Where the Forest Meets the Stars

by Vanderah, Glendy

  No one answered.

  “Do you see this note? It clearly says her name. This would have meant a lot to her, and it’s been sitting out here for a week.” Jo looked around at them. “Why would you keep this from a sick little girl who needs it?”

  “We wanted to give it to her . . . ,” a nurse said.

  “They weren’t allowed,” Lenora said.

  “Why not?”

  “I think you know why.”

  “You were trying to erase us—Gabe, Tabby, and me. You wanted her to forget us.”

  “We thought it would be more painful than helpful to remind her,” Lenora said.

  “That’s just wrong. And I’m the one in trouble!” Jo held the kitten against her crutch handle and walked from behind the desk, the balloon fluttering against her head.

  Lenora clucked her tongue and shook her head. “Aren’t you a match for Miss Ursa, though?”

  They continued down the corridor, past rooms mostly occupied by elderly people attached to machines. Jo’s stomach fluttered with anticipation when she saw the policeman seated next to Ursa’s room. The policeman stood, his hand on his holster.

  “It’s all right,” Lenora said. “I’m letting them in.”

  The officer gave her a questioning gaze.

  “My girl ain’t gonna talk if we don’t,” she said. “I think we’ve established that well enough.”

  The officer stepped aside for Jo. Ursa was seated in her hospital bed, remnants of her lunch spread on a rolling table in front of her. She was intently studying the IV in her arm.

  “Oh no you don’t, young lady!” Lenora said. “Don’t even think about pulling that out again.”

  Ursa looked up guiltily. But when she saw Jo and Gabe, her expression turned to pure joy. “Jo! Gabe!” she said.

  Jo moved toward her as fast as the crutches would allow. She put the kitten on the bed and leaned into Ursa’s outstretched arms. They cried and held each other for a few minutes. Then Gabe did the same as Lenora and a nurse watched from the doorway.

  When Gabe let Ursa go, Jo showed her the kitten and balloon. “This is from Tabby.”

  Ursa pressed the kitten to her cheek. “I love him! He’s like Caesar! Is Tabby here?”

  “She was here for a long time, but she had to go back to work,” Jo said.

  “You and Gabe were here, too?”

  “Ever since what happened,” Jo said.

  Ursa glowered at Lenora. “I knew it! I knew they were here!”

  “You got me cold, little lady,” Lenora said. “But I only ever wanted you to get better.”

  “Are you going to let me live with Jo and Tabby?”

  “Let’s just enjoy the moment,” Lenora said. She sat in a chair in the corner.

  “Are you going to finish your lunch?” the nurse asked Ursa.

  “I don’t like it.”

  “You asked for macaroni and cheese.”

  “You have to make it from the blue box,” Ursa said, “and the shapes make it taste better.”

  “Try Star Wars shapes next time,” Jo told the nurse.

  “Don’t think our kitchen has that,” the nurse said, picking up the tray.

  “Now that Jo is here, she can bring some,” Ursa said.

  Jo rolled the table away and sat on the edge of the bed. Gabe pulled over a chair. Jo held Ursa’s hand. “Do you feel okay?”

  Her brown eyes melted into gloom. “Is Little Bear dead?”

  Jo took Ursa’s hand in both of hers and held tight. “He is. I’m very sorry.”

  A sob burst from her chest, and tears dripped down her cheeks.

  “I’m so proud of him,” Jo said. “He saved both of us. You know that, right?”

  Ursa nodded, crying.

  “When you get better, we’ll have a nice funeral for him.”

  “With a cross?”

  “I can make one,” Gabe said.

  “Where is he?” she asked Gabe.

  “He’s buried in the woods near the Kinney house,” he said.

  Ursa cried harder, and Jo held her again.

  “What’s wrong with your leg?” Ursa asked when her tears subsided.

  “One of the men shot the back of my thigh.”

  More tears. “I’m sorry, Jo! It’s my fault! It’s my fault you got hurt and Little Bear is dead!”

  “No, it isn’t! None of what happened was your fault. Don’t ever think that.”

  “I should have told you! I was pretty sure they were following us . . .”

