Chapter 65 – Jace
JACE
"For all the chaotic stories Lucy used to tell us about Charlie, Charlotte was nothing like that as a toddler. She was so sweet, didn’t run amok at all,” Bonnie whispers, describing how she just wanted to feel included, even if that simply meant napping in the room while Bonnie worked.
I cling to every word, grateful for the distraction and scrambling when she says it’s my turn to share a story from the time we've missed. I can’t really think of anything good, so I settle on the time I fell asleep studying in the backyard when I was at TAFE and got really sunburnt.
It’s not a particularly exciting or even sweet story like hers was. Charlie got home, woke me up and helped me cool down before rubbing aloe vera into my burnt skin.
We go back and forth for a while, the tremor in her voice not quite disappearing. I know what she’s doing. Why she’s insisting we keep talking, and I’m starting to worry it will only work for so long…
It’s getting harder and harder for me to focus. Every time my eyes close on a blink; they stay shut for longer and longer.
“Jace? Jace, it’s your turn,” her voice cracks on my name and the fear I hear in her voice adds to the physical ache in my chest. “Tell me something I missed,” she pleads with me when I still haven’t taken over.
“I…” I breathe out, my voice not even a whisper. I try to lick my lips, to swallow, anything to bring moisture to my mouth, but it doesn’t help. “I…”
“Jace?” My lips part as I attempt to speak, to reassure her, but I just don’t have the energy to force air through my vocal cords. “Jace? You need to stay awake. Please, stay awake.”
I tried. I really did. I’ve put everything I have left into staying awake, into staying with her, but it’s a fight I’m losing.
Bonnie’s voice grows distant, and a sob echoes through the darkness when she calls my name. I try to answer her, I do…but my lips refuse to move.
I’m sorry. I think as my eyes close on a blink, refusing to open again.