The Accident

by Diane Hoh

  Because ever since Hilary had grabbed that rope and hung on for dear life, ever since they’d put that ladder up there and a shaky but unharmed Hilary had slowly climbed down to safety, Megan had known that she was going to trade places with Juliet. She just hadn’t been ready to admit it to herself. Until now.

  The idea no longer seemed so crazy, so impossible. The way she felt now had something to do with four of her closest friends almost losing their lives but being lucky enough to survive. Luckier than Juliet. And all Juliet wanted was one tiny little week. That wasn’t very much.

  Her gratitude that Hilary’s body hadn’t crashed into that hard wooden stage made her feel generous. Scared, terrified even, but generous. What was a week, anyway? Practically nothing.

  Hadn’t Gram said Megan marched to a different drummer? Maybe it was time to prove that. Something deep inside her, something she had never listened to before, was willing to do this incredibly frightening thing. It was time to pay attention to that part of her.

  Dropping her books and purse on the bed, Megan took a deep breath and walked over to the mirror. “Juliet, are you there?” she called softly. “I want to talk to you.”

  The mirror remained clear. There was no plume of purplish haze, no faintly glowing silvery light, no whispering voice. There was nothing but glass and Megan’s own reflection.

  Chapter 8

  WHEN THE MIRROR STARED blankly back at her, Megan fought a mixture of relief and disappointment.

  Where was Juliet?

  Every five or ten minutes during the evening, Megan called out Juliet’s name. But there was no answer.

  After phoning Hilary to make sure she was really okay, Megan crawled into bed, but she wasn’t planning on sleeping. She would stay awake and continue trying to summon Juliet.

  But the horrors of the day had exhausted her. She fell asleep.

  And was awakened during the night by a terrifying nightmare, the worst she’d ever had. A dense forest of cobwebs, soft and furry as caterpillars, imprisoned her. She struggled frantically to break free, but the steel-strong network refused to release her. Off in the distance, a giant spider approached slowly on thick, black, hairy legs.

  Megan thrashed and moaned, desperately seeking freedom. But the web held.

  Somewhere in the distance, she heard her name called softly. But she was powerless to answer.

  Panicking halfway between sleep and wakefulness, she bolted upright in bed, suddenly wide awake. Stunned, she looked around her, but could see nothing in the pitch-black. The dream had been so real. She had felt so absolutely trapped. The feeling of helplessness stayed with her. Her stomach lurched, her head ached with a pain that hurt her eyes, and she was very, very cold.

  And then she realized that the cold came from the now-familiar plunge in the room’s temperature.

  Megan shivered, desperately wanting the darkness to disappear. She could still feel the threat of that enormous hairy spider ambling toward her in the dream web. Shuddering again, she wrapped her arms around her chest and watched numbly as the mirror began to fill with the shimmering lavender image.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t come earlier,” Juliet apologized. “I heard you calling me. But I was scared you’d decided not to trade, and I couldn’t stand to hear you say it.” Then, “Megan, what’s wrong? You look awful!”

  “I’m okay.” Megan took a deep breath and exhaled. “Juliet, I’ve thought about it. I want you to explain again about trading.”

  The plume danced with amazement and joy. “You do?”

  “Yes. Exactly how would we do it? Tell me everything.”

  “Oh, it’s so easy!” Juliet’s voice rose and fell with excitement. “Once you agree, all you have to do is step into this mirror. And I will step out … as you. It takes only a second.”

  “And I will be invisible, but you will be able to hear me?”

  “Yes. And nothing from your world can touch you.”

  “But … it can touch you. And you will be me. That scares me, Juliet. It means that whoever hurt my friends and pushed Hilary off the catwalk, could go after me … you … next. Are you sure you can protect yourself better than I could?”

  “Yes, Megan, I am sure. I’ll be careful.”

  Megan wished she could have talked to someone about all of this. But who would believe her? She hardly believed it herself.

  Reading her thoughts, Juliet warned, “You can’t tell anyone, Megan. I know it’s hard, but that would ruin everything. The only one who can know is the lender, and that’s you. No one else.”

