When Rosa woke up in the morning she felt like all her muscles had frozen. It was very painful to get out of bed and she moaned when she fought to sit down on the toilet. Her husband, Stephen, called out to her through the closed door: "Are you hurt, did you stumble or what's wrong?"
"I don't know," she said, "it hurts and my muscles are all cramped together."
Afterwards, when she joined him in the kitchen, she felt nauseated by the sheer thought of food. "It must be the flu," she said, "and I don't think I should go to work today, also because it's contagious."
"That's OK," he said, both being her boss and her husband. "I shall get Catherine to take over for you."
Rosa hated the very idea of Catherine taking over for her as she felt that the pretty, young girl would love to take everything, including Stephen, if she got the chance. However, feeling this miserable she didn't have much extra energy to fight this solution so she didn't answer him.
Stephen knew full well that Rosa hated Catherine and he had only mentioned this solution to make her pull herself together and go to work. When she didn't take the bait he realized that she really felt miserable. - My God, he thought to himself, could she really be this ill? So it seemed as she staggered back to bed without eating anything.
As to Rosa she felt how her muscles got more an more sore as well as stiffer and stiffer by each step. When she got back to bed she couldn't keep back her tears, but tried with pain. Only that too hurt and she ended up realizing that the only solution was to be quite still, not move at all and had she been able to breathe without moving her chest she would have done so.
In the afternoon when Stephen found time to phone her he found her crying.
"I'm so glad you called," she said, "I felt too weak to phone you ..."
"So you're not better?" he asked, at little annoyed.
"No, but I sent for the doctor ... I had to, as I literally couldn't get up ... and ... I couldn't contain myself ..."
"Contain yourself? What are you talking about?"
"I couldn't help it, but peeded in bed ..."
"What?!"
"I'm sorry, but I couldn't help myself. It just happened ..."
By now it dawned upon Stephen that his wife might just be as ill as she said and that he ought to help her. It wasn't his idea of happy tidings and deep down he resented her for being this depedent upon him.
After hanging up he sat back in his chair, then he buzzed Catherine who came at once. He told her that she might have to fill in for Rosa for a week or even more as she was feeling very poorly.
Catherine's eyes glinted, her smile broadened and all her numerous charms became even more apparent. Maybe that was the first time Stephen really realized just how pretty his employée looked. Mentally he made a note of this fact and then he asked her to phone his sister-in-law, Ruth, and ask her to call him back. He had tried numerous times to himself, but in vain, and now his need for her to take over at home was so urgent that he was ready to do anything, even make a surprise-visit at her place, to do so. That was exactly what Catherine suggested, only she proposed that she went in his stead, carrying a letter from him, telling of the situation.
He agreed that that might be a good idea and after having phoned Ruth several times off she went, carrying his letter which she was to hand to her or leave at her home. Then he phoned the family doctor and asked him about the situation. It appeared that Rosa by now was so stiff in her muscles that she couldn't even turn in bed. She hadn't just had one misshap, but three or four and she was crying most of the time. All in all, the situation was chaotic as blood tests didn't tell much about the illness.
"It may be from some tick, but not one I can pinpoint for you. If she doesn't get better real soon she has to go to hospital ..."
After this phone conversation Stephen sat back, quite dumbfounded. However, what he couldn't get over was the misshaps of his otherwise so very clean and fastidious wife. Rosa peeing herself - and even worse???!!! That was quite out of character. For a very long time he sat musing the situation, hoping against hope that his sister-in-law, Ruth, might suddenly appear, full of solutions to his plight.
At the same time Catherine had found out that Ruth wasn't at home. She knocked that hard on her door that her next-door-neighbour opened his door, glancing at her with suspicion and curiosity.
"Miss Lakes isn't in," the man said, "she visits her ... fiancé ..."
That was the first Catherine heard of that and she looked bewildered at the man.
"Yes," he said, "Mr. Rogers at the second floor ... the owner of the building ..."
Catherine thanked him and then phoned Stephen to ask him what to do.