  “You were scared. It’s okay.”

  Ursa looked at Gabe. “The police said you killed them.”

  “Yes,” he said.

  “Are you in trouble?”

  “No.”

  Jo drew tissues from the box on the table and wiped Ursa’s runny nose. She used another to dab her tears.

  “I love you, Jo,” Ursa said.

  “I love you, too, love bug.”

  She smiled. “You called me that the night I got shot. That was when I figured out that you love me.”

  “My mom used to call me love bug—even when I grew up.”

  “I wish I had my pencils. I just got an idea for something to draw.”

  “What?”

  “A love bug. It will be pink with purple spots. Its eyes will be big, and it will have long antennas.”

  “It sounds cute.”

  “I’ll draw pink and red hearts all around it.”

  “There’s an office store near my hotel,” Gabe said. “How about I get you colored pencils and paper?”

  “Not now! You have to stay!” She turned to Jo. “I forgot! I forgot to tell you why I stayed after the fifth miracle.”

  “Why did you?”

  “Because I decided to stay with you. When you said you loved me and maybe would adopt me, I wanted that more than anything. Even more than my own planet. I was in the stars when I decided to come back.”

  “Were you?”

  “Yes! It was all glittery and black and really pretty. But I only wanted you, and I tried hard to get back to you.”

  Jo kissed her cheek. “I’m glad you came back.”

  Ursa glanced at Lenora. “I’m not staying if they don’t let me be with you.”

  “Let’s not worry about that yet, okay?” Jo said.

  “I do worry about it—all the time. When they lied and said you weren’t here, I tried to run away and find you.”

  “Twice, as a matter of fact,” Lenora said.

  “That reminds me,” Gabe said. He rummaged in his backpack and pulled out his battered copy of The Runaway Bunny . “I brought this for you.”

  “Will you read it?” Ursa said.

  “I sure will.”

  Jo changed places with him so he could show her the pictures as he read.

  “Read it again? Please?” Ursa pleaded when he finished.

  He started over. The story had the same lulling effect it had when he’d read it to her at Kinney Cottage. She was nearly asleep when he finished. He and Jo gently stroked her arm until she fell into a deep sleep.

  Lenora walked to the bed. “Her pain medication has been reduced, but it still makes her sleepy. Her emotions tend to wear her out, too.” She looked at the door. “Well, I need to eat some lunch before the others get here, and I’m sorry to say you have to go back to the waiting room. She’s not allowed unattended visitors.

  “That went well,” Lenora said on their walk back through the ICU. “She’s very comfortable with you two. I think you’ll get her to say what Josh Kellen needs to know.” A nurse opened the outer doors for them. “There’s nothing Kellen hates more than kid killers,” Lenora said. “He has to settle this.” She directed her hand at Jo’s usual chair in the waiting room. “Have a seat, and please don’t go anywhere. As soon as everyone gets here, we’ll all go in and talk to Ursa. Good thing she’ll be well rested.”

  Jo and Gabe sat side by side in the waiting room. “Why do I feel like I’m about to do something shitty?” Jo said.

>   “Because it will be shitty,” he said. “We’re going to make her talk about her mother’s murder.”

  “That’s not what I meant. I feel like we’re being forced to trick her. She’s terrified she’ll be separated from us, and they’re going to use that to their advantage.”

  “They’re trying to solve a murder, Jo.”

  “I know, but that’s a little girl in there. She’s not just a tool to unlock their case.”

  34

  Two hours later, Lenora Rhodes nearly ran from the elevator to the ICU doors.

  “What’s going on?” Jo said.

  “She woke up and saw you weren’t there. She’s making a fuss again.”

  “I can help,” Jo said.

  “No, it’s better if she learns her tantrums don’t work.” She hurried through the doors.

  “What the hell?” Jo said.

  “Yeah,” Gabe said. “Why not give a sick kid what makes her feel better—especially before she’s got to talk about her dead mother?”

  “Because they have their heads up their asses!”

