Black Bells
Page 16
Sarah stood behind her with an even wider smile. Debbie turned to her and said, "Thanks for doing that."
"I didn't do nothing." But her smile took on a hint of embarrassment.
"I felt you taking away the pain. Siphoning it off. I know you did that. So thank you."
Sarah just looked back at Paige, and her smile became one of sadness. "Everything I ever did, I did for my babies," she said. "Goodbye, baby girl."
Paige lifted one hand in a little wave. "Bye bye, bio mommy," she said. "Be good."
"I will, honey. You be good too. And say goodbye to your sister for me. I'm gonna miss you both so much."
Debbie took Sarah's hand. "I'm ready to go now," she said quietly.
Sarah nodded. "Me too. Let's go."
Megan hugged Paige, and together they watched the two women walk hand in hand to the bedroom door, which Megan was certain had not been there a moment ago. There was a golden light behind the door when Sarah opened it.
Then they both stepped through, and they were gone.
Megan half-expected the room to collapse around them with its creator gone, but it did not. Maybe Paige's imagination was keeping it intact. "Are you ready to go home now?" she asked.
"Well—" Paige looked up at the ceiling.
"Well what?" Why would Paige not want to go home, after all she'd been through?
"When we were in that cage, Meggie Moo told me about Far Faraway. She told me all the stuff that's in it. Can I maybe see some of that stuff? Please?"
Megan grinned. "I think I can show you a few things."
"This is the best thing ever!" Paige screamed as she clung to the back of her galloping unicorn. "Best, best thing ever!"
Megan laughed and stroked her own steed's silvery mane. "Wait till you see where we're going!"
"Okay, now this is the best thing ever!" Paige said as Megan led her down the peanut-brittle-paved main street of The Land of Sweets. She broke off a hunk of gingerbread park bench. "Can we get some ice cream?"
"Sure!" Megan took her to the town square and pointed at the fountain in the center. "Hope you like hot fudge!"
"Okay, okay!" Paige burbled. Large bubbles drifted from her mouth as she spoke. "Now this is totally the best thing ever." She gazed around at the sea of glowing, multicolored jellyfish that drifted with the current.
Megan waved at a passing mermaid and smiled at her daughter. "Best thing or not, it's definitely the last thing. I think your father and sister have worried about us enough. Are you ready to go home now?"
Paige waved her hands through the water and watched the tiny jellies swirl around her fingers. "Okay. I wanna go tell Jenna about this. She's gonna be so jealous."
"She probably won't believe that this actually happened," Megan said.
"I know. And then she's gonna be even more jealous!"
Megan supposed that that made sense to a child. Some things she was just too old for.
Epilogue
Two weeks later, Megan was straightening up her daughters' toy closet and shamelessly eavesdropping on their play. Though Jenna had rolled her eyes at Paige's stories about riding a unicorn and swimming with jellyfish, the story had still been incorporated into their pretend play. Right now, they were playing fantasy farm with unicorns instead of horses, and the farmer girl was somehow a mermaid.
"There's a bad witch coming!" one of the unicorns whinnied.
"I'll protect you!" the mermaid shouted, but she screamed as she was felled by a magic force that greatly resembled a child's hand.
"Help, help!" the unicorns cried. "We need Jack!"
Megan paused with a fistful of wooden blocks in one hand.
"Yes, Jack!" the mermaid agreed. "Jack will stop the evil witch! He'll throw salt in her face and make her melt!"
Megan dropped the blocks into their designated bin. Then she picked up a stuffed teddy bear with a plastic police badge pinned to its fur. The bear was a gift from the paramedics who'd responded to Brian's 911 call when Megan had come barging in the front door with Paige's sleeping body in her arms. Paige had told them all about being stuck in the cage, falling down down down and then being rescued by her birth mommy, and finally getting to ride a unicorn home. Megan simply told them that she'd found her wandering in the copse of trees behind Sacred Grounds, having searched and searched and lost track of the days. It seemed easier.
One of the paramedics had given her the bear in the ambulance, and she had named it Jack.
There were small silver bells sewn into its paws. They jingled when Megan shook it.
"Is this who you need?" she asked, holding the bear out behind her.
"Yes!" Paige grabbed the bear and ran back to the farm house. "Jack will stop that bad witch. But we gotta say the magic words."
"What are the magic words this time?" Jenna asked.
"Like this." Paige held the bear over her head. "Jack be nimble, Jack be quick. We need your help to play a trick!"
The bear crashed into the farmhouse with enough force to knock the entire structure over, but somehow nobody was harmed but the witch. Jack the bear picked the witch up with its jingling paws and threw it across the room.
"That's not gonna get rid of her," Jenna scolded. "You need to be smart and use lots of magic."
Megan left them alone to finish their game in peace. This wasn't her world anymore.
But she glanced at the bedroom window before she left, just for old time's sake.
It was open just a crack.
And for a moment, she thought she saw a flash of rainbow motley, and she heard the silver jingle of bells.