Twenty-Eight

For the next week, Annie and I went through the motions of everyday life. I went to school and acted like I was nothing but a normal human being. I wasn’t used to having a boyfriend, and though I wasn’t intentionally avoiding Zach, I found ways to not hang out with him. I needed to look after Annie—how could I put some guy ahead of my family? Annie, meanwhile, continued to cook and to pretend that she wasn’t seriously ill.

Every time the phone rang, I ran to it, expecting it to be Gracie, but it never was. Annie refused to report her missing.

“She could be dead and lying in some ditch somewhere,” I said, but somehow I knew she wasn’t. She was out there somewhere trying to escape. Maybe she’d found Cameron, maybe she hadn’t. “Do you think she’ll come back?” I asked.

“Yes,” Annie said. “I think she will, eventually.”

If anyone deserved to run away with the guy she loved, it was Annie, even if that guy was Cameron Schaeffer. Seeing her moping around the house, and thinking about what she’d told me, drove me crazy.

“You should go out,” I told her.

“Go out? Go out where?”

“Anywhere. Go to the movies. Go to the mall.”

“Gracie took the car.”

“You should go on a date.”

“With whom?”

But I knew the perfect person.

Officer Hantz was surprised to see me waiting for him in the police station. He looked a little bit worried.

“I’m actually here about a personal matter,” I said.

“Did you want to go into the interview room?” he asked. We stood in the waiting area at the station.

“No, it’s okay. I was just wondering if you had a girlfriend or were in a relationship.”

His face blushed red and he looked around nervously to see if anyone was listening.

“I, um, ah,” he stammered. “Listen, Barbara you’re a very lovely girl, but you have to understand that—”

“No, not me!” I said quickly. “It’s my sister.” He still looked a little bit lost. “The pretty one,” I reminded him. It clicked, and a relieved smile appeared on his face.

“For a second there I thought you were, that you—”

“She’s free Saturday night,” I said. “Can you pick her up at seven?”

“Um, sure,” he said, and I got out of there before he had the chance to change his mind.

“You know this is completely backwards,” Annie said. “Little sisters are not supposed to fix up their older sisters on blind dates.”

We were in her bedroom and she was trying to figure out what she was going to wear on the big date. If I’d known that it was going to take her this long to find a suitable outfit, I would have insisted we start earlier. It was already six thirty, and a pile of discarded clothes lay in a pile beside her bed.

“Well, technically we’re not sisters,” I said, “and this isn’t an entirely blind date. He saw you the other day and said you were pretty.”

“What about this?” Annie asked. She stepped out of her closet wearing a badly fitting pair of jeans with a patterned turtleneck.

“Please tell me you’re joking,” I said.

“What’s wrong with this?”

“You look like a soccer mom.”

“Well, you thought I was old enough to be your mom,” she said.

I thought of that theory. It would have been nice if it were true—Gracie would probably still be home, we could all be nice normal people, and Annie wouldn’t be dying of some stupid disease that was going to kill all three of us while we were in the prime of our lives.

“I can’t believe you don’t have anything decent to wear. I’m going to take a look at this closet.” I was pawing through her clothes, trying to find something that didn’t make her look completely frumpy, when the doorbell rang. Crap. He was early. I jerked my head up and hit it on the rod. “I’ll get the door,” I said. “You can not answer it dressed like that.”

“Where’s my black sweater?” she asked, digging through the pile beside the bed.

I left her there and ran downstairs. I threw open the door, but it wasn’t Officer Hantz on the other side. Zach stood there, looking better than it should have been possible for any human being to look.

“Hey stranger,” he said.

“Hi,” I said back.

“I know you’ve been acting like I don’t exist, but I figured I would push my luck and see if you wanted to go out tonight.”

Looking at him standing there, it was hard to believe I’d been managing to block out Zach Faraday’s magnetism. Being in his presence seemed to do something to me—I didn’t have the willpower to ignore him another second. Thankfully, Annie was going out on a date of her own that night, so I didn’t have to feel bad about leaving her all alone.

I heard Annie coming down the stairs behind me. I turned to tell her that it wasn’t her date, but she’d frozen in the middle of the staircase. Her skin looked horribly pale, and I could tell it wasn’t all due to the black sweater she’d added to her ensemble. She covered her mouth with her hand. She looked absolutely terrified.