  They sat and waited again. A half hour later, Detective Kellen, Deputy McNabb, and a woman with shoulder-length bleached hair stepped out of the elevator. Jo and Gabe stood. “This is Dr. Shaley,” Kellen said, gesturing toward the blonde woman. “She’s Ursa’s state-appointed psychologist.”

  Jo and Gabe shook the woman’s hand.

  “I heard about your vigil,” Shaley told Jo. “I’m impressed by your dedication. Four days in a hospital waiting room! I hear you bathe in the bathroom.”

  “People who have no voice need others to speak for them,” Jo said.

  “Ursa, you mean?”

  “Yes, Ursa.”

  “Why do you assume she has no voice?”

  “Because she’s been asking for me for a week, and she wasn’t allowed to see me.”

  “We’re trying to do what’s best for her, not just for now, but in the future.”

  “You know, she’s very aware that her future is hanging in the balance, and she’s smart enough to know what’s best for her. When she ran away in June, I think she was searching for a new home. She wanted to choose it rather than have it chosen for her.”

  Shaley and the two officers were incredulous.

  “And you believe you are that home?” Shaley asked.

  “I would love to be. But it’s her choice.”

  “She’s not even nine years old,” McNabb said.

  “And what choice does she have when you were the first person she encountered?” Shaley said. “There are many wonderful foster parents who would love to give her an excellent home.”

  “I hope you’re right,” Jo said. “She’ll leave if she doesn’t like it, and she may not run into good people the second time around.”

  “We know what we’re doing, Joanna. Have faith in us,” Shaley said.

  She and the two men walked away.

  “We’ll send for you once we’ve established Ursa is well enough to give a statement,” Kellen said before he followed the others into the ICU.

  Jo wanted to throw a crutch at them. “We’ll send for you! You see how we’re being used?”

  “Calm down,” Gabe said. “Saying these things to them can only hurt you.”

  “Why? Everything I said was the truth. Ursa was looking for her new home. That was the purpose of the five miracles—to give her time to decide and to give us time to bond with her.”

  “Jo . . . you aren’t the only person in this world who can love her.”

  “I know! But why look further if it’s what she and I both want?”

  “You’re single, for one thing. They’ll try to place her with a mother and father.”

  “Yeah, what bullshit is that anyway? Why is that better? What about a gay couple? Will they consider that?”

  “Jo . . .”

  “What?”

  “You’re falling apart. You’ve been in this room too long. You need to get out of here and get some rest.”

  “Not until we make her talk. Will they let us see her after they solve their murder? Maybe they’re tricking us, too.”

  “They never said we could see her after.”

  “I know.” She fell back in a chair. “God damn it!”

  Gabe sat next to her and held her hand.

  A few minutes later, Lenora came out and saw Jo crumpled in the chair. “Are you all right? Are you up to this?”

  Jo had no choice. If she didn’t coerce Ursa into telling the story, she’d never see her again. If she did, she at least had a chance.

  “Yes, I’m up to it.”

  Lenora led them into the ICU. Detective Kellen, Deputy McNabb, and the sentry police officer were conversing quietly out of Ursa’s sight. Dr. Shaley was inside the room talking to her. “Jo!” Ursa screamed when she saw her. She bounced up on her knees, stretching her IV line taut.

  “Careful!” a nurse said. “You won’t like it if I have to put it in again!” She pulled Ursa back to the pillows.

  Jo set her crutches down and held her.

  “Why did you leave?” Ursa said into her chest.

  “They said we had to. We didn’t want to.”

  Ursa withdrew from her arms and turned a bitter stare on the nurse. “You lied! You said you didn’t know why they went away!”

  The nurse left the room muttering, “This girl is gonna be the death of me.”

  Ursa’s eyes were red. She’d been crying very hard.

  “Did you pull out your IV?” Jo asked.

  She nodded. “I wanted to find you and Gabe.”

  “We were out in the waiting room. You have to stop pulling out your IV. It hurts when they put it back, doesn’t it?”

  “Yes! They’re mean here! They held me down!”

  “They had to because we couldn’t sedate her,” Lenora explained.

  Because they had to keep her awake for their statement.

