It had come on so quickly!
She managed to get him into bed and make him comfortable. Most of the agonising contortions had passed and he was laying still, breathing with increasing difficulty. The bedroom was dimly lit. She sat on the edge of the bed, holding his hand. He was trying to say something.
She leant forward. “What’s that, dear?”
“Ambulance,” he gasped.
“Of course dear.”
He managed to say, “My mouth tastes funny.”
“Really? That’s interesting. That’ll be the syrup, dear.”
“Syrup?” he hissed.
“Don’t you worry about that now, dear. Just lie quietly.”
He groaned with the sudden racking of his body. “I may not get through this…” he croaked.
“I’m sure it’s just an allergy.”
His eyes widened and he made a great effort to speak. “Just in case, I can’t go on without telling you. Our savings, your cruise, the one you always wanted to take. The one we’ve spent a lifetime saving for.” He winced again with the pain.
“Oh!” she said, softly, “You mean Rome, the Colosseum, the Pantheon, Saint Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City, the medieval towns of Tuscany, Athens, Barcelona, Venice, Dubrovnik, the Greek Islands, and of course, the holy city of Jerusalem. Is that what you mean, dear?”
He frowned, looking puzzled.
“All gone,” she whispered, gently stroking his forehead.
“You know?”
“All evaporated away with your secret visits to that silly casino…” Her voice was almost singsong. “Your stupid poker games in the back room.”
“What…”
“Yes,” she went on with a comforting tone, “It’ll show up as an extremely high pollen count. A fatal allergy. You do spend so much time out there in the garden, my love, when you’re not gambling.” She chuckled. “It only took a teaspoonful of that special syrup. Well, I doubled it, to make sure.” She took a deep breath and shook her head slowly. “If you only knew how much trouble I went to. All that cloak and dagger stuff, and it was expensive!”
His throat seemed to be closing, but he managed to gasp, “Ambulance.”
“Of course, dear,” she repeated. “A little later. Not long now.
She bent closer and whispered in his ear, “Rome would have been wonderful!”
With a shrug, she got up and left the room.