16

At the time, she thought she was awake when the telephone rang, but later, when she had a chance to think about what had happened, she remembered her first thought at the sound had been: “It’s about Caro.” She got to the phone on the second ring, though, and sounded awake, at least to her own ears, when she said hello.

“It’s me,” Ashley whimpered.

“Where are you?” Robin asked. According to Ashley’s travel clock, it was three A.M., but it was impossible to know if it was still telling accurate time.

“I’m in a phone booth,” Ashley said, half-crying. “Robin, I’m hurting so much.”

“Take a breath and tell me what happened,” Robin instructed her. She was fully awake now, and flooded with fear.

“I took Morrison’s motorcycle,” Ashley said, sounding a little better. “And I’ve been riding and riding and I lost control and I hit a telephone pole, I think, something tall, and I flew off, and I’ve been trying to walk, but it hurts so much.”

“What hurts?” Robin asked.

“Everything,” Ashley said. “My body mostly.”

“All right,” Robin said. “You should go to a hospital. Do you have any idea where you are? Are you still in New York?”

“I don’t know,” Ashley wailed, and then she started sobbing.

“It’s all right, Ashley,” Robin said, trying to suppress all her feelings of helplessness. “Do me a favor and see if there are instructions on the phone about using the 911 number in an emergency. Do you think you can do that for me?”

“Yes,” Ashley sniffled. Robin waited for an endless moment, and then Ashley said, “Yeah, it says to call 911.”

“Good,” Robin said. “That’s excellent, Ashley. All right, now, I’m going to give you some instructions, and I want you to do exactly what I tell you. All right?”

“All right,” Ashley whispered, not sounding at all like herself. Robin hoped she wasn’t in shock.

“After we hang up, I want you to call the 911 number,” Robin said, thinking as fast as she ever had. “Now, they’ll ask you where you are, and you don’t know, so make sure to give them the phone number of the booth you’re in. Do you see that number?”

There was another pause as Ashley searched for it. “I see it,” she said.

“Good,” Robin said. “I’ll tell you what. You give me that number too, and that way I’ll have it also.”

Ashley gave her the number.

“Great,” Robin declared, trying to sound cheerful. “Make sure you tell that to the 911 person. That way they can call the phone company and find out where that phone booth is located, and then they can find you.”

“Boy, you’re smart,” Ashley said.

“Yes, I am,” Robin replied. “All right, I have other things for you to do. Are you ready?”

“Umph,” Ashley said.

“After you call the 911 number, I want you to stay in the phone booth,” Robin said. “Just sit down and wait for them. It may take them a few minutes to find you, and if you wander off, it’ll take them a lot longer. So just stay where you are, and let them rescue you.”

“I don’t think I can walk anymore anyway,” Ashley said. “I hurt so much, Robin.”

“Yeah, I know,” Robin said. “Now, there’s just one more thing, and then you can call the 911 number. But this is very important, and you’re going to have to remember it for a while. Okay?”

“Yeah,” Ashley said, her voice fading.

“When you get to the hospital, make sure to give somebody my phone number,” Robin said. “Otherwise I won’t know where you’ve been taken. If you give them my number, they’ll call me and I’ll be able to go to the hospital and see you right away. Can you remember that?”

“Yeah,” Ashley said.

“All right,” Robin said. “Tell me what you’re going to do.”

“Call 911,” Ashley said. “Give them my phone number. Stay here. Sit down. Get rescued. Give them your number.”

“Great,” Robin said. “Okay, then. I’m going to hang up now, and you call 911. I’ll see you just as soon as I possibly can.”

“Thank you,” Ashley whispered, and hung up the phone. Robin held on to hers for a moment, and then hung up also. Everything would be fine, she told herself, as long as Ashley called 911. The ambulance would find her and take her to the nearest hospital. It wasn’t like Caro. Ashley would make it. She just had to. She sounded hurt, but she had managed to call Robin. It had to turn out all right.

There was no point even trying to fall back asleep, so Robin turned on a light, got dressed, and went over the conversation she’d had with Ashley a few times to see if there was anything else she should have said. Ashley was definitely coherent, which was a good sign. And she was obviously able to walk. Robin just wished she didn’t know so much about internal injuries.

She sat on the bed and stared at the phone. There were people who should be told Ashley had been in an accident. The question was, when should Robin tell them? She finally decided to let Jean know immediately, mostly out of a malicious desire to wake her up. She found Jean’s home number and dialed it, only to get Jean’s answering machine. Jean obviously didn’t have the same curfews the interns suffered from. Robin left a brief message and hung up. She then went to the bathroom and threw up, which made her feel a lot better.

