CHAPTER 69
It’s like I’m on one of those stupid pirate ship rides at a cheap carnival, and I’m ready to get off. I can’t take this incessant back and forth, back and forth a minute longer. One second my daughter’s fine. She’s improving. Her fever’s down. The next minute some middle-aged chain-smoking nurse who’s nearly bursting out of her scrubs is telling me it’s time to think about the ventilator again.
I’m holding Natalie. The charge nurse, Miss Skinny, said if I keep her against my chest and focus on taking deep breaths myself, it can help. Don’t ask me how. The problem’s in my daughter’s lungs, not mine. This is New Age bunk if you ask me, but I’m not about to leave my daughter alone in that oversized crib. Not when she’s this sick.
Now that she’s against me, I can feel how hard he
