“What if Leo tried to kill her?” Maxi said. “She said he killed that other sister, Annabelle. Maybe Leo pushed her from the attic.”
“Maybe. I just can’t stop thinking about the little girl. If it’s true that Glory had a kid, she was about to leave the house and abandon her. I was going to help her abandon another daughter.”
Maxi jostled her shoulder. “But you didn’t know that.”
“I was going to help Glory repeat the worst thing that ever happened to me.”
“But was it the worst thing?” Maxi asked. “I mean, you’re here now. You’re good.”
“You’re great,” Delilah agreed. “So we’re talking about parallel universes here? We’d be screwed without you.”
“I don’t feel great. I feel very small and ineffective.”
“I’m so relieved that nothing happened to you Friday night. That house isn’t safe. I wouldn’t go near that place if I were you,” Delilah said, pointing her plastic fork in the air for emphasis. “And that leader of the group, Tony the Tiger? He’s trouble.”
“It’s ‘Leo the Lion,’” Maxi corrected her.
“It’s just ‘Leo,’ and don’t worry. I’m not going back there.” She had no reason to, now that Glory had gotten out.
* * *
Although Ruby braced herself for an honesty assault, once they got in the car after school Tamarind asked about SAT review courses, and the trip was filled with talk of college prep. Ruby had a handful of schools she was planning to apply to. “Nothing Ivy League. Three in Oregon, and then Seattle and San Francisco.”
“Fun places for us to visit you.”
“I’m down with that. I just don’t have any idea what I want to study. And if one more person asks me what I’m going to pursue in college, my head is going to explode.”
“That would be messy. But you’re a solid student and you work hard. You’ll get to where you want to be.”
“But what if I never feel passionate about any profession? I know people who have it all figured out. They’re going into microbiology to study genetics. Or they’re premed or business. They know where they’re going.”
“Mmm. But not really. None of us can see that far ahead. It’s like when you read your tea leaves and you tell the story in the cup. But that story only goes so far. You can’t get an entire novel in one glimpse. Just a few hints, the occasional signpost.”
“You remind me of Nani Rima,” Ruby said, “in a good way.”
“That’s so sweet.” Tamarind touched Ruby’s shoulder.
Ruby kept her eyes on the road, not wanting her mother to see the budding tears.
* * *
This time the infusion ward wasn’t frightening, but as they passed by occupied bays Ruby once again felt the weight of hope and suffering for the patients here. A young woman wearing a pink bandana on her head. A man with a blue beanie napping with his eyeglasses propped on his chest.
“My good friends are back for more fun on the fifth floor.” Jessica greeted them with a smile and assigned them to a bay.
“You’ll be glad to know I stuck to a bland diet today,” Mom told her. “I hope it helps.”
“Most patients find that it helps control the nausea,” Jessica said. “You might have a better go of it today. Let me order up your cocktail and get your vitals.”
While Jessica was taking Tamarind’s blood pressure, Ruby excused herself. “I thought I’d check out the cafeteria,” she told her mom. “Do you want anything?”
“I’m good.”
“They’ve got killer chicken Santa Fe soup.” Jessica removed the Velcro cuff from Mom’s arm. “Just saying.”
Ruby rode the elevator down four floors, walking past the cafeteria to the big, donut-shaped information desk that dominated the hospital’s main lobby. The woman working there wore a Christmas sweater with a grinning Rudolph. His nose was made of a shiny glitter tassel. “How can I help you?”
“I’m looking for a patient. Her name is Glory Noland.” The paramedics had mentioned that they were coming here. Maybe Glory was still here.
“‘Noland’ with an N as in ‘Nancy’?” Rudolph’s nose glimmered as the woman typed on her keyboard and studied the screen. “We have Glory Noland on the sixth floor. That’s Intensive Care, so they’re strict about visitors. Are you family?”
Ruby nodded. “Yes.” A stretch, but it was true.
“Okay. So you want to take those elevators up to Six, and talk to the nurses there. They allow visitors one at a time, so you’ll have to wait in the reception area if someone else is with her. Okay? Good luck.”