Robin was reluctant to try calling Ashley back, since she didn’t know what area code Ashley was in. Besides, the 911 people might want Ashley to keep the line free; it might make it easier for them to find her that way. So Robin decided to pace for a while. Then she began to pack Ashley’s bags. Then she unpacked the bags, and packed an overnight bag, in case Ashley was going to be in the hospital for a day or two. She was especially proud of herself for remembering Ashley’s toothbrush. She then repacked the rest of Ashley’s bags, and then she paced some more.

When the phone rang, she jumped straight into the air, and then laughed at herself. The call she was expecting startled her far more than the call that woke her up. “Yes,” she said into the phone, her heart pounding.

“Robin Schyler?”

“Yes,” Robin said. “Speaking.”

“This is Metropolitan Hospital,” a woman said. “Ashley Boone gave your name as the person to be notified of her admission to the hospital.”

“Yes,” Robin said. “I told her to. Is she all right?”

“The doctor is examining her now,” the voice said.

“Can I have your address?” Robin asked. “I’d like to come over now.”

“Very well,” the voice said, and gave Robin the address. Robin wrote it down and thanked the person she was talking to. They both hung up, and Robin dialed Mrs. Brundege’s phone number.

“I’ll meet you in the hotel lobby,” Mrs. Brundege said as soon as Robin finished telling her what had happened. “I’ll be over in ten minutes. Wait for me inside.”

“All right,” Robin said. She gathered up Ashley’s overnight bag, paced awhile longer, and then went downstairs. It astounded her that Torey and Annie had slept through all that had happened.

Mrs. Brundege appeared almost immediately after Robin reached the lobby, and soon the two of them were being driven to Metropolitan Hospital. “I feel so responsible,” Mrs. Brundege declared as the cab drove them to the hospital. “I pushed Ashley too hard today. We’ve all known Ashley had problems, and I just didn’t take that into account. This is on my conscience.”

“I feel responsible too,” Robin said. “I should have handled her better instead of getting into a screaming fight with her.”

“You’ve more than made up for that,” Mrs. Brundege said. “You really handled things perfectly tonight, Robin. We will all be eternally grateful to you for that.”

“I just hope she’s okay,” Robin said, holding on to Ashley’s bag tightly.

The ride to the hospital seemed endless, but eventually they arrived at the emergency-room entrance. Mrs. Brundege paid for the cab, and then she and Robin walked in. Mrs. Brundege immediately took charge, and in a matter of moments she had located Ashley’s doctor.

“It could have been a lot worse,” the doctor told them. “Ashley’s sprained her right ankle and twisted her right wrist, as well as sustaining a lot of abrasions and contusions. But she had a helmet on, so there were no head injuries, and thus far there’s no sign of internal bleeding. Of course, we’ll be keeping her for a couple of days just to monitor her.”

Robin felt like crying from relief. Instead she said, “Could I see her now? I brought her an overnight bag.”

“Are you the girl who gave her the instructions on what to do?” the doctor asked.

Robin nodded.

“Robin, right?” the doctor said. “That was impressive work. You’re to be commended.”

“Thank you,” Robin said. “Does that mean I can see her?”

The doctor laughed. “Just for a moment,” he said. “She needs her sleep. I suspect you do too.” He showed Robin which way to go.

Ashley was lying on a bed, but her eyes were open. “Hi, there,” Robin said. “I see you made it.”

“I hurt,” Ashley said.

“I bet you do,” Robin said. “I brought you an overnight bag. I packed your toothbrush.”

“Thank you,” Ashley said. “I broke two teeth.”

“Ouch,” Robin said. “The doctor didn’t tell us that.”

“Who came with you?” Ashley asked. “Is Torey here?”

“She doesn’t know yet,” Robin replied. “I came with Mrs. Brundege.”

“I was so rotten to Torey,” Ashley said. “Does she know what I did to her?”

“She knows, and she honestly doesn’t care,” Robin said. “You know how Torey is. I’m sure she’ll be over to visit you tomorrow. I mean today. Later.”

“And you,” Ashley said. “I was awful to you, wasn’t I?”

“You’ve had better days,” Robin said. “Don’t worry about it, Ashley.”

“I kept thinking about it while I was riding,” Ashley said. “About how all I know how to do is hurt.”

“Everyone makes mistakes,” Robin said, wishing she could give Ashley a hug. “The trick is to learn from them.”

“That’s too hard,” Ashley said. “I think I want to go to sleep now.”

“Good idea,” Robin said. “I may do that too.”

“Good night,” Ashley said, and moaned as she tried to adjust her body for sleep. Robin stayed for a moment, watching over her. Just as she turned to leave, she heard Ashley whisper her name.

“I’m here,” Robin said softly.

“Am I ever going to see you again?” Ashley asked.

