Chrissy pops a hip, Cammy raises her arms, and I put bunny ears over Harmon’s head. The countdown comes to an end, the lights go bright, and then our shadow is burned into the wall but slowly fading.
“Quick, get a photo!” Chrissy says, grabbing onto Cammy and shaking her.
“I’m trying!” she answers as she pulls her phone from her pocket and tries to take a photo. “Damn, it disappeared.”
“Guess we have to do another,” I suggest as I push the button again.
We all pose in similar ways, but this time Harmon puts his arm around my waist. Cammy is ready to snap the photo of the shadows this time and gets it perfectly.
Chrissy bounces over to the next exhibit, and we follow, knowing she’s in the lead for this place. My face hurts from smiling so much today, but even more so since being here. I’ve never seen Chrissy have so much fun before. Cammy too.
We end up in an area explaining weather. Chrissy goes right to the giant ball that looks like it has electricity inside. Cammy goes with her, both of them nervous about putting their hand on it, afraid it’ll shock them. They laugh, nudging each other and trying to get the other to do it first.
“They’re having so much fun,” Harmon says as he watches them, hands slipped into his front pockets.
“Yeah, they are,” I agree, shoulder bumping him. He glances at me. “Thank you for this.”
A small smile crosses his lips, and his gaze goes back to my sisters.
Cammy rolls her eyes and presses her hand to the giant ball, her shoulders relaxing when she feels nothing. Then Chrissy reaches for it. When they get bored of that, they go over to a tornado simulator.
“I made reservations for us at Pierre’s. It’s a few blocks over, but we have to be there in a little over an hour.”
“We can handle that. We’ve been here a whilealready.”
I could definitely eat right now, so I’m sure in an hour, we’ll all be starving.
We follow Chrissy and Cammy over to the tornado thing that looks like it may actually produce a tornado. Chrissy asks the staff standing there a million rapid-fire questions. He answers as thoroughly as he can, but she keeps asking more, and he’s struggling to keep up. She’s so excited, the happiness in her eyes evident. The smile is burned into my face at this point. There are no other emotions from me today. Just happiness. Pure happiness. I blindly grab Harmon’s arm. Even though I thanked him for this, it’s not enough. It feels like it’ll never be enough. This day has been amazing. Being able to go out and do fun things with my sisters, as a family? I never thought we’d be here. I never thought my sisters would get to experience this sort of life. But here we are, all thanks to him.
The staff is explaining why a tornado forms in the shape it does when Chrissy freezes. Her body stiffens, and instead of reacting… I freeze too. I know this feeling all to well—it’s just been so long...
The way the air pulls tight around my chest, not allowing me to breathe. The way my brain starts counting before I tell it to, knowing it’s what needs to happen. I know what comes next, and for one useless second, I’m begging it not to happen. Not now. Not today.
Everything around me dulls, like the world is being dragged underwater.
I open my mouth to call her name, but nothing comes out.
She drops to the ground before I can make my feet move.
People around us scream. The staff stands open-mouthed. Cammy and I reach her at the same time, dropping to the ground beside her. She’s already convulsing, drool coming from her mouth.
“Get her head, Cammy,” I say as calmly but firmly as possible. We’ve done this before, we can handle this.
Cammy is already crying, and I’m already looking at my watch to time it. If it stops within a few seconds, she should be fine. Quick seizures happen. But… this isn’t stopping. It isn’t slowing. She’s foaming at the mouth, her body tight and jerking.
“Somebody call 9-1-1!”
“I’m on the phone with them,” Harmon says. His eyes meet mine, and a million emotions go through me. All I see staring back at me is guilt and fear. I pull my attention from him to care for my sister.
“Hey, Chrissy, I’m here,” I say, scooting closer to her head. Her body is still jerking. Cammy has tears pouring down her face. “We’re right here, Chrissy. You are okay. You’re going to be o-okay.” My last words come out raspy because we’ve already surpassed the one-minute mark, and she hasn’t had a seizure this long in a long fucking time. I don’t know what this means or why the fuck it had to happen now, here, today of all times.
She just wanted to have a good day. She wanted to have fun. We were all having a good day, and now this…
“Cass, it’s not stopping,” Cammy cries.
“It’ll be fine, Cammy. She will be okay. Chrissy, you are okay. We’re here.”
Staring at my watch only makes me want to throw up, so I focus my attention on Chrissy, on talking to her and telling her that she will be okay and we will not leave her. I tell her the ambulance is on the way and she is safe.