The Law of Nines

The host on the TV was fawning over an actress who thought she was brilliant because she happened to have been born beautiful and read lines written by other people. It amazed Alex what qualified a person for being worthy of adulation.

“Why are you watching this?”

Jax looked up again. He could see that she was so sleepy that she could hardly keep her eyes open.

“This is something like watching this world through mirrors.” She gestured to the TV. “I wanted you to see this.”

“I’ve seen TV before.” Alex switched it off. “You mean to say that this is what it looks like when you saw me through the mirrors in my studio?”

She made a face as she considered. “Not exactly, not this clear, but in some ways it looks much the same. I was astounded when I saw this.”

Her gaze drifted away. “It . . . reminded me of home.”

Alex understood then. “Oh.”

He took off his jacket and for the first time, because they were finally in the light, saw that his shirtsleeve was completely caked with dried blood.

Jax patted the bed beside her. “Come sit.”

She used her knife to cut the sleeve away from the rest of his shirt. Once he had his shirt off, she cut the length of the remaining sleeve and helped him pull it away from his skin. On his way to the bathroom to wash the wound, he set the security latch on the door.

As sleepy as she looked, Jax followed him into the bathroom and helped him undo the bandage she had put around the wound. Her concern for him seemed to have given her a second wind as she worked. She washed the blood off his arm and then, being as careful as she could, she cleaned the wound while he held his arm over the sink. Washing it made the pain flare up, and made it start bleeding again. He winced against the pain.

When Alex really saw the cut for the first time, he cursed under his breath. He wondered if maybe he really should go to an emergency room. He quickly decided against it.

“Here,” he said, “put this antibiotic in the cut.”

“Did you get the needle and thread?” she asked as she drizzled the brown liquid in the wound. It stung like mad.

“I got something better,” he said as he opened a package of superglue, getting it ready.

“What could be better?” she asked as she dabbed his arm dry with a towel after it stopped bleeding.

“Just hold it closed and I’ll show you.”

She used both hands to do as he asked, carefully aligning the sides of the wound. With two fingers, Alex pressed the top layer of the cut tight together. With his thumb and third finger he squeezed the tube of superglue, spreading it generously down the length of the cut. He went back over the places where it hadn’t closed completely and added more glue on top of the cut.

“What are you doing?” Jax asked in astonishment.

“Superglue.”

“Superglue?” It sounded like an exotic foreign word when she said it.

“Yes, good old superglue. Bonds skin instantly. They use it in surgery now.”

He waited a few minutes just to be sure, then took his fingers away. The deep wound stayed tightly closed.

“See? Easier than stitches.”

She gently tested it with a finger. “I think you’re a big baby and are afraid to have me stitch your arm.”

“Just wrap it with that gauze, will you, please?”

Jax smiled at his annoyance and wound the gauze snugly around the arm, not trusting the glue to hold. After that, he had her wrap it with the tan stretch bandage. When she had finished, he moved the arm, testing it. The bandaging wasn’t too tight, but it was tight enough to cocoon the wound and protect it. He thought that it ought to heal fine, wrapped as it was.

Seeing her eyes keep closing, he helped her out to the other room. He turned down the bed for her and got an extra pillow out of the tiny closet to add to the two thin pillows on the bed.

She sat on the end of the bed and pulled off a boot. “Did you see? They have a bathing tub in there. A real bathing tub.”

Alex smiled at her amazement. “In the morning we’ll flip a coin to see who goes first.”

She looked at him out of one eye. “Didn’t your mother ever teach you ‘ladies first’?”

“I guess that our worlds share some important things.”

When she saw his smile fade, she said, “Sorry.”

Alex nodded. “I know. Me too. I wish . . . well, I’m just glad that she was there to help us when she did. If not for her, I think they might have had us.”

Jax nodded as she put her leg up onto her knee to pull off her other boot. “Wake me at dawn.”

“I need you well, Jax. You need rest now or you’re going to end up worse off. We’re safe here for the time being.”

She stared into his eyes a moment. “I know, but we need . . . we need . . .” She squinted as she tried to think. “Something . . .”

“We need your mind working or we’re sunk, that’s what we need. You’re the one who figured out what they want.”

“The gateway,” she mumbled as her eyes started to close. Her hand had stopped with the boot only half off. She looked too exhausted to complete the task.