  “You think you know enough about me to act and talk like me?” she asked Juliet.

  “It’s only for a week, Megan. I can handle that.”

  “And you will look just like me?”

  “I will be you, Megan. I will look like you and talk exactly like you. But inside, I’ll still be me. And you’ll still be you. No one can take your real inner self from you.”

  Juliet’s voice was calm and reassuring, as if they were discussing taking a walk around the lake.

  Megan tried to relax. “We would have to practice switching before I agreed.”

  “Of course. There’s nothing to it. You step into the mirror and I step out. As you.”

  She was right. There wasn’t anything to it. After each transformation, Megan felt nothing but a peculiar sense of weightlessness, the way she imagined a soap bubble might feel. She disliked the dark emptiness of the mirror, but Juliet reminded her that there was no need for her to remain there.

  “You can go anywhere you want, as long as you don’t leave the lake area.”

  They switched back and forth four times without a hitch. The strangest part was looking out from inside the mirror and seeing her physical self, now Juliet, standing there before her. When Megan wanted to be herself again, she simply said, “I am Megan, and I want to be me again.” And she was.

  Her voice quivering with excitement, Juliet said after the fourth trial, “When can we do this, Megan? It has to be soon. There’s hardly any time left before your birthday.”

  Megan made up her mind. She had thought about her friends, all nearly losing their lives so young, like Juliet. Narrow escapes had saved them. Juliet hadn’t been so lucky. Juliet had this one chance to live again, for one tiny little week. It would be wrong not to let her have that. One week wasn’t such a big deal.

  And there was something else. If there was any chance at all that Juliet could somehow sense who was responsible for the pain and fear in Lakeside, Megan had to take that chance.

  “I’ve already decided,” Megan said quietly. “It has to be tomorrow night. You’ll have a full week, and we’ll switch back again next Saturday night in time for my party on Sunday. I have to be at my party.” Setting a definite time for the trade sent butterflies of fear fluttering around Megan’s stomach. But she had made up her mind. She wouldn’t go back on her word now.

  Juliet shrieked with joy. “I can’t believe it! At last! Oh, it’s going to be so wonderful!” The plume began dancing in excitement. “I’m going to have a whole week!”

  The shadows in the room lightened a bit. It was almost dawn. “It’s today already,” Megan murmured, her heart sounding a drumroll in her chest as she thought about what the evening would bring. “It’s Saturday now.”

  Juliet moved happily in the mirror. “And you promise you won’t change your mind, will you, Megan?”

  Megan shook her head.

  “Then I’ll go now. I’m so excited! I hope the day passes quickly. Just call my name tonight when you’re ready, and I’ll be here. And Megan, thank you, thank you, thank you!”

  As the mirror image faded, and the room brightened, Megan fought a wild desire to call Juliet back and tell her she’d changed her mind, that the whole idea was impossible. But she turned away from the mirror decisively. She’d given her promise.

  Megan took an early shower and spent the day running errands in preparation for her party.

  Hilary called to tell her
that Jenny still wasn’t allowed visitors, and that there was no news from Sheriff Toomey. “I don’t think he’s even questioned anyone,” she said, adding darkly, “I could give him the names of a couple of good suspects!”

  Megan hung up, feeling traitorous. Here she was doing this incredibly strange, scary thing and she hadn’t shared any of it with her best friend. But Juliet had made it clear that telling anyone would ruin everything.

  Justin called twice, calls Megan didn’t return. Let Juliet deal with him. Juliet would have to ask him to Megan’s party, too, because it was the only thing left undone on the lists. There it was, in black and white: ASK JUSTIN.

  Walking over to the mirror after dusk, her hands trembling, her knees like pudding, Megan called Juliet’s name softly, wishing fiercely that she could have told her parents what she was doing. But of course she couldn’t have. They would never understand. Never!

  Before she and Juliet actually made the switch, Megan asked tentatively, “There’s just one more thing, Juliet. I was wondering —”

  Juliet interrupted her. “Yes, I’ll ask Justin to your party. And he will say yes, don’t worry.”

