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.It seemed thatHarry had been in the hospital.some kind of tests for his heart.Charlie'sforehead got all pinched together, but Harry joked with him, blowing it off, untilCharlie was laughing again.Only then did Charlie ask about Jacob, and now hisside of the conversation didn't give me much to work with, just a lot of hmms andyeahs.I drummed my fingers against the counter beside him until he put a handover mine to stop me.Finally, Charlie hung up the phone and turned to me."Harry says there's been some trouble with the phone lines, and that's why youhaven't been able to get through.Billy took Jake to the doc down there, and itlooks like he has mono.He's real tired, and Billy said no visitors," he reported."No visitors?" I demanded in disbelief.Charlie raised one eyebrow."Now don't you go making a pest of yourself, Bells.Billy knows what's best for Jake.He'll be up and around soon enough.Bepatient."I didn't push it.Charlie was too worried about Harry.That was clearly the moreimportant issue it wouldn't be right to bug him with my lesser concerns.Instead, I went straight upstairs and turned on my computer.I found a medicalsite online and typed "mononucleosis" into the search box.All I knew about mono was that you were supposed to get it from kissing, whichwas clearly not the case with Jake.I read through the symptoms quickly thefever he definitely had, but what about the rest of it? No horrible sore throat, noexhaustion, no headaches, at least not before he'd gone home from the movie;he'd said he felt "fit as a fiddle." Did it really come on so fast? The article made itsound like the sore stuff showed up first.I glared at the computer screen and wondered why, exactly, I was doing this.Why did I feel so& so suspicious, like I didn't believe Billy's story? Why wouldBilly lie to Harry?I was being silly, probably.I was just worried, and, to be honest, I was afraid ofnot being allowed to see Jacob that made me nervous.I skimmed through the rest of the article, looking for more information.I stoppedwhen I got to the part about how mono could last more than a month.A month? My mouth fell open.But Billy couldn't enforce the no-visitors thing that long.Of course not.Jakewould go crazy stuck in bed that long without anyone to talk to.What was Billy afraid of, anyway? The article said that a person with mononeeded to avoid physical activity, but there was nothing about visitors.Thedisease wasn't very infectious.I'd give Billy a week, I decided, before I got pushy.A week was generous.A week was long.By Wednesday, I was sure I wasn't going to live till Saturday.When I'd decided to leave Billy and Jacob alone for a week, I hadn't reallybelieved that Jacob would go along with Billy's rule.Every day when I got homefrom school, I ran to the phone to check for messages.There never were any.I cheated three times by trying to call him, but the phone lines still weren'tworking.I was in the house much too much, and much too alone.Without Jacob, and myadrenaline and my distractions, everything I'd been repressing started creeping upon me.The dreams got hard again.I could no longer see the end coming.Just thehorrible nothingness half the time in the forest, half the time in the empty fernsea where the white house no longer existed.Sometimes Sam Uley was there inthe forest, watching me again.I paid him no attention there was no comfort inhis presence; it made me feel no less alone.It didn't stop me from screamingmyself awake, night after night.The hole in my chest was worse than ever.I'd thought that I'd been getting itunder control, but I found myself hunched over, day after day, clutching my sidestogether and gasping for air.I wasn't handling alone well.I was relieved beyond measure the morning I woke up screaming, of courseand remembered that it was Saturday.Today I could call Jacob.And if the phonelines still weren't working, then I was going to La Push.One way or another,today would be better than the last lonely week.I dialed, and then waited without high expectations.It caught me off guard when Billy answered on the second ring."Hello?""Oh, hey, the phone is working again! Hi, Billy.It's Bella.I was just calling tosee how Jacob is doing.Is he up for visitors yet? I was thinking about dropping by ""I'm sorry, Bella," Billy interrupted, and I wondered if he were watching TV; hesounded distracted."He's not in.""Oh." It took me a second [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]