  “I want to leave!” Ursa said. “I hate it here! I want to go with you and Gabe!”

  “You aren’t well enough yet,” Jo said.

  “Can I go with you when I am? Please?”

  Jo wouldn’t lie. “I wish you could, but it’s not up to me.”

  Dr. Shaley pressed her red lips tight, clearly unhappy with Jo’s answer.

  “Who is it up to?” Ursa asked.

  “You have visitors, Ursa,” Lenora said to distract her. “Do you mind if they come in?”

  Ursa turned a suspicious stare at the door. “Who?”

  “Do you remember Josh Kellen?”

  “The man with the gun?”

  “He wears it because he’s a police officer,” Dr. Shaley said. “He’s one of the good guys.”

  She’d said it in a voice one used to speak to a toddler. And Ursa was smarter than all of them.

  Lenora stepped outside and told Kellen and McNabb to come in. Jo looked at Gabe. He seemed as dismayed as she was. Two cops, a counselor, and a shrink would stare at Ursa while she talked about how her mother had died.

  Ursa’s eyes flooded with fear. She knew why they were there.

  Lenora approached the bed. “Ursa . . . Jo and Gabe want you to tell them what happened the night you ran away.”

  Ursa turned a stunned look on Jo, as if she suddenly saw her as the enemy. Jo nodded at Gabe, gesturing him to one side of Ursa’s bed while she sat on the other. He saw what she had in mind. He sat close to Ursa, his body and Jo’s obstructing her view of the other four people in the room.

  Jo held Ursa’s hand. “Everyone wants to keep you safe,” she said. “And to do that, the police have to know what happened the night you ran away from home.”

  “You know why I left Hetrayeh. I left my home to get my PhD.”

  “Ursa . . . I know Hetrayeh is Earth spelled backwards.”

  “I had to do that! People on Earth can’t say what my planet is called. We don’t use words.”

  “You told me your name backwards, too.”

  “Don’t you get it? I do ever
ything Ursa used to do. Her brain is my brain.”

  “Joanna . . . ,” Dr. Shaley said.

  Jo looked at her.

  “We don’t need to talk about this right now. I’m helping her with it.”

  Jo turned back to Ursa. “They need to know what happened because they’re afraid to let you out of here. They’re worried there are other men who might be after you.”

  She looked at Gabe. “You killed them.”

  “Did I kill them all?” he asked.

  She nodded.

  “What about the man we saw at the restaurant?” Jo said.

  Ursa didn’t answer.

  “The police worry he might be dangerous. They’re afraid for you—and so are Gabe and I.”

  “Gabe killed the really bad ones,” Ursa said.

  “But why did the man in the restaurant call them and tell them you were there?”

  “He was their friend.”

  Detective Kellen stepped closer, unfortunately drawing Ursa’s attention away from Jo. “Do you know the man’s name?” Kellen asked.

  “Tell him,” Jo said. “It’s okay.”

  “If I tell him, will he leave?”

  “No. The police have to know what happened to your mother.”

  “I don’t have a mother,” Ursa said in a quiet voice.

  Jo squeezed her hand. “Please get this thing out. It’s hurting you to keep it inside. Don’t do it for them or for me and Gabe. Do it for yourself.”

  “I told them I would only tell them if they let me live with you and Tabby in Urbana.”

  “We’re working on that,” Lenora said.

  Jo bit back an urge to call her a liar.

  “I’ll run away if you don’t let me,” Ursa told Lenora.

  “I know. You told me a few times,” Lenora said.

  Jo put her hand on Ursa’s cheek. “Tell us so we can get you out of this hospital without being afraid for you. Forget they’re all here and just say it to Gabe and me. Why did you run away that night? Did something happen to your mother?”

  “She wasn’t my mother.”

  “Portia wasn’t your mother?”

  Ursa reacted to the name, apparently surprised that Jo knew it. But Jo couldn’t worry about breaking one of their rules. She had to follow her instincts. “Why do you say Portia wasn’t your mother?”

  “Because she was Ursa’s mother. I wasn’t in Ursa’s body yet. I didn’t take it over until after the men killed her.”