The small group's riding in a dingy, compacted white and yellow caravan. They're guided by a burgundy pickup truck in which Shawn – La'Shawna's father – is driving. All four ladies are sitting at the dining table while the guys are standing in front of the television.

"First, we're gonna stop for a quick breakfast since the fridge in this thing hasn't worked since the sixties," La'Shawna announces with her gaze on the notepad in her left hand. She's gripping a short pencil between her right hand's index and thumb. The thought of food turns Judith's stomach as usual, but it places a smile on Mary's face.

"Groovy. I didn't have time to eat a thing this morning because I wanted to make sure that I had everything that I needed in my bag," Mary confesses. La'Shawna glances at her over the top of her figurative glasses.

"Did you pack a change of clothes," La'Shawna asks her, noticing that she's the only one not wearing shorts. "It'll be hot on that floor since the a.c is busted."

"I completely forgot to," she hesitantly tells her President to Kacey's pleasure. Judith is holding her breath, and Mary notices.

"I packed like three outfits," Mary says, and as La'Shawna forms a faint smile, Kacey's fades. "I know that you were busy with, like, family stuff, so you didn't remember; it happens. I'll get you something to change into."

Mary slides out of the booth with her friend in tow, and then she leans upward with her hands reaching for the rose-red duffle bag in the storage compartment. The sound of the zipper gliding backward fills their ears more than the rumbling of the tires against potholes.

After rummaging through her pile of clothes, she closes her luggage and offers Judith a pair of black dolphin shorts and a grey t-shirt.

"Thank you," she whispers before stepping past her two male peers on her way to the bathroom. She shuts and locks the door behind her, lays the clothes on the sink, and then undresses.

In only her white panties and matching bralette, she stares at the reflection of her petite body. She has bruises desecrating her cleavage, and the sight of them makes her heart race.

She slips into the spare clothes to avoid an anxiety attack then squats down to pick up hers. She exits the bathroom, and her heart slows to its normal rhythm.

Kacey is staring at her, her brows knitted, but she doesn't acknowledge it.

"What're you wearing," she asks almost humorously when Judith reaches the table. La'Shawna looks away from her checklist, and her eyes widen when they land on the front of her shirt, but when Mary gazes at her friend, her neutral expression doesn't shift.

"They're clothes," their leader answers as Judy finally gazes at her attire. Her lips fall agape at the image of an olive-skinned man with flowing Auburn hair in the middle of the shirt.

"Exactly," Mary chimes in, then she scoffs incredulously. "Like, what's your problem?"

"We don't wear threads like that," Kacey answers, then scans Judith from head to toe.

"What's wrong with it? I seriously don't understand what your problem is," she continues with a higher pitch, her forehead growing sore because of her confused expression.

"Enough, Kace," La'Shawna sternly says. Judith's face is gradually turning red from embarrassment. The two girls quiet down, the eyes of Anthony and William boring into them. "From now on, when we do these mission trips, I'll bring in hand-sewn clothes. For now, what she's wearing is fine, so drop it."

***

"We're with the nonprofit group on the Darlington University campus. I spoke with Miss. Emerson about the gift giveaway and she said for us to come today," La'Shawna explains to the pale, brunette woman sitting behind the front desk. She sternly stares at the group over her black hexagon glasses.

"One moment," she utters in a monotonous and grave voice. They watch her lift the eggshell headset of the rotary phone to her right ear. She mashes the buttons with her left hand's middle finger, then gazes at them. "I have a bunch of college students here who are dropping off gifts for the pediatric ward — Aileen said that it's okay, but I wanted to make sure that you all are ready for them. I'll send them up."

She returns the headset to the hook switch. Leaning across the counter and pointing to the far left of La'Shawna, she says, "Go down that hall and catch the elevator onto the fourth floor. A woman named Ruby will be there to greet you."

They follow their leader past the curious eyes of some people in the lobby watching them, the red wagon's wheels rumbling against the hardwood floors behind Anthony as he tows it.

The elevator carries them to the fourth floor with the melody of the song Put your head on my shoulder by Paul Anka playing.

"Oh, I love this song," Mary says with a large grin. Judith and Anthony glance at her, then at the doors, when she begins to hum along with the muzak.

"Thank God," Kacey mumbles when the elevator opens to the fourth floor of doctors and nurses in white. They follow La'Shawna away from the tune, but Mary doesn't cease.

A woman with a short red ponytail and hazel brown eyes steps away from the nurse's station. She looks at them and says, "You must be the students that Lucy was referring to. It's nice to put a face behind those names. My name is Ruby."

"It's nice to meet you too. My name is La'Shawna, and these are my group mates." They shake hands. "If you don't mind, could you tell us the room numbers to go to?"

"You're very straightforward," Ruby says with a surprised smile. "I suppose that's a good quality to have when you're in leadership. I have a list here."

She removes a sheet from the clipboard and hands it to La'Shawna.

"Thank you." She nods at the woman, then turns to face her group. Ruby continues down the hallway. "Kacey, Judith, and Mary, you'll be in room four-o-three. William and Anthony, you'll be with me in room four-o-nine. Meet me here after you've dropped off your boxes."

