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to move.  When she finally did try to stand, her legs failed her before she could take a single step.  She crumpled to the linoleum, her head smacking against the hard floor, and then the dark room faded into a senseless black void.
    George heard the sickening thump Virginia’s head made when it hit the linoleum, and he sat up.  “What was that?”
    “Daddy!” Kurt cried out.
    George rushed into Kurt’s room.  “Kurt?”
    Kurt hid beneath his covers.  “Daddy, I heard a monster in the bathroom!”
    George hurried to the bathroom and activated the click-light.  Virginia lay unconscious on the floor.  “Virginia?”
    The telephone sat amidst a few other rarely used items on a shelf across the room.  George stumbled through the darkness to find it, then brought it back into the bathroom and dialed Emergency Dispatch-Corp.
    An emergency associate answered on the third ring.  “This is Emergency.  How may I direct your call?”
    “My wife is unconscious!” George cried.  “I think she hit her head!”
    “All of our Medical associates are out on other calls right now.  Your estimated wait for a Medic Shuttle is three hours.  Do you want me to put you on the list?”
    “Three hours?  She could be dead by then!”
    “I’m sorry, sir, but that’s the best we can do for you.  If you’d like to speak to my manager, I’d be more than happy to transfer your call.”
    “Please do!” George yelled.
    Kurt began to cry from his bedroom as light, tired music began to play into George’s ear.  He sat at Virginia’s side, trying to wake her, ignoring Kurt’s pleas for him to come back and keep him safe from his imagined monsters.
    Virginia didn’t move.  George checked for a pulse, relieved with the reassurance that she was still alive.
    The music continued through the telephone, one song running into another.  A recording came on: “The next three minutes will cost ten-fifty.  Press one to accept the charges.  To forfeit press two, or simply hang up.”
    The front door opened and then squealed closed, and George tensed up even tighter.  He hung up the telephone.  “Shelley!  In here!”
    Shelley shuffled in, barefoot, covered in mud, her face puffy with tears.  Her eyes went wide, and she collapsed down to Virginia’s side.  “Mom?”
    “Help me get her to the bed,” George said.
    George got Virginia’s upper body, while Shelley carried her legs.  They slowly made their way to the bedroom, and then carefully laid her across the bed.  She continued to sweat with her fever, and George opted to cover her only lightly.
    “What happened?” Shelley asked.
    George shook his head.  “I don’t know.  She said there was a flu going around.”
    “Shouldn’t she go to the hospital?”  Shelley continued backing up until she got to the door.
    “I tried!  Everyone’s busy!”
    “But this is an emergency!”
    “It doesn’t matter!  No one’s coming to help!” George yelled.  “And where the hell have you been?”
    Shelley looked down.  “I got lost.”
    George was in no mood to argue with her, so he simply nodded and turned away.
    The thought occurred to him that he and Shelley together might be able to carry Virginia to the hospital, and then he considered that the Medic Shuttle would probably get there before they were able to reach the hospital on foot.  He thought to call Emergency again, but realized that he had left the phone in the bathroom.
    “Virginia?” he tried again, giving her shoulder a gentle nudge.  When she did not respond, grief swelled up in him and he couldn’t help but cry aloud.
    There was nothing he could do at that moment but lie next to her and hold her as tightly as he could.  He wrapped his arms around her, helpless.
    “Daddy, please come in here!” Kurt cried from his bedroom.  “I’m scared!  The monsters!”

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Six
     
     
    VIRGINIA woke to the frightening realization that she was not in her own