“See? Nothing!” Ester said. “No response.”
She replaced the hand and covered her daughter back up.
“Alright,” Deem said, opening the letter. “Let’s see what this says.” She pulled a single sheet of paper from the envelope and opened it.
There were about ten hand-written lines. She struggled to read the elaborate cursive, but after a while realized it wasn’t just the fancy lettering that was giving her trouble — there were some words she just couldn’t make out at all, even when she tried to sound out the letters.
“I’m sorry,” Deem said, looking up at Ester. “I can only read part of this.”
“You have the gift, but you can’t read it either?” Ester asked.
“This must be something I’m unfamiliar with,” Deem said. “Until I understand the context of something in the River, I can’t read about it. This was written by someone who understands something I don’t.”
“The River?” Ester asked.
“It’s what we call the place we go to, to see things that other people can’t see,” Deem replied. “Your daughter never talked about the River?”
“No, Lizzy never mentioned it,” Ester said. “Then again, I don’t exactly encourage those things.”
“Ah,” Deem replied, thinking of her own mother and how she disliked anything related to her gift, considering it evil. Deem flipped the letter over, checking the back side, and dropped into the River briefly to inspect it, but nothing special appeared. Then she took another look at the envelope.
“There’s a return address in New Harmony,” Deem said. “Do you know who sent this?”
“No idea,” Ester said. “Lizzy said she’d reached out to someone who could diagnose her, and that’s all she communicated before she passed out yesterday. I have no idea who she talked to.”
“Well, I can take this letter back to Carma if you want,” Deem said. “If she thinks it’s a good idea, I can drive up to New Harmony and try to talk to whoever sent it.”
“Oh, would you?” Ester asked. “I’m worried sick about her, and I just don’t know what to do to help. I’m not a big believer in these things, but I know Lizzy is, so if you would do that for me, I’d be extremely grateful.”
“Sure,” Deem said. “No problem.” She stared down at the girl in the bed, and couldn’t help thinking that she seemed a lot like herself — same age, same size, same looks. Even the same hairstyle, though Lizzy’s hair was dark black.
“I guess I better head back,” Deem said. “Can you give me your phone number? I’ll call you as soon as I find out anything.”
“Sure,” Ester said, leading them out of the bedroom and back into the living room. She went to the kitchen and jotted her number down on a small pad, then ripped off the top paper and handed it to Deem. “Here it is. Thank you for coming all the way out here. I’m really quite desperate, and Carma was the only one I could think of to turn to. With her unresponsive like this, I want to take her back to the hospital, but Lizzy was so insistent that it wouldn’t help. I really need Carma’s opinion on what I should do.” Ester opened the door for Deem.
“I’ll discuss it with her,” Deem said, walking through and down the front steps. She turned back to Ester. “Don’t worry. I’ll call you!” she said, and watched as the worried look on Ester’s face melted a little into thankfulness.
▪ ▪ ▪
This has been a complimentary first chapter of the next book in The Downwinders series,
The Graves of Plague Canyon
Enjoy the rest of the novel by downloading your complete copy from Amazon.com!
The Impossible Coin (The Downwinders Book 2) Page 20