The Intensive Care Unit had more than a dozen individual rooms that surrounded a central workstation with screens monitored by two attendants. When Ruby asked about Glory, a nurse asked her if she was one of Glory’s sisters, too.
“No. I’m her daughter.”
“Finally, a more plausible connection.” The woman asked her to sign in and show some form of ID. “Our rules are one visitor at a time, so you’ll need to wait your turn. One of her sisters is with her now, and there are a handful of the others in the waiting room. Your aunts? You can visit with them in the waiting room at the end of the hall.”
Ruby nodded and thanked her. On her way to the waiting room, she wondered if she’d really have the nerve to look in on Glory. She would have to wait until the sisters were done, and in the meantime she didn’t want them knowing who she was.
One half of the waiting room was taken up by a family of seven, one of them a sobbing grandma who spoke rapidly in Spanish as a younger woman patted her back. Two little kids sat at a kiddy table staring beyond the toys while a toddler kept trying to pull himself up on a table of fanned-out magazines. There were a few other couples and singles waiting patiently and three women who sat talking in firm but quiet tones.
The sisters.
Ruby caught a glimpse, then turned away before she was caught staring. A petite woman with thin glasses and hair somewhere between blond and white seemed familiar, and Ruby wondered if she had been one of the sisters who’d doted on her at the food court when she was a kid. Ruby lifted her chin. If so, the woman dunking a tea bag in a paper cup would never recognize the young woman Ruby had become. There was a stern, stiff woman with the air of a drill sergeant, and a softer, pudgier woman with a curtain of amazing dark hair. From the doorway Ruby couldn’t hear what they were saying, but there was tension in the air. She moved toward them, grabbing a magazine on the way and landing in a seat near the tea drinker, who was being scolded by the prim one for having too much caffeine.
“Another cup of tea, Laura?” The brusque woman with stiff posture and graying hair pulled back in a ponytail was definitely a bitch. Something about her manner reminded Ruby of a server in a fancy restaurant. Or maybe it was her white blouse and prim black skirt. “You are going to be buzzed all night.”
“It’s decaf tea,” said Laura, the birdlike woman with short blond hair. “Chamomile. But that’s not what’s making me sad. I’m worried about Glory.”
“I am, too,” said the one with the beautiful hair. “It’s not good to be unconscious for so long. I hope she can make her way back.”
“I thought you used to be a nurse, Kimani?”
“A nurse’s aide.” Kimani shifted her hair over her left shoulder. “There’s a big difference.”
“Glory’s not going to recover.” The stern sister seemed annoyed with the other two. “Didn’t you hear the doctor? The scans aren’t showing any sign of brain activity. For all intents and purposes, Glory is gone.”
The other two sisters stared at her for a moment; then Laura started crying. “She’s going to die.”
“Technically, she’s already dead,” muttered the stern sister.
Ruby’s heart was beating hard in her chest as the news fell over her. Glory is dying. It sounds like it’s just a matter of time. Ruby turned the page of the magazine, trying to keep a neutral expression when she wanted to shriek.
“Leo should b
e here,” Laura said, sniffing. “He would know what to do.”
“He won’t come. Leo doesn’t deal with messes. You know what he says: ‘Focus on the good.’ And leave the bad for the rest of us to clean up.” Kimani shuddered. “He should have mentioned that he and Sienna moved the shed. He should have told Glory, at least.”
“Why? So that she could find another way to sneak out?” asked the stern one.
“Listen to yourself, Rachel.” Kimani’s voice was soft now but serrated with anger. “You admit he killed her. You’re saying that’s okay, that she deserved to die because she occasionally climbed out the back window and met people while we were sleeping.”
So that was Glory’s means of escape—out the back window and onto a shed?
“Wait.” Laura held her hands up to pause the momentum. “Deep breath. We can’t change what happened.”
“But Leo knew she was using that shed to sneak out. Everyone knew it.” Kimani raked her hair back, clearly anguished by the situation. “It’s just so over the line. We need to help, not to hurt.”
