Bear

Chapter 14

“What a bitch,” Sam said, sitting on the closed toilet lid while Elena changed out of her work clothes in the bathroom. Elena took out her hair tie, combed her fingers through her hair, and gathered it again. She might’ve shrugged but her shoulders were raised already and Sam couldn’t tell. “Didn’t you think?”

“She seemed fine to me. Actually, I thought you were the one being kind of rude.”

Sam leaned back in consternation. Her spine, with the movement, hit the tank, the cold hard ceramic knocking her vertebrae. “No.”

Elena touched her hair one last time before putting her arms down. “Okay.”

“You should’ve heard our conversation before you got there.”

“If only,” Elena said. She turned on the faucet to wash her face, but put just her fingers under, watching the flow, not taking the next step. Without looking at Sam, she said, “Why was she here?”

Since the moment Sam had heard Elena’s voice outside, she knew she would have to answer this question, and yet. How to make sense of it? Sam had done what she knew her sister would not want her to do. She opened her mouth to explain the choice that now seemed inexplicable. “I called her.”

Elena bent forward, cupped the water, splashed her cheeks. Droplets spattered Sam.

“I know you have a lot on your mind. I figured I could take care of this one thing.”

Elena’s eyes were squeezed shut. She was rubbing soap into her cheeks. Her forehead was creased from the effort.

“I thought she would tell us how to get rid of it. She said it’s been here more times than we thought—that it bit open the wall next to the front door. It’s marked the house. I’m worried it’s dangerous.”

Elena straightened to face the mirror. Water beaded on her jaw and dripped off her chin. Sam passed her a towel from the rack. Elena said, “I hope you understand now that he isn’t.”

“That’s what she said.”

“You don’t believe her?”

“I don’t know.”

Elena shrugged at her reflection. “Didn’t you bring her here because you think she knows what she’s talking about?”

Sam scoffed. She took the damp towel from Elena. Saw, as she hung it up, Madeline’s lovely, undisturbed face, her small hands touching the side of their home. Sam’s embarrassment surfaced once more, prickling on her skin. “She was so weird,” Sam said. “Can’t you picture her in freshman bio? Eager for a dissection or whatever.”

Elena shook her head. Stripped of one layer of sweat and oil, her cheeks shone clean. “You’re picturing all sorts of things these days.” Before Sam could defend herself, Elena turned, rested her hip against the sink, and said, “Please don’t bring her here again.”

Sam shook her head back. A sister, an echo. “I won’t.”

“I don’t appreciate your keeping secrets from me.”

“It wasn’t— I was trying to help.”

Elena’s washed face was clear and sharp and pale. The thin blond hairs at her hairline were darkened by water. There had been moments, over the past week, where Sam felt distant from her sister, kept at a remove from Elena’s thrills, but here, now, Elena was entirely familiar. They were in this small room together and Elena was telling her what to do. Elena said, “What’s going on here is not dangerous. It’s magical. It’s the best thing that has ever happened to us.”