The Accident

by Diane Hoh

  “I told you to cancel that appointment,” Megan said.

  Juliet shrugged and concentrated on additional messages. “Oh, golly, Megan, I forgot,” she said as Justin’s deep voice began speaking. “I’ll do it tomorrow, first thing, I promise.”

  Megan didn’t feel like listening to Justin tell Juliet he missed her or he loved her or whatever he was telling her these days. All those things he’d never told Megan. She went upstairs, mentally preparing the speech that would put an end to this nightmare. Surely Juliet would understand that with a second member of her family injured, it was now time for Megan to become herself again.

  But when Juliet came upstairs a few minutes later, she surprised Megan with, “Wait till you see what I’ve got!” Swinging the denim shoulder bag over the bed, she turned it upside down and dumped out its contents. Out came six or seven sheets of folded construction paper and a handful of brightly colored crayons.

  It took a minute or so for the booty to register. Then Megan said, “What is this? Where did you get all this stuff?”

  Juliet grinned. “In Donny Richardson’s locker. This is the first chance I’ve had to show it to you.”

  “Donny? You broke into his locker? Juliet, what if someone had seen you? Someone like Donny, for instance? If he’s the one behind all this terrible stuff and he saw you —”

  “Megan, I didn’t do it as you,” Juliet said. “I did it as me. So no one could have seen me.”

  “As you?” Megan asked. “What do you mean, as you?”

  “Megan, I’m still me. I told you that before. I can leave your body if I need to. And I needed to. It was the only way I could check out Donny’s locker.”

  “You can leave? Where was my body while you were going through Donny’s locker?”

  Juliet laughed. “Asleep in the school library with your head down on the desk.”

  She can leave? Just like that? Whenever she wants?

  “Listen, never mind that now,” Juliet said. She gathered up the paper and crayons. “I’m going to take this stuff and the drawings you found to the sheriff tomorrow. I figure, if he arrests Donny, things will calm down. And then,” she added brightly, “your parents will let you have your party. Especially now that we know Thomas is going to be okay.”

  “Juliet, I—”

  “Don’t thank me, Megan. My goodness, I owe you so much! This is just my tiny little way of thanking you.” Stuffing the colored paper and crayons back into the shoulder bag, she added, “I told you everything would be okay. And it will be. Now I’ve got to go eat something. I’m starved. Night, Megan.”

  Her step as she left the room was light and happy.

  I should feel like that, too. What Juliet did today, what she found, doesn’t that mean an end to all of this? If the sheriff arrests Donny tomorrow, and why wouldn’t he, I won’t have to worry about something happening to Juliet before Saturday at midnight. I’ll still be here, in this awful place, but it’ll only be for two more days and then it will all be over.

  So why didn’t she feel better? Because she didn’t. Not at all.

  Chapter 17

  WHEN MEGAN CAME INSIDE the next morning after a long, lonely night out on the lake, Juliet had already gone.

  She must have left early to talk to Sheriff Toomey. Will what she has to show him stop this awful nightmare? It has to!

  The room was a mess. There were clothes everywhere, and the closet door stood open. Inside something black and very pink caught Megan’s attention.

  Megan moved to the closet. Hanging between her new party dress and a pink robe was a short, black, strapless dress with a hot-pink cummerbund and a full skirt. Not the kind of dress anyone wore to a pizza place or the mall or a movie. This was very definitely a party dress.

  Where had it come from?

  I would never wear a dress like this. It’s too sophisticated. More Juliet’s speed than mine.

  But Juliet wasn’t going to the party. If there was a party, Juliet wouldn’t be going. So why did she need this dress?

  Does she have a big date with Justin tonight? Is he taking her some place so special that she had to go shopping?

  The date must have been made earlier in the week, because Justin wouldn’t suggest a big date with Thomas hurt and in the hospital. In fact, if they’d planned a date, Justin had probably canceled it when he heard about Thomas. Juliet would have to take the dress back.

  Megan spent the day at the Medical Center, encouraged by Thomas’s condition. He wasn’t talking much, lying pale and listless in the bed, but he was conscious. And by late afternoon, he was more concerned about the damage to his bike than his own injuries.

