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I nodded

"Can you tell me what it is?"

I didn’t realize hoeak I was until I tried to respond My voice sounded thin and thready "Odd Thomas"

As she fussed over me and told me that I was some kind of hero and assured me that I would be fine, I said, "Stormy," in a broken whisper

I had been afraid to pronounce her na down on myself The name is so lovely to me, however, that iue once I had the nerve to speak it

The nurse seemed to think that I’d coht be allowed to let a chip or two of ice melt in my mouth, I shook my head as adamantly as I could and said, "Stormy I want to see Stormy Llewellyn"

My heart raced I could hear the soft and rapid beep-beep-beep froht a doctor to examine me He appeared to be awestruck in my presence, a reaction to which no fry cook in the world is accustomed and hich none could be comfortable

He used that word hero too ain

I felt crushingly tired I didn’t want to fall asleep before I’d seen Stor her to me

Their lack of an iain When my heart thumped hard, my wounds throbbed in sy

They orried that even a five-minute visit would put too much strain on me, but I pleaded, and they let her coht of her, I cried

She cried, too Those black Egyptian eyes

I was too weak to reach out to her She slipped a hand through the bed rail, pressed it atop ers into hers, a love knot

For hours, she had been sitting out in the ICU waiting room in the Burke & Bailey’s uniform that she dislikes so much Pink shoes, white socks, pink skirt, pink-and-white blouse

I told her that thisrooht now, sitting on two chairs, wearing yellow pants and a Hawaiian shirt Viola was out there, too And Terri Sta her perky pink cap, she put a hand to her head in surprise, for the first ti that she didn’t have it Lost in the chaos at the mall

I closed my eyes and wept not with joy but with bitterness Her hand tightened on th to sleep and to risk my dreams of demons

Later she returned for another five-minute visit, and when she said that ould need to postpone the wedding, I pushed to remain on schedule for Saturday After what had happened, the city would surely cut all red tape, and if Stormy’s uncle wouldn’t bend church rules to e

I had hoped that our wedding day would be followed at once by our

first night together The e, however, had always been more important to me than the consu lifetiether

Earlier she had kissedto kiss th She is my destiny

With no real sense of time, I slept on and off

My next visitor, Karla Porter, arrived after a nurse had raised ed me and kissed me on the cheek, on the brow, and we tried not to cry, but we did

I had never seen Karla cry She is tough She needs to be Now she seemed devastated

I worried that the chief had taken a turn for the worse, but she said that wasn’t it

She brought the excellent news that the chief would beHe was expected to make a full recovery

After the horror at the Green Moon Mall, however, none of us will ever be as we had been Pico Mundo, too, is forever changed

Relieved to know the chief would be okay, I didn’t think to ask any­one about my wounds Stormy Llewellyn was alive; the pro else mattered

SIXTY-FOUR

FRIDAY MORNING, JUST ONE DAY AFTER CHIEF PORTER escaped the ICU, the doctor issued orders for ave me one of their swanky accommodations decorated like a hotel suite The same one in which they had let il for the chief

When I expressed concern about the cost and reminded them that I was a fry cook, the director of County General personally assured es in excess of what the insurance co disturbed et any special treatenerosity because, while Stormy could only visit ht in here and be with uard in the corridor outside my room No one posed any threat to me The purpose was to keep the news media at bay

Events at the Green Moon Mall had, I was told, made headlines ide I didn’t want to see a newspaper I refused to turn on the TV

Reliving it in nighth Toofinally proved to be impractical Reporters knew of our plans and would be all over the courthouse That and other problems proved insurmountable, and we postponed for a month

Friday and Saturday, friends poured in with flowers and gifts

How I loved seeing Terri Stah My mentor, my lifeline when I’d been sixteen and determined to live on o

Viola Peabody ca that they would have been irls As it turned out, Nicolina’s love of pink had to do with her enthusiasm for Burke & Bailey’s ice cream; Stormy’s uniform had always enchanted her