“I hate to say it,” Natalie said, “but she looks dead.”
No, she’s not! Luna wanted to shriek, but she kept talking to Mama, rubbing her hand to keep her warm. The siren was getting closer, louder. And then it stopped.
“Did you hear that? Someone called the cops on us.” Leo went back toward the house to look in through the kitchen. “It sounds like they’re just out front.”
“They’re here, Mama,” Luna whispered. “They’re going to make you all better.”
“Luna?” It was Hazel, coming round the side of the house with two people in dark blue jackets with patches on the shoulders.
Luna jumped up and motioned them to come quickly. “My mother! She fell from the window.”
One of the medics wheeled a stretcher over to Mama, then turned to the other. “Looks like we’ll need the backboard,” he said.
The woman opened a box she was carrying and got to work on Mama while the man set up some equipment.
“Her heartbeat is tachy, and she’s not breathing normally.” The woman placed a plastic cup over Mama’s face and started pumping air into her mouth. “Let’s try and stabilize her. Go on and get the backboard.”
“Is she okay?” Luna asked.
The uniformed man leaned down and touched Luna’s shoulder. “We’ll take good care of her, okay? You just stand back, honey, and give us some space.” He had warm, dark eyes, but the serious expression on his face made Luna want to shrink away as he ran back toward the front of the house.
Luna turned to Hazel and was swept into a hug that brought tears to her eyes. Nicole came over and stroked Luna’s hair back and told her she was a brave girl. Luna sniffed and wiped her face on a sleeve of her nightgown. She didn’t feel brave at all, but she was glad to have her friend here.
“I heard a noise and I woke up,” Hazel said.
“We both did,” her mom added, putting her arms around the girls and turning them away as the medics worked on Mama. “I’m so sorry this happened. It’s good that the ambulance got here so quickly. Do you know how it happened?”
Luna’s throat grew tight as she shook her head. She didn’t know anything anymore. She was a foolish girl. Too stupid to save her mother. She didn’t even know her own address. She sobbed into the sleeve of her gown while Hazel patted her shoulder.
When she looked back at Mama, she was all strapped into the red board, her face masked by the thick collar around her neck and inflated bag that the woman kept squeezing.
“Ready to transport,” the woman said. She kept squeezing the airbag while the man began to roll the stretcher out of the yard.
Luna ran over and fell into step beside them. “I’m staying with her.”
“Sorry, little girl.” The man spoke without breaking stride. “We aren’t allowed to have ride-alongs. But you can meet your mom at the hospital. St. V’s.”
“But I need to stay with her!” Luna wailed as Mama’s stretcher wiggled in the muck of the side yard.
“Stop right there,” Leo growled, clamping down on Luna’s arm. It hurt, but she tugged at his grip. She needed to stay with Mama.
“Can we take Luna to the hospital?” Nicole asked, catching up to them.
Leo released Luna, turning his cold blue eyes on Hazel’s mom. “Why would you do that?” he asked.
“We don’t mind. I know she wants to be with her mother, and there’s bound to be lots of waiting around. The girls could keep each other company.”
Luna’s heart lifted at the thought of spending the night waiting with Hazel and her mom. Mama would be free in the hospital, with time to heal away from Leo and the sisters, and Luna would be free to live with Hazel’s family. This would be their escape! Mama would work everything out and make it all final once she recovered.
“I think we’re good,” Leo said. “Thanks, anyway.”
“Can’t I go with them?” Luna asked. “I’ve got to stay with Mama.”
“This has been traumatic for all of us,” Leo said. “Let our neighbors get some sleep, and we’ll get you to the hospital.”
Luna blinked back a new wave of tears as Hazel hugged her and headed out. As she and Nicole walked off, Luna noticed Hazel was wearing the red rain slicker, the cherry red color that helped Luna spot her from the window. She had tucked her penguin PJs into her matching red rubber boots. Totes adorbs. Luna looked down at her nightgown caked with mud at the hem and all down the front, and something snapped inside her and she started running after Hazel, her friend, her only hope of staying with Mama.
