Odd Thomas

strength to curl my fingers into hers, a love knot.
        For hours, she had been sitting out in the ICU waiting room in the Burke & Bailey's uniform that she dislikes so much. Pink shoes, white socks, pink skirt, pink-and-white blouse.
        I told her that this must be the most cheerful outfit ever seen in the ICU waiting room, and she informed me that Little Ozzie was out there right now, sitting on two chairs, wearing yellow pants and a Hawaiian shirt. Viola was out there, too. And Terri Stambaugh.
        When I asked her why she wasn't wearing her perky pink cap, she put a hand to her head in surprise, for the first time realizing that she didn't have it. Lost in the chaos at the mall.
        I closed my eyes and wept not with joy but with bitterness. Her hand tightened on mine, and she gave me the strength to sleep and to risk my dreams of demons.
        Later she returned for another five-minute visit, and when she said that we would need to postpone the wedding, I pushed to remain on schedule for Saturday. After what had happened, the city would surely cut all red tape, and if Stormy's uncle wouldn't bend church rules to marry us in a hospital room, there was always a judge.
        I had hoped that our wedding day would be followed at once by our first night together. The marriage, however, had always been more important to me than the consummation of it - now more than ever. We have a long lifetime to get naked together.
        Earlier she had kissed my hand. Now she leaned over the railing to kiss my lips. She is my strength. She is my destiny.
        With no real sense of time, I slept on and off.
        My next visitor, Karla Porter, arrived after a nurse had raised my bed and allowed me a few sips of water. Karla hugged me and kissed me on the cheek, on the brow, and we tried not to cry, but we did.
        I had never seen Karla cry. She is tough. She needs to be. Now she seemed devastated.
        I worried that the chief had taken a turn for the worse, but she said that wasn't it.
        She brought the excellent news that the chief would be moved out of the ICU first thing in the morning. He was expected to make a full recovery.
        After the horror at the Green Moon Mall, however, none of us will ever be as we had been. Pico Mundo, too, is forever changed.
        Relieved to know the chief would be okay, I didn't think to ask anyone about my wounds. Stormy Llewellyn was alive; the promise of Gypsy Mummy would be fulfilled. Nothing else mattered.
        

CHAPTER 64
        
        FRIDAY MORNING, JUST ONE DAY AFTER CHIEF Porter escaped the ICU, the doctor issued orders for me to be transferred to a private room.
        They gave me one of their swanky accommodations decorated like a hotel suite. The same one in which they had let me take a shower when I'd been sitting vigil for the chief.
        When I expressed concern about the cost and reminded them that I was a fry cook, the director of County General personally assured me that they would excuse all charges in excess of what the insurance company would be willing to pay.
        This hero thing disturbed me, and I didn't want to use it to get any special treatment. Nevertheless, I graciously accepted their generosity because, while Stormy could only visit me in an ordinary hospital room, she could actually move right in here and be with me twenty-four hours a day.
        The police department posted a guard in the corridor outside my room. No one posed any threat to me. The purpose was to keep the news media at bay.
        Events at the Green Moon Mall had, I was told, made headlines worldwide. I didn't want to see a newspaper. I refused to turn on the TV.
        Reliving it in nightmares was enough. Too much.
        Under the circumstances, the Saturday wedding finally proved to be impractical. Reporters knew of our plans and would be all over the courthouse. That and other problems proved insurmountable, and we postponed for a month.
        Friday and Saturday, friends poured in with flowers and gifts.
        How I loved seeing Terri Stambaugh. My mentor, my lifeline when I'd been sixteen and determined to live on my own. Without her, I would have had no job and nowhere to go.
        Viola Peabody came without her daughters, insisting that they would have been motherless if not for me. The next day she returned with the girls. As it turned out, Nicolina's love of pink had to do with her