Broken Glass (The Mirror Sisters 2)

I hesitated. Despite what our psychiatric nurse advised, I still thought it was better if I didn’t show too much enthusiasm too soon. “I don’t care,” I said. “Food is the least important thing.” I really wanted Chinese.

“Okay. I’ll think of something.”

“Did you call the police to see what’s happening?”

“Can’t keep calling them too often, Haylee. Best to let them do their work. They’ll call us the moment they get a lead or something.”

“I doubt that she did, but maybe Kaylee said something to one of our friends that will give them some sort of clue when they interview them,” I told him. “I might invite someone over to see what others out there know.”

“I don’t think that’s wise just yet,” he said. “Let’s wait until we get your mother settled down a bit more, okay?”

“Okay. I’ll just talk to them on the phone.”

He left.

As if it had heard me speak, my phone lit up. I had forgotten that I had turned off the ringer. From the caller ID, I saw that it was Sarah Morgan, a girl whose family had moved here just three months ago. This was her first change of school and the first time she had to find new friends. The principal had assigned Kaylee to be her “big sister” and show her around, introduce her to other girls in the class, and help her adjust. Mother had been planning to complain about that, to call the principal and ask her why she didn’t assign both of us to be Sarah’s big sisters, but I had talked her out of it because I really didn’t want to be burdened with being big sister to anyone. To get Mother to calm down about it, I had told her it didn’t matter. Whatever Kaylee did with her, I would be doing anyway.

“It would be impossible, after all, to hang out with one of us and not the other, right?” I’d said.

Mother had accepted that. Nevertheless, Kaylee did most of the big-sister nonsense.

Actually, I thought they were made for each other. Sarah was a meek, doll-like girl with light-brown eyes that might as well be exclamation points. She was always shocked by anything I said, especially if it was about any of the boys in our school. Although she said her family wasn’t particularly religious, her parents had sent her and her younger brother, Ruben, to a private school outside of Pittsburgh called Sacred Hills. She had to wear a school uniform there. Apparently, our school had a good enough reputation for her parents not to seek out another private one.

When I had first met her, I’d felt a little like Satan in the Garden of Eden. I couldn’t believe how innocent and naive she was, and I had enjoyed destroying that. Kaylee had tried to shield her from being “corrupted” too quickly, as she told me, but it wasn’t long before I had her dressing sexier, wearing some makeup, and cursing in the girls’ room with the rest of us. Her previous boyfriends at her old school sounded more like cut-out dolls.

“Stop teasing her,” Kaylee would tell me, or, “No, Chuck Benson is not the right boyfriend for her. Don’t encourage him or her.”

However, I had gotten her to go on a date with Chuck to a party at Marsha Bowman’s house. It had been her first experience with real drinking. Kaylee had had a hard time getting her sobered up enough to go home and blamed it all on me, of course, and not Chuck, because, she’d said, “He doesn’t know any better, but you do!”

My goody-goody sister, always lecturing me. How goody-goody was she right now? I wondered as I picked up the receiver.

In as dead a voice as I could create, I said, “Haylee Fitzgerald.”

“Oh, Haylee,” Sarah began. “I’ve been praying for Kaylee all day.”

“Pray for us all,” I said.

“I have, I have. How are you? I’m so sorry. How are you? Your mother must be so sick with worry. My parents wanted me to tell you how sorry they are, too.”

“No one can even begin to understand what we’re going through unless they’ve lived through something similar themselves,” I said. I remembered that line from a movie I had seen recently. I felt like a dairy farmer. Milk it, I thought. Every little bit helps.

“I know. Any news about her?”

“No,” I said. “I’m sorry. I just can’t talk anymore without crying. Tell everyone thanks.”

I heard her start to cry.

“Good-bye, good-bye,” I said, and hung up. For a moment, I actually did feel bad. I heard a knock on my partially opened door. Was Daddy back?

“Sorry to bother you,” Mrs. Lofter said, keeping her gaze down. I was still wrapped in a towel. “But your mother’s asking for you.”

“For me? She asked for me specifically?”

Mrs. Lofter looked so surprised that it was nearly comical. “Why is that so unusual?”

“Isn’t she still quite mixed up? I mean, she did forget that Kaylee’s been abducted, you know. That was part of why my father called you, wasn’t it? I thought she would be asking for us both.”

“She goes in and out for now,” she said. “It’s the mind’s defense mechanism to deny the painful reality. Eventually, it will pass.” There was that hateful word again, eventually.