Ruby liked this woman, Kimani. Despite whatever situation had led her to join the sisters, she seemed to have a moral compass.
The prim one, Rachel, sniffed and turned away. “I’m not going to have this conversation right now. Not when Natalie is due to join us any minute. I did nothing wrong. I came to visit my injured sister, that’s all.”
“I think it’s important for us to visit, even if Glory doesn’t know we’re here. It’s so sad,” Laura said in a small, childlike voice.
“That’s true,” Kimani said. “They say the sense of hearing is the last one to go. That’s why I think we should be allowed to bring Luna to visit.”
Luna? So the little girl is real.
“You’re right, Kimani. The girl should have a chance to say good-bye to her mother.”
“Say good-bye to a shell of a person?” responded Rachel. “Why can’t you two accept scientific fact? Even if Luna was allowed to come visit, Glory is unconscious. It would be like talking to a sack of potatoes.”
“Rachel . . .” Kimani glanced toward the other people in the waiting room as one couple rose and headed toward the door. “Have some respect.”
Off on her own flight of whimsy, Laura clasped her hands together. “I’m hoping for a miracle. Maybe Luna will bring her out of it!”
Kimani patted her shoulder. “That’s probably not going to happen, but it can’t hurt to give it a shot.”
“There will be no miracles!” Rachel snapped. “You heard the doctor. Glory is in a vegetative state. There’s no brain activity. She was deprived of oxygen for too long and her brain is dead. That’s science, plain and simple.”
“But at least it’s worth a try, bringing Luna in,” Laura needled the stern woman. “Oh, what could it hurt?”
Rachel clasped her hands to her cheeks in frustration. “Did you not hear anything I said?”
“My hearing is perfect, sister.”
Their squabbling was halted when a shiny wheelchair came rolling into the waiting room. Their queen bee.
Ruby remembered.
The sisters had fawned over this woman, and apparently, Natalie still ruled. As a kid, Ruby had admired her chair with big, shiny wheels. Bigger than the stroller Ruby had shared with Aurora.
“We can go,” Natalie announced. The sisters rose quickly to meet her halfway as she wheeled the chair closer. “I’ve signed the papers.”
“And we didn’t even know there was something to sign. Was that about the medical bills?”
Natalie looked up at her over slender glasses. “No, no. We’re not responsible for that. I signed the DNR.”
“What’s that?” Laura chirped, childlike, though she seemed to be the oldest of the sisters here.
Kimani reached out and clasped Laura’s arm, seeming to need support. “It stands for ‘Do Not Resuscitate.’ It’s an order to let Glory die.”
“Good,” Rachel muttered. “Someone had to do it.”
“I thought papers like that needed to be signed by the next of kin.” Kimani seemed uncomfortable with the situation.
Right on, thought Ruby.
“I’m her sister,” Natalie said. “That’s close enough. I was able to provide the hospital staff with sufficient documentation. There’s something to be said for keeping your paperwork in order; isn’t that right, Rachel?” Backing up her chair, Natalie ran over the toe of Ruby’s boot. It pinched a little, but more upsetting was Natalie’s bland expression as she felt the obstruction, glanced at Ruby, and rolled forward without an apology.
* * *
A few miles away, Luna lay in bed staring across the room at the empty single bed. Mama’s slippers were lined up neatly at the foot of the bed, and her robe hung on the hook next to Luna’s.
The empty bed seemed enormous tonight, and Luna felt the loss of her mother keenly. Leo had let Georgina bring her down here this afternoon, with the message that she had better behave because no one wanted the task of dumping the bucket from the attic. At first Luna was relieved to return to her room, take a bath, and change into clean clothes. But now that night was here, this room seemed to stretch and warp around her, too cold and empty.
Above Mama’s empty bed, Luna saw the bedroom window, wide open and blackish blue with star clusters twirling in pinwheels. How did that window get open? And it was so odd, because she knew that stars didn’t move that way. The sun didn’t move that way; it was the Earth that orbited the sun. She sat up on her bed, wondering if it was the end of the world—stars dancing in the sky and the Earth swinging out of its regular orbit. That would be an okay way to end.
