The campus infirmary had been silent for many hours as the two patients slept. Abby leaned against the side of the building, letting out soft breaths as she slept. Jim sat in the bed, near-silent himself, and next to him sat Sarah. The dedicated nurse had been studying the man’s body for many of those hours. The entire night, she was worried about the story she’d been told. There were so many things that could go wrong as a result of this incident with Fran. Were the correct people informed of this, it could drastically change the progress the government was making as they tried to reintegrate Larges into Minor society.
Aside from the implications from the media, she was also worried about this man’s own reactions to what had happened. To be hired at a University and hurt like this by one of the Larges on campus…It had to have been traumatizing for him. Even if someone was used to being around the larger folks, having them kidnap you and hurt you would likely be too much for any Minor to handle. The very idea of how much power they had over you would be frightening when you realize that they not only have the power, but intend to use it for their own means.
Sarah was no psychiatrist, but she was mentally trying to imagine how the man was going to handle all of this. Were he to wake up before the rest of the staff’s campus arrived, it would be up to her to help him begin his recovery from this incident, both physically and mentally. She let out a deep sigh as she thought about all of this, not really wanting to have to go through all of this. As much as she would hate to admit it, all of the night’s events were starting to scare her. What Fran had done, the risk to the entire university, it was all frightening.
She slowly brushed her hand on Jim’s head as she continued to examine him and think about all of these things. His head was, surprisingly, around room temperature at the time. His skin felt soft against her bare hands, and she felt goosebumps forming on her arm. As she pulled her arm away, she looked at his shirt. Within a pocket was a small card. Curiosity filling her up, she pulled the card out and took a look at it. It was a small business-type card used for identification. It had a picture of him on it and read “Jim King”.
Upon reading the last name “King”, Sarah felt some sort of familiarity. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but she felt like she’d heard the name “King” before, recently even. As she slipped the card back into the pocket, she sat back against her chair, arms crossed, and tried to think about the name. As she sat there, she kept muttering it to herself, almost in a chant-like form. “King…King…King…where did I hear that?” As she chanted further and further, she slowly found herself dozing off and falling asleep.
Sarah slowly opened her eyes to the sunlight from the window. Her eyes began to blink as the sleepy feeling she’d had was slowly moving out of her. Shaking her head a little, she looked forward, seeing the side of Abby’s face next to the window, eyes shut and sleeping like a baby. In front of her was Jim, still unconscious from the sedative and she opened her mouth, letting out a long, deep yawn. It took her a moment before she’d realized that it was morning.
Her head immediately flinched; eyes opening wide as she felt something touch her right shoulder. Her gaze shifted to the right to see the infirmary’s secretary by her side. Blinking a few times, she spoke to her when she got the strength, asking her what she was doing in the room with her and her patient. The secretary then began to talk about how she’d come in that morning, only to find her, asleep, with a patient in one bed, and a rather tall patient laying outside, against the building. Sarah blinked again and looked over towards her two patients as she heard the secretary’s words.
The secretary then went on to talk about the card in Jim’s shirt pocket. Sarah, apparently, wasn’t the only staff at the University who was curious about things like that. She said she’d gotten his name from the card and had found his home address and phone number. Realizing that he was injured, she’d called his home and informed his wife of his injuries, explaining why he hadn’t come home that night. All of this was going somewhat over Sarah’s head as she was still half-asleep at the time. The next statement, however, would bring her from dreamland into reality in no time at all.
“I contacted his wife and informed her of the situation. She seemed a bit frustrated and nearly yelled into the phone, claiming she was going to visit the campus sometime today to see how her husband was doing. Ruby King sure is a strange one.”
Sarah’s entire face felt ice-cold for a split-second as she heard the secretary’s words. Those two words, the name, had pierced through Sarah and filled her body with an icy-cold shiver like no other. Her fear was rising higher and higher as she thought about the name and finally realized why the name “King” had sounded so familiar to her. She gave the secretary a concerned looking, asking her to repeat the name. Without hesitation, the secretary repeated the name ‘Ruby King’. Sarah’s hands immediately curled into fists, slightly shaking at the realization of what had happened while she was asleep.
She began to think to herself about this matter. ‘Ruby King…I knew I remembered that name from somewhere. My brother, who works as a ‘spy’ of sorts in the ranks of the AL Activist group once mentioned her name. She was an extremist who hated Larges with a passion. She had been a new recruit for the organization when he’d told me about her. That couldn’t have been more than a week ago. If Ruby King is coming to campus to see how this man is doing…we could be in a lot of trouble’.
Sarah began to take deep breaths, holding her hand against her heart as she looked back at her secretary. The two locked gazes for a few moments before Sarah’s face went red and she started to sweat. Looking at the secretary still, she told her to go back down to the office, and that she wished to be paged when Ruby King arrived at the infirmary to see her husband. The secretary simply nodded in agreement and left the room.
Sarah looked back at Jim’s sleeping body and put both of her palms into her forehead, colleting the droplets of sweat that had formed there. She let out another sigh and whispered to herself. “What am I going to do? A member of the AL is coming here to see her husband badly injured. How do I handle this without letting out that a Large was responsible for this?”