Bart Belly's Arc

Chapter 13 of 21

Bart stood dripping in the warm hall. The white walls stretched down long corridors, clean and empty. No voices. No footsteps. Only the hum of warm air and the tap of melting snow off his fur. He called out. His voice bounced back and died. The pup wriggled in his arms and whined. Bart's chest tightened. He had walked past every gate, spent the last of his strength, and this place felt dead. The bear he needed might live here. Or the bear might be a story that got him killed. He walked. Each door showed the same tidy room, each with a set of clean beds, metal frames bright under the lights. All empty. His legs shook. He set the pup down on a bed and gripped the rail to stay upright. "Somebody built this," he said. "Somebody keeps it warm." But no one answered, and the silence pressed harder than the cold ever had. The pup lifted its head. It yipped, then barked at a doorway. Bart turned. A polar bear stood there in blue scrubs. A stethoscope hung at her neck. Her belly rounded out the front of her shirt, and she pressed one paw against it as she stepped in. She stopped when she saw him. Her eyes moved from his bare fur to his shaking legs to the wet bag at his feet. "You walked here," she said. Not a question. "Nobody walks here." She crossed the room fast for someone carrying a child. She pushed him down onto the bed by the shoulders. Her paws were sure and warm. "Sit. Before you fall and I have to lift you." "I'm looking," Bart said. His words slurred. "A bear. Somebody who can teach me. The strength." He fumbled at the bag and dragged the golden Speedo halfway out. Its shine had gone dull. "It's dead. I can't wake it." The nurse looked at the Speedo. Something crossed her face. Not surprise. Recognition. "Put that away," she said, quiet now. "You're half frozen and starved and you want to talk about that thing." She pressed two fingers to his throat and counted. "You'll talk about nothing until you eat and sleep." "Is it you?" Bart asked. "The one who can teach me?" She pulled a blanket over his legs and did not answer at once. She checked the pup, ran a paw down its side, and set it beside him. "I'm the one who keeps this place running," she said. "The bear you're chasing came through here once. I know what that Speedo does to the ones who wear it. I've buried some of them." Bart's eyes closed. He fought them open. "Will you help me?" "I'll keep you alive tonight," Nurse Cold said. "Tomorrow we'll see what's left to teach." He slept. For the first time since the gates, someone stood watch who wanted him to live.