Read One Hit Wonder for Free Online Page B

end.” John gave her a sideway glance.
    “You handled yourself pretty well in an emergency.”
    “Thanks. I have two younger brothers.”
    “I have to say, your help — although greatly appreciated — was most unexpected.”
    “Oh.” He looked down at his feet.
    “I’m sorry I don’t mean to nag, I thought, uh — ” She wasn’t sure she should go down that path. “I mean, you haven’t seemed to particularly care much for me.”
    “You don’t have to apologize, I know I haven’t been exactly friendly, I just don’t … converse well with new people,” he said, blushing.
    “We’ve been inside the Winnebago for two weeks.”
    “I know, but you’re a girl. A pretty girl.” He rubbed his boots together, face turning purple and looking as if he was about to hide behind a chair.
    “Are you telling me you’re shy?”
    “Some people call it that.”
    “But you’re in a band. On a stage. In front of heaps of people.”
    “That’s different. On stage I’m performing, you know? Just doing my job. Besides I’m more focused on the music than the audience.”
    She nodded, staring at nothing as if the invisible pieces of a puzzle were coming together in front of her.
    “And I close my eyes a lot.” John smiled at her.
    “Hmm, yes, you do,” she said, smiling back.
    She had never pictured him as a shy person; if anything, he appeared self-assured and proud — a snob. He didn’t try to prove himself or to take part in a conversation as shy people sometimes feel compelled to. On the contrary, he detached himself from attention, but the band swarmed around him like bees in honeysuckle.
    After John’s confession, they eased into conversation, and when the nurse called out her name, they were twenty minutes into talking about their childhood cuts and scrapes.
    “See? Still alive,” John said.
    Audrey smiled and hobbled toward the nurse, who held a large wood door open.
    Halfway there, she turned to John. “Will you come with me?”
    • • •
    “Can you believe how gratuitously doctors prescribe antibiotics these days?” She waved the prescription in the air, lying on the Winnebago’s couch while they drove to Augusta. The drive back to a hospital in Columbia had altered their plans to camp for the night.
    “I know, isn’t it great?” Kevin said, sitting at the table with Matt. Tyler drove. Rob and John sat on the bed in the back.
    “Great, if you want to raise an army of pharmacologically induced zombies,” she said.
    “Ah, soldier, you may be on to something now.”
    Audrey looked at Kevin, ticked off.
    “It’s America,” Matt added.
    “You know, now that I’m thinking about it, I remember my father coming back from Brazil with at least a few boxes of amoxicillin. I think you don’t need prescriptions there if you know what to ask for.”
    “Are you going to fill your prescription?” Matt asked.
    “Not sure yet. The doctor said I should start taking the antibiotics in case it gets infected, but if it never does, I still have to take the pills for ten days to finish the treatment.”
    “Just wait and see, then,” Matt said.
    “But if you wait and it becomes something worse, you might have complications. Besides, we might be in the middle of nowhere, and you’d have to wait to go back to a doctor. You should take it.” John stood and leaned against the door.
    She considered what he said for a moment. “I’m going to wait. I’m like my mother; I hate taking medicine.”
    Without replying, he walked to the front and sat on the passenger seat by Tyler.
    “Okay, so your mother — who is from the drugs-for-all country — hates taking medicine? That’s ironic,” Kevin said.
    “Those drugs still cost a lot of money. Some people still have to rely on popular wisdom and herbs to get better.” Audrey put her earbuds in and turned her head away.

Chapter 7
    The night in Augusta was a chilly one. She wanted to crank up the heater in her room but couldn’t make herself get out of