Twenty-one: Cold

"Jean, wake up, Jean. Come on, it's time to go back to the Compound."

"Huh?" I lifted my head and shivered. I'd fallen asleep in the cold outside wind and my sweat had dried. Someone had draped a jacket around my shoulders. I sneezed and coughed.

"Hey," said Katja, patting my shoulder. With her were several others from work who were also staying in the Compound. "What are you doing here?"

"I got lost on my way to work. Really lost. Then when I finally got here, I stopped to eat," I said. "Somehow, I must have fallen asleep."

Then I sneezed again.

"Looks like you've caught a cold," Katja observed. "Come on. Let's go. We'll make sure you don't get lost on the way back."

"Um," I looked around, holding the warm jacket that had been covering me. From the size and smell, it probably belonged to a man. "Do you know who this belongs to?"

"No idea," Katja and the others looked around as well, trying to spot the owner.

Someone went in to ask Lamb and the cafe owner. It seemed they hadn't seen anything either.

"Keep it for now," Katja suggested. "You're shivering so much. Just put it on and when you happen to find the owner again, then you can return it."

"Sure," I sneezed again, putting on the warm jacket and zipping it up. "Good idea. I'm freezing. I really need to thank whoever the jacket belongs to."

"Come on," Katja took my arm after I took a few wobbly steps. "We'll make sure you get back safely and won't get lost. How long were you sleeping out here for?"

"Beats me," I shrugged. "What's the time?"

Katja showed me her watch and I raised my eyebrows.

"So?" she asked.

"Don't ask," I rubbed my forehead and sniffled. I'd been sleeping on that table almost the entire afternoon. Almost four hours. Why hadn't Lamb woken me up? I really had caught a cold. Again. What was wrong with my strong immune system? Why had it become so weak?

I sniffled, sneezed and coughed all the way back to the compound. Katja wanted to walk me back to my room but I declined. I knew the way. It wasn't far.

I collapsed on my mattress in my room without stopping to think about anything else. I only wanted my bed. Forget dinner. I was too cold and tired.

Time passed in a blur.

Someone poked at me.

"Hello? Are you alive or dead in there?" said a female voice. A hand touched my forehead. "Ah. You're burning up. I'll find some help for you."

Someone badgered me until I drank some soup and ate some bread. A tablet was stuffed in my mouth. I swallowed. As soon as the annoying person left, I lay down with relief and drifted back into a world of nothingness.

I felt a lot better when I woke up again. So much so that I rearranged my room so that I could have a shower. Using the shrinking bar of soap I had, I also washed my smelly clothes and took them to the laundromat to be spun and tumbled dry. While I was out, I purchased more soap. And other essentials. I had no idea what day of the week it was and had to stop by a still open newsagents to peer at the date on the newspaper.

"So it's a Saturday today," I muttered to myself.

"Nope. It's a Sunday," the man at the stand smiled at me. "That's yesterday's papers. Want to buy one? Yesterday's ones go at a discounted rate of fifty cents."

I thought about it and decided I could spare fifty cents to help the business out. After buying the newspaper, I stopped by a bakery and almost drooled at the smell wafting out the door. I bought a cheap loaf that was still warm from the oven and wished I had some butter to go with it. Unfortunately I had no fridge to keep the butter from going bad. Cheese was too expensive but a jar of peanut butter and jam was reasonable given the length of time it ought to last me for. All I needed was a butterknife. There were a few plastic ones left scattered on the floor outside an abandoned fast food restaurant and I took one. It would be fine to use after I had washed it.