“Actually, I wondered about that too,” Faith said, and both women looked at Zoë.
When about three minutes went by and it didn’t seem that the two women were going to relent in their staring, Zoë sighed. “Okay, so maybe there was more to it than just losing my memory. Let’s just say that I was a bit angry that the people I’d known all my life weren’t speaking to me.”
“So?” Faith asked.
“So nothing,” Zoë said as she picked up her pad and started to leave the room.
She got halfway out before Amy spoke. “Next time I have a dream I’m going to tell Faith but not you.”
Zoë glared at Amy and was about to say something, but she closed her mouth. “Okay,” Zoë said at last, “I told you that the last thing I remembered was the high school prom?”
“Yes,” Faith said.
“When I woke up it was, well…A bit disconcerting to be told that not one person had come to see me in the hospital. Not my sister, not any of my cousins, not all the girls I’d giggled with in high school. Nobody.”
“White-hot rage?” Amy said.
“That describes it. At first I tried not to care, but as I healed, I began to get angry. In fact, I think rage may have been the fuel behind my rehabilitation.”
“So what did you do to get the attention of the court?” Faith asked.
“I…Well, I sort of, well…” Zoë put on a look of defiance that dared them to judge her. “I had the car I crashed in hauled to the center of town and I set it on fire
.”
At first Faith and Amy just blinked at her, then Amy started to laugh. A second later, Faith joined her, and after that, Zoë began to laugh. They were falling over one another. Faith made hand motions of the car, then yelled, “Kaboom!”
“Was it a big fire?” Amy asked, still laughing and holding her face to keep it from hurting.
“Huge. Enormous. I dumped four gallons of gasoline on the thing and it went up in a great blast. I think the tank was still full.”
Faith was holding her stomach laughing. “Did they come out to see it?”
“Everyone did,” Zoë said, laughing. “The whole town. Bells went off, people screamed, and everyone was flapping their arms.”
“Anything else burn?” Amy asked, pausing for a moment.
“Just grass. I put the wreck smack in the center of the town square. There weren’t even any trees nearby. I wanted a clear spot where everyone would see it.”
“I can visualize the whole thing,” Faith said, grinning.
“Where were you?” Amy asked.
“I was standing as close as I could get without getting burned,” Zoë said. “Like this.” She stood with her legs apart and her arms crossed over her chest. Her face had an expression of defiance that dared anyone to mess with her.
“I would have stayed away from you,” Amy said. “What about you, Faith?”
“Wouldn’t have got within a hundred feet. But did they? Surely, someone must have approached you.”
“No one,” Zoë said with pride. “Well, not until the police showed up and they, well, sort of touched me.”
“Handcuffs?” Amy asked. “Read you your rights?”
“Yup,” Zoë said. “But it was worth it. I saw my sister in the crowd, and when she saw me, she ran away as fast as she could. She couldn’t face me.”
“Or her guilt,” Amy said.
Zoë stopped smiling and sat down. “You know, when I saw her run, that’s just what I thought, that she looked guilty. If the car hadn’t exploded right then and the fire department hadn’t pulled up with their sirens blaring, I might have run after her.”