To Carrie it had seemed like hours before she felt the fluttering of the pulse, slower than she might have expected from the level of the temperature.
Nanci had appeared from nowhere, her silvery hair like a halo in the flaring glare of the lamps. Without a word she took over pumping on Sukie’s chest, allowing Carrie to concentrate on restarting her breathing.
Jeanne wept as Sukie suddenly whimpered, her eyes opening and staring wildly all around her. Carrie sat back on her heels and managed a watery smile. “You’re back with us, kid,” she whispered. She turned to the older woman. “Thanks, Nanci.”
“Was that the first time?”
Mac answered her. “Second. Last one was a couple of hours ago. Carrie brought her safely to us then.”
Nanci looked at Carrie. “You look seriously bushed. If you would like a rest in the other trailer, I can spell you here for a while. Give you a call if there is another emergency.” Looking down at Sukie, she added, “Though the wee one seems to be resting for the moment.”
“All right. I could sleep on a rope.”
“What is it?” said Jeanne, wiping away her tears. “It’s killing the baby.”
“Cholera?” Nanci suggested, glancing questioningly at Carrie, who was standing by the door.
“I don’t know for sure. It’s not exactly the kind of disease that you think you’ll encounter in deep space. But I think you get agonizing cramps with cholera. Paler face. My guess, and it’s only a guess, folks, is that it’s more likely to be some kind of typhoid. Moving a whole lot quicker than usual, but it’s got most of the classic symptoms.”
“Prognosis?” Nanci leaned forward and gently wiped perspiration from Sukie’s forehead.
Carrie hesitated, unable to avoid glancing first at Jeanne, then toward Mac.
“The truth,” he said very quietly. “No point in anything else, Carrie.”
“I don’t know,” she said, and added hastily, “and that’s the truth, Mac. She’s weak and young and hasn’t been eating all that well for a while.” She paused. “If you press me, then I think she might not make it. Another attack or two like this, and the reaper’ll have her tight wrapped inside his cloak.”
“Drugs?” said Nanci Simms. “Do you know what she might need if it’s a typhoid-related illness? Some kind of antibiotics to fight the sickness?”
“Good old penicillin would be better than nothing. Sukie isn’t allergic, is she?”
Jeanne and Mac looked at each other. He answered. “Angel would’ve known, Carrie. I don’t. Anyway, if someone’s burning to death, you don’t stop to worry whether she might be allergic to fucking water!”
Nanci ignored his outburst, standing up and glancing out through one of the slits in the side of the trailer. “Snowing again,” she said. “Incidentally I once worked for a sort of doctor. Learned some useful things. You know how it is. Typhoid. Chloramphenicol…Chloromycetin. Ampicillin for a carrier, not what we need here for Sukie.”
“How come you know that kind of… ?” Carrie stopped and shook her head. “Forget it, Nanci. Yeah, I’m sure you’re right. All we have to do now is find us some.”
The rest of the night was comparatively uneventful, and they were on the move again before full dawn. Jim drove the first tractor and Mac was at the wheel of the second. Sukie was still asleep, exhausted by the attacks of the night. She lay in the middle of a pile of blankets, her head in Jeanne’s lap. Carrie traveled with the McGills. The water supplies had been topped up from the fresh snowfall.
Nanci Simms tugged on the cord after a couple of miles. When they stopped, she climbed down from the trailer and squeezed herself into the cab next to Jim. Despite all the hardships, the sixty-year-old woman still contrived to look as smart and clean as though she’d just showered in her Nob Hill apartment and was off for a meal at Shang Yuen.
“I think the child will die in the next day or so. Probably slip away during the long hours of darkness, as she nearly did last night.”
Jim was moving on, trying to pick his way between two rutted, frozen patches of deep snow, and he didn’t answer for a couple of minutes. He checked the mirrors to make sure that Mac had also successfully navigated the obstacle.