As Rachel was kneeling by the bathtub, she was worrying more and more for Samantha as the time passed by.  Although the girl had a steady heartbeat, her breathing was all wrong.  Every breath sounded like wheezing, and she would cough off and on during that wheezing.  Her head was incredibly warm and sweating, not to mention the tears that were running down her face.  Rachel wasn’t sure if this had all been caused by whatever punctured her stomach or not, but the fact was that her friend was in bad shape, and might get worse.

Rachel stood up and walked over towards the sink.  Above it was a mirror that doubles as the door to a medicine cabinet.  Opening up the cabinet, she reached into the side of the actual mirror and grabbed a wash cloth from a hanger that had been screwed onto it.  Laying the wash cloth open in her left hand, she held it under the sink’s faucet and drew some ice-cold water over it.  She scrunched up the towel and moved it as it began to soak up the water.  After being satisfied that the entire thing was drenched, she shut the water off.

After squeezing extra water out of the wash cloth, Rachel walked back over to the tub and slowly got back into her kneeling position.  Leaning over the top of the tub, she grabbed the wash cloth with both hands and stretched it out.  She softly laid it on top of Samantha’s hair and forehead, hoping it would help cool her off and bring down her temperature.  Although she didn’t really know if it would work, she wanted to try it anyways.  She didn’t know what to do to help her friend, and she had to try anything she could. 

“Samantha…I want to help you.  This mess might be my fault…” whispered Rachel as she looked down at Samantha and began to think about when this incident had occurred.  Whatever happened to the girl had to have happened between the time Rachel had left the bed room and the time she heard Samantha screaming when she was about to walk out the door.  Rachel knew it happened when she wasn’t around, and began to blame herself for it. 

“If only…if only I hadn’t made up excuses to keep you up here.  If only I’d opened up to her from the start and wanted to spend more time with you.  If I’d only done that, you wouldn’t be in this mess right now.  Please, Samantha…I want to help you get better.  I want to keep you safe from now on.  Please forgive me…”

Rachel’s eyes started to water as she looked down at Samantha’s weak form.  As she looked, she saw her flowing hair, her skinny figure, and her soft, pale skin.  As she stared into her face, she started getting a nervous feeling in her gut.  She realized that Samantha was a very beautiful young girl.  All she wanted was a friend, a roommate.  As Rachel thought back, she realized how overjoyed Samantha was when they’d met and how eager she was to help her out and make her feel at home.  She even came in and held her the night before when a bad memory came into her mind…

“She…she’s done so much for me in the past day.  All she wanted was a friend to care for, and how did I repay her?  I made up lies and excuses to get outside on my own, and got her into this mess.  I have to set things right somehow, but I don’t even know what was wrong with her.  If only I knew someone who was knowledgeable about medicine and sickness…Oh!”

When she heard her own words as she spoke them, an answer to the situation immediately popped into her head.  She wasn’t very knowledgeable about medicine and sickness.  She would need to find someone who was, and she knew one person who did, her mother. 

“Mom’s got a Pharmacy Technician certification!  She’s got all kinds of medical supplies at home.  Surely, she’d be able to get up here and help Samantha out.  I may not know a lot about medicine, but she does.”

Quickly dashing out of the bathroom, Rachel ran for her bed in the bedroom.  Nearly throwing herself onto the ground, she pulled out one of the suitcases she’d unpacked the night before and started digging through its pockets.  After a minute or so, she found something and pulled it out.  Smiling as her tears were beginning to run down her own cheek, she quickly opened up the object, her cell phone.  She immediately ran back into the bathroom as she dialed her mom’s number.  She kneeled back down by Samantha as she waited for the phone to ring on the other end.

Eve was sitting in her recliner at home, reading through a small medical terminology book, enjoying her afternoon.  As the ceiling fan blew down on her, the long hair that came down from her head was swaying, from her forehead and all the way down to the curves over her breasts.  Taking deep breaths as she was reading, she slowly sipped from a small cup of tea when her phone began to ring.

“Huh?  The phone?” she asked herself, confused.  Her house rarely ever got phone calls, and when they did, it was mostly just people trying to get information in the form of surveys or telemarketers.  The phone rang a couple times before she uncrossed her legs and set her cup of tea down.  Still looking at her book, her right hand extended and picked up a small, cordless phone.

She brought the phone up to her face and stared down at the digital display, hoping the Caller ID would tell her who it was.  As she looked, she smiled when she saw the name “Rachel Dim – Wireless Caller” appear on the display.  She figured that it was her daughter, calling to tell her how she had been her first night in the new home and with her new roommate.  She quickly tapped the “Call” button to answer the phone and brought it up to her ear.  “Rachel, honey!  How are you doing with your n-“

Eve was cut off by Rachel’s voice as it came through the phone’s speaker.  Her voice was cracking and you could hear small whimpers and sniffles in the background as she talked.  She said a single word that pierced Eve’s spirit, ‘M-m-mom?”  The tone and effect of her voice told Eve one thing.  Something was terribly wrong with her.  She was crying through the phone.  Immediately dropping her book to the floor, she retracted her feet to the bottom of the chair and stood herself up.

“Rachel, what’s wrong?”

Rachel tried to get her statement out, but was tearing up more as she heard her mother’s voice.  Her voice came through to Eve cracked again, and it sounded like she was having trouble talking. 

“M-Mom!  Please…Please…I need your help.  It’s all my fault…I need you…”

Eve began to pace around the room as she listened to the crying voice of her daughter.  She couldn’t figure out what was wrong, but she apparently was saddened by something she’d done or at least thought that she’d done.  She slowly talked into the voice, in as clear and soft tone as she could muster, trying to calm her daughter down and get the information she needed.

“Honey, I don’t understand what you’re saying.  Please, tell Mommy what happened.  Tell me how I can help you.  Did something happen to you at that new house?”

Eve heard a lot of sniffling and crying through the phone, but Rachel soon tried to stop herself and told her that she’d try to tell her what happened.  As the conversation went on, she let out small segments of statements.  “She’s…she’s hurt.  It’s all…all my fault!  I…I’m not good with…medical stuff and illness.  She’s overheating…cut wounds…I shouldn’t have left her alone!  Please…I need your help, Mom!”

At this point, Rachel stopped talking entirely and went back to crying into the phone.  Eve’s hand was partially shaking as she tried to decipher what she was saying.  She got the gist of the situation, though, or she thought so, at least.  It sounded like someone, presumably Rachel’s new roommate, had gotten cut by something and was overheating.  She couldn’t get the details out, but she knew that her daughter was somehow thinking it was her fault and needed her help. 

“Okay, hun.  You just stay where you are.  I’ll be right there.  Stay strong for me, and for her, okay?”

She didn’t get a response from Rachel, but she hung up the phone anyways.  Running around the house, she quickly grabbed a case of medical supplies, a couple of her medical terminology books, and her car keys.  Not realizing that she hadn’t put any shoes on, she ran out the door in her bare feet.  Her long, soft soles hit concrete as she ran into her car and drove off…