“Okay, I’m guessing it’ll be about two minutes of severe pain, and then you’ll be fine,” Jamie explained to my sister and Elliott as he picked up a needle and flipped the lid off. “Asleep, but fine.”
I didn’t see any tourniquets or anything, which I thought was odd, but I figured Jamie knew what he was doing. He took ahold of Elliott’s arm and bent it at the elbow for a second, like that would be enough for him to find a vein, and I figured if a person has been finding veins for two hundred years, it doesn’t take much.
As Jamie brought Elliott’s arm back down so that it was straight, Elliott looked at my sister and said, “See ya on the other side, kid.” I glanced over at my sister and thought she looked slightly calmer. I wondered if Elliott had used his green sparkling eyes of trickery to make her feel a bit more relaxed, but I didn’t have time to think about it too long before Jamie was inserting the needle into Elliott’s arm. Immediately, Elliott tensed up, his eyes closed tightly, and Brandon stepped forward, taking his dad by the arm nearest to him and leaning close to his ear. I could hear him calmly whispering, “It’s all right. It’ll be over in a minute.” I prayed he was right, and Elliott would be out soon.
It wasn’t over yet, though. Jamie had to do a second needle, just to make sure. This time, Elliott’s reaction was to turn bright red. I didn’t think he was breathing at first, and I was glad he didn’t have Brandon’s hand in his because I thought he might tear it off. There wasn’t much I could do to help, but I remembered Jamie saying it would take about two minutes for it to be over with, so I slowly began to count aloud, in as calm a voice as I could throw together, thinking if I could make it to 120 without Elliott spontaneously combusting, he would be all right. I didn’t let the idea that my sister hadn’t gone yet cross my mind. I could only handle one thing at a time.
I had reached sixty when Elliott’s face began to return to a more normal color. Though it was still a brighter pink than usual, he seemed to be calming down, and I thought he was falling asleep.
“Sorry, Cadence.” Jamie’s voice had my head spinning around, even though I continued to count. I really didn’t want to watch my sister go through what Elliott had just endured. “I really hate that I’m having to do this, and I wish I could make it stop hurting, but I’m afraid to interfere at all.” He seemed a lot more apologetic to my sister than he had been to Elliott, which I would’ve found humorous if the pressure of the situation wasn’t weighing down on me like a lead balloon.
Cadence had her head turned away from him, and it seemed like her tear-filled eyes were focused on the wall across the room. “No, it’s okay,” she assured him. My sister is one of the bravest people I know. I put myself in her place and wondered if I would be able to go through with it. Seeing her look so courageous in the face of imminent agony made me believe just maybe I could do it, too.
Aaron dropped down beside her. I couldn’t quite make out what he was saying, but it seemed to be something to help calm her down. He had her hand, and he was more like himself than I had seen him recently. Jamie pressed down on the plunger, and Cadence went rigid, sobs escaping her throat, though they were quiet, like she was trying to control them the best she could.
I could tell that Jamie didn’t want to grab that second needle. He hesitated for a moment, his head hanging low, before he finally picked it up and turned back toward my sister. By now, Elliott was out, thank goodness, and Brandon was wiping away tears, though I don’t think he wanted me to notice. My sister croaked out, “It hurts,” just as Jamie pressed down on the second plunger. There was a sickening noise of bones crunching as my sister squeezed Aaron’s hand, and I felt my stomach flip over, but he didn’t even flinch, like my sister breaking every bone in his hand was nothing. I turned to look at Brandon, whose eyes were as wide as mine, and I wondered if he would love me through shattering his hand like that and figured he would.
Tears were streaming down Cadence’s cheeks, and her eyes were squeezed tight. Aaron continued to whisper to her, not budging. Then, just when I thought she was about to fall asleep, her eyes flew open. He told her he loved her, and she seemed to calm down rapidly after that until she finally fell asleep.
I stood staring with my mouth open, wondering how he was enduring that pain without so much as a flicker in his eyes. Once Cadence was out, he pried his hand away from hers and leaned down and kissed her again, shaking his hand like he’d just hit it on the door or something minor. Brandon pulled me against his shoulder, and I realized I had tears in my eyes, too.
Jamie pulled a sheet up over Cadence before he asked Aaron, “Are you okay? I can fix that.” He gestured at Aaron’s hand which looked more than a little messed up, even from here.
“Yeah, I’m okay,” Aaron replied, but I could see that dark look filling his eyes again and thought that wasn’t true at all. Not even a little bit.
“How long do you think this will take?” Brandon asked Jamie who was cleaning up syringes and checking pulses. I guess I’d missed Jamie pulling the sheet up over Elliott because I had no recollection of it, yet my friend looked like he was taking a nap with the sheet tucked in under his chin.
“I have no idea,” Jamie admitted. “But I’d say probably less than twelve hours. The recovery rate on the samples has been that or less.” I remembered he’d done some experiments with tissue samples on both my sister and Elliott.