I fluffed up his pillow and then assisted him in easing himself back on the mattress before laying blankets over him again.
His eyes were already closed by the time I looked up to his face again.
“Warm enough?” I asked, laying a hand on his shoulder.
“Mm,” he murmured.
“ Okay,” I breathed. “Good.”
I sat by his bed until his breathing became deeper and heavier. Once I was sure that he was sleeping, I slipped out of the room and headed down to the apothecary. I found Shayla still there, bending over a bunch of tubes on one of the counters.
“Hi, Shayla,” I said, moving over to her.
“Hi, Grace, how’s it going?” she replied, not looking up.
“It’s going okay. I think. Look, I wanted to ask for your permission to do something.”
“What’s that?”
“I wanted to take Josh outside for a stroll.”
“Josh?”
I smirked. “Yeah, I suggested that he choose a name.”
“Good idea.”
“What is a good idea?”
“Both. Calling him Josh, and taking him outside. Some fresh air will do him good… In fact, it’s a funny coincidence that you come here now.” Finally she tore herself away from the counter and faced me. “I’m not having any luck with this blood sample,” she said, sighing and clasping her forehead. “I’ve consulted with other witches on the island, but none of us can figure it out. We’ve definitely found traces of vampirism, which would confirm what we already worked out, that he is a half-blood. But other than heavy sedatives, we can’t for the life of us work out the rest of Josh’s mystery. There are certainly other traces of drugs, but we can’t guess what they are, let alone figure out an antidote. They are quite unlike anything we have encountered before. So we are still in the dark about what they gave him, or did to him, to cause his memory loss, and his paralysis—assuming that his paralysis was indeed caused by the hunters and he hadn’t already lost use of his legs.”
“I honestly don’t think he was paralyzed before,” I said. “He acts as though his brain, his subconscious, has not accepted that he can’t walk.” I told her about his exercise earlier. “And he loathes being helped. I guess it’s possible that memory was wiped from him too, but… I don’t know. It’s just a feeling, I guess. It seems instinctive to him to be independent.”
“You’re probably right,” Shayla replied. “In any case, I was going to say that I haven’t given up yet. Corrine, Mona and Ibrahim are people we could consult about this. They may see something that we don’t. But in the meantime, I was going to suggest that you take him to visit the jinn. They pretty easily cured your uncle of autism, so going to see them should be much faster. I’ve done all I can for now insofar as a diagnosis.”
“Okay,” I said. “Sure. He’s sleeping now again, so I guess we’ll go as soon as he wakes up.”
“Good luck,” Shayla murmured.
I left the apothecary and returned to Josh’s room. He was still dozing, as I had expected. I sat by his side and reached for my notebook and pen. I wrote down some more notes on his character profile page, then turned to the next page and started brainstorming places I might be able to take him to see on the island—some of the most beautiful spots—as well as things we could do together. Though if the jinn managed to cure him, I would be out of a job soon. Still I made a list, not having much else to do as I waited for him to wake up…
Only he didn’t wake up. He slept for the rest of the day and then into the evening. By the time seven o’clock came around, I seriously considered waking him up. But I just couldn’t bring myself to. Shayla suggested that I might as well wait until tomorrow, when he would wake up naturally.
I felt disappointed, but optimistic as I headed back to my apartment with my backpack. By the end of the day tomorrow, he could very well be back on his feet and recalling all of his lost memories. Because if the jinn had managed to fix Uncle Jamil, why on earth wouldn’t they be able to cure Josh?
Grace
Since he had slept so much the day before, I expected that he would be awake early. And I was right. When I arrived in his room at 6 AM, he was already sitting up in bed.
“Good morning,” I said. “Did you sleep well?”
He cast me a glance. “Not particularly.”
“Oh, well, let me get you some breakfast.” I hurried out of the room and headed to the kitchens. I found a pot of soup already cooked up. I filled up a thermos flask with the soup, grabbed two bowls and spoons, and placed them on a tray before heading back upstairs. I put the tray on his bedside table and proceeded to pour out some of the soup into a bowl and handed it to him. I had deliberately not eaten breakfast in my own home because I’d wanted to share it with him. I filled my own bowl and started eating. It was actually quite delicious.
“I would like to take you outside today, Josh, to see some other people on this island whom I really believe can help you—even better than Shayla.”
He raised a brow and stopped chewing. “Who?” he asked.
“Jinn,” I replied.
“What are jinn?”
I proceeded to explain what they were, but concluded by saying, “It’s best you just see one. My family has first-hand experience of being helped by their powers.” I told him about Jamil, and the cure they had given him. I couldn’t miss the spark of hope that lit up in his eyes.