The Adoration of Jenna Fox (Jenna Fox Chronicles 1)

She steps back, still holding my shoulders. ‘Go. Get it over with. I’ll be in soon.’

The house is still, like the breath has been punched out of it. A low rising sun floods the kitchen with soft pink light. The breakfast table, normally the morning hub, is empty. I walk to the hall. A small triangular patch of light illuminates one wall, but darkness paints the rest. I step closer to the staircase and am startled to see Claire in the shadows, sitting on the landing, slumped against the banister. I climb the stairs and ease myself down next to her. She stares into space like I’m not there.

‘Mom—’

‘They might have saved you, you know?’ Her voice is barely a whisper. ‘If there are ever any charges—’

‘Yes, they might have saved me in one way. But I would have lost myself in other ways that I couldn’t live with. I did for them what they would have done for me.’

‘Jenna,’ she sighs.

‘If it’s a mistake, it’s my mistake. Give me that.’

She tilts her head back, looking up, slightly rocking, like she is trying to sift the events out of herself.

He shakes his head without saying anything. Shaking it much too long, and a knot grows in my throat. ‘You don’t know the risks, Jenna,’ he finally says. ‘You just don’t know the risks.’

I put my hand on his shoulder. ‘Maybe I just know different risks than the ones you know.’ He doesn’t reply. ‘I’m here today, the same as you,’ I say. ‘Isn’t that enough?’

He is silent, but at least his head has stopped shaking. He finally reaches up and lays his hand on mine. Mother looks at me, her eyes focused once again, full of something that I am certain has no word or definition. Something the old Jenna never saw and something the new Jenna is only just understanding. She breathes in deeply and puts an arm around each of us. We are a tangled web of arms and tears, melting and holding. We sit in the dark cavern of stairs, giving ourselves time like we are a starfish regenerating an arm and learning how to move again.

Lily appears at the bottom of the stairs. She looks at Mother, her eyes hopeful, filled with the something that occupied Claire’s just a moment ago. Mother lifts her gaze to meet Lily’s, a long exchange in a language only they know. And finally Claire sighs and asks, ‘Shall I put on a pot of coffee?’

A billion years of spinning. We are not immune to momentum.

Lily nods. ‘I’ll help you.’

We untangle ourselves and are just at the bottom of the stairs when there is a firm knock at the door.

‘Who could that be this early?’ Claire asks.

‘It might be Simmons,’ Father answers.

Or maybe someone else, I think. Maybe someone Allys told. Maybe someone who is here for me.

‘I’ll have to break the news that we don’t need storage anymore,’ Father says as he reaches for the door handle.

Should I warn them?

The door is already swinging open. Father’s surprise is obvious, and he hesitates, not knowing the visitors.

Mother steps forward. ‘Can we help you?’

‘Are you the parents of Jenna Fox?’

Mother and Father exchange glances. I see Mother’s body weight shift, like she will change into a wall if she needs to.

I step from the shadows. ‘Yes, they are,’ I say.

‘We’re Allys’s parents, your daughter’s schoolmate.’

‘Yes?’ Father says.

‘We know about Jenna,’ her father explains. ‘Our daughter—’ His voice cracks.

‘Our daughter is dying,’ Allys’s mother continues. Her face is rigid. Frightening. I watch her swallow, her hands tight fists at her sides. ‘Please, can you help us?’ Her rigid mask breaks and tears follow. Her sobs echo through the hall.

‘Come in,’ Mother says as she reaches out, putting her arm around Allys’s mother. She holds the sobbing woman in a way that surprises me. Like she has known her for years. Like she understands everything about her.