Page 29 of Big Witch Energy

“It was hardly a motor vehicle,” Caroline said.

“And yet, we’re still going to count it,” Edison said, carefully sliding in for his own half hug, pressing his shoulder to her less-injured side.

Caroline absently patted his arm. “Aw, we hug now?”

“Three near-death experiences and you get a hug for free,” Edison told her.

When she frowned, he added, “I’m counting the thing with the ceiling”—he paused and glanced up at Ben—“squirrel.”

Caroline pursed her lips. “Fair.”

“You have fifteen minutes.” Ben leveled a stern look at Riley and Alice. “Try not to wear her out too much.”

“Plover is beside himself. He really resents that he can’t come visit too. And he sends these.” Riley placed a vase of pansies in a rainbow of colors on the little hospital table. And a box of chamomile tea.

“We have our own tea here,” Ben noted as he checked the IV bag hanging over Caroline’s head. He made some adjustment, and Caroline swore she could feel the warmth of something being released into the space near the line in her arm.

“Yes, but pansies mean ‘You occupy my thoughts,’” Riley said, sniffing.

“And chamomile means ‘energy in adversity,’ which is Plover’s way of saying ‘Don’t let the bastards get you down.’” Caroline added, grinning loopily. Yep, something had definitely been released into her arm.

“Yeah, Starfall Blooms did not stock fresh chamomile flowers for emergency one-hour deliveries,” Riley said, her face finally relaxing enough to smile. “Weird. Plover wanted me to add eucalyptus for protection, but I thought that would be a little smell-forward for an enclosed medical space.”

“Thank you, that was considerate,” Ben said, nodding.

But apparently, Caroline’s mouth wasn’t empty yet, because she was still talking. “Even though Plover would never curse and neither one of us would ever want to imply that Mina is a bastard. She’s a nice kid.”

Everybody seemed to be staring at her.

“Have I mentioned I’m on drugs?” Caroline asked.

Ben had a confused look on his face. Oh, no, did she not say what she thought she did? His lips twitched slightly as he wrote something on his clipboard. “Got it.”

She smiled. “Tell Plover thank you for me.”

“I will,” Riley said, nodding toward a large arrangement of sunflowers Edison placed on the table beside the pansies. She didn’t sound super pleased about it, to be honest. “Margaret came by earlier and left you those.”

“Twelve minutes,” Ben told them, his tone serious as he closed the door behind him.

For one of those minutes, the three visitors just sat there quietly. Caroline realized the depth of how badly she’d scared her friends and was struck with a wave of guilt, knowing the strain she’d put on them, and then, no small amount of gratitude that she had people in her life to worry about her like that.

Outside her door, she heard Ben ask someone, “Who’s Plover? I’ve lived on this island my entire life and I’ve never met a Plover.”

There was a note of jealousy in his voice, and Caroline didn’t want to process the shame she felt at being happy about that.

Finally, Riley said, “I had to force your mom out of here, to take care of poor Mina. It got…very loud. I was sort of shocked it didn’t wake you from your mini-coma.”

Caroline winced. Margaret had been right about Riley being skittish around her, but not for the reasons Edison’s assistant suspected. With all the issues with her own mother, Riley didn’t have a lot of room in her life for warm, friendly grandmotherly types. It reminded Riley of everything she didn’t have, and wouldn’t ever have, now that Ellen Denton had definitively moved on to the next plane. Riley was much more comfortable with no-nonsense, withholding women like Gert Wilton. It was, by some cruel trick of fate, Riley’s wheelhouse.

“Sorry about that. And it was more than a mini-coma. I had… I think it was a vision. I was another woman. I don’t know her name or who she was, but I was standing at the top of Vixen’s Fall. And someone ran out of the shadows and shoved me into the water. I think she knew who pushed her, but I didn’t see who it was. And I died. I don’t know if I drowned or died from the impact with the water or even a rock, maybe, but I was dead. And I died with a lot of regret.”

“Do you think it was a ghost reaching out to you?” Riley asked, frowning. “Seems sort of weird, attacking you with a moped to do it.”

Caroline shook her head. “She felt a lot older than the moped, so I doubt it was attached to it.”

“Are you sure it’s not just some dream you had because you spent the better part of an hour staring at my sketch of Vixen’s Fall?” Riley asked, frowning. “Your brain’s way of processing the trauma?”

Caroline considered that for as long as the drugs would allow. “It could be the head injury talking, but it didn’t feel like a dream.”

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