Page 101 of Tangled Up

Scrubbing my eyes, I nod, hating this. “Yes.” It’s quiet on the line, and I don’t know what she’s thinking. “We still have time. It’s serious, but not critical yet.”

“Can I talk to her?”

“Sure.” I tap the face. “You’re on speaker.”

“Carly? It’s Jessica. I’m here with Aunt Viv. She says hi and she needs a Carly hug.” Jessica pauses, and my throat aches when I hear the older woman’s voice in the background. “She says we have to have another movie night. She wants to hear us singing in the living room as she goes to sleep.”

Jessica starts singing loudly, “I’ll be guiding you…” I have no idea what it is until she hits the chorus, then I realize it’s “Magic” by Olivia Newton-John. When she hits the chorus, I join in, and my chest aches.

We sing through the chorus, and Jessica’s quiet. “Did it work?”

“Maybe.” I can’t give up hope. “I know she heard us.”

“Bring her home, Beck.” Her voice cracks, and my eyes heat. “Bring Carly back to us.”

I swallow the knot in my throat. “I will.”

We disconnect, and I lean forward, resting my face in my hands. I’m so tired, I’m having a hard time thinking of stories.

“Remember when Henry worked for that farmer, baling hay?” I lean forward in my chair, closing my eyes as exhaustion presses on my forehead. “We’d lie on our stomachs on the back of the flatbed trailer and watch the dogs chase us all the way back to the barn?”

Another hour.

“Remember when we swiped that old 500 Magnum handgun out of Mr. C’s barn to try and shoot it? You were too scared to pull the trigger. You were afraid it was going to knock you down.” Lowering my forehead to my hand, I try to remember why that old man had a pistol that big. “I think he said it was for hogs.”

Four hours left, and the pain twists my stomach so hard. I’m alone with her in this tiny room, watching her hover on the brink of crisis.

“I can’t take it, Carly.” Heat fills my eyes, and pain radiates from my throat to my stomach. We haven’t gotten this close only to lose everything. Stretching out my hand, I hold hers again, pulling it to my lips. “Please wake up. I can’t do this without you.”

Another thirty seconds, another minute. I thread her fingers with mine and kiss her palm. “I love you, Caroline.”

Emotion overwhelms me. The image I keep seeing in my mind is of her smiling, her long hair wrapping around her cheeks, the enormous sock monkey I won for her on her shoulders, and her pretty, pretty eyes glowing with so much love.

She’s so beautiful. Her smile is everything to me.

The strength inside me breaks, and I collapse, resting my forehead on the mattress beside her hand. Nothing makes sense if she’s not in my world.

It’s so quiet.

We’re so far from home.

Don’t make me pay for what I did…It’s a desperate plea to any higher power who might be listening.Don’t let this be the price of retribution.

Nothing stirs. I don’t feel a lightness or a shift in the air. The machines continue their persistent beeps. But something changes.

Like butterfly wings, her fingers flutter in my hand. My head pops up, and I stare at them laced with mine. She’s still, and I’m afraid I imagined it. It was so faint, so delicate.

My eyes are fixed on her hand when the sweetest voice touches my ears. “It was because we stole it.”

Her voice is the softest rasp, and I actually shake my head like it’s a movie. Rising quickly to my feet, I lean over her on the bed. “What did you say?”

Her mouth presses into a thin line as if she’s attempting to swallow, and her nose wrinkles as if she’s trying to think. I don’t want to release her hand, but I know she’s thirsty.

“The watermelon.” Her eyelids flutter and squint, then she opens them, blinks a few times, and looks around the room, her pretty eyes landing on mine. “Beck? Where am I?”

“Carly.” I sit on the side of her bed, holding her hand tighter. I want to gather her to me, but I have to be gentle. “You’re in a hospital. You were out for a little while.”

“But you were here.” Her brow furrows. “I had these dreams of us, when we were young… fishing, the dogs chasing us on the trailer.”

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