"Knock on his door and give him my letter for Charlotte ..." he suggested, very hopeful that now the helping hand he was looking for would materialize behind the door of the new boyfriend.
When Catherine knocked on the door it opened almost at once. A quite handsome and nice-looking man appeared, obviously surprised to see her. "Are you the new pizza-delivery boy ... girl ...?" he asked.
She told him why she had come and handed him the letter. The man looked annoyed and then called to Ruth inside he flat. She appeared, scantily dressed in a man's bathrobe, but wearing a big, happy smile on a face that suddenly looked much prettier.
When she had opened the letter and read it, she threw it on the floor and stamped her foot. "Typical!" she exclaimed. "That super-egoist! How could she fall for someone like that?"
Then she pulled herself together and said, matter-of-factly: "My sister has got the flu or something like that and she needs me. Sorry, Jack, I can't stay and I don't know when I shall get back ..."
The man looked disappointed, but just hugged her and then reminded her that she was still wearing his bathrobe. Something which didn't make her blush, but only turned her a little pink in the cheeks.
On their to see Rosa Catherine told Ruth what she knew about the situation. "I think the doctor told Mr. Carrington that she would have to go to the hospital, but that she - or he - didn't want to ..."
"That will be him," Charlotte said in an angry tone of voice, "not her. She is much too wise to fight this without help from experts."
"But it's only the flu ..."
"Hmmm - well, the flu doesn't leave one more or less paralyzed ..."
"Paralyzed?! I didn't know that ..."
Shortly after they pulled up in front of the Carrington-house. Within they found chaos. The doctor was back and so was a nurse that he had called. Poor Rosa was still lying in bed, by now stiff as a board, in diapers. Her two scared eyes told about pain and terror at this situation. By now she couldn't speak anymore as the muscles in her face and throat had stiffened too.
Ruth cast one glance at her, then she started to cry. Catherine, who didn't even like Rosa, also fet the tears trickling down her cheeks. When Ruth went over to hug her poor, prostrate sister she moaned with pain. She and Catherine decided to leave her and sat down in the sitting-room to talk to the doctor.
"We can see from blood tests that Mrs. Carrington may have been bitten by some kind of tick, but we don't know which one or how dangerous it is. Hopefully she shall recover soon, but we don't know yet what shall happen. I'm going to either leave Nurse Williams with Mrs. Carrington or have her committed to hospital. That depends on the decision of Mr. Carrington."
"To me she looks positively petrified," Charlotte said.
"Yes, and it may even be worse than it seems. She really is unable to move as much as a muscle and nobody knows what's happening to her inner organs..."
"I'm her sister," Ruth said, "and I want her committed to hospital at once."
The doctor nodded and then phoned Stephen, but he declined. He was very disappointed that Ruth didn't just go and save her sister or at least take over for him. Actually, he even thought of leaving town on some business-pretext as he simply didn't want to face either Ruth, Rosa or Catherine right now. However, he ended up going home an hour after this phone conversation. By that time the situation had changed totally: Rosa had died and Ruth was beyond herself with grief. She didn't accuse him of anything, but he felt her contempt as something tangible although unspoken.
Some weeks after the funeral Ruth and her boyfriend, Jack, came to collect whatever she wanted from the belongings of her late sister. Stephen wasn't at home and although on speaking terms they hadn't met after the funeral. When Ruth dug into the vast mass of clothes, shoes, handbags and even jewels of Rosa she was nearly bitten by some strange and unknown critter. She stared at the insect and it stared back at her, the front legs lifted as if it wanted to hug her.
At first she didn't know what it could be, then it dawned upon her: This was the culprit, the murderer of her sister. She grabbed a shoe, ready to smash it when it dived into Stephen's end of the wardrobe. Here it sat, once more with lifted fore legs, and for a while they just stared at each other. Then Ruth's face turned into a mask of innocence as she slowly closed the door on the insect, careful not to crush it ...
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Originally Posted On Site: 2009-12-21 17:56:52
Last Login: 05.24.12
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