephone number and Lucy is in no condition to tell it to me. Please contact me immediately. My number is 212-555-0184.