The Sentinel Read Online Free PDF

She remained silent for several minutes, unresponsive to Jack's prodding. Then she looked up, breathed deeply and sat back. It s gone.
    "What's gone?" Jack asked.
    "I'm not sure," she replied with a look that implied an absence of total consciousness. Yet, some of her color had returned and her eyes had steadied. "I had a migraine," she said, "and this sensation, as if the sense of touch had left my hands and legs."
    Jack regarded her inquisitively. "Can you hold the ice?" he asked.
    She nodded and laid her hand over the scarf.
    "Do you want to lie down?"
    "No," she said, shaking her head deliberately. "I feel better."
    "Are you sure?" asked Jennifer as she nervously leaned over the arm of the chair.
    "Yes," Allison answered. She did feel better. Almost a complete reversal of her condition just moments ago. She was understandably skeptical. Could the migraine and dead-ness have disappeared that quickly? It seemed impossible. Yet the pain had arrived almost instantaneously. Surely it could have left the same way. That is, assuming there really was a headache and a polarization of her sense of touch and not a psychological mirage brought on by the heat or excitement.
    "I want you to sit for a couple of minutes more," said Jack.
    "Yes, I think I will," Allison said.
    She did, during which time Jack hovered over her, occasionally going over to the broken skylight window to comment on the excessive heat in the studio.
    After several minutes he asked how she felt. She said, "Fine." He asked if she had eaten. She said she had nibbled a hamburger at lunch. He concluded that food would do her good and pulled her to the bar, where she began to eat one of the remaining sandwiches.
    She chewed slowly. She wasn't hungry. Strange! She hadn't eaten since lunchtime. And her appetite had seemed perfectly normal. Perhaps she was coming down with the flu. You could always count on the flu to arrive at the most inopportune time and bring with it the most peculiar set of symptoms imaginable. That might explain everything. Still she should have started slower. An hour booking instead of a long session. And a staggered schedule rather than consecutive commitments. She had a major commercial to shoot the next day, a national spot, which would probably require a few days' work. Then she would have to shop and cook dinner for Michael. There were several still sessions scheduled for Wednesday and a fashion show for Thursday. Rest? She doubted she would have much time for that until the weekend, providing she didn't become sick, in which event everything might have to be canceled.
    Jack cleaned up the cellophane and napkins and placed the tray and discarded bottles under the bar. He walked around and gently laid his hand on her shoulders and massaged the delicate but tense muscles with the tips of his fingers. She lowered her head. He ran his hand up her neck and over the back of her scalp, following the wave of her fine-spun hair. "You're a right pretty thing, you know," he said reassuringly.
    She smiled.
    "I want to be sure that you feel all right before we begin. If not, we'll wait."
    She swiveled around and kissed him on the cheek. "I'm fine," she said.
    He pulled her from the seat, slapped her on the rear and led her back toward Jennifer and Lois, who were back on the set.
    Allison watched Lois and Jennifer turn the near corner onto Fifth Avenue and disappear.
    She glanced at her watch; it was late, eleven o'clock. The session had lasted longer than she had expected. She was tired. Yet apart from the "fainting spell," it had been a good first booking. A triumphant return of sorts.
    She picked up her duffel, stepped out of the doorway and looked toward Sixth Avenue, now a blotch of light in the distance. She began to walk slowly, acutely aware of the darkness, shadows, and dirt. She felt curiously uneasy. Strange, she had walked this neighborhood at night many times over the past few years. And she had learned to accommodate the terrors. But tonight,