Page 113 of A Better World

“We’re leaving tonight,” Linda said. “Keep your room warm.”

“Be careful,” Gal told her.

“You too. I spoke to the people in Cleveland. They think the medicine’s been wrong and that you’ll see an improvement. Not everychild responds, but a lot of them do. There’s a solid chance. They know your history, about the house fire, so I don’t know what’ll happen there. My guess is you’ll be in some trouble with whatever police have jurisdiction. I’m sorry. I know it may be overcautious, but I also instructed Danny and his mother-in-law not to leave you alone with Katie or Sebbie.”

“I don’t care if I get tarred and feathered so long as I can smooch on them this whole drive,” Gal said.

Despite her frailty, Gal hugged Linda hard. Then she hugged Josie. “Your mom’s fucking crazy,” she said, which Linda understood to be the highest of compliments. And then, suddenly, Linda was shaking Danny’s hand, touching her hand to Carlos’s forehead, and wishing them all the best. Then, the truck was gone.

They were back at 9 Sunset Heights by midmorning. Russell and Hip had left for work and school. “I think we should pack up,” Linda said. So, they did. Josie packed Hip’s things, too, and Linda figured what the hell, and packed a bag for Russell.

At first, she felt good. So did Josie. They’d done the right thing. Hopefully, Hip and Russell would believe them and come along. They’d get out before the Winter Festival and call this whole experience finished. But the hours passed. Neither Hip nor Russell answered their devices, and the bags stayed packed with no one to claim them.

Long past dark, Russell walked through the back door. He wore the disturbing rictus smile she’d come to associate with his PV persona. The longer they stayed there, the more it chafed, this persona, but he insisted on wearing it.

“What happened?” she asked.

“That’s my question,” he said.

The two of them passed the packed suitcases and took opposite seats at the formal dining room table. Josie followed.

“I need to talk to your mother alone,” Russell said.

Josie shot Linda a nervous glance, retreated. Linda didn’t imagine she’d retreated far.

Succinctly as she was able, Linda described escaping with the children and delivering them to Gal. They’d forgotten to turn on the overhead lights, so the room was dark.

“They told me. The whole board called me in once they found out. I thought they were joking, Linnie,” Russell said.

“I had to.”

“You gave those kids to a psychotic.”

“It’s not like that.”

Tears of indignation filled Russell’s eyes. “Jack explained everything. They were trying to save those kids. They were working on their own clinical trial. They were going to recommend best practices as soon as the patent expires. By pulling them out, you signed their death warrants.”

Emotions flooded Linda. None were confusion. “You believe them and not me. But all they do is lie.”

Russell surveyed the room, its nice furniture, its hand-painted wallpaper, its ribbon candy. He wasn’t hearing her. He was running dialogue from some imaginary conversation with an imaginary Linda that had already happened. “It’s a mess, but I fixed it. I had to beg,” he said, his voice going distant and soft. “I got down on my knees in front of Jack Lust. I was literally on my knees. For you.”

“I’m sorry,” she said, but she wasn’t. It’s just something you say, when you’re accused of something bad. An automatic response, as thoughtless as a heartbeat.

“We cut a deal. I’ll finish the next case and win it for them, but I won’t pass the first-year review. We’ll leave then. So long as it’s the full year, Jack and Lloyd promised to give our deposit back. We need that money. That means you play nice. We go to every festival, we follow every rule, we stop asking questions and sneaking around and breaking into places we don’t belong. Even your boss, Chernin, was there. He likes you. But he voted to kick you out. He wants you gone tonight.”

“I want that, too,” she said.

“If we leave now, with nothing, we won’t make it. People are dying out there.”

Dying. The word was a kind of warble in her chest, expanding and collapsing. “There’s a halfway house in PVE. I have a room for us. I’m your wife and I’m telling you we should go. Forget the deposit. Let’s cut our losses.”

Russell looked over. He was talking to her, but not really. He wasn’t seeing her. “We can still win. Unpack those bags. No one’s leaving.”

The thing about epiphanies, they don’t always lead to change. Sometimes you have them, and know they’re true, then forget about them because you’re not ready. In her darkest moments, she’d wondered whether she ought to have done everything in secret. Lied to the kids and fled with them, leaving Russell on his own. But epiphanies are easy to ignore. You think:Nothing’s an emergency. It can’t possibly be that bad. I’ll deal with that later when I have a cooler head. For now, I’ll pretend everything’s fine.

She knocked on Josie’s door. “We’re going.”

They packed all the suitcases into the car. From the locator on his device, Linda knew where to find her son. She drove to the Bennett house. Instead of a servant, Daniella came to the door, smiling carnivorous and shit-eating.

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