The Order of Brigid's Cross - The Wild Hunt (Book 1): The Wild Hunt Read Free Page A

nodding approvingly. She
started to lower herself into her chair when her breath caught and she started
to cough.
    “Grandma, you okay?” he asked, dropping his jacket and hurrying
to her side.
    She nodded, but the coughing continued.   He could see she was having trouble
breathing. She’d had these spells before, but it seemed to him that they were
getting more frequent and more severe.   He panicked when he noticed that her coloring around her mouth was
getting grayish, a sign the doctor had told him meant she wasn’t getting enough
oxygen. “Where’s your medicine?” he demanded, more frightened than he’d ever
been in his life.
    She weakly raised her arm and pointed to the cabinet over
the stove.   Rushing over, he pulled the
dark bottle off the shelf and yanked the silverware drawer out, picking up a
spoon.   Running back to her, he opened
the bottle and poured some of the dark brown elixir on the spoon.
    “Okay, Grandma, you gotta hold
still, just for a second.”
    She tried to muffle the coughing, but her body still shook
with small spasms.   Holding her chin like
the doctor had shown him, he steadied her mouth and poured the spoonful
down.   Then he put the spoon down and
held her frail body in his arms. “It’s okay,” he whispered. “You just have to
take those deep breaths the doctor showed you.”
    He felt her tremble in his arms, and he held her
tighter.   Finally, she drew in a deep
breath and the coughing stopped. Slowly lowering her back into the chair, he
settled her down and then stepped back to get a good look at her.   The greyish coloring seemed to be receding and
her breathing was steady. “You okay?”
    She nodded and smiled, although tear tracks still stained her
cheeks. “I’m better,” she wheezed. “Don’t know what I woulda done if you hadn’t been here.”
    He thought about the window, and his stomach knotted. But he
looked at her and smiled.   “Guess those
whispers of yours are watching over you,” he said. “Why don’t you go to bed?
I’ll roll the television in there, and you can watch it until you fall asleep.”
    “Now, boy, I don’t cotton with those people what got TVs in
every room of their house,” she said. “ Ain’t natural to have those boxes speaking to you wherever you go.”
      He put his arm around
her and helped her from her chair. “Well, I think we can do it this one time.
Just so you can watch your show and rest,” he suggested. “That okay?”
    She stepped forward and was surprised she had to lean on
him. “I suppose for one night it ain’t going to do no
harm,” she agreed.
    He walked her to her room. “Do you need any help?” he asked.
    “At the point I need you to help me get ready for bed,
that’s just about when you can pack me up and send me to an old folks’ home,”
she said, grabbing on to the edge of her dresser for support. “You just give me
a few minutes to wash up, and I’ll call you when I’m ready for the television.”
    Backing out of her room, he nodded. “Yeah, you just call me
when you’re ready.”
    He walked over to the television cart and rolled it away
from the wall.   Unplugging the old
television, he wondered if there would ever be a time when they had a new, thin
screen that could be mounted on the wall. He shrugged. It didn’t really make a
difference since they couldn’t afford cable.
    He pushed the cart across the old, shag carpeting and
stopped outside her bedroom, then perched on the arm of a chair until she
called.   Glancing over, he saw that it
was already nine o’clock.   Well, there
was nothing he could do about it. Besides, he thought, a throw down should last
at least an hour. I’ll be there. I’ll just be the reinforcements.
    “Jamal,” his grandmother’s voice came from behind the door.
“I’m ready now.”
    He opened her door and pushed the television in so it sat
alongside her bed. Then he bent and plugged it in. “This a good place for it?”
he asked.
    She nodded