“Come off it.” Leo growled as he snatched her, his brusque grip knocking the air from her lungs. “I’ve got enough problems without you acting out.”
“Let me go,” she choked out, trying to catch her breath as he carried her, legs dangling, back to the porch and set her down.
“Inside you go . . . up to the attic,” he ordered. “And I don’t want to see that face peering out any of the windows.”
“But I need to be at the hospital. I have to stay with Mama.”
“I’ll take you after we’re done with the police. They’re always suspicious after incidents like this, and we don’t want anyone thinking that you pushed her.”
She squinted at him. He was talking crazy talk. She would never . . .
“Go on, now.” He shoved at her, hitting her shoulder. “Up to the attic before someone else sees you and the police take you away.”
To be taken away from here . . . it was exactly what she wanted. Luna crossed her arms over her chest, standing her ground. “I’m staying right here.”
CHAPTER 37
The stark white lights on the ceiling of the truck were the only things she could make out around the dark mask pressed to her face. Someone was leaning over her, attending to a broken body that had known horrific pain but now was cocooned in a glaze of numbness.
A truck . . . an ambulance . . . the lights.
Go to the lights.
Luna had been at her side, pressing her hand, tugging on her to stay.
And Ruby . . . she was nearby. Close.
The girls were out there, hovering.
The two girls who needed to see each other were on the right trajectory, two pin dots on a map moving ever closer, closer.
The girls needed their sisters. They didn’t know it, but Glory did. That was the whole point of it. It had taken her a lifetime to realize that it wasn’t about her at all; it was about them, the ones you leave behind. And they were so close to finding each other. She could feel that in her soul.
Go to the lights.
The girls were hovering; she could feel them nearby. She recognized that she was hovering, too, looking down on the woman strapped into the collar and backboard. How easy it was to rise from that body. Neither good nor bad, it was the simple trajectory of life and death. Like hopping to the next cloud.
Living was hard, but dying was the easiest thing Glory had ever done.
* * *
Ruby opened her eyes and yawned. She hadn’t actually dozed off; just a late-night meditation. She shifted in the seat of the cooling car, annoyed that Glory was taking so long. “Where are you?” She had turned the engine off so that she didn’t disturb the neighbors, but now she turned it on again and pumped the heat up to the highest setting. As her eyes focused in the darkness, she noticed the glow of flashing lights ahead in the distance.
Crap. Were the police out, randomly stopping cars? She had nothing to hide, except that she was just sixteen, and maybe there was a Portland curfew for young drivers.
She grabbed the cell phone and checked for messages. She had missed the text message from Glory that said: On my way, because her volume was turned off. So maybe she had dozed off. She adjusted the sound of the ringer and checked the time. The message had come in more than thirty minutes ago, more than enough time for Glory to find her. Had Glory gone in the wrong direction?
She shot off two more texts to Glory and waited. It was a straight run down this street to her car. Glory co
uldn’t have missed her.
But Glory wasn’t answering now, and it had been a while since she’d sent a text. It seemed like hours now.
And those flashing lights ahead stirred the tension in her chest. Had Leo called the cops when he heard Glory sneaking out of the house? Not likely. Glory said he tried to avoid the cops and kept things under the radar.
So find out what’s going on.
Not so easy. She hated confrontation, but this was the time to take action. If Glory was involved in some way, Ruby could support her, back her up. She groaned. She didn’t want to do this! But the woman gave birth to you. Have a little gratitude. With a sigh, she put the car in drive and rolled forward.
The flashing blue and red lights of the patrol car were mesmerizing as they bathed the nearby yards in a shifting glow. An ambulance was in the driveway of the sisters’ house. Bright lights shone from its back windows, though the turret lights were dark. She didn’t see any cops, but a handful of people milled around on the sidewalk in front of the house. Was one of them Glory? Too hard to tell from this far away.
