Cindy knew all too well how far away Brenda Redmond’s apartment was. Last year her boyfriend had lived in that same module, so she got to know just how long it took to get between them, especially at an hour like this, when the airlocks weren’t likely to be busy.
Except it never felt this long when she was walking back from studying with Ray and his friends. Cindy checked her phone yet again, realized that all of three minutes had gone by — yet it felt like forever.
All the time, Kitty was getting more and more updates from Amy down in Houston. From the tenor of those texts, things were getting worse rapidly. Cindy wondered if she should text Brenda again and ask how far she had gotten.
And then the doorbell chimed. Cindy hit the doorbell app on her phone, saw Brenda waving at the camera.
At least here it was all of three steps from chair to door. Brenda was breathing pretty hard, which suggested she’d taken some of the corridors at a run, pausing to rest only while she cycled through the module airlocks.
Cindy summarized everything that had happened since their last text. Brenda’s expression grew steadily more and more concerned.
“This doesn’t sound good. Have either of them been able to hold down any liquids?”
Kitty typed the question into her phone. After a moment, she looked up. “Amy says they just keep throwing everything back up.”
“Not good at all. I think she’d better call 911. Do you know if she has any other family in the area, or a friend’s place where she could stay?”
More typing, and then Kitty looked up. “Her best friend lives on the other side of the subdivision.”
“Thank heaven for best friends.” Brenda took a deep breath. “Kitty, I need you to have Amy text her friend and and let her know her parents may need to come over and pick up Amy and any siblings. Then I need Amy to call 911 and tell the dispatch operator that both her parents are sick and showing signs of severe dehydration. It’s important she does it in that order, because once she calls 911, the dispatch operator will need her to stay on the line, so she won’t want to have to switch between phone and messaging apps.”
“OK, I’ll tell her that.”
Brenda turned back to Cindy, keeping her voice low. “How are you feeling?”
Cindy took stock of her own emotional state. “OK, I guess.”
“You guess? If you’re not sure, I can stay here as long as you two need me.”
“Thanks.”