That cake and nog probably contained six hundred calories minimum," considered Paula. "It takes running up and down once to burn ten calories. . . so I'll have to run up and down these steps sixty times." Paula raced up one side of the steps and ran down the other again and again. She could feel her heart beating, and she became light-headed. That probably came from the days of enforced rest at the hospital, she rationalized. Ignoring her fluttering heart, she continued her frenzied pace. All at once she became unutterably tired. Her breath became so laboured that it was like trying to breathe under water. She stumbled to a sitting position on the bottom step and held her head in her hands. She began to feel a tingling in her left hand and all the way up her arm. She shook her hand to try to get the numbness to go away, but it had no effect. She was aware of a sharp pain in her chest. Where her breathing was once laboured, it was now impossible. Paula was gripped with fear. What had she done to herself?

Continues...
Excerpted from I Know That Name! by Randy Ray Copyright © 2002 by Randy Ray. Excerpted by permission.
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