A LOUD NOISE woke me in the middle of the night. Something had fallen and broken downstairs. I was almost sure of it.
I looked at the clock. Saw it was just after four thirty. “Did you hear that?”
Bree raised her head off the pillow. “Hear what? I just woke up. If I’m awake.”
I was already out of bed and pulling on a pair of sweats.
“Alex, what is it?”
“I don’t know yet. I’ll go see. I’ll be right back.”
Everything seemed quiet from where I stopped to listen in the middle of the stairs. I could just see the sky going to blue outside, but it was still dark in the house.
“Nana?” I called in a voice barely louder than a whisper.
There was no answer.
Bree was up now too, and at the top of the stairs, only a few feet away. “I’m right here.”
When I came down into the front hallway, I could see straight back to the kitchen.
The refrigerator door was open, and there was just enough light from it that I could see Nana lying on the floor. She wasn’t moving.
“Bree! Call 911!”