  Unable to think of a good reason to stall any longer, Megan nodded, took a deep breath, and stepped into the mirror.

  Chapter 9

  TO MEGAN’S DISTRESS, THE sensations that came with the final transformation were very different from the practice switches. Instead of the lightness she’d felt before, there was a horrible wrenching sensation, as if steel arms were tugging and tearing at her.

  And when those awful sensations passed, leaving her with no feeling at all, the blackness in which she found herself was unrelieved and icy cold. Beyond the darkness, she could see her room. But it seemed very far away, as if she were looking through a telescope.

  Wild with fear, she cried out, “Juliet! Juliet, are you there? I don’t see you. Where are you?”

  And a girl who looked exactly like Megan Logan appeared in front of the mirror, a happy smile on her face. “I’m right here, Megan. I hear you. Relax!” Her voice and speech sounded exactly like Megan, too. “Remember, you can talk to me any time you want.”

  Her words failed to dilute the abject terror Megan felt. What have I done? she thought wildly. “Juliet, I feel terrible. So far away from everything. It’s not like it was when we practiced. Why does it feel so different now?”

  “It’s because you’re not practicing this time, Megan. But it’s just a week. Anyway, you’ll feel better soon. Don’t worry.”

  Then, touching her cheeks, her hair, her arms with wonderment, Juliet said, “Oh, I can’t believe this!” A radiant smile lifted her lips. “I’m going to have such a wonderful time!”

  The seven days that had earlier seemed so brief to Megan now stretched ahead of her like a dark, endless tunnel. This is horrible, she thought miserably. I feel like I’ve been sucked into a bottomless pit. I’ll never be able to stand this for seven whole days!

  Only Juliet’s obvious joy kept her from reneging on her promise. Megan forced herself to calm down, to tell herself that it would be all right.

  She let herself be distracted by Juliet’s excitement. “You’d better chill out,” she warned gently. “I’m not a bouncing-off-the-walls person. People will be suspicious.”

  “You’re right. I’ll try. But I’m so excited. And right now I’m off to the bathroom to take a wonderful bath and put on just a tiny bit more makeup. Then I’m off! This is Saturday night. I’ve got places to go, people to see.”

  Juliet paused in front of the mirror and said, “Megan, thank you! You won’t be sorry.”

  But Megan was already sorry. And scared.

  Before Megan could utter any one of the thousand new questions spinning around her, Juliet, with a happy wave and an equally happy smile, was out the door.

  The thud it made as it closed felt to Megan like the closing of a tomb.

  I’m overreacting. Being silly. I’ll just get out of this dark, cold place, and everything will be fine, just like Juliet said.

  But it wasn’t. When she left the mirror, the sensation of darkness, of coldness, of being totally separated from the world she knew was devastating.

  No one can see me. No one can hear me. As far as the world is concerned, I’m not here. Is this how Juliet felt all those years? So isolated? How lonely it feels not to be a part of the world!

  The only way to ease the feeling was to go where there were people. There was no reason for her to stay in the bedroom, alone. So Megan went downstairs.

  Her family was gathered in the kitchen. Megan remembered then that Thomas was in a play that night. He had the lead in a production of Peter Pan at Circle-in-the-Square Theater.

  Although the loneliness Megan felt was eased somewhat by being around people, watching her family was like looking at one of those What’s Wrong With This Picture? drawings.

  I’m watching myself eat and laugh and talk … but it’s not me. It’s Juliet. And no one in this room knows that but the two of us. How can my parents not know? Can’t they see that Juliet is laughing more and talking more than I do?

  And then there was Juliet’s makeup.

  She looks like someone straight out of a forties movie. I never wear blue eyeshadow, and she must have at least eight coats of mascara on those eyes. I should have gone into the bathroom with her and helped her out.

  “You’re not wearing all that goop to my play, are you?” Thomas asked Juliet.

  She stared at him. “Play? I’m not going to any play. I’m going to the mall.”

  Megan groaned silently.

