Page 113 of Keeping Sarah

I caught a quick glimpse of something vulnerable in her expression before it was gone. “Yes.”

“And that’s why you’ve always been withdrawn and standoffish,” I said, a part of me aching for what my sister had gone through, too. “Always having to be the dependable, reliable one between all of us. The caretaker. You never had the chance to be a kid.”

Her eyes glimmered with tears for that lost childhood. “No. Not really.”

“And all that time, you saw the ghosts, too?” Jenny asked.

Elizabeth exhaled a deep breath, then nodded. “I thought I was crazy, at first. So, I didn’t say anything. Then when Sarah got older and started talking about them, and it freaked Mom out, so—"

“You kept your mouth shut,” I finished for her, as so much clicked into place. “You have always had to be the grown-up. I am so sorry for that, Liz.”

Her lips tightened and her eyes flickered between me and Jenny. “It wasn’t your fault. It was Mom’s.”

Jenny gasped. “You can’t mean that. She had never—"

“Jen,” I said firmly, cutting her off to get her attention. “You were always Mom’s favorite, and I don’t think you ever saw her as she truly was. I bet none of us really did. But she was doing what she thought was right when it came to Elizabeth, and itwasn’tright. Not if Elizabeth felt like she had to be the parent of all of us.”

Jenny frowned, which was strange to see. Even when she cried, our sister always looked like she was seconds away from trying to smile. “I guess that’s true.”

Elizabeth stared out the ship’s windows, her expression pained. “God, I wish I could talk to mom about all of this. Yell at her. Cry and make up with her. I just…I wish I had some kind of closure on it all, you know?”

“I do. I know it well.”

Despite the hurtful things Elizabeth had said, our conversation had been oddly cathartic, probably for all of us for different reasons. And now, at least, I had a better understanding of why my oldest sister was so uptight and rigid. She’d carried her resentment for a very long time.

I sniffled and used my sleeve to wipe my nose,since tissues weren’t a thing in Hallaand what the heck was up with that?

When I saw we were landing near the temple, I felt a profound sense of relief for what lay ahead. Hopefully healing and that closure Elizabeth spoke about.

“So, why did you want us to come to this place, anyway?” Jenny asked, already bouncing back from our emotional discussion. “I mean, it’s not that I’m not interested—I want to learn everything there is to know about everything on this planet—but why here, specifically? You seemed to think it was a big deal.”

The ship parked, and I stood up and smiled at my sisters. “Come with me. Both of you. You’ll see.”

I led them into the temple, and they gaped at everything I had marveled at when I had first come there.

“It feels ancient in here,” Jenny said, her eyes wide as she glanced around the stone structure. “Like when I went to the Mayan temples in Mexico.”

“This one was actually built recently-ish,” I said, carefully leading the way down to the altar since the steps were Ladrian sized. “But I think it’s the relics in the walls that make it feel that way.”

“What’s this?” Elizabeth asked with a frown, as she pointed to the top of the altar. Then, she reached down toward the table. “Why does it look like liquid—"

“Don’t touch that!” I said in a panic, causing Elizabeth to jerk her hand back. “Not just yet. Since you’re both conduits, I’m not sure what would happen. But I want you two to stand over there while I…show you something.”

They shrugged and stood where I told them, a few feet away. Then, I closed my eyes and put my hands into the cold black liquid. It poured halfway up my arms, while I called to our mother in my mind.

At first, I smelled her cheap vanilla shampoo. It always smelled more like cookies than actual vanilla. I saw her in my mind. The way she walked. Her brown hair, so much like my own. I felt her presence, but before I could open my eyes to look, my sisters gasped loudly. Then, I opened them and smiled.

Mom. Smiling back at me.

“Say hi, Mom.” I tipped my head toward her other two daughters.

Her wispy image turned and her breath caught when she saw Elizabeth and Jenny there with me. “Oh my god.”

My siblings cried and shook wordlessly. Mom moved to hug them but paused. Ghosts could not touch the living without a lot of effort, and since she had come all the way from Earth, she was spent.

But I wasn’t, and right now, I was the one givingherstrength. “Go ahead and try,” I encouraged her.

She wrapped my sisters in her arms as they wept together. Eventually and without breaking the hug, Mom asked, “How?”

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