  But Megan felt drained and weak. If Sheriff Toomey didn’t put Donny away, her father could be hurt next. Tom-tom. Only one Tom was in the hospital so far. Or Juliet could be the next victim. It was lucky that she hadn’t been hurt so far, probably because she was always with Justin or Hilary or Barb and Cappie. There really must be safety in numbers.

  Hoping for good news, Megan went to school at the end of the day to ask Juliet about her visit to the sheriff’s office.

  And the first person she saw leaving Philippa was Donny Richardson, unaccompanied by Sheriff Toomey or a deputy, no handcuffs on his wrists. Strangely enough, he looked like an ordinary, lonely boy walking home from high school alone. There was nothing sinister about him.

  Bitter disappointment drowned Megan. Why hadn’t he been arrested? And with the disappointment, feelings of doubt surfaced. Donny Richardson certainly didn’t look like a killer.

  But wasn’t that how killers got away with their terrible deeds … by looking ordinary?

  Juliet had found the evidence in Donny’s locker. He might look ordinary on the outside, but on the inside he had to be evil.

  Still worried, Megan continued to look for Juliet. Unsuccessful at school, she decided to try the house.

  No one was there. Each room was silent, still, as if waiting patiently to see what would happen next.

  Where is Juliet? Megan’s cold, empty world suddenly began to spin around her. Something terrible had happened to Juliet. Something that had stopped her from going to the sheriff. That’s why she wasn’t at the hospital, wasn’t at home. With only one more day left in Juliet’s week, Megan’s worst nightmare was upon her.

  If Juliet is hurt or … dead … what will happen to me? Oh, God, please don’t let me stay like this forever! Please! Let me have my life back again!

  Juliet could have gone straight to the hospital from school. Racing over there, Megan prayed, Be there, Juliet, be there!

  She wasn’t.

  But Sheriff Toomey was.

  When Megan saw him, she was terrified. Had he come to tell her parents that the body of their daughter had been discovered, lying in a field somewhere? I will never be me again. This horrid, empty world is all I’m ever going to know, because Juliet is gone, and I can’t switch back now.

  “So,” the sheriff said to Thomas, “you’re saying you couldn’t stop? That you tried and failed?”

  He was there to talk about Thomas’s accident.

  The darkness lifted around Megan. The sheriff was there about Thomas, not Juliet. All hope wasn’t lost.

  A pale, bruised Thomas nodded. “Is my bike okay?” he asked anxiously. “It’s practically brand-new, you know. Mom says you guys took it to check it out. Is it okay?”

  The sheriff smiled. “Sure, son. Your bike’ll be fine. One of my deputies took it over to Mickey Ryan’s bike place. He can fix anything. It’ll be good as new in a couple of days.”

  “Yeah,” Thomas grumbled, “but it’ll never be the same. Darned truck.”

  When the sheriff asked Megan’s parents to come outside and speak to him, Megan followed.

  In the corridor, Sheriff Toomey shook his graying head. “Go figure,” he said. ‘The guy in the truck says he tried to stop and couldn’t, just like your son. We’re looking into it, but I don’t expect we’ll find anything more than we found in the Winn
girl’s accident. Or your accident, Connie. No leads, no clues.” Another grim shake of the head. “I remember, thirty, forty years ago, when your mom was young and theirs was the only house out there on the lake. Owned twenty acres. Everyone else lived in town. Martha told me they never locked their doors or windows, not even at night. No reason to.” He let out a weary sigh as he turned to leave. “Times sure have changed.”

  He never said a word about crayons or drawings or warnings of any kind.

  Why had Juliet changed her mind about telling him? And where was she?

  She was home, Megan discovered when, desperate, she returned to the house again. A wave of relief washed over her when she moved into the bedroom and found Juliet rummaging around in the closet.

  “Juliet, where have you been?” Megan demanded. The terrible things she’d imagined happening to Juliet during the past few hours had nearly driven her crazy. “I’ve been looking all over for you.”

  “Justin and I went for a ride.”

