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| The next day around noon, his phone rang. It was Regan, calling to apologize for falling asleep on him. He said he didn�t mind. She told him she had been very tired the past couple of days and could barely get out of bed to go to the bathroom.
�I�ve also had a little bit of a fever too. Not too bad though,� she informed him. �Well, have you seen a doctor about any of this?� he asked. �No, but I�m sure it�s the flu. It�s really not that big of a deal.� �Not that big of a deal? Regan, you�re sleeping all of the time, you have a fever, and you�ve got that rash. There�s something wrong.� �The rash has nothing to do with my flu.� �Do you know what it has to do with?� �No. I don�t.� �Then how do you know?� She sighed. �Sometimes I wake up and it�s like I�m back to normal. I can walk around for hours and do things like normal but then all of a sudden I get really tired again. It�s not normal. Must be some weird kind of flu.� �Regan, if I come with you, will you please go to the doctor?� �NO!� she screamed at him. �Why not?� he demanded. �Because Blake, I just got a new job and I�m really excited about it. I don�t want to get in trouble already by not coming in because of a doctor�s appointment.� �Regan, you are going to have to go in sometime. Stop avoiding it. What are you so afraid of?� She sighed again. �Nothing. I�ll make an appointment. I�ll tell you when it is so you can come get me.� �Good. Now Regan, I love you. I don�t want anything to ever be wrong with you. You�re my girl, and I don�t intend on having a sick girl running around.� She smiled widely and propped herself up in her bed. �I know. I love you.� �Not as much as I love you.� �I don�t think that�s possible.� �Whatever, it is. Trust me. I love you more.� �No I love you more.� It continued like this for the next few seconds before finally, they reached a compromise and ended their battle. They hung up a few seconds later and Regan got up to go to work. She had gotten a new job working at the stables just outside of the city limits. She loved horses, and unfortunately wasn�t financially equipped to have one at home. She heard they were hiring and did everything in her power to get to job. She didn�t grow up with horses, but she knew how to take care of them. Her boss told her that if she did a good enough job on her trial run that week, every Friday after that she could ride the horses for a few hours after work. Regan was more than excited to begin her job. She drove out to Hilary Farms that afternoon. It took her twenty minutes to get there, and her shift began at noon and went until five. She made very good money, almost twelve bucks an hour to brush the horses, feed them, wash them, clean their stalls, and take all of them on daily walks. There were nineteen horses in all, and she had gotten the opportunity to greet all of them at her interview. The job also required a lot of work out in the sun, something Regan was beginning to tolerate less and less. She was finding that rather odd considering how much she loved the summer. Every single day last summer she was outside either tanning, playing soccer, or jumping on the trampoline. This summer she was beginning to feel heat exhaustion almost five minutes after she�d been outside. She blamed it on dehydration and made sure to bring a water bottle to fill up periodically throughout the day. She arrived and her boss, Liz, greeted her with a giant grin. Liz was a tall, thin woman with bright red hair she wore in a braid and beautiful emerald green eyes. She was always dirty from working with the horses, but that didn�t hide the fact that at the age of thirty-seven she was still very attractive. �How are you today Regan?� she asked. �I�m great Liz how are you?� �I�m terrific. Stables number one through five have been cleaned out, five through fifteen need to be brushed and washed, and fifteen through nineteen desperately needed to be cleaned out,� she informed her. �Alright, I�ll get right to it,� she said with a smile. After only ten minutes of work, Regan�s fatigue struck her full force and she sat down for a quick break. She drank almost all of the rest of her water bottle, filled it up, and got back to work. �You okay?� Liz asked after she passed by once. �You look awfully tired.� �Nah I�ll be fine,� she answered, brushing it off like she usually did. She visited stall number seventeen, which happened to be Regan�s favorite horse. He was a huge black stallion named Prince Charming, and Regan could only think of Blake every single time she saw him. He was a large and beautiful animal, but he was also an unbelievably gentle creature for his size. It reminded her so much of Blake that she found herself watching Prince Charming all the time. Regan felt tired once again, and tried to fight it off. Somehow it didn�t work. She had to sit down and take another break, almost breaking her water bottle from sucking it down so hard. �Are you sure you�re alright Regan? If you really want to you can leave early,� Liz told her the next time she saw her sitting. �No really, Liz. I�ll be okay. I just have these bouts with fatigue every once and a while, they go away in no time,� she responded quickly, jumping up to go work again. Finally, at ten to five Regan couldn�t take it anymore. She was beginning to ache because she was so tired and found herself pounding from the inside out due to the sun. �Hon,� Liz said, startling Regan while she brushed Prince Charming. �Go home. You look like death. You need some rest. What time did you get to sleep last night?� �About nine,� she answered, neglecting to mention that she had slept all day before. �Well, I don�t know what�s wrong but you look too tired to be doing all this hard work. Give yourself a vacation tomorrow,� she told her. �No Liz, I couldn�t. I�m on a trial basis and I don�t want to push it already.� �Hon, you need the rest. I�ll call in one of my other girls. Plus you�re a great stable girl. Don�t worry about needing to impress me, you did it already. Take the day off, I insist,� she pressed. �Oh, alright. Just so happens that I have a doctor�s appointment tomorrow,� Regan informed her, putting the brush away and getting ready to leave. �See? There ya go. Maybe when you return to me you�ll be as good as new. I�m concerned about you, not about your work. Go on, I�ll talk to you later,� she said, giving Regan a pat on the shoulder. �Thanks Liz, I�ll see ya later.� Regan waved over her shoulder and got into her car. She found she could barely keep her eyes on the road she was so tired. After twenty minutes of fearing she�d run herself off the road, she pulled into her driveway and slipped between the covers. As she faded into the world of darkness known as sleep, she heard the phone ring. It seemed as though it were a million miles away. She didn�t know what was wrong with her, but she was dying to find out. |