"Are you awake?" SarahBeth asked.
Perry stretched. "Yes, more or less." He looked around, trying to figure out what time it was, what day it was.
Then he saw the piece of paper on the door. "What's that?" he asked.
"What?" she asked, not looking.
"There's something on the door."
She looked around quickly. "A bug?"
He smiled. "No, it's not a bug. It looks like a piece of paper."
She squirmed around. "Somebody came into our room when we were asleep and put a piece of paper on our door? Damn." She climbed over him and went to the door. Leaning over, she examined the note in the dim light, without touching it, and then she returned to bed.
"It's a note," she said, squirming around so that she was facing the wall and her back was to him. She snuggled against him, as if ready to go back to sleep.
"Well, what did it say?" he asked after a minute.
"I don't know. It's folded up."
He laughed. "And you didn't want to unfold it?"
"I know the handwriting. Our names are on the outside. I'm not touching it."
He looked at her for a moment, but she was obviously not about to move again. He got up, padding across the cold floor, and looked at the note. It said, "SarahBeth and Perry" on the outside. He didn't recognize the handwriting.
He pulled it from the door and quickly got back into bed. The room was cold, and he wondered if there was any way to get a second blanket.
"Shall I read it out loud?" he asked.
She buried herself further under the covers. "I'm cold," she said. "Read it first, before you read it to me. Then you can edit out the nasty parts."
"Okay." He opened the note and read.
Dear SarahBeth and Perry,
I just wanted you both to know how great it was that you went out yesterday. I know it didn't turn out as you'd hoped and expected, but sometimes we do very good things when we were planning to do something else completely, and we need to stop and take a look at what we really did and what a difference it made.
I'm hoping that you three can go out again today (of course, I have no idea what day or time it is, so what I mean is, "when you get up").
At the moment we have very few people with medical qualifications, so there is nobody to go with you. A couple of other teams are going out with people trained in first aid, but they were very uncomfortable about the idea of going with Katherine (please don't tell her this).
So, I think the most valuable thing you can do is exactly what you did yesterday, get as much medicine and other supplies as you can. Please stop by the meeting room before you go and I'll have a list with a few things you can look for especially.
With respect and affection,
V.
"It doesn't really have any nasty parts," he said.
She snuggled against him. "That's it," she said. "Shield me from the unpleasant realities of life. You're a good boyfriend."
perry's important
friends