She sniffed. "We'll all end up in the infirmary, sooner or later. It's just a matter of time."
I started to tell her what Marjorie had said about the caves. More than anything, Della needed hope right now, and knowing there were people who claimed to have been healed of the Scourge would mean everything to her. However, the caves weren't my secret to share. Just as I had promised Della to return her medicine, I had promised Marjorie not to tell anyone about the caves.
I did make one more promise in that moment, a silent one this time. I promised myself never to go into the infirmary. Never.
I stood and held out a hand for Della to get to her feet also. "Here's my idea. If you help me gather the laundry, I'll help you clean out those rooms. It shouldn't matter to anyone if we share our work, as long as it gets done."
Della eyed my hand with suspicion. "Why would you help me? You've been horrible to me, and I've been almost as bad back."
I briefly considered arguing the subtle moral differences between what we had done to each other, but then remembered I might need this girl's help to escape. Also, I remembered that I was trying to be her friend. It felt like hugging a hecklebird.
So I shrugged that off. "I'm not helping you, and you're not helping me. We're sharing the work. Besides, no matter how we've behaved to each other, I'm not a horrible person, and I don't think you are either."
"I didn't used to be," she said. "And I don't want to be anymore."
She took my hand and stood, then helped me carry the laundry down the stairs. That tired her out, so we decided to stay on the main floor and collect laundry there. I let her wheel the bin while I gathered linens from the rooms.
Della showed me how the rooms designated for her to clean were marked in chalk with an X. "The X means--"
"I know what the X means," I said, drawing in a deep breath. "Let's get this over with."
The rooms were already bare of any personal possessions. Most of the people who came to the Colony had brought nothing with them, and those who did took what little they had with them into the infirmary. While I cleared the laundry from the room, Della emptied the chamber pots and straightened up. Then, after blowing out the candles, we erased the X and moved on.
We did the same on the second floor, though this time both of us had to make multiple trips down the stairs to finish our jobs. It helped that the rooms were empty, with everyone out in
the Colony doing the jobs to which they had been assigned.
Well, all of them were empty except for one. An older woman lay on her prison bed, which was really just a square of concrete raised off the ground. She had a single blanket and no pillow. Della was already in there when I walked in, so I backed up and stayed in the doorway.
When she saw me, Della whispered, "What do we do?"
I shrugged. "Nothing can save her."
"Failing to help a needy person is as bad as causing the need in the first place," Della said. "My father taught me that."
I thought back to our boat ride here and felt a stab of guilt. I had caused Della's need for medicine and then failed to help her. A double crime.
The woman groaned, and Della said, "Ani, I need my medicine."
I grabbed the flask with one hand, ensuring she couldn't get it. "You've had some today."
Della picked up a dropped flask from off the floor and shook it. There was nothing inside. "I've had some. But she hasn't."
So I lifted it from my shoulders again and returned it to Della, who immediately gave the poor woman a sip. I watched that, wondering if Della had reached a delirious stage of her sickness, one that made her believe she was a kind and compassionate girl?
Or had I been delirious, thinking all along that she was more horrid than she ever actually was? While on the stairs, she had tried to tell me she wasn't as terrible as I thought. I'd figured that was the kind of thing terrible people said to make themselves feel better. Maybe she was speaking the truth.
Once we finished climbing to the third floor, Della leaned her head against the wall. "Don't you feel sick anymore?"
I did, but less sick than I would've expected. River People were stronger than the townsfolk, so this was clearly my determination paying off. Although in some ways, I was beginning to think maybe the townsfolk had their strengths too.
Taking in her pale, trembling form, I said, "You wait here. I'll take care of this floor."
When I came back with the first load, Della had pushed the window on the landing wide open. She glanced back at me and smiled. "There's more than one way to get laundry downstairs."
I shared her smile and immediately pushed the laundry through the window. It fell in a scattered pile in front of the entrance to the prison, right where I could pick it up before delivering it to Marjorie. Perfect!
With renewed energy, Della helped me again to gather the laundry, simply for the fun of pushing it out the window. By the time I had the first load gathered, the window was already open.