Dee curtsied to Jeff. “I wish I had a picture of this, my feminist friend,” he joked. “I’d blackmail you with it.”
Dee stuck her tongue at him and turned back to Jonas.
“Dancers, circle to the left!” O’Bryant called out.
The dance floor became a sea of groups circling to the left. Dee felt dizzy and swayed slightly.
“Are you okay?” Jonas asked.
“Yes. Just not used to circling, I guess.”
“Now circle to the right till you get back home!”
The dancers circled to the right until they assumed their original positions. O’Bryant began barking out square dance orders like a drill sergeant. “Do-si-do! Forward and back! Sides, up to the middle and come right back!”
The music sped up and the pace of dancing suddenly increased. Jonas held on to Dee, who felt increasingly light-headed.
“Are you sure you’re all right?” he asked, concerned. “You’re perspiring and you look pale.”
“Swing your partner!” O’Bryant call-ordered.
“I’m not feeling great,” Dee confessed to Jonas as he swung her.
“Now, swing your corner!”
Jonas passed her on to Jeff. They swung; then she returned to Jonas. She flashed on R.J. sneezing in the Duh! dressing room and said to Jonas, “I think I may have picked up a bug in L.A. I met with a writer who said he had allergies, but it was probably a cold.”
“Promenade all till you get back home!”
Dee and Jonas crossed arms together and promenaded in their square. Dee tripped over Jonas’s feet. “Sorry.”
The apology came out slurred. The barn began to whirl. Dee’s vision blurred. She heard a ringing in her ears. She pulled away from Jonas and staggered backward.
And the world went black.
CHAPTER 21
Dee regained consciousness to find herself lying on a pile of hay in a stable attached to the barn. The worried faces hovering over her came in and out of focus. Her head filled with a whooshing sound. She saw mouths moving and struggled to make out what people were saying.
“. . . Hasn’t eaten.”
Jeff said this as he held out what was either a roll or a rock. Dee couldn’t tell. She also wondered why he had the body of a bear.
“Stoney?”
She managed to get that out, but her tongue felt thick. She had no idea if anyone understood her.
“Give her water.”
Whoever said this spoke in slow motion. A glass of water floated in front of her. She tried reaching for it, but kept missing. “Stop . . . Can’t.”
She saw two bears exchange a look. The baby bear resembled the sheriff Raul. The papa bear’s girth was contained by a belt sporting a buckle with Ranger O’Bryant’s face on it, but with stag horns instead of ears. She heard one of the bears say something that sounded like “balance” before she lost consciousness.
* * *
Dee slowly opened her eyes. Light streaming in through an unfamiliar window made her wince. She felt like she’d had the world’s worst hangover, which made no sense. She’d only had a sip of beer the night before and virgin punch at the hoedown.
She slowly brought herself to sitting and saw she was in a hospital room. “Whaaa?”
She rubbed her eyes and then realized a nurse stood at the foot of her hospital bed. “Where am I? Who are you?” Panicked, she clutched her chest. “Did I die? Am I in heaven? Please tell me I’m not. I want it to be so much more than a hospital room.”
The nurse chortled. “Hon, I’ll be the first person to tell you this place ain’t close to being heaven.”
“Where exactly am I?”
“Gold County Medical Center.” She wheeled over a portable blood pressure monitor. “I gotta check a few things on you.” The nurse wrapped the blood pressure cuff around Dee’s left arm, then slipped a pulsometer on Dee’s finger and ran the tests. “Looks good. All normal.” She removed the pulsometer and unwrapped the cuff. “Some people wanna talk to you. First, breakfast.”
The nurse left as an orderly brought a simple breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast, along with water and orange juice. It hit Dee she was starving, and she scarfed down every drop of food. Exhausted and feeling weak, she leaned back on the hospital pillow. She heard a light tap on the doorframe.
“Come in.”
Raul and O’Bryant entered the room, wearing uniforms and matching serious expressions. “How are you feeling?” Raul asked.
“Better . . . I guess.” Dee massaged her temples, which didn’t help the headache she feared might never go away. “To be honest, still not great.”
O’Bryant lowered himself into the room’s one chair. Raul stood at the foot of Dee’s bed, arms crossed, legs spread a foot apart.
“There’s a reason for that,” the park ranger said. “You were drugged.”
