Grandpa took the call.
“Can we talk in a minute?” he asked. “Dani’s not well.”
When Dad heard that he wanted to talk to her at once.
Dani took the phone and Dad’s voice streamed into her ear.
“Amore, how are you?”
“Bad,” Dani squeaked.
“Why haven’t you called me?”
Dani tried to think. Why hadn’t she?
“You would have been angry.”
Dad flared up.
“How can you say that? I’m never angry with you! You must call me if there’s something!”
Then Dani remembered something else.
“I didn’t have my phone any more…”
“What did I say?” he snapped. “I knew you’d lose it! Children don’t need cell phones!”
“I didn’t lose it. Someone took it.”
“What?”
Dani didn’t want to explain any more, but Dad wouldn’t give in.
“Where did that happen?”
“In Northbrook…”
“You’re hallucinating!”
“No, I’m not. I was there.”
“Have you been in Northbrook?”
“Yes.”
“Who with? Grandma?”
“With myself.”
When Dad realized that Dani had gone to Northbrook on her own, he went crazy.
“You know you can’t do that! I can’t trust you any more!” he shouted.
Dani swallowed. Ouch, it hurt.
“And I can’t trust you either,” she managed to say. “Why didn’t you tell me that you and Sadie were going to get married?”
There was silence for a few seconds.
“Sadie?” Dad said then. “What’s she got to do with this? Can I talk to Grandma?”
Grandma took the phone and began to talk loudly to Dani’s father.
Dani held her ears and leaned against Sadie.
“Don’t argue,” she croaked.
But Grandma went on.
“You don’t leave a sick little girl so you can run around in Rome!” she shouted. “What sort of father are you, Gianni!”
Dani crept under the covers and didn’t come out again until Grandma had put down the phone.
“I don’t know Gianni any more,” she complained. “He should have said he’d be coming home this second!”
“Dani must have her medicine now,” Sadie pointed out.
“Nooo,” Dani wailed.
But no one was listening to her.
Grandma went to the kitchen and dissolved a pill in a glass of juice.
“Drink this, darling,” she said.
Dani took a mouthful of the nasty medicine, but coughed it straight up and dropped the glass.
And all of it went in the bed.
