Fever Dream

Carla takes Nina and Amanda back to her house. They move slowly, and Amanda has trouble remembering all the details. David helps her fill in the blanks. She gets out of the car and sees that the wet patches on Nina’s dress have dried. Carla carries Nina inside, and Amanda is forced to follow, pulled by the rescue distance. She wants to leave but doesn’t have the will or energy to do anything but sit down. Carla bustles around making tea, and Amanda remembers the first time she met Carla. The older woman had been carrying two full water buckets past the house. She told Amanda that the tap water smelled strange that day and it was better not to drink it. Amanda had already drunk some of the water and given some to Nina when they arrived. 

Looking out the window, Amanda sees the little graves where David buried the ducks. There are 28 of them. Carla follows Amanda’s gaze and tells the other woman she is careful not to step on them when she hangs the laundry. She tells Amanda how much she misses David and that she has searched all of the nearby children for her son’s missing spirit. Amanda falls asleep with Nina on the sofa. When she wakes, Carla is going through her purse, arguing with Omar. Amanda hopes that Carla is looking for her husband’s phone number, then dozes off again. She has confused memories of Carla opening a window and the smell of lavender, and then the nurse from the clinic is beside her again. She feels a little better, and David explains that she has been poisoned and “the effect comes and goes” (150).

The next time Amanda wakes up on Carla’s couch, Nina is also awake, shaking her mother. She asks Amanda if they can leave, and her daughter’s voice gives Amanda strength. They both manage to get in the car, and Nina asks for water. Amanda promises they will get some on their way out of town, and she starts to drive away. She cannot see well and has to squint to make out a line of people crossing the street. Amanda sees it is a group of “strange children,” including David and the girl from the home goods store. This group is on their way to the waiting room with the drawings, where they will stay unless they have a “bad day” and need to go home early.

Amanda’s eyes are burning and watering; she gets out of the car, wondering if the nurses might give her some water. She is “so dazed […] and so thirsty and so anxious” that she cannot respond to Nina (159), who is crying in the backseat. She faints and wakes up hours later, back in the emergency clinic.

Carla comes to the clinic and finds Amanda “so feeble, sweating with fever” (160), and hallucinating David. Carla finally reaches Amanda’s husband and hands Amanda the phone. As she tries to speak to him, she realizes how sick she is. Carla intervenes, telling the man that Amanda is not well but that Nina is okay. Amanda has no idea where Nina is. Carla tells Amanda that the only option is to call the woman in the green house. At first, Amanda thinks Carla is talking about saving her, but then she realizes that Carla is referring to Nina and has already taken her to the green house. Amanda begins frantically shouting her daughter’s name. 

She insists that David tell her where Nina’s spirit is moving to, asking for her to please stay nearby. David reminds her this isn’t possible, and Amanda feels the rescue distance pull tight again. She asks David if he can intervene, but he says it wouldn’t help. Slowly, the room dissolves around Amanda until she says, “Only my body is here” (169). She understands that the end is near and asks David to tell her what the important thing is. He says he will “push” her like he pushes the ducks, and she feels the rescue distance pulling so tight she thinks it will “slice [her] stomach in two” (171).

David tells her that the rope will break, and Amanda is shocked to feel it happen. David confirms that she is dying and tells her he wants to listen to something his father will say. He tells her, “This will be the last thing that will happen” (172), and Amanda sees her husband driving through the small town and pulling up in front of Carla’s house. Her husband knocks on the door, and Omar answers. He invites Amanda’s husband in and offers him a cup of mate. When Amanda’s husband mentions that Carla knew Amanda, Omar says his wife is “gone.” They sit in silence as Omar prepares the mate, and Amanda’s husband looks at a collection of photos on the wall, all hung together with the same rope. 

Amanda’s husband tells Omar that Nina is unwell. He says she is “recovering” but that there is “something more, within her” (177). He asks Omar if he knows what happened, but he insists he doesn’t. Then David appears, and there is “something different” about the boy. Amanda’s husband sees that David has the same white spots as Nina, and Omar says that he would also like to ask someone what happened to his child. He says that David has “started tying everything” (179), and Amanda’s husband sees there are more things “hanging from rope, or [...] tied together with it” (179). 

Omar takes Amanda’s husband outside. He says he used to raise horses, but now there is only silence. He tells Amanda’s husband he should leave before the rain starts, and they walk toward the car. However, David sits in the backseat, cross-legged like Nina used to sit and holding Nina’s stuffed mole. Amanda’s husband asks him to get out, and the boy looks at him “desperately.” Omar pulls David out, and Amanda’s husband drives away. He doesn’t look back or around himself as he drives away through the soy fields, the factories, and the city traffic. He, too, misses the “important thing” that Amanda failed to see.