Flashbacks on the first day

[WillowMcDaniel 0]

“But momma, I can still smell it.”

 

“Don’t be silly, girl. I got all the vomit cleaned up.” Alice McDaniel looked over at a thirteen year old Willow in the shadowy dark of the hallway, and pointed down to the boy’s room. “Go make sure none of your brothers are sick. Things like this come in twos.” She carried Abby, now clean and asleep, into the girls’ room.

 

Willow walked into the older boys’ room. Both were asleep. She grimaced, feeling sick. She was sure that she could still smell the vomit, even in here.

 

In the next room over, Terrence was awake, sitting up in his bed with a small light on. “You sick, Terrence?”

 

He rolled over. “Nah, just couldn’t sleep.” He tucked the book under the covers quickly. “I’ll go right to sleep now, though. I promise.”

 

“Alright then. You’d better.” She tucked him in and turned to leave.

 

“Ew… what’s in your hair? There’s something chunky and it smells.” From his spot in the top bunk he was at the same level as her head.

 

Willow reached up to touch the spot her mother had not found…

 

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Willow stood next to a counter, wiping at her sleeve, trying to get the smell to go away. Lieutenant Images lay cursing near her.

 

“Blood, feces, any smell but vomit…” Willow paused to make sure no one had heard her complain.

 

She frowned and walked over to Adrian, giving him something to shut him up.

 

Then she tried to not be sick.

 

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A big party to celebrate her twenty-first birthday. Willow had wanted to have a small one, maybe just the family and a few friends. Even that would be pretty big.

 

Looking around, it seemed as though Mark had invited the whole class. Half of them she did not even know.

 

“Why did yah have to get all these people here?” She asked him.

 

He grinned, and tugged at her arm. “Let’s go dance. Come on, loosen up, you’ll have more fun if you smile a bit.”

 

She let him take her to the dance floor, but later on she told him how much fun she didn’t have that night.

 

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Earlier in the evening, being at the launch party for Challenger, had been like living over a nightmare. So many people. So many voices talking at once. It was overwhelming.

 

And no one she really knew. Even Mark was not there to grin at her.

 

She tugged on her uniform, reminded herself that Mark had not been there for quite some time to do any grinning, and walked over to a window.

 

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“What do you want to be when you grow up?” Abby, five years old and full of questions, looked over at her sister from atop a large horse known as Traveler.

 

“I’m gonna be a doctor.”

 

“Really? Momma was gonna be a doctor.”

 

Willow shifted around on her own saddle. “I know she was.”

 

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Willow grinned at Dr. Jones. Someone who knew what a ranch looked like. Someone who knew what it was like to go out and smell animals mixed with dew and grass and fresh air.

 

And here was Dr. Meredith, a quiet sort of person who had not been on a ranch before, but was that anything to hold against him? Of course not.

 

A nice small crew, on a nice small ship.

 

Then, a call to go to the bridge. A medical emergency. A sick Lieutenant.

 

Barf.

 

“Feel better?” she asked him facetiously. Adrian passed out.