  “A ride? You knew I was waiting to hear what Sheriff Toomey said, and you went for a stupid ride? I thought something terrible had happened to you.”

  Juliet laughed. “Well, I’d scold you about your overactive imagination, but if you didn’t have an imagination, you probably never would have heard my voice in the first place.”

  Megan had been too terrified to be so easily placated now. “You should have gone to the hospital after school. Mom and Dad could use some support.”

  “I was there first thing this morning. Thomas seemed so much better, I decided to come home and rest up for my date with Justin tonight. We were going out to dinner downtown.”

  The black dress.

  “But Justin decided that wouldn’t be such a hot idea, with Thomas in the hospital. So we’re going over to the Medical Center for a while and we’ll check in on Thomas and Jenny. Then we’re going to Justin’s house. Cappie and Barb and Hilary are coming, too, I think. It’ll be fun.”

  “Juliet, did you talk to Sheriff Toomey? What did he say?”

  “Oh, Megan, he wasn’t even there. I rushed right over there when I got up this morning. Didn’t even eat breakfast. But he wasn’t there, and his deputy was talking on the phone for hours. If I’d waited, I’d have been late to school, and you told me not to cut any more classes. I went back again after classes, but he wasn’t there then, either.”

  He’d been at the hospital.

  “Juliet! This is not a simple shoplifting crime we’re talking about! My friends and my family have almost been killed! It can’t wait! The only reason I didn’t tell you last night that we had to switch back right away was you let me think Donny would be arrested today. Now you tell me you haven’t even seen the sheriff yet. So nothing has changed, Juliet, nothing at all. You’re … I’m … we’re still in as much danger as we always were. Something could happen to you at any minute, and that would be the end of me. You said so yourself.”

  Hearing the intensity in her voice brought fear to Juliet’s eyes. She still had one more night and day. “Megan, think a minute. Thomas is in the hospital, and your parents are safe there, too. They’re staying the night, they told me so. And I’ll be safe at Justin’s house. Nothing more is going to happen tonight. I’ll see the sheriff first thing tomorrow, I promise. And by the way, Megan, this should cheer you up. The party is still on.”

  “It is?” Megan asked, surprised.

  “Yes. Isn’t that wonderful? Your mom said she wanted to show the whole village that the Logans weren’t going to be intimidated. She said it would do everyone a world of good to have a party. And Thomas would still be in the hospital, asleep, by the time the party started, anyway.”

  “I still can’t believe it,” Megan said.

  “Well, it was your mother’s decision to ‘carry on’ as she said.”

  Megan was silent for a minute as Juliet looked into the closet for an outfit for that night.

  “Juliet, where did that dress come from? The one right there in the closet? Black, with pink trim?”

  “Oh, Megan!” Juliet cried, “you are such a snoop! I bought that dress for you as a surprise, and now you’ve spoiled it.”

  “I have a dress.” Juliet had said the same thing about the hair appointment, that it was for Megan. But Megan hadn’t wanted her hair done any more than she wanted the black dress. Juliet knew the dress wasn’t her type. “I don’t need another dress.”

  “Megan,” Juliet said firmly, “after all the work I’ve done with Justin this week, you’re not going to blow it by showing up at your party in a dress as juvenile as that green one, are you?”

  “You said it was pretty. Before, in the mirror, you said it was a great dress.”

  Juliet shrugged and began digging through the pile of shoes on the closet floor for a suitable pair. “It’s okay, Megan, but it’s not very … interesting.”

  Interesting? She meant sexy. “Juliet, I’m not wearing that black dress to my party. I’m wearing the one I picked out. So you can take that one back tomorrow.”

  “Oh, all right. But I think it’s gorgeous, and I think you’re crazy.” Her words drifted off as she unearthed the shoes she wanted and slipped them on.

  It’s hard to believe she and my grandmother were friends, Megan thought. They aren’t anything alike.

  While Juliet was dressing in the white skirt and a royal-blue short-sleeved sweater, Megan remembered Sheriff Toomey’s remark about her grandmother’s house being the only one on the lake forty years ago. Then where had Juliet lived?

