Out with the Old
by Erica Ruppert
Outside, the cold night was broken with fireworks and bursts of laughter from the streets below.
"Have to see the New Year," the old woman gasped. "Have to."
"Quiet, Annie," Jess said, smoothing the bedsheets over her new patient.
The old woman's skin was like marble. She wouldn't last much longer.
Jess might still make the party.
Jess startled when Annie grabbed her wrist and pulled her close.
"Can't go yet," Annie rasped.
Jess could hear the rattle behind her words.
"Stop that," Jess said sharply, tugging loose. She glanced at the window as she filled the syringe. Bright music filled the room despite the glass.
"How soon?" Annie coughed.
"Soon," Jess said. She looked at the clock over the bed. "Ten minutes."
"Have to see," Annie wheezed. Her eyes were not quite closed. A thin rim of white showed through her sparse lashes.
"You will," Jess murmured, and sank the needle into Annie's arm. She depressed the plunger slowly, watching Annie's face fall slack as the morphine did its work. Annie's breathing slowed, stopped.
Jess glanced at the clock. Eleven fifty-eight.
Close enough, she thought.
