I closed my eyes again, not wanting to hear any of this. This was the point where I wanted to run from the conversation and back into my blankets. This was just too fucking much, but I stayed, holding on tight to my puppy.
“I guess all that’s left now is to pack.”
I lifted my head. “Pack?”
Dad nodded just once. “You’ll be taking time out of school, and I’ve already notified them, as well as leave from your job. We’re going to California. Your aunt already knows we’re coming to bury your sister.”
God, Aunt Celeste. I hadn’t even gotten to talk to her in all this. Though, she had tried to call a time or two. I knew my dad had been talking to her as I heard her name a few times when he’d been tense on his cell phone last night. She was aware of what was going on, aware of my sister’s death.
Dad glanced back at me. “So get your stuff together. I’ve already started the arrangements for your sister to be with your mom. They just need us, need us to bring her.”
My mom and sister together. My mom and sister buried together at my mom’s plot…
And so my own personal nightmare continued.
Three
Royal - Age 8
I whimpered, the sting making me rock. I needed to go inside. I needed to get up.
Get up. Get up before someone finds out.
I couldn’t, crying. It hurt so bad this time, and I gazed down, the cut bleeding through my jacket sleeve. Through burning tears, I peeled off my school jacket. The blood seeped all the way through my white shirt and everything.
Oh, no.
I messed with the button until I rolled the sleeve up, biting my lip so no one would hear my cries. I saw all the blood, and I almost threw up. I couldn’t even see the cut.
I started to touch it but stopped, feeling like I might pass out.
What am I going to do?
“You’re cut, kid.”
A girl was out here with me, my height with dark braids in her hair and even darker eyes. She smiled at me, on her knees behind the tree with me. I didn’t know how she’d found me. I’d been hiding, quiet.
I sniffed. “It’s not bad.” It wasn’t bad. It could be worse.
Her smile fell as she pointed to my face. “You’ve been hit too.”
I said not
hing, my hand going to my hot cheek. I shook my head. “I fell.”
She crawled toward me, on her knees in sneakers that weren’t allowed. I’d tried to wear mine once to school and got yelled at. This girl must be new. I hadn’t seen her before. She put out a hand. “Come on. Let’s fix it.”
How could she fix it? She wasn’t a nurse or anything, and I’d have to go inside for that.
I stayed put, hesitant.
She crossed her arms, a red bandana tied around her neck like a cowboy. “Well, I guess if you want to stay out here by yourself all day, that’s fine. I’m going to school.”
She started to leave, and I got up too. I couldn’t stay outside all day. I might get in trouble.
I held my arm and her smile came back. She took my wrist, guiding me out from behind the tree, and I let her take me to the school fountain. It looked like a dolphin in the midst of escape. It was leaving. It was swimming far away. There was a hose by the fountain the school’s gardener used and she picked it up, unscrewing the sprayer off.
“Here,” she said, putting my arm under running water from the hose. The initial sting made me jerk my arm back, but she merely smiled. She kept doing that at me, smiling. “It’s okay. It’ll feel better, okay?”