  “You’re not going to the play?” Megan’s mother echoed. “But we’ve planned this all week. I thought you and Justin had agreed to meet there. Isn’t he doing a write-up on it for the school paper? And Hilary will be there, too. Betsy’s in it, remember?”

  Megan told Juliet, “Betsy is Hilary’s little sister, Juliet. We’ve been planning for weeks to go to this play tonight.” Talking and knowing only Juliet could hear her made her feel even more isolated.

  Juliet laughed. “I was just kidding,” she told the family quickly. “Of course I’m going to the play. I wouldn’t miss it. It’ll be fun.”

  “Well, good,” Megan’s mother said. “Because we definitely don’t want you wandering around town by yourself. Not until Sheriff Toomey can tell us there’s no risk involved. You’ll be safe with us at the theater, and I won’t have to worry.”

  While they finished eating, Megan wrestled with a strong desire to call off the whole thing. Watching Juliet being her was so much harder than she’d thought it would be. She had expected it to be like watching herself in one of her dad’s homemade videos. But this wasn’t anything like that. She always knew that was her on the television screen. No matter how silly or how stupid she felt, she always knew she was watching herself on tape.

  But watching Juliet as Megan Logan made her feel the way she’d felt in the nightmare … trapped, imprisoned. And knowing that she couldn’t reach out and touch her parents, touch Thomas, increased her sense of desolation.

  How was she going to make it through a whole week of this?

  Miserable, frightened, and more lonely than she had ever been, Megan followed her family to the Circle-in-the-Square Theater.

  Chapter 10

  THE THEATER WAS AIR-conditioned and packed. Megan noticed that hers weren’t the only parents accompanied by teenagers. Hilary had told everyone who would listen that she’d been pushed off the catwalk. Most of the parents had believed her. Fear shone from their eyes.

  “What’s with the war paint?” Hilary asked as she joined the Logan family in front-row seats. “Have you been sampling the goodies at Phar-Mart’s cosmetics counter?”

  Juliet laughed and shrugged. “I thought it was time for a change. I am going to be sixteen, Hilary. Have you seen Justin?”

  “He’s parking. He’ll be here in a minute. So, did you ask His Royal Cuteness to be your birthday date yet?”

  “I�
�m asking him tonight. And he’ll say yes,” Juliet answered.

  Hilary looked impressed. “Wow! I guess it’s true what the ads say about makeup. You are a new woman!”

  Megan warned, “Careful, Juliet. Don’t overdo the ‘new woman’ bit or Hil will guess that you’re not only a new me, you’re not even a me at all.”

  If Justin was surprised by the enthusiastic reception Juliet gave him when he arrived, he hid it well. At intermission in the lobby, she chattered, laughed at his quips, and held his hand the whole time.

  Megan, watching miserably, reminded herself that Justin, after all, thought that it was Megan flirting with him. And he certainly seemed to be enjoying himself. But seeing Juliet having such a good time with him was hard to take. Megan wanted so much to touch Justin, the way Juliet was doing. And she couldn’t. For one long, endless week she wouldn’t be able to touch him or smile at him or talk to him.

  Megan now realized that it was going to be the longest week she’d ever known.

  After the play, Constance Logan insisted that everyone come back to the house, squelching Juliet’s plans to be alone with Justin. “I know you think I’m a worrywart,” Megan’s mother said apologetically, “but I’d really feel better if you were at the house. Humor me, okay? Justin and Hilary can come along, too.”

  “But it’s Saturday night!” Juliet protested. “Everyone will be at the mall.”

  Mrs. Logan shook her head. “I don’t think so. I talked to a lot of the other parents tonight, and they’re keeping their kids home, too.” She patted a disconsolate Juliet on the shoulder. “It’s just for a few days, honey, until Sheriff Toomey catches whoever tampered with those cars and pushed poor Hilary off that catwalk. I’m sure everything will be back to normal in time for your birthday party.”

  Juliet looked stricken. Her eyes widened and her face paled as she drew in a deep breath of dismay.

  She’s seeing her week of fun going down the tubes. I tried to tell her this was a lousy time in Lakeside. But I guess it was now or never. Poor Juliet.