“You’ll see me later today,” Robin told her. “I just want to go back to our room and get some sleep.”

“No,” Ashley said. “I mean after I go home. You and Torey are the best friends I’ve ever had. Am I ever going to see you again?”

“Absolutely,” Robin said, realizing with a start that she had never thought about that. “Annie too. We’re a foursome, you know.”

“I like having friends,” Ashley whispered.

Robin stared at her for a long moment, and then heard Ashley breathing the deep regular breath of sleep. She left the room quietly and walked back to Mrs. Brundege.

“We’ll go right back to the hotel,” Mrs. Brundege said. “Unless you’d prefer to go back to my home. We have a guest room.”

“No,” Robin said. “I’ll sleep better in my own room.”

“Fine,” Mrs. Brundege said. “How did Ashley seem to you?”

“Tired,” Robin said. “And sad and in pain.”

“You probably feel pretty much the same way,” Mrs. Brundege said, and put her arm around Robin’s shoulder. “Come on, let’s get you home.”

A knock on the door woke Robin late that morning. It was an effort to get out of bed, but the knocking didn’t sound like it was about to go away.

“Annie made me do it,” Torey said as she and Annie walked in. “She absolutely insisted we wake you up.”

“That’s okay,” Robin said. “I should be up now anyway. What time is it?”

“Eleven,” Annie said. “I just wanted you to know Mrs. Brundege called us this morning and told us what happened. We’re on our way to the hospital. Do you want to come with us?”

“No,” Robin said. “Later. I’ll go after lunch.”

“Fine,” Torey said. “Now, go back to bed Robin. We’ll see you later.”

“No, I’m awake,” Robin said. “How is Ashley, do you know?”

“Mrs. Brundege spoke to the doctor, and she said Ashley would be checked out of the hospital tomorrow,” Torey replied. “I’ll be flying back home with her, to make sure she gets there all right.”

“You will?” Robin asked. “Whose idea was that?”

“Mine,” Torey replied. “Apparently Ashley’s mother didn’t volunteer to come for her, and Mrs. Brundege felt somebody should go with her. She suggested Jean, and I suggested me. I won.”

“I bet you did,” Robin said. “Does Ashley know?”

“I’m going to tell her this morning,” Torey replied. “How do you think Ashley will feel about that?”

“Very happy,” Robin said. “How long will you be staying?”

“As short a time as possible,” Torey said. “I want to finish my work here, after all. And there’s the party in a week.”

“Right,” Robin said. “The party.”

“We’ll see you later,” Annie said. “I just wanted to make sure you knew where we were and how Ashley was doing. All right?”

“Fine,” Robin said, and closed the door as the girls left. Bed looked wonderful. She climbed back in, and had just fallen asleep when there was another knock to be dealt with.

Robin sighed and opened the door. Jean Kingman was standing there.

“I tried next door,” Jean said, “but there was no answer. I hoped I might find all of you here.”

“Annie and Torey went to the hospital,” Robin told her. “Ashley was in an accident last night. Did you get my message?”

“Of course,” Jean said. “I know all about the accident. That’s what I wanted to talk to you about.” She walked into the room, noticed the suitcases resting on Ashley’s bed, and averted her eyes.

“So talk,” Robin said. “I’ll tell the others what you said.”

“There’s not much to say,” Jean replied, sitting down on a chair. “It was an accident, and Ashley was very lucky to have escaped with so few injuries.”

“Very lucky,” Robin repeated.

“Mrs. Brundege feels terribly responsible,” Jean continued. “Which is a mistake on her part, I’m sure. A lot of us had doubts about Ashley from the very beginning. She didn’t make many friends for herself either, when she showed up at Mrs. Brundege’s in that insane outfit, and with that very strange young man by her side. She never really seemed like a fitting representative of Image to me. She had too much flair. Girls with that much flair almost always end up in trouble.”

“If you say so,” Robin said, yawning.

“But the fashion department does like flair,” Jean said, shrugging her shoulders. “They don’t worry about the consequences.” She pursed her lips. “In any event, I trust I can count on you and the others not to go around telling people just what happened last night.”

“I don’t know,” Robin said. “It depends who you mean by ‘people.’”

“The press comes to mind,” Jean said. “Of course, what happened was an accident, but nonetheless, there are papers in this city that would publish a story like this. ‘Image intern gets kicked off the staff for theft, borrows her punk-rock boyfriend’s motorcycle, and ends up crashing into a telephone pole in the middle of nowhere.’ There are a lot of papers that could turn that story into a juicy scandal.”

“We won’t tell the press,” Robin promised. “Or radio or TV.”

