Radiant Read Free

out the explosions and zombies screaming from above. She finally turned off the TV and hiked up to the roof.
    The telescope was gone, but the plastic lounge chair was still in the same place Mary had left it the day before. She lay down on it and watched as the sky turned deeper shades of blue and purple. The first stars started to come out. When she was younger, Mary used to think that each star was an angel assigned to watch over a human on Earth. But when Mom started working at the hospital and Mary saw all the suffering there, she wondered why the angels weren't doing their jobs. Then she learned in school that stars were actually massive balls of burning gas far away, and all the magic was gone by then.
    Her mind turned to Carter, who had been moved to the intensive care unit not long after the doctors had successfully revived him. The stars had definitely not watched out for him yesterday. If Mary hadn't seen him crying, he probably would've been stuck in the morgue and died then. Before Mary and Mom left the hospital, Mr. Romero came to talk with them once more.
    "Thank you," he had told Mary.
    For what? Carter had been on that emergency table in the first place because of her. Pain started growing up her leg and her bruised side. But Mary didn't want to choke down more meds just yet, so she curled up on her good side. And in a way, she felt like she deserved to be in pain for what happened to Carter.
    W hy had he saved her, she wondered. Why had he risked his life doing it? How many bones had he broken? Would he be able to walk? Did he have brain damage? What if he was a vegetable? Or what if he never woke again?
    She felt like crying again. But as usual, tears didn't come.
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- 4 -
    Crimson
    Mary stayed home from school for the rest of the week. On Saturday morning, Mom finally allowed her to go out. "You want me to come with you?" Mom asked.
    " I'll be fine. Just visiting Ba," Mary said. The more she sat around doing nothing, the more she thought about Carter in the hospital, which tempted Mary to iron her own hands from guilt. "Besides, you need sleep. You've just come off a monster shift. Why did you work so long?"
    Mom lowered herself into a chair at the kitchen table. "It's this new patient, Scotty. He was having some trouble last night and we were short staffed, so I stayed."
    Mary 's mother worked in the kids' cancer ward. The kids there were the kindest and bravest kids Mary had ever met, and it was always a big deal when some of them got better and were able to go home. The nurses would throw going away parties. But then there were the ones who didn't get to go home. That was always hard.
    Mom rubbed her eyes. "Sometimes I wonder what good we're doing. Some live. Some don't. All of them suffer."
    Mary didn't know what to say. She never knew what to say in times like this, when she wanted to offer words of comfort and couldn't. Instead, she put her arms around her mother's shoulders.
    "Thanks, honey," Mom said.
    "Promise you'll rest and eat?" Mary asked.
    "Yes, doctor," Mom said. "Now go on. Say hi to Ba for me."
    "Will do." Mary kissed her on the cheek. "Oh, I need a new sketch pad and some paint. Can I have some money?"
    "Where's your allowance?" Mom asked.
    "I bought a brush with it," Mary said.
    Mom raised an eyebrow. "All of it? What's this brush made of? Unicorn hair?"
    "Well, no," Mary said uneasily. She didn't buy things like clothes and makeup often. But when it came to art supplies, it was hard not to get the good stuff.
    Mom shook her head as she opened her wallet and took out some cash. "Here. This is an advance on next week's allowance."
    "Thanks." Mary stowed the money in her bag and picked up her wide portfolio carrier before she left. She'd taken art classes in school for years, but she learned how to paint from her grandmother, Ba. Painting was their favorite thing to do whenever Mary came to visit.
    Riding the bus again was a little eerie. All the noises—the