Lightning Lessons #3
Sarah wasn’t much better. Even though the girls were similar ages, Sarah appeared as if she had lost her little duckling, always checking her phone.
She showed me more than once how often the two of them sent texts.
It seemed they checked in on one another regularly throughout the day.
And I often found Sarah lounging on her bed, the door to her room open, or out in the gazebo, locked in conversation with her best friend.
At first, Blue sounded good over the phone.
Her mom was indeed sober. The beginning of our senior year went without a hitch.
However, soon Sebastian was concerned. He claimed Blue was starting to sound different.
Sarah was claiming the same. Both were concerned someone was possibly reading Blue’s texts, so they convinced her to start a Snapchat account where messages and pics were deleted by the app within a certain number of seconds after sending.
That’s how they found out about Blue returning to ‘some church’.
During school hours, Blue was expressing how this church frowned upon so many things she had become accustomed to again. Like a cellphone. Television…
My stomach did flips even though my mind wasn’t detecting a problem. The man who had hurt Blue was still in prison. The pastor, her father, would keep her safe. Right?
On my cell, I called Tallulah one night. Maybe to settle growing nerves. She was elated to hear from me and tell me all about college. She loved it. Was finding like-minded people and believers. Her voice eased me, yet she still asked, “So, what is Nine worried about?”
Smirking, I asked, “That obvious?”
“Your loyalty is endless. Who’s in trouble?”
Surrendering, I did my best to inform her without betraying Blue. Patiently, Tallulah listened until reminding me, “Noma helped you have the strongest instincts. I’m sure she would tell you to listen to them, trust those who mean you well.”
Rolling to my back on the bed, I sighed. “Spill the beans to Dale.”
“Better than letting them overcook in a scalding pot.”
It was quiet before I teased, “Want to marry me someday?”
Her laughter echoed through the phone, and with a sigh, she responded, “If you looked at me like you do water, I would, Nine.”
What an amazing spirit she was, Tallulah.
I was just falling asleep when the actual house phone rang. I leaned over the edge of my bed to put an ear closer to the vent. Immediately, I heard Dale’s alarmed voice. “What?” There was a long pause. “When? … What hospital?”
My body sat up. My heart began to pound.
Then I rushed out of bed, dropping to my knees to not miss a word. “Emergency room? … Was he released from prison? … What do you mean Blue isn’t talking?”
Of their own accord, my bare feet were racing down the stairs and barging into Seb’s bedroom. I grabbed his shoulders, whispering through my gasping lungs, “Get up! Get up!”
Barely blinking away sleep, Seb was rising from bed, grabbing his glasses from a nightstand. “Wh-what is it?”
Caleb was also standing, looking around the room as if under attack. “Johnny?”
I spoke fast and hard. “It’s Blue. A call. Dale on phone. ER—”
“Wh-what?” shrieked Blue’s boyfriend in horror before I covered his mouth, hushing him.
Caleb slipped on jeans and was out the door, saying, “I’ll get Sarah.”
I thought it was him already returning when a shadow appeared in the doorway.
Fuck.
It was Dale, in only pajama pants and a frown. He was… stone. “Those damn vents.”
Teetering between vomiting and crying, I looked at him sideways. “How bad?”
He watched me in a manner as if he was hoping I was listening to all that couldn’t be said. Then, he exhaled, so long and heavy, the weight floated to me like a slithering eel from the depths of depravity.
Somewhere deep inside me, a summoning happened.
A shift. A click into a different gear. It was like waking a side of me that had fallen to sleep in the safety of his home.
But the sinister feel oozing off of him triggered a natural state of my own.
His walls—our walls—had been penetrated, and neither of us would stand for it.
Welcoming the sensation, I almost licked my lips because I could already taste the revenge to come.
For a split second, Dale delivered a smirk only the deranged could appreciate. Then, heat radiated from him as he told me, “She was found in a field. Tonight.”
My deep inhale wasn’t serene. It was a dark promise I needed Dale to hear…
Our locked stare didn’t break as fosters joined him in the hallway, all asking questions at once.
Not moving a tense muscle, Dale answered them, but was telling me something else. “We will know in the morning—”
“What?” shrieked Sarah from behind him. “We need to know now!”
Harmony appeared in a robe, hugging Sarah in the hallway. “Blue is safe with Kristen. We’ll go to the hospital first thing.”
Ignoring everyone and their continuing questions, Dale asked me, “Do you know who did this?”
I had warned him. And he knew it. Only problem was, neither of us knew the cause of danger.
Flames from my matching anger seemed to reach out and greet his. “No.” I stared so he understood me. But I will find out.
Dale had responsibilities. He had young souls to raise. He had to walk a line I was about to dance all over, while smiling like the devil himself.
After a curt nod that said what only I could hear, Dale proclaimed to the rest, “Visiting hours are from nine to six,” still with eyes locked to mine.
I didn’t miss how he said nine with disdain. That was too long to wait for answers.
That’s why I agreed, “Okay. Nine it is.”
Dale didn’t move as the fosters now turned on me, arguing. He didn’t care what they had to say. It was me he was counting on.
I yelled over all the voices, “The man said tomorrow!”
Mouths closed, but if Seb had a knife, he might have gutted me.
As if the spokesman for the Misfits, I declared to Dale, “We will be in the car at eight-thirty.” I was hoping he understood the ‘earlier than when we should be’ part.
Another curt nod from Dale. “Good.”
Bare shoulders, appearing so wide and stout, turned away, guiding his wife back down the stairs. I followed, staying at the top, watching, waiting for them to disappear back to their bedroom.
Once they were out of sight, I turned to face all the glares. A part of me wanted to lecture my Misfits for doubting me, but there was no time. I growled, “Be at Bertha in fifteen.”
Seb’s shoulders caved as he whispered, “Thank G-God.”
I pushed past them. “Let’s get to Blue.”
1 ? “No More Tears” — Distant Cowboy
2 ? “Hanging On” — Ellie Goulding