[Happy, Weather]

  The Recovery

  I woke up in my old tower bedroom, Frida was sitting on my bed but she wasn’t facing me, she was staring out the window. Sunlight lit up her golden hair. God she was pretty, I was enjoying the view but then I tried to ask what had happened. Nothing came out but a hoarse croak. Frida whipped her head around.

  “Jaq, what were you doing, I thought you were going to die? Why did you leave like that?”

  My mouth was as dry as dust, I struggled to get up. Frida put a gentle hand to my shoulder. Forcing me to remain flat. That’s when I noticed the I. V. in my arm.

  “Wa er” I croaked.

  “I’ll get you water, but you lie still. Maz said you were almost dead, so you just lie still. I’ll get the water.”

  She grabbed an empty glass from the sideboard and went into my bathroom, I could hear the water running, soon she returned. Holding my head up and pouring a small amount of water into my mouth.

  “You have to take it slow. Maz says just a sip at first, otherwise you’ll be sick, and you’re already so dehydrated that might kill you. So if you want to go back to sleep and when you wake again, you can have more water.”

  I was safe. I was back, but the last thing I remember was eating the eyes. Oh crap, it all came back in a rush. That must have been too much for me.

  I woke again and Frida still sat there only this time she was looking at me, when my eyes opened.

  “Want to try a little more water?”

  “Yee ss.”

  “Here just a little sip, Jaq. You had us all worried to death”

  I had a very little sip of water.

  “How long have I been asleep?”

  “Two days.”

  “Where did you go Jaq?”

  “The eastern tower I think. At least that’s how I got there.”

  “Jaq, there is no eastern tower, just this one. Maz says you must have been in a desert for days, you were so dehydrated and burnt. Maz put this special cream on your burns and it healed almost instantly as if by magic.”

  “Frida, you honestly have never seen the eastern tower, for real?”

  “No Jaq, why would I lie about that.”

  “I don’t know, I don’t think you’re lying, I thought maybe Collins asked you to say that it doesn’t exist. I think it’s something my family is keeping hidden. I saw my granddad there, or at least he was, I saw him four or five times, each time he was much older. The last ‘videos’ of him he looked older than he had three years ago.”

  “So you think, he’s still alive in a tower only you can see.”

  “I actually only ‘saw’ it once the night I walked up here in the thunder and lightning storm. Has the power come back on yet?”

  “That was weeks ago Jaq, I think it came back two days after you left.”

  “Weeks, I couldn’t have been gone that long, I never slept, I didn’t eat or drink. Time must pass differently there. I have to go back, but next time, I’ll be prepared. I’ll bring a knapsack with food and water and rope. The bridge I crossed collapsed so I’ll need some way to get across the chasm. Maybe I could use an extension ladder.”

  “Jaq, you’re not going anywhere for a little while. We just got you back, besides you can’t even get out of bed.”

  “I need to go to town and get a tattoo also.”

  “Well, that we can help you with if you want I can get Art, he used to be a tattoo artist full time before he switched to oil painting. He can be really handsy so I’ll stay with you while he does it if you like.”

  “That’d be nice thanks.”

  Maybe she was coming around, thinking of me as a little more than a friend I hope. I wouldn’t mind getting handsy with her, or her with me, maybe after I have a little more energy and a bath.”

  “What are friends for? Besides I wouldn’t let a girl I hated be mauled, besides one I really liked.”

  She’s ripping my heart out here. Why does she keep friend zoning me? Maybe she’s not into girls or maybe it’s just me.

  “Say where did you find me anyways?”

  “It wasn’t me, it was one of the maids. Skye I think is her name. She was supposed to clean those empty rooms in the eastern wing on the first floor. She was going into the last room and found you, sprawled out in the hallway. I wanted to call an ambulance but Lady Holland wanted Maz to take care of you personally. I was just worried you were going to die.”

  Knock, Knock

  “Is everybody decent?”

  “Come on in Maz, she’s finally awake.”

  Maz came into the room, wearing a white labcoat, with a stethoscope slung around his neck.

  Maz asked Frida. “Has she had anything to drink yet?”

  “Yes, she had a couple of sips of water, that’s it.”

  He turned to me and said, “Do you think you could manage a few spoonfuls of soup, Jaq.”

  “Yes, I think I’d like that.”

  “Frida will you please go down to the kitchen and ask for some clear broth with salt, taste it yourself if you think it has just the right amount of salt add a bit more. We need to get some salt back into Jaq. It’s alright Frida, she’s wide awake, I’m a doctor, I’m not going to touch her inappropriately. Now please.”

  “I’ll be back in just a minute Jaq.”

  “Thanks Frida.”

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  Frida left, and Maz took my pulse.

  He checked my heart and lungs, then examined my arms which had been covered in blisters.

  “How's your neck feeling? You had some awful looking blisters.”

  “It feels fine, I’ll turn on my side, you can see for yourself.”

  “Good, it’s healing nicely. If you feel up to it you can get out of bed tomorrow, I’ll have Collins bring up a comfortable chair for you to sit on. Don’t try and get up on your own. Wait for Frida to help you, even if it’s only to keep you steady. You might feel lightheaded when you do stand up. The last thing you need is a fall on top of everything else. You had a pretty close call there, if Skye hadn't found you when she did you might have died on the floor.”

  “When you’re a little better I want to know the story of how you wound up there, but not today, after the soup, I think you should try for a little more sleep. Alright?”

  Just then Frida was back with a tray, soup, a flower and two cups of tea.

  Maz said to her, “About half that bowl if she can manage it, but no more, and half of the tea as well.”