  “Juliet, where did you live? When you lived here, I mean? Was it on this street?”

  Before Juliet could answer, the telephone shrilled.

  “Oh, hi, Cappie,” Juliet said when she’d picked up the receiver. “You’re going to be at Justin’s tonight, aren’t you? The only reason my folks are letting me out of the house at night is I’ll be where there are lots of people and two of them, Justin’s parents, are grown-ups.” She wrinkled her nose in distaste. “I guess it’s better than nothing.”

  Megan was swept up in a wave of overpowering envy. Maybe a night at Justin’s surrounded by friends was only “better than nothing” to Juliet, but it sounded wonderful to her. She couldn’t wait to be back in that world again, her world. Only one more night and one more day …

  Megan didn’t remind Juliet that this was her final outing. Why ruin it for her?

  Hearing the arrival of her parents downstairs, Megan went to see how her brother was. Juliet could be on the phone for hours.

  According to her parents’ conversation, Thomas was doing much better, but Connie still intended to return to the hospital as soon as she’d showered and changed.

  The idea of her father being alone in the house until Juliet came home later only made Megan more anxious. Anything could happen. I can’t keep an eye on both Dad and Juliet when they’re in two different places. Why didn’t Juliet invite everyone over here? She knows how worried I am about the tom-tom drawing.

  Megan hurried upstairs, intent on asking Juliet to call everyone and switch the gathering to the lake. That way, her father wouldn’t be in the house alone.

  But she was too late. When she entered the room, it was empty. Juliet was gone.

  Chapter 18

  MEGAN SPENT A LONG, lonely night, not leaving the house until her father went to bed. Even then, she stayed in the den for a while, waiting for Juliet and thinking.

  Only one more day … and then she’d be herself again. Thank goodness nothing had happened to Juliet so far. It was a miracle, really, that she was still okay. And by this time tomorrow night, the whole awful week would be over — nothing more than a horrible memory. If only Sheriff Toomey would arrest Donny — then the horror really would be over.

  Tiring of waiting for Juliet, Megan left the house, assured that her father was safe in his bed, and went out to roam the lake.

  This is the last time I’ll ever be able to do this, but I won’t miss it at all: I’m not a bird or a bat, and I s
houldn’t be flitting around out here with them — especially when so much is wrong in my own world.

  It was very late when she returned to the house. Juliet was in bed, sound asleep, her clothes in a pile on the floor beside the bed.

  Megan was disappointed. And surprised. She hadn’t expected Juliet to be able to sleep at all, knowing that she had only one more day. If it were me, I’d spend the time until morning walking along the lakefront, maybe with Justin, waiting for the sunrise, squeezing the juice out of every last minute.

  Thinking that surprised Megan. It didn’t sound like her. It sounded like … someone who wanted to fill up every minute of life with interesting things, instead of withdrawing from it by living in a dream world.

  Maybe that’s because I’m so terrified that I won’t get to do those things ever again. That something will happen to keep me from doing them. Maybe that’s why I feel different.

  When morning finally arrived, Megan was torn between a ferocious anxiety on this last day and a tentative sense of relief. It was almost over. Almost.

  Juliet went to see the sheriff as promised, and Megan went with her. He wasn’t there. The deputy in charge said he would be back around dinnertime, which seemed to Megan eons away. But there was no choice other than to wait.

  I should be getting good at that. But I’m not.

  When they returned from running errands, they found Megan’s father up on a ladder on the stone terrace, stringing brightly colored lights above the lakefront lawn.

  Since Juliet was safely home, Megan concentrated on keeping an eye on her father. When he climbed down from the ladder to get a glass of iced tea in the house, she followed. Juliet wasn’t in the kitchen or the living room. Megan searched the first floor thoroughly. No Juliet. She hadn’t gone out again, had she?

  Anxiously Megan went upstairs and into the bedroom.

  Juliet was lying on the bed, her eyes closed, legs straight, arms at her sides. She was wrapped in the white terrycloth robe. The shades were drawn, the room dark, lighted only by a cluster of short, squat candles on a blue metal tray on the nightstand.