Ruby pulled over and parked a few houses away from the emergency vehicles. A tall man wearing a flat newsboy cap looked over at her as she got out of the car, but no one else from the group seemed to notice her. One of the bystanders was a little girl who fidgeted around with the look of a kid who had been waiting around too long. She hopscotched over the sidewalk to the ambulance and went up on her toes, as if she could peer in through the high windows.
“Hazel!” a woman called to her.
“I just want to say hello to her when she wakes up.”
“Give some privacy. Come over here.”
Ruby approached the group slowly. “Hey.” She tried to keep it cool. “What’s going on?”
“Our neighbor fell out a window,” said Hazel. Dressed in a red slicker with matching red rubber boots, she shifted from foot to foot. “It was a bad fall.”
“Wow. One of the sisters?” Ruby asked.
An elderly man there with his wife stared Ruby up and down, as if she’d said the wrong thing. “That’s right.”
Ruby shivered. The misty air was cold; so were the neighbors. She zipped her jacket up to the chin and shoved her hands into her pockets. “Is she going to be all right?”
“We haven’t heard yet,” said a petite woman who seemed to be the mother of the kid. She had a wide, animated face that seemed locked in an approving look. “The paramedics are still working on her. She was unconscious, but we’re hoping for the best.” She nodded toward the ambulance.
“It’s very sad,” Hazel said. “I hope she’s okay.”
“Are you neighbors?” Ruby asked the question of everyone. The men in the group nodded.
“Our yard borders theirs,” the mom said. She was a young mother, the concerned kind who tried to get you to order apple slices instead of fries at a fast-food place. “In the back.”
“We live on the side street. From my bedroom I can see over the fence to their house, and I play with Luna, her daughter,” the girl explained.
So the woman had a daughter. Then it wasn’t Glory in the ambulance. That was a relief, but where was she? Hiding out somewhere? Maybe Ruby should be driving around, looking for her.
The little girl tilted her head to stare at Ruby. “You have pretty hair.”
“Thank you.” It was curling up in the rain. The curse of curly hair, though Delilah thought it was so much better than her wispy, thin hair.
“Doesn’t she have pretty hair, Mom?”
“Yes, Hazel, she does. And I can’t believe you’re up this late.”
Hazel shrugged.
Suddenly the back door of the ambulance popped open and a paramedic climbed out of the van. Ruby tried to see inside, but she could only make out the figure of another attendant leaning over a stretcher as he closed the door behind him.
“How’s it going there?” asked the man in the cap.
“Taking her back to St. V’s.” The paramedic went around to the cab and started the engine. Everyone watched as the ambulance drove off in silence, lights flashing.
“I hope she’s okay,” Hazel said, and her mom put an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close.
“Not to alarm your daughter, Nicole, but that’s never a good sign,” said the man with the cap. “No sirens means the emergency is over. She’s probably DOA.”
The mom shook her head sadly. “That would be devastating for Luna. For all of us.”
The older man turned to Ruby and stared blatantly. “Young lady, do you know the sisters?” He had white hair and wire-rimmed glasses that were fogging up.
“Not really,” Ruby said, then realized she would seem ghoulish without some sort of connection. “I just know one woman who lives here. I met her at the mall.”
“The mall.” He peered at her over his glasses, fixing Ruby with a hard look. “That’s where they recruit. Are you one of them? Gonna join them?”
“No, I’m only—”
“Just a word of advice, you’d better be careful with these types.”
“She can go to the mall if she wants,” the woman said.
“Can’t blame a man for trying to help. I don’t wish anyone ill. What happened here tonight was sad. But it’s just not right, these women all living with one man.”
“It’s what they believe, Hal.”
“It’s unnatural.”
“I appreciate the warning, and I respect what you’re saying, sir,” Ruby said. “Don’t worry. I have a great family. I won’t be joining up anytime soon.”
“Make that never. You never want to land with a lot like that.”
Ruby nodded respectfully.
“Well, I’m going to call it,” said the man with the cap. “I’ve got a race to run in the morning.” He nodded and headed across the street.
