Chapter 13

Josiphina

Pain. Surging pain.

Every minute passed, and I wasn’t sure if it was increasing or decreasing. But it was there.

I felt something else too. Confusion. Why was David here? Is this his house? What were all those other boys doing there? Who was the deathly familiar man behind him? Who shot me? Why?

My eyes opened to slits. My vision was blurry, but I could make out two women standing in front of me. They were both wearing what looked like white uniforms, but I wasn’t for certain. They were whispering closely together and pointing at me. No, they were pointing to my shin. The wound, I remembered.

Pain flooded back to me. I then saw a third woman. She was getting blurrier by the second, and soon it looked as if their were a ghost bent over my wound…

...stitching it.

Then I felt second sensational pain as needle poked into flesh. It was too overwhelming. My eyes closed again.

There was a handsome young man staring down at me It must be a dream. If I looked hard enough I could see a smile hidden under his mask of worry. His face looked familiar, but everything was still blurry.

I tried to smile, but I couldn’t.

The man leaned forward, and I felt something new. Hope. Would he? Yes, he would. He kissed me on the cheek.  This is a pleasant dream.

Chapter 14

David

The kiss did feel right, I decided.

I pulled back and smiled. I couldn’t decide if it would be better to kiss her when she wouldn’t remember, or when she wouldn’t get mad at me. So, I decided to as soon as I saw the slightest trace of a smile cross her lips.

    I guess I kissed her because she was beautiful, because she was perfect, because…

    “Why did you do that.” The voice behind me was Josh’s. I hadn’t realized he was there.

    I thought harder for a moment.

    “She’s one of us.”

    I couldn’t sleep that night. Maybe it was because cots are not that comfortable. Maybe it was because a shed is a little scary at night. But I think it was because I couldn’t get over why the government would put an innocent girl in so much danger.

Sure I knew now that she was a spy, but they should’ve sent the S.W.A.T. team to deliver something as dangerous and as wanted as that package.

CJ wouldn’t tell me what was in it even though I asked precisely 153 times. He said he couldn’t even trust me with that information. He said that someone would kill for that box. I was afraid someone had tried.

I layed in the safe house on a cot next to the bed where Josiphina was. Looking at her mask of no emotion, several emotions rushed to meet me.

Anger. I was angry at the nurses for not numbing her wound before stitching it. They said they only had a little medicine left, and weren’t going to use it on someone that wasn’t even conscious. I argued that if she even slipped into consciousness for a second, the pain would be so overwhelming it could kill her.

Guilt. I felt guilty for not arguing back. Of even saying that they should give her poppy...morphine...anything.

Misery. Someone had shot her. Because of the stupid box. She might never wake up. Because of the stupid spy training camp.

Wonder. What if I would have opened the door a second sooner and pulled her inside?

Tears started pouring down my face again, and I wondered if I would cry myself to sleep.

Turns out I did, because the next thing I knew, sunlight was streaming in through the one-and-only window in the shed-like safe house. I stood and walked over to where Josiphina was sleeping. Or not.

She was laying there smiling at me. Her eyes were open. Those perfect shining eyes. But, her expression changed when I stood over her. Something like...understanding?

“That was you?”

“Uhhh I-”

She pulled my face down to hers and kissed me.

On the mouth.

“Yes,” she said as I pulled away “that was you.”

She must of saw the look of confusion of my face, because she explained.

“The handsome young man in my dream last night.”

So she did remember.