#bone white

In the spring and summer it had been fine.

Long Life Town was known for mild weather, perfect for her late-night stargazing habits. Sure, in the summer it got a little hot and she got a little sweaty, but it wasn’t bad -- not like this.

Things back home weren’t good. Her parents were working on it, trying to argue less, but it still wasn’t good. And the boy who had moved into town early that spring (they were dating now, the talk of the town!) had offered to let her stay with him and his father, but she was stubborn, and it was improper besides.

He had bought her a blanket, though. A birthday gift. It wasn’t much, but she knew he was poor, so he must have spent a lot of time scrounging around for stuff to sell to afford it for her.

She thought about that as spasms wracked her body. How kind he was. How he had gone around helping everyone in a thirty-mile radius just to apologize for making her uncomfortable that first time.

One measley blanket couldn’t keep winter’s icy hands away from her heart, but she was still infinitely grateful for it. For him. She was too cold now to go to his house and thank him again, though.

Policeman walked by on his nightly patrol, and she wasn’t stupid enough to call out to him for help, if she even could.

She hoped her boy would stop by tonight with some of her dad’s sweet potatoes.

She hoped she’d live that long.

~~~

When her boy snuck in with two hot sweet potatoes and a raggedy coat that matched his own, he found her cold but still breathing.

She wouldn’t respond to anything he did, and in a panic he set the tubers in the crook of her curled-up body and laid the coat on top of her in a desperate attempt to keep her warm before dashing off to get help from the closest place he knew.

~~~

Dr. Dandy was startled awake by violent shaking and hoarse yelling. In his drowsy state all Dandy could think was that the kid needed cough syrup, and fast. Once he was truly awake he realized how absolutely dire the situation had to be to inspire this sort of wild reaction from such a quiet kid.

As soon as he sat up his sleeves were being tugged at, urged to rush as fast as he could. Dandy slipped out of the kid’s iron grip just long enough to slip on a jacket and shoes before his hand was grabbed and he was yanked out the door.

The frigid air forcefully shocked his senses awake, and the full moon illuminating the bone-white snow made it easy to see.

...Easy to see the giant, unused drainage pipe he had been stopped in front of. He had walked past it every day and never stopped to look inside. Why would he? He’d just find more concrete.

He had, of course, noticed that Goro and Julie’s only child spent her days sitting on top of it, staring at the sky and daydreaming.

He hadn’t realized she was living in it.

Dr. Dandy had been the one to help deliver her, way back when he was still an understudy. He had been there for her first breath, and by God he didn’t want to see her last.

He got down on his hands and knees and crawled into the pipe, ignoring how cold it was on the exposed skin of his hands. He gently grabbed her, blanket and all, and as he picked up the bundle of girl and fabric, two cold potatoes tumbled to the ground.

He shuffled backwards out of the pipe and rushed her into the blessed warmth of Yabu Hospital. It wasn’t hard; his new patient was much lighter than she should have been, and it didn’t take a doctor to realize she hadn’t been eating well.

Some small part of Dandy’s mind noted that familiarity was good for the mental recovery of patients, and so while the majority of his brain was distracted by running down a mental checklist of what to do in this scenario, his autopilot directed him to the first room she had ever seen.

He had forgotten about the young boy tailing him until he stopped next to the doctor, not yet tall enough to keep up with Dr. Dandy’s long legs and purposeful stride. The doctor turned to look at him, taking in his wild, frightened eyes and ragged jacket.

“You probably saved her life tonight, did you know that?”

The distraught look on the kid’s face didn’t change.

“Go home and get some sleep, kid. You’ve done everything you can for her, and now it’s my turn.”

They both knew the kid wouldn’t be able to get any sleep, but Dandy hoped he’d at least be able to rest a bit. No dice, though. The boy turned his head to look behind him, but ultimately stayed in place, looking determined.

“...Listen. we’re wasting time she doesn’t have. I’m going to go into that room and do my best, and it’ll be a lot easier to focus if I don’t have another kid to worry about. Come back tomorrow during visiting hours -- if she’s awake, she’ll be excited to see you. If she’s not, maybe just having you by her side will help.”

And then Dr. Dandy did his least favourite thing in the whole world: he lied.

“It’s very unlikely she’ll die tonight. Coma at the absolute worst.”