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She bit her lip nervously. “You don’t know what you’re inviting into your home, Lucian. You’ve never seen someone go through withdrawal before, watching them tear at their skin because everything is agony. She’ll soil your home and be so far out of her head she won’t care about shitting on your sheets or vomiting on your carpet. What do you plan to do when she comes clawing at you like a feral animal because she resents all of your help and would rather die than live with it? She doesn’t want a sober life. She’d choose death first. I know it.”
“Do you think I’d blame you for her actions when she’s sick? I don’t care if it’s a thankless, uphill, unending battle. I’m not letting you do this alone.”
Several agonizing seconds ticked by like fortnights. The scratch of Vivian scribbling something down on a pad of paper was the only sound as he stared challengingly into Evelyn’s tired eyes. He turned when Vivian touched his sleeve. She handed him a script.
“This is the name of a clinic outside of the city. Tell them I sent you and I’m sure you’ll have no problem getting her in. It’s pricy, but I doubt that will be an issue. She won’t be ready to move for at least three days. Maybe seven. She’s going to have to want to be clean or even the best facility, doctors, sponsors, and all the support in the world won’t help her. There are teas she can take. I’ll have a messenger send some over. She probably won’t eat for a few days. When she does, start light, dry toast, soft eggs. Nothing too heavy. You have my number if you need anything.”
There wasn’t much time to talk after Vivian left. It seemed the moment the door closed, a tornado of misery unleashed within the walls of the condo. Evelyn went right into action, her weak body obviously struggling to endure far past the point of her own exhaustion in order to be there for her mother.
Pearl carried on for hours without allowing Evelyn a moment’s respite. She screamed and feebly fought Evelyn back. It occurred to him the woman did not recognize her daughter. She often cried and called for Scout, rejecting Evelyn’s touch, calling her vile names, and accusing her of killing her baby.
She was out of her head, and he worried that perhaps she suffered from more than destroyed brain cells and hard living. This couldn’t be just from drugs. There had to be some level of dementia happening here.
Pearl’s endurance outlasted even his own. He ordered several linens and soaps up and it seemed they’d fallen through a rabbit hole into a world of revolving ups and downs, Evelyn as poor desolate Alice, Pearl the Mad Hatter, and he the frightened rabbit. He consistently caught himself standing back, watching as Evelyn carried on, tapping into an empty well of energy and putting effort forth to ease her mother’s mind and discomfort. There was no peace in the hours that followed.
Evelyn’s affection for such a hateful, spiteful person amazed him. She simply accepted Pearl’s behavior with stoic grace. Lucian knew he could never be as humble as she was in those horrid moments. He knew, even his mother whom he’d loved dearly, could not treat him as Pearl treated Evelyn and continue to be a part of his life. How Evelyn did not snap or retaliate left him speechless. He was completely inexperienced with such raw humanity.
Pearl shivered and glared as Evelyn bathed her with a damp cloth, cooling her sweltering, fevered skin as her temperature reached frightening heights. He feared many times they’d lose her, no matter what Vivian had said. Minutes felt like days, hours like years, and there was not an end in sight.
It wasn’t until long after the sun had set and begun to rise that Pearl had finally exhausted herself. Evelyn was a shell of carbon and flesh, barely holding herself upright. In the corner sat a pile of wasted linens he knew would have to go directly to the incinerator.
Pearl fell back with a weak sigh that didn’t fit her intrepid fight. He waited, skeptically, for her to rouse once more. Convinced her shattered mind substituted itself with an unstoppable will, when her breath leveled out, he remained. But she only slept. The forgotten clock told him twenty-six hours had passed since they arrived back at the condo. He had thought he’d rescued them from the depths of hell, yet now he was convinced he had brought the devil into his home.
Evelyn slipped into the chair like a wilted flower. Her vacant eyes still wouldn’t leave Pearl’s face. She seemed a delicate soul, barely held together by withered threads, yet the set of her shoulders told him she would rally again if her mother needed her. Her fortitude baffled him. He was exhausted, but she wouldn’t give up her stoic vigil.