“Good,” Jean said. “I was sure I could count on you for that. As far as the people at Image go, the ones who have to know have been informed already. The rest can make up whatever story they want. The truth will come out eventually, but by then Ashley will be safely back home.”

Robin thought about Ashley safely back home, and the lengths she was willing to go to avoid returning there.

“Of course you can tell your families,” Jean persisted. “But that can wait until you’re home too. Why worry your parents unduly? Let them see for themselves what a fabulous summer you all have had, and then tell them about Ashley’s little accident.”

“Please leave now, Jean,” Robin said. “I’m not in the mood to listen to any more of this.”

“Certainly,” Jean said, rising from the chair. “By the way, Robin, we were all very impressed with how you handled yourself in this crisis. You scored a lot of points for yourself. I don’t know how Mrs. Brundege plans on expressing her gratitude and appreciation, but I’m sure she’ll think of something appropriate.”

“Great,” Robin said. “Good-bye, Jean.”

“Good-bye, Robin,” Jean said. “I’m sure you’ll feel better after you get a little more sleep.” She smiled at Robin and left the room.

Robin curled back up in bed, but she knew she wouldn’t be able to fall back asleep. Her mind was racing far too fast, thinking about Ashley and the summer and accidents. And suddenly all she could think about was Caro, and there was no point trying to stop the memories from filling her. She didn’t cry, though, which surprised her. She just remembered the pain and the sorrow and the aching sense of loss.

But then she started remembering the good times. Those were the tricky memories, the ones she usually tried to suppress. Because when she remembered how much she’d loved Caro, and Caro’s pleasure in life, the pain always grew sharper, more cutting. It was easier to remember Caro in her hospital bed than to remember Caro raking the leaves or playing badminton or doing cartwheels in the living room. But today when Caro smiled, Robin smiled with her. When Caro laughed, Robin laughed with her. And while knowing that Caro was gone still hurt, it didn’t lessen the pleasure of the memories.

Caro was dead, but she had lived, and that was the important thing. She had given Robin so much that Robin hadn’t had the chance to appreciate. She’d given her the strength to face another person’s pain, and courage to search for the right answers. Without that, Robin didn’t know if she could have helped Ashley last night. She might have hung up in anger just at the sound of Ashley’s voice. Or, more likely, she might have panicked, not known what to say, and left Ashley alone, unable to help herself. And then anything could have happened to her. But Robin hadn’t made those mistakes. She had finally been able to help.

There was nothing she could have done for Caro, she knew. No magic incantations that could have saved her life. And there would probably be a million situations in the future when she would be just as helpless, just as out of control. But she could always know that at least once, she had made a difference. And that was an extraordinarily special feeling.

She opened her eyes and stared at Ashley’s sad little travel clock. It was close to one, and she was still in bed. So she finally got up, took a shower, and dressed. She’d be going to the hospital later, but first she wanted to see Tim and tell him what had happened. When he answered the phone, she gave him a short version of what had happened since last night.

“I’ll be right over,” he said. “I’ll meet you downstairs.”

Robin hung up the phone and realized she no longer wanted to be in her hotel room. She’d rather wait in the lobby, she decided, so she locked the door and took the elevator down. It felt good to be in a public place. As she found a seat in the lobby, she saw Annie enter.

“I’m waiting for Tim,” Robin told her.

“Good,” Annie said. “I’ll keep you company until he shows.”

“I’d like that,” Robin said.

“You know, I haven’t had a chance to tell you how much I admire what you did last night,” Annie said. “The way you handled Ashley’s phone call.”

“I did what I had to,” Robin said, but then she smiled. “I do feel good about it, though.”

“You ought to,” Annie replied. “I left Torey at the hospital so she and Ashley could talk for a while in private. I could see Ashley wanted that.”

“I’m sure she did,” Robin said. “It was good of you to notice.”

They sat there silently. “I think you’re pretty terrific,” Annie finally declared. “You’re just about as good as your mother is always telling my mother.”

Robin laughed. “You hold up your end pretty well also,” she said.

“I’m glad we’re cousins,” Annie said. “I’m sorry we lost each other, and I’m glad we had a chance to find each other again. I don’t want to lose this feeling.”

“We won’t,” Robin promised. “There’s been too much loss already. I’m not taking any more.”

“Good,” Annie said, and gave Robin a hug. “Oh, there’s Tim. I’ll give you a chance to be alone with him now.”

“Thanks, Annie,” Robin said. Annie got up and walked over to the elevator. Robin walked to the door by herself and joined Tim there.

They embraced for a moment and then kissed. “I love you,” Tim said. “I love you and I don’t want to lose you, and it’s already Saturday and we have so little time.”

“We have what we need,” Robin told him. “Come on. Let’s turn a week into forever.”