Bart Belly's Arc

Chapter 16 of 21

The next morning Nurse Cold woke Bart early. The cub slept in a basket by the oven, its breathing slow and clean. She led Bart to a wide room lined with clean beds. Their metal rails shone. "Put on the gold," she said. "Then lift the heaviest thing here. I need to see the shiver before it fools you." Bart pulled on the golden Speedo. Strength flooded his legs at once. He gripped the frame of a bed and raised it above his head with one paw. It weighed nothing. He set it down and laughed. "Give me something real." "That is the problem." Nurse Cold rested a paw on her round belly. Her little one kicked, and she winced. "Everything here is light. Beds, pans, cabinets. The gold laughs at all of it. I cannot show you the shiver if the gold never strains." She frowned at the row of beds. "My husband learned it lifting stone slabs. I have no stone." Bart stared at the beds. An idea came. He dragged four together and locked their wheels. Then he loaded them. He piled every cabinet, every crate of bottles, the aid box, the heavy oven grate. He stacked pans and metal rails until the beds groaned. Still the gold made it easy. "More," said Nurse Cold. She watched his arms. "When it strains, I will tell you what to feel." Bart looked at her. Then he crossed the room and knelt. "Get on," he said. "You and the little one. You are the heaviest thing in this place I trust to catch if I drop it." She hesitated. Her paw pressed her belly. Then she climbed onto the loaded beds and gripped a rail. Bart set his paws under the frame. He lifted. This time the gold caught. The strength surged, then stuttered. A tremor ran up his arms, small and fast, like water skipping. His grip slipped an inch. "There," Nurse Cold said, sharp and quick. "Feel that? The stutter under the pull. That is the shiver. It comes three, four breaths before the gold quits. When you feel it, you set down or you plant your feet. You do not push through it. My husband pushed through it." Bart held the weight. He counted his breaths. On the third breath the tremor climbed again. He felt it now, clear as a heartbeat. He bent his knees and lowered the beds slow and even. Nurse Cold slid off, one paw on her belly, the other on his shoulder. "Again," she said. "Until you know it in the dark." They worked until his arms ached under the gold. By the end Bart could name the shiver before it showed in his paws. He peeled off the Speedo. "Now I will feel it coming," he said. "Now you might live," she said. "Which is more than my husband did." She looked at the gates far beyond the ice. "Soon you go back. The king will be waiting."