Read Online Dare to Dream by Debbie Vaughan - Free Book Online Page B

writing motion on the tabletop.
    “You want to write something?” Will asked.
    Meg nodded.
    Will rose and went to the small curtained area. Meg thought it might be a pantry. He came back with a scrap of brown paper and the stub of a pencil, which he handed to her and the stood at her back to watch what she wrote.
    Meg pushed her plate out of the way, took the pencil in hand, and wrote: I fell from a barn loft.
    “That’s right. You hit your head on the post before you hit the ground. The bundle on your back must have broken your fall since only your head got busted.”
    Meg grinned. He must be the old lady’s neighbor. Donna probably came here searching for a phone and when they didn’t have one either, left her and went for help.
    Where did Donna go?
    “Don’t know a Donna. Were you together?”
    How could he not know Donna? How had she gotten here if not with her friend? She stared accusingly at Charlie. Maybe Will hadn’t been here when Donna arrived.
    “Don’t go rolling your eyes at me, gal. You was alone when Will found you with your plunder. I don’t know of no Donna, either.”
    Will found her? This didn’t make a lick of sense. Donna wouldn’t just up and leave her, not knowing her condition.
    Where did you find me?
    Will seemed worried. “I told you, Meghan. I found you in the barn. You fell from the loft and hit your head.”
    She had missed something. Why were you at the barn?
    “The chickens came out like something was after them. I went to see if a fox got in but found you instead.”
    So he worked for the old lady? But she and Donna hadn’t seen anyone else, and why wasn’t the woman here? This didn’t add up. The more she tried to think, the more her head hurt. Why hadn’t Donna come back for her? Meghan remembered her dream. Donna had called for her... A chill ran down her spine. She thought about the storm. What if Donna had gone for help and lost control of the truck on the narrow mountain road? She might be lying somewhere hurt!
    “Must find.” Her hand started to tremble so hard she couldn’t hold the pencil.
    “Meghan? Meghan, are you all right? Meghan!”
     
    * * * *
     
    “Might have been a stroke. The palsy was only on the right side,” Charlie said as she awoke.
    She opened her eyes—eye? Her right eye didn’t work right. She closed her left. She saw through her right eye, but almost as if she looked from under a half closed lid. Charlie had mentioned a stroke. She visualized herself with the right side of her face sagging. Tears seeped from her left eye.
    “She’s awake. Meghan, how are you?”
    Will seemed so worried. She tried to raise her hand to stroke his cheek, but it wouldn’t move. Her mouth felt funny. She tried to smile, but only the left side of her lips responded. Inside her head she laughed. Well, Meg, my girl, you are falling apart at the grand old age of twenty-six . Her internal hysteria waxed into determination. With her left hand, she made the sign for writing. While Will fetched the paper and pencil, she tried her right foot. It wiggled. She bent her knee and sighed with relief. The paralysis was only partial, so if a stroke, a small one.
    She wiggled her right foot wildly when Will returned, and he rewarded her with a smile worthy of her effort. Meg maneuvered the pen into her left hand while Will steadied the paper. Very carefully, she wrote, Must find~~Don a ~~storm. The note made sense to her, but then she knew what she meant. Would Will understand her scribbling? She scanned his face for some sign.
    “You think this Donna may have got lost in the storm? Is that why you stole our blankets?” Will sucked air through his teeth. “I didn’t mean steal, darlin’. You borrowed them for when you found your friend. You want me to look for her?”
    He’d called her darlin’, so she chose to disregard his previous verbal stumble. She clutched his hand.
    “It appears you get your way after all, old man. I’ll take the wagon and head toward town,