Then the darkness expanded from the window like racing floodwaters, reaching into the room, snaking over the floor to clutch her in its bulky fist. Its massive black coils surrounded her waist and flung her across the floor, dragging her over to Mama’s bed, to the black hole, the void, the end of time.
She tried to resist, holding on to the bed frame until she was yanked loose. The windowsill was her last chance. Her fingers gripped the white ledge, turning blue from the pressure. Then, the black tide peeled them loose, easy as tapping the keys of a piano. Plunk, plunk, plunk, ten times, and she was wrenched away and falling out the window.
Luna woke up screaming and writhing on the floor of the attic. She had rolled out of the sleeping bag to the dusty, rough wood, moving only two feet or so, though she felt as if she had fallen for miles. Some sisters stood over her, Georgina and Julia, staring down, telling her to calm down, but she batted their hands away. Covering her head, she rolled over to the bedpost and sobbed against the comforter.
“I need Mama. Mama . . .”
She was surprised to hear comfort in Georgina’s gruff whispers. “It’s all right now. Quiet down. You can go back to sleep.” The meaty fingers of the sisters’ cook were gentle as they nudged Luna back over to her sleeping bag. Patting Luna’s shoulder absently, she sang the nonsense chorus to “Tura-Lura-Lural.”
Rolling over onto the swollen side of her face, Luna let out a cry, which made Georgina sing louder. She didn’t get it. No one got it. The world was hopeless.
* * *
The next day Ruby found the online obituary for Glory Noland. It seemed like significant news for an unremarkable Tuesday in December, too early in the month to be Christmassy. Just another gray, wet December day.
The short blurb reported that Glory Noland broke her neck and sustained a traumatic brain injury in a fall from a second-story window. She died Monday night at St. Victor Hospital.
She had probably died after Ruby left the hospital with Mom. Ruby could imagine the nurses of that ward methodically doing their job, turning off life-support machines and making sure the patient had enough drugs in her system to die without pain. She also imagined that Glory had died alone, since the sisters had exited when Natalie gave the order.
After the sisters had left, Ruby had gone to Glory’s glass-walled room, edging cautiously toward the beepi
ng monitors and the silent body wrapped in tape and tubes and a neck brace. It was hard to feel a connection to the person fading away under the scary equipment, but she found one of Glory’s hands, a little cold, and held on to it. She had read that when people were dying sometimes they needed encouragement to move on.
“It’s Ruby,” she said. “I just want to let you know that everything’s going to be okay.” Glory didn’t respond, and Ruby didn’t cry. Her head was too full with the antiseptic smells; her memories of the barbs of the quarreling sisters; the cold blips of the medical monitors. None of this seemed real; it was like stepping into an episode of Grey’s Anatomy.
The news account said that the preliminary investigation pointed to suicide. Investigators were trying to locate surviving family. Me, Ruby thought. I’m her daughter. And what about the mysterious girl who played with Hazel? If Hazel’s mother was right, the girl, Luna, would be Ruby and Aurora’s half sister. At least by blood.
But Ruby already had a sister—a sister and a father and a mother. Digging around to find her birth mother was a horrible idea. She’d opened a Pandora’s box. She lived in fear of her parents learning of the betrayal, but she couldn’t bear to tell Tamarind and Pete McCullum about it. Ruby wasn’t sure that she would ever shake loose the mantle of shame and guilt.
She closed the news website, erased the computer history, and promised herself she would never dig again.
PART 3
GLORY’S GHOST
CHAPTER 40
Middle of December
Sitting cross-legged on Mama’s bed, Luna watched out the window for signs of movement at Hazel’s house. It was Luna’s first day out of the attic since Mama had fallen from this window, and all that time Luna had not been brought to the hospital to see her mother.
Not once.
It made her so mad at Leo and Natalie. Burning mad at them. “All I want is to see my mother,” Luna had said constantly since the night Mama had been taken away. “Why doesn’t anyone listen to me?” she would bellow as she rattled the attic door against its hinges.
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