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She shrugged.

"Oh well. I'll do the best I can."

She turned me so she could slip her hands under my arms and then she tugged, dragging me off the bed. My legs fell like logs to the floor, nearly pulling her over, but she steadied herself and then straightened with surprising strength.

I don't know where I found the strength. but I turned and twisted, trying to break out of her grip. She held on firmly and began slowly, but steadily to back up toward the bathroom, my feet bounced limply over the floor as she dragged me along.

"No," I cried.

"Now, now, now, you have to be cleaned up. What a mess you are? You don't want anyone seeing you like this, do you?"

"Please, stop."

My panic grew frenzied when we passed through the bathroom doorway. She had developed strong momentum now. In a desperate move to keep her from putting me in the tub of water. I reached out for the edge of the sink and gasped it firmly, far more firmly and rapidly than she had ever anticipated. Her rearward motion continued, but the abrupt stop broke her grip under my arms and I felt her fall backwards, away from me.

My upper body, now unsupported, dropped to the floor hard and the back of my head slammed on the tile, nearly knocking me unconscious. I heard her short scream, which was more like a muffled curse and turned my head just in time to see her go over the edge of the tub, slap the side of her head sharply against the long, decorative brass faucet and then seemingly slide gracefully into the water with barely the sound of a small splash. From my angle on the floor. I couldn't tell what she was doing, but her legs lifted and then fell over the outside of the tub as the remainder of her body disappeared below the tub's edge.

I groaned and turned on my stomach. My head spun, my eyes feeling as if they were falling back into my skull. I fought losing consciousness and reached up for the toilet bowl. I was running on pure determination. Every iota of energy had seeped from my broken, languid body with its bones barely holding it together. Yet. I managed to somehow pull myself up so that I could gaze over the side of the bathtub and look down at her.

I saw her floating just under the water, her eyes closed, small bubbles evacuating her nostrils and her lips like sailors fleeing a sinking ship. There was a thin but steady flow of blood from her right temple and I saw blood on the faucet as well. Strands of hair rose toward the surface as if they wanted to pull the rest of her up. The blow had obviously knocked her unconscious.

Suddenly, my arms collapsed and I fell back to the floor. My stomach tightened and the tightening climbed up to my chest, making it almost impossible for me to breathe. I reached out limply for her left ankle, grasped it and made a vain attempt to pull her up and out of the tub. I had barely enough energy to lift the ankle a few inches. My fingers slipped off her skin and my arm dropped to my side.

The struggle to prevent her from dragging me in and the effort it had taken to lift myself to look at her in the tub had taken all my remaining energy. I groaned and then sucked in a deep breath just before all went black.

It seemed like the floor beneath me was rattling the way it would if the house was caught in an earthquake. It continued for another moment until I was able to open my eyelids, which felt stuck together. My vision was cloudy, but slowly a silhouette took shape. I could hear a muffled distorted voice and then the silhouette cleared and became Austin and I heard him calling my name. He had been shaking my shoulders.

"Rain, wake up. Rain, c'mon. sweetheart. Wake up. baby. Wake up."

"Austin," I whispered.

"What went on here? There's an ambulance on the way," he said before I could even try to respond. "and the police, too. I had to run all over this house to find a phone that works."

As he spoke, he wrapped a blanket around me snugly and then he lifted me off the floor and held me in his arms. I dropped my head against his chest and closed my eyes. I must have passed out again because when I opened my eyes this time. I was in an ambulance. The attendant was hovering over me after just having inserted an IV.

"Hey," he said. "How you doin'?"

"What's happening to me?"

"You're on the way to the hospital. Just relax and let us do all the work. That's why we let all those big wages," he said and someone behind him laughed.

I closed my eyes again, lulled by the sense of movement and the comfort of the stretcher. For the moment I couldn't think; I didn't want to think. When we arrived at the hospital. I felt myself being moved and didn't open my eyes again until I was in an examination room.

"She's completely dehydrated," I heard someone say.

"Infection," someone else added.

"Get her upstairs," the first voice said.

My body felt like a sack being turned and moved, rolled along and lifted until I was snug in a hospital bed, the blanket up to my chin. I slept on and off, finally waking and holding my eyes open for an extended time. Sunlight basked the white walls and tile floor. I turned my head to the right and saw Austin asleep in a chair, his head down until his chin touched his collar bone.

"Austin," I called. "Austin."

Slowly, he raised his head and opened his eyes. When he realized I had called him and I was awake, he

literally leaped out of the seat and to my side.

"Rain, how are you?"