  “Ok Maz”

  I thought I was wide awake but after eating just about what Maz had allowed me to, I fell back into a deep sleep. I guess my body was trying to make up for a serious sleep deficit. I woke up sometime in the middle of the night. Frida was still there but asleep, sitting in the chair with her head on my bed. I played with her soft beautiful hair.

  “I’m sorry Jaq, I didn’t mean to fall asleep.”

  “Don’t be silly, if you won’t go to sleep in your own bed, get in here with me, please.”

  “If you don’t mind.”

  “No, no, I don’t mind at all.”

  She got in and cuddled up close to me and asked if that was all right, I said it was fine. We were both deep asleep soon afterward.

  “When I said take care of her, I didn’t mean like that. You little tart, get out of that bed. I need to speak to my granddaughter.”

  “Don’t talk to her like that granny, she hasn’t left my side and when I woke in the middle of the night she’d fallen asleep in her chair I asked her to get into bed. Don’t you ever call her something like that again.”

  “Good if you’ve got your smart mouth back you will be able to talk to me. Frida, please leave us alone.”

  Frida with a cherry red face, got out of bed, picked up her pants and walked from the room. Granny sat in the chair Frida had been using before moving to the bed.

  “Just what kind of perverted things do you think I was doing to the poor girl when I haven’t even stood up yet. Speaking of, could you please get me some water?”

  She did and I drank half the glass by the time she’d resumed her seat.

  “So Jacqueline, why did you take off in the middle of the night? I thought you’d come back here to help search for your granddad.”

  “Tell me about the eastern tower.”

  “I told you before that there is no eastern tower, no fool can tell that. All you have to do is go out the front door, turn around and look at Tregaron. It has only one tower on the western side.”

  “Granddad has been in the tower, he has sketches of it in his study. I saw pictures of him in the tower, it’s nothing like this tower. That tower contains whole worlds or it’s a portal to other worlds. I’m not a physicist so I have no idea how to explain it scientifically if there even is a scientific explanation.”

  “Listen to yourself will you. I thought you prided yourself on your rationality and disbelief in the supernatural. Next you’ll be telling me we have werewolves and vampires living on the grounds.”

  “All the years you’ve lived here and you seriously have never seen the tower, how do you explain that I’ve seen it twice in the past few weeks. You also know that I love that old man and I wouldn’t just wander off somewhere else while he was missing. Please ask Frida or Skye to go to granddad's study and bring me all of his papers that I piled on the table. I think he’s in that tower and the next time I go in there, I’d like to have a clue about where that is.”

  “No, I have never seen the tower, but my father claimed to see it one day when I was just a little younger than you. A year later he disappeared, he wasn’t a womanizer, but we just assumed he’d found someone else and just left us. Less than a year after we got married Henry said he’d seen an eastern tower and he became obsessed with it. I thought he was just saying that and was making plans to leave me. Aside from his frequent disappearances, which I always assumed were dalliances, with younger women. Now I don’t know what to think.”

  “The night I disappeared I was asleep here in bed and I heard ‘Hit the Road Jack’ being sung a cappella, and it certainly sounded like granddad’s voice. It certainly lured me to the entrance to the tower.”

  “Well don’t go back into it, if Henry really has been going in and out of there for years, he’ll find his own way home. I don’t want you risking your neck to find him and you know he wouldn’t want that either. You almost died on your last trip in.”

  “Would you please just have his papers brought here, it’ll give me something to do and I might discover that he’s been in London the whole time. Alright?”

  “Fine but you listen to me, just stay out of that tower. I won’t have it ruin any more lives.”

  ***

  Frida and Skye came in shortly after my granny left, each carrying a big pile of papers.

  “Would you please put one pile on the bed and one on the sideboard. And thank you for finding me Skye, Dr Maz said you might have saved my life. If there is anything I can do for you just ask.”

  Frida said “Skye please put the papers on the sideboard and would you mind, bringing Jaq’s breakfast up here. She can start on the papers after a nice breakfast.”

  “I like it when she’s bossy Skye, and I mean it if you ever need anything let me know.”

  “Thank you miss, I’ll bring your breakfast up directly.”

  “Thank you Skye.”

  “Your welcome Miss.”

  “While Skye gets your breakfast would you like to take a bath?”

  Skye leaves for the kitchen before I reply.

  “Are you going to wash my back?”

  Frida went into the bathroom to start running the bath water. I got up tentatively staying close to the bed, my legs started to ache just standing here. I glanced over at my dresser, on top, lay the pith helmet. Proof that my trip into the tower wasn’t a drug fueled hallucination or elaborate dream.

  Frida came out of the bathroom, surprised that I’d gotten up alone but took my arm and assisted me into the bathroom. The tub was full with nice hot water and plenty of bubbles. But now that I was in here I was weirdly shy about taking off my pajamas. But Frida just moved right in and started unbuttoning the top.

  “Who do you think changed you into these pjs, no need being shy now, besides I thought you wanted me to wash your back.”

  So I tried to forget my embarrassment and just pulled down the pants and got in the tub.

  “Maz told me to blot you dry, not to let you rub the towel on your body, you might rip off a healing blister, alright.”

  “Frida, thanks so much, for taking such great care of me. I’ve never had a friend, never had anyone do anything like that for me, before. I hope some day I can pay you back in some way.”

  “You have nothing to pay back, I’m sorry you were so hurt, but have really enjoyed spending time with you. If I’m being honest, I’m thinking of you as more than a friend. I hope that doesn’t bother you. As I’m about to wash your back for you.”

  “See now that’s something I just have to pay back some day.”

  She giggled and tenderly washed my back.