Light (Gone 6)

“How is Sam?” Diana asked.

“They won’t let me talk to him. But they’re going to release me in a couple of days. I’ll find him.”

“Won’t your parents try to stop you?”

Astrid considered this, then barked out a laugh. Diana joined in.

“Oh, my God, we have parents again,” Astrid said, wiping away a tear. “We’re kids. We’re teenagers again.”

A nurse poked her head in. “Listen, ladies, it’s not visiting hours, but there’s someone here to see you.”

“Who?” Diana asked.

The nurse looked left and right like she was afraid to be overheard. “It’s a young woman. She seems very determined. In fact, I almost called the police because she scared me.”

Astrid and Diana exchanged a look.

“Black or white?” Astrid asked.

“She happens to be white.”

“Lana!” Astrid and Diana said in unison.

“You’d better send her in,” Diana said. “You don’t want to say no to Lana. That would be, um, reckless.”

“And she’s saved more lives than every doctor and nurse in this hospital,” Astrid said.

Lana arrived a moment later, looking strangely clean, with her hair cut, and wearing clothing that was not stained or filthy or cut or patched together. She did not have a pistol. She did not have a cigarette.

“Oh, my God,” Diana said to Astrid. “Lana’s a girl.”

“Yeah, hysterical. Cracking me up,” Lana said with her very familiar, very hard-core snarl. “What, there’s only one chair?”

“Who have you seen?” Astrid asked.

“I saw Dekka. She’s with her folks. And if I said she wasn’t happy about things, that wouldn’t really begin to cover it. She wants to see Sam. Everyone wants to see Sam. Talked to Edilio on the phone. He’s in hiding. Worried about la migra coming for him and his family.”

“Edilio is in hiding,” Astrid snapped. “Edilio has to worry about being kicked out of the country. Our Edilio.”

“He’s got a volunteer lawyer—”

But Astrid wasn’t done. “They should be putting up statues to Edilio. They should be naming schools after that boy—no, no, I’m not going to call him a boy. If he’s not a man, then I’ll never meet one.”

Lana nodded approvingly, obviously enjoying and sharing in Astrid’s outrage.

“And you, too,” Astrid said to Lana. “No, don’t even wave me off.”

“Whoa,” Lana said. “I had a power. I didn’t make that happen. I used it. No big deal.”

“I don’t suppose you can still . . .,” Diana began, waving a hand toward Astrid’s bandages.

Lana shook her head, not sadly, but with evident relief. “Nope. No, I cannot. I am no longer the capital ‘H’ Healer. I am Lana Arwen Lazar, period, finito. Just some girl with a weird name. I thought maybe I might miss it. Guess what? No. No, not even a little. You know what I do now? I eat. And I sleep. I throw sticks for Patrick. And then I do it all over again. That’s my plan, for the rest of my life. Eat, sleep, play with dog.”

“Have they got the shrinks all over you?” Diana asked.

“They tried,” Lana said with a curl of her lip. “I don’t see them coming back at me anytime soon.”

All three laughed at that. But Diana grew serious. “Honestly? I don’t mind the therapy much. I, uh . . . I don’t know. I just. It’s okay. For me, anyway.”