"Alright," Judy says with her male clubmates. Mary and Kacey quietly stare at La'Shawna, and from the silence, Judith detects their hostility.

They each grab two boxes and make their way to their rooms. The ladies reach an open door, 403 engraved on the sign against the wall.

They count four beds separated by off-white dividers to the left and right of the floor through the arch.

The first bed they approach is inhabited by an adolescent boy with his face covered in plaster, leaving his grey eyes to roam around and his nose to breathe in the stench of bleach.

"Hi, my name is Judy. Could you tell us yours?" He narrows his eyes at her, and Kacey slowly turns her head to do the same.

"His mouth is covered, Judith." She takes a step back to gaze at the clipboard on the end of the bed. "Joshua Ingram, it's nice to see you again. My name is Kacey McDaniels. Can you sign?"

"Can he sign what," Mary asks, and Kacey rolls her eyes at the question asked. The little boy nods his head, and he lifts his trembling hand.

"My name is Joshua, but Josh is fine." The trio watches his fingers speak for him through rapid motions, but Mary and Judith furrow their brows from confusion.

"What's he doing," Judith asks as she and Mary turn their heads to look at Kacey when he finishes.

"He was telling me his name to demonstrate that he knows sign language," she answers after a deep breath to calm her mood. "What toy did you want?"

He rushes a breath of air from his nose, a faint chuckle that Kacey notices. She humorously scoffs when she remembers what he might've asked for. She places the boxes on the floor.

"Where are you going," Judith asks when Kacey power walks toward the exit.

"To the caravan." She rushes the words from her mouth, and Mary scrunches her brows at Judy.

"I guess she left one behind." Mary takes a deep breath, then lowers the boxes to the floor between them, and Judith does the same. "So, how're you feeling since we last talked?"

"What're you, my shrink?" When she doesn't respond to her sarcastic remark, Judith bites her lip and allows her eyes to drift onto the open door. "I feel – like the Earth is crashing around me. Stacey, my older sister, is dying. She has two kids and a husband that she'll be leaving behind because she's so stupid."

"What do you mean," Mary asks when she folds her arms. Judy glances at the bandaged child staring at his hands. She gently pulls Mary to the left and away from his earshot.

"She has a condition," Judith tells her in a low voice. "The doctor called it vaginismus, and he said that along with her bleeding problem — she got lucky with the kids that she has now. I don't think anyone can help her anymore; she's done."

"Don't say that," Mary sympathetically says, and she takes Judith's hands in hers. Her blue eyes flicker between both of her teary, brown eyes. "I know you're sad for her, and if she were my family, I would be crying too, but you can't say stuff like that. As a Buddhist, I strongly believe in manifestation, and if you want your sister to live, then speak that into existence."

"I'm a Baptist," she tells her, then pushes her hands away. "I don't believe in karma or whatever it is that you do. I'm just upset, and right now, I would prefer to speak candidly with someone who'll actually understand."

"And you don't think that I do?" Mary scoffs incredulously, then folds her arms. "When I was seven years old, I witnessed the death of a loved one. He was there for me when I was sad, sick, angry, whatever. One day, I walked into my room, and he was lying on the floor – dead. My parents put me in counseling for three years after that."

"Oh, Mary, I'm sorry." Mary scoffs again, and a tear glides down her left cheek. She averts her attention to the nurses tending to the patients to the right of the room. "Who was it?"

"It was my beagle, and his name was Henry." Judith rolls her eyes. Kacey struts toward them with a calendar in her hand.

"Here's your gift," she tells him, then stands to his right. Mary wipes her face and turns her head to look at them. When Joshua takes the calendar from her, Kacey folds her arms.

He takes a few seconds to stare at Marilyn Monroe on the cover before he flips it open. Kacey watches the joyous gleam in his grey eyes fade at the sight of a blonde model posing on a red sofa with black ink from a marker covering the front of her naked body.

With narrowed eyes, he turns to another defaced page; February. A brunette is standing in front of an open window with her back turned. He glares at Kacey, dropping the calendar onto his lap.

"You're thirteen, Joshua," she reminds him when he lifts his hands to speak. Judith wipes her face and approaches the foot of the bed with Mary. "If you think that I'll get you a Playboy magazine or calendar, then I'll be sure to let the nurses know to lower your dose of painkillers because they've gone to your head."

"Why waste money on it if you're going to trash it," he signs, anger set in his eyes.

"Because buying you a comic isn't nearly as fun, nor will it teach you a lesson." Kacey walks toward the donations and knits her brows. "Why've you two not distributed the gifts?"

"We were having a heart-to-heart," Mary answers her before an excuse can fly from Judith's mouth. "Shouldn't he get an actual present?"

"Don't try to change the subject. La'Shawna told us to give them out and meet her near the elevator," she reminds them. "Also, I gave him his gift, simple."

"Kacey, you don't have to be rude," Judy chimes in, and Mary lowers her head from embarrassment. "We were gonna give them out after we finished talking. It was a quick discussion."

Kacey scoffs at her, then shakes her head. She bends to lift her boxes, then pushes past them to stand near the next bed. Judith and Mary look at each other.