“But the police want your statement, Joe.”
“They know where to find me.”
“Maybe Joe’s right.” Nicole closed her arms around her daughter and swayed from side to side. “It’s late. We can do this tomorrow. Or I can call your dad to come out and get you. But I hate to wake him up.”
“No way, Mom. I’m staying.”
“I know. I’m tired, too,” Ruby agreed, though she really wanted to hear more about the woman who’d fallen, and she was beginning to feel comfortable enough with the neighbor to ask if she knew Glory. “But at least Hazel and I don’t have school tomorrow.”
“We don’t?” Hazel asked.
“Because it’s Saturday,” her mom said.
“Oh. I forgot that. Whatever.”
“You’re tired, sweetie,” Nicole told her daughter, sounding so much like Tamarind it made Ruby bite her lower lip. “Are you going to have enough energy to go pick out a Christmas tree tomorrow?”
“I always have energy,” Hazel said, jumping on and off the curb. “And I can’t wait to decorate our tree.”
Ruby wondered when her family would go cut down a tree. She wasn’t really ready for Christmas, with all this drama with Glory and the constant fear with Mom’s cancer. The little bit of money she’d saved for Christmas gifts was now going toward Glory’s hotel bill. She wished she could go home and climb into her warm, dry bed right now. She could do it, but she’d feel guilty until she figured out what was up with Glory. Besides, the flashing red and blue lights from the police vehicle drew her in, promising some kind of answer or explanation. Wasn’t that why they were all hanging out so late at night on a damp, misty street?
A few minutes later the front door opened, and two police officers emerged. Ruby watched the front entrance closely for a look at Leo, the cult leader, but the dark door quickly closed behind the cops.
“Thanks for waiting out here, folks.” The older officer, a fortyish man with a shiny bald head, had the buttoned-down look of a retired soldier. “After something like this we usually canvas the neighborhood, but I wouldn’t want to go door to door and wake people up this time of night.” He motioned
to the other cop, a younger guy with a crew cut who stood by with his thumbs tucked into the armholes of his vest. “Ray’s going to talk to you folks over here,” he said, motioning to the older couple, “and I’m going to interview this group so we can get these kids home to bed, where they belong.”
Ruby realized he was lumping her in with Hazel and Nicole, and she was fine with that. They seemed to have a better bead on what was happening.
“I’m Jake Swanson.” Tucking his notebook under one arm, the cop leaned down toward Hazel. “And you must be the little girl who called nine-one-one? That was a good move. The dispatcher told me you probably saved your mom’s life.”
“It wasn’t me.” Hazel scowled up at the cop as she linked arms with her mother beside her. “This is my mom.”
“Luna was the one who called you.” Nicole nodded toward the house. “Didn’t you see her inside? Ten years old. Blue eyes and reddish-brown hair.”
“And totes adorbs,” Hazel added.
He gave a gruff smile as he looked down at his notes. “There are no children living in this house, ma’am.”
“That’s not true.” Nicole stood her ground, pushing off her hood to face the cop squarely. “The daughter of the injured woman lives there, in that house, with her mother. I know that because she hangs out with Hazel. Luna’s been over to our house a few times. She says she’s homeschooled, and she’s smart as a button, but there may be some neglect there.”
“I’m just saying that this little girl is not living there now. No sign of children in that house, so she must be living elsewhere. Maybe with her father.”
“She doesn’t have a father,” Hazel said. “Just her mom and her.”
“Right now my priority is the young woman who’s been hospitalized,” the officer said, smoothly shifting the focus of the conversation.
A slick move, Ruby thought. She could see that Nicole was annoyed with him.
“How is she doing?” Nicole asked. “Do you have an update on her condition?”
“I understand that she’s in critical condition,” Officer Swanson said. “Did you know her well?”
Nicole shook her head. “Not at all. Actually, I’ve never laid eyes on her before tonight. But I know her daughter, Luna. The mystery girl who plays with my daughter?”
The Sisters Page 24
