The Rites of Passages

"Mr. Sanchez?" announced the nurse to the waiting room.

Rick looked up from his staring into the sterile tile floor. The nurse knew it was him.

"Come with me," said the nurse.

Rick followed her down the hospital's long corridor. He was glad to be moving on to the next stage of the evening's strange unfolding of events. Nonetheless, he was still anxious about seeing the state that she was in. The state to which he had delivered her.

"She seems to be stable," said the nurse, opening a door gently. "But, we need to keep her at least overnight."

Rick stood staring at the body slowly breathing under the white hospital sheets. He swallowed the lump in his throat.

"Why must you keep her--what's wrong with her?" asked Rick.

"Well, she's 'hot-blooded'. We've seen a few cases of fever like this recently--inexplicable causes. In any case, she is burning up."

"But she looks fine," said Rick as he approached the bed. "There is no sweat."

"Check it and see."

Rick extended his hand slowly toward her forehead. The skin was soft--just as he remembered it to be. Rick's eyes widened slightly upon feeling the heat. He looked toward the nurse.

"She's got a fever of a hundred and three," said the nurse with eyes the showed compassion enough for the lady on the bed as well as the man with his hand on her forehead.

"I'll leave you," the nurse said, as she turned to leave.

Rick watched the door close. His head turned back towards the woman. Suddenly, he felt her little hand move toward his hand on the bed. With such little strength, the little hand grasped at his. Rick's whole being was seized.

"Come on, baby!" he whispered, exasperated. His eyes glimmered with the welling of tears.

Only a moment later, her grasp had gone. He layed her hand back down gently on the bed.

"What have you done to me?" he asked, as a smile broke across his face as the tears rolled down his hot face. He laughed and wiped the tears from one of his cheeks.

"We are given only so much time in this world. I had already retired... I had already assigned this time to commit acts against love. To crush such irrationality. To save lives. To secure freedom."

Rick paused, looking deeper into her angelic face.

"God... freedom. I didn't even know what that was. But it was right there--the whole time--in the way you danced. Your body. The way it moved. For so long, I didn't see. How could I?"

Rick snickered to himself, at himself.

"And to think that I even asked, 'do you do more than dance?' It is so easy to ask these questions from an ivory tower. You do more than dance. You set people free. You ignite the one true passion in this life. You set fire coarsing through my veins."

Rick stood up straight.

"Because of you, I'm hot blooded. I'm hot blooded!"

Now it’s up to you, can we make a secret rendezvous?

Oh, before we do, you’ll have to get away from you know who.  

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