She was staring right at Zach, but she seemed not to be seeing him. I glanced over his shoulder to see if there was something going on outside, but I didn’t see anything.

“Annie?” I said.

“What? How? Oh God!” she stammered. Was she having some sort of fit? Was she in pain? I couldn’t tell what was going on. She shook her head and ran back up the stairs.

“Is she all right?” Zach asked.

I didn’t know. “I need to go check on her,” I said.

“Maybe now’s not a good time, then.” There was a de-feated look in his eyes, and I felt a pain in my chest.

“I’ll be right back,” I said.

“I can wait in my car,” he offered. He was still standing outside the door. I hadn’t gotten around to inviting him in.

“You can wait in here.”

He glanced at the empty living room, then up the stairs where Annie had gone. “I’ll wait outside.”

I shut the door and ran up the stairs after Annie. She was in the bathroom. The door was locked.

“Annie, what’s wrong? Are you okay?”

“Is he gone?” Her voice sounded faint and weak from inside the bathroom.

“Who? Zach? He’s waiting out in his car.”

“Zach? The boy from school that you like?”

“Yeah—what, you thought that was your date? He’s kind of young for you, don’t you think?” She didn’t respond. “Annie, open the door.”

“I don’t feel well,” she said.

“It’s just nerves. You haven’t been on a date in like forever.”

“No, it’s my head. I think I’m starting to see things, hallucinate.”

I wondered what she’d seen that had freaked her out so much. The doorbell rang. It wouldn’t be Zach again. It must be Officer Hantz.

“I have to go answer the door,” I said. “I think that’s your date.”

“Tell him I can’t do it,” Annie said. “Tell him I’m sick.”

“No,” I said. “You can come down and tell him yourself.”

Officer Hantz was holding a grocery-store bouquet of flowers in his hand when I opened the door. Not being completely overcome with irrational desire as I’d been a few minutes earlier, I remembered my manners and invited him in.

“She’s upstairs, just getting ready,” I told him.

“I don’t know if you’re aware of this or not, but there’s a young man out on the sidewalk pacing back and forth in front of a Mustang,” Officer Hantz said. Apparently Zach had not mastered the skill of waiting patiently. “I’m not sure what you said to him, but I’m hoping your sister goes a little easier on me.”

I tried to smile brightly, but I wasn’t sure if it was reassuring or not. I was pretty sure that any minute Annie would come downstairs looking like death warmed over and telling Hantz that she was too sick to venture out.

“I’ll be right back,” I said. I went back upstairs and knocked on the bathroom door. “He brought flowers. You need to at least come down and talk to him.”

“Just tell him I’m sick,” Annie said.

“No.”

I heard the water in the sink running. When she finally stepped out of the bathroom some color had returned to her face, but she still didn’t look that good.

“What was all that about?” I asked.

“I thought I saw someone,” she said. She stood in the hallway and stared at the stairs. “I’m afraid to go downstairs.”

“I’ll walk with you.”

We walked down the stairs together, Annie taking them one at a time like an invalid. She gripped my arm when we reached the bottom of the stairs. Officer Hantz was standing by the mantel looking at the picture of Susie. He turned around when he heard us. Annie’s grip tightened on my arm, but before I could cry out in pain, she released it and I felt her relax. Officer Hantz smiled at her.

“That must be your mother,” he said pointing at the photo. “She looks just like you.”

“Yes,” Annie said with a smile. “You’ll have to excuse me, I haven’t been feeling well.”

“Oh. I’m sorry. We could go out another night if you’re not up for it.”

“No,” I said a little too loudly for our small living room. “She’s fine. She needs to get out of the house.”

“Have you eaten?” Officer Hantz asked. “We could just grab something to eat if you wanted.”

“I’d like that,” Annie said.

A few minutes later I watched them walking down to Officer Hantz’s car and caught a glimpse of Zach, now seated behind the wheel of his car. I really shouldn’t have kept my distance from him.

I threw on my jacket and ran down to the street. I yanked open the passenger door of his car and got in.

“Let’s go to the diner,” I said.

“Sure,” he said.