Page 121 of A Light in the Dark
“My brother died from a similar illness, and the medications didn’t work.”
“How long ago?”
“It was about twenty years,” I admitted.
“That’s why. The medication you’re taking was developed some fifteen years ago. It didn’t exist when yourbrother got sick. This one is good for all the related bacterial infections, and it has an excellent track record. I know what to look for, and I’ll make sure you get through this just fine, all right?” Joel patted my back and guided me to his SUV. “You’ll have to deal with me hovering, though. It’s my sacred duty.”
“Are you saying that as the man I’m going to be sharing my bed with or as the leader of the flutter?”
“I’m saying that as both the man who will be sharing your bed with you and the leader of our flutter. Do you want a car, a truck, or an SUV?”
“A car, something a little sporty but not overly expensive and reliable. I’d like it in either green, blue, or yellow. Four doors and a trunk are required. I might need to drive someone somewhere, and I need room for his camera gear.”
“I see you are extending your luna moth obsession to your vehicle.”
I nodded. “I feel I need to go all in at this stage. My parents are going to enter our domain and realize we are luna moth obsessed.”
“But not luna moths?”
“I’m honestly not sure. I’m figuring there’s a good reason why your town kept secrets from my town—to the point I didn’t even know your town’s name.”
“We like our secrets, and we don’t have our town name on any signs. If they can keep the secret, I don’t have a problem with letting them know.”
“I don’t know if they can keep such a secret,” I confessed.
“Let’s observe them with the luna moth shifters, and we’ll decide then. Not everyone from that town of gossips is bad—there are just enough gossips to make it a little riskier thanany of us like. And if it turns out they’re close to shifting, they need to know we’re available.”
That I could believe, especially if they got trapped in their first shift silk like I had. “You are planning on teaching me how to shift on purpose, right?”
“I am, but not until after your bacterial infection has been treated for at least a week. If you think the headache is bad now, try to imagine continuously vomiting low quality silk that can’t be spun. And none of the shifting silk can be used, either. If you can spin it, it shatters at the first sign of pressure or just rots.”
I gasped. “This bacteria ruins silk?”
“It completely ruins it.”
“I’m sick with silk-eating bacteria?”
“You are.” Joel herded me in the direction of the elevators that would take us to the parking garage, pressing the button to take us down. “For the sake of your precious silk, you must take your medicine at the correct times.”
“Will my stash be harmed if I touch it?” If I couldn’t stitch or do anything with my silk for two weeks, I doubted I’d survive.
“The bacteria only harms silk you produce. Already spun silk is safe.”
Heaving a sigh, I waited for the elevator door to open, and I stepped inside. Then I heaved another sigh. “And you’re sure I can’t spread it to you?”
“There are ways to technically spread it, but as we will not be engaging in bedtime activities and we will wash our hands at the appropriate times, it’s not an issue. I will be disinfecting our bathrooms in an abundance of caution, butyou would have contracted it while in the woods and unable to bathe appropriately.”
Right. “There was definitely no bathing on that adventure.”
“Please don’t worry about it. You’ll be fine. You just need a week or two to recover. However, you may wish to warn your parents, as I have no doubt that word of your illness will spread, especially due to the probable source of infection.”
Right. My parents would flip once they learned I was ill, especially after my brother’s death. I dug out my phone, braced for parental panic, and dialed their number.
My father once again answered, and he asked, “What’s wrong?”
“I caught a bacterial infection during my misadventure, and inevitably, some reporter is going to tell the world about it, so I’m telling you before they can tell you. I’m about to pick up the prescription, and it was caught early. My neighbor is a worry wart, and he dragged me to a clinic at the first sign of headache. I just wanted to give you a heads up.”
My father sighed. “On a scale of one to ten, ten being dying in the hospital, how sick are you?”
