The Nation 06

The Nation

"Hey," Cammy smiled. "I thought you were just going to go on sleeping forever."

Beth levered her arms down to scoot up in the bed and nearly banged the stump of her arm against the side of the bed before Cammy stopped her.

"Honey... Honey... Your arm. You have to be careful," Cammy told her. She took her under the arms and lifted her gently back into the pillows.

"Oh God," Beth whispered through her dry lips as she stared down at the stump of her arm. "Somebody chopped off the rest of my arm." Her eyes came up to Cammy's own.

"Honey, Sandy had to take it. It was infected," Cammy told her. She gently pushed her back into the pillows. Sandy appeared over her shoulder with a wooden cup of water. Cammy took it and helped Beth to take a sip. "Easy, Honey, just go slow," she told her.

Beth cleared her throat and took a larger sip. "Oh my God... I have such a bad headache. Kind of sick to my stomach too."

Sandy took her hand, and her fingers rested lightly against her wrist for a moment, feeling for her pulse. "The stomach is a couple of things, most likely. I have no idea when the last time you ate is, but I would bet it's been a few days. Pain killers and penicillin on an empty stomach are tough. I gave you a sports drink when I could get you to swallow, but you need real food. The headache is probably the morphine. You've been living on it the last few days. I can give you some aspirin for that."

"She told me I couldn't have aspirin," Beth said as she looked at Cammy. "Said I had to have the Morphine." She licked her lips for what seemed like an hour and then took another deep sip from the glass Cammy still held.

"She wouldn't take it at first, true," Cammy agreed with a laugh.

"Said I had balls... Thinks I don't remembner... Rember," she sighed.

Cammy laughed. "Remember... Remember, Honey. Yes. I asked you if you had balls," she turned to Sandy and her arched eyebrows. "She wanted to take only aspirin after Bear took her arm off."

Beth nodded. "I did. She talked me into Morphine, and now look at this... I woke up with the rest of it gone too."

"Only from the elbow down," Sandy said. "You're lucky."

Beth tried a lopsided smile on and then took another sip of the cold water.

"Listen, Honey, you needed the Morphine. You still do, really, and you can still have it if you want it. It just plays hell with your body when you've been on it a few days," Sandy told her.

Beth took a deeper sip that was more like a real drink. "That is really good water," she said.

Cammy and Sandy both laughed. "How about a sandwich, soup, broth? What do you think you can handle?" Sandy asked her.

"I think I can handle some more water," Beth said.

"I'm sure you can. And you need liquid. I just want there to be some nourishment in it," Sandy told her.

"Hot anything doesn't sound good. My stomach is still off," Beth said.

"How about some cooled beef broth? Soup? Doesn't have to be hot," Sandy agreed.

Beth swallowed, took a deeper drink of the cold water and nodded.