Pieces of Hope (39 page)

“Only on
Thursdays,” Ethan replied with a tight smile. “But it’s not mandatory.” We were
still half-sitting, half-leaning in the grass. Sitting up straighter, Ethan
slipped his arm around my waist. I took it as a protective measure, rather than
a jealous one. “What’s with the surprise visit?” Ethan asked, speaking
not-so-pleasantly through his teeth now. “Can’t find enough former friends to
torture—other than Hope, I mean?”

“Last
time I saw Hope,” Daniel countered, “I wouldn’t exactly call it torture.”

“Hey, boys
. . .” My chuckle sounded a little hysterical. “Play nice.”

“I don’t
believe Hope wants you here,
Danielle
,”
Ethan said more forcefully. The air rushed into my lungs and I started to cough.
Ethan patted me on my back, then helped me to my feet. I still wasn’t breathing
steadily, worried that Daniel was going to spill the morally reprehensible truth
to Ethan. Not now! I kept thinking. For God’s sake, not now!

“Is that
true, my love?” Daniel begged sweetly. “Do you want me to go?”

I
couldn’t bear to look him in the eye. It was a given that he was smirking, and
his casual use of ‘my love’ in front of Ethan made my stomach knot. I scuffed a
sneaker across the ground and nodded.
 

I could
feel his eyes on me. “Did you like my present?” Daniel asked.

The
portrait? “Yeah, sure, nice,” I muttered at my shoe.

“You
missed your birthday,” he went on. “November twenty-second—one-half—do you
remember? Did
Ephraim
mention you’d
missed it?”

Ethan, I
wanted to say. His name is Ethan. But, of course, he knew that already. It was
nauseating the way Daniel kept bringing up the past in front of Ethan. When we
were together, I told him that my birthday in fractions reduced to one-half.
When he told me that his was the ninth of March (one-third), I teased that he
wasn’t quite my perfect half. Only two halves could make a whole, I’d told him.

“I
missed my birthday?” It was surprising how disappointed I felt.

“I
planned to tell you later,” Ethan muttered under his breath. “I didn’t dream of
you that day. I guess you weren’t quite . . . yourself.” I’d bet it was that
trip to rescue Daniel that caused me to miss my birthday. Yet another reason to
choke him later.
 

“Better
luck next year.” Daniel couldn’t have sounded more sarcastic. I stared a hole
into him, imagining those earlier laser beams zeroing in on his smiling eyes.

“Okay, I
get it,” he chuckled. “Three’s a crowd.” He took a step then turned back to
Ethan. “Unless, of course,
Enid
would rather do the honors . . .”

Ethan
squeezed me tighter. “I’m not going anywhere. Neither is Hope.”
 

“Are you
sure about that?” Daniel said smugly.

And during
the split second where I’d glanced at Ethan then back at Daniel—and without
ever seeing him draw back a shortcut or vanish into vapor—Daniel was gone. And
just like that, so went the tension, like someone had taken a vacuum and sucked
it from the air.

I
cleared my throat. “Well, that was—” Horrible. Gut-wrenching. Guilt-inducing.

“Awkward,”
Ethan finished.

“
Mmm
, exactly what I was thinking,” I mumbled, nibbling on a
fingernail.
        

Ethan
took my hand and led me back to Erratic Rock. It felt cool and smooth to the
touch. We sat down facing one another on the flat slab. Though it was
disappointing that only our knees were touching, Ethan seemed to have a reason
for it. For several unspoken reasons, I would have preferred as little physical
separation as possible.

“I love this
big old rock,” I blurted, thankful for a chance to change the subject. “I have
a ridiculous affinity for rocks of all kinds,” I said. “I thought long and hard
about being a geologist instead of a vet. But thanks to my dad, veterinarian
won out in the long run.”

“Yeah, I
was counting on that.” He pulled out a small emerald green box from his pocket
and placed it between us.

“You
were counting on me being a veterinarian? Is there a small dog in there?”

He
laughed, his pleasant mood—and his pale violet hue—returning. “Open it.”

I
grinned, then gave myself a slight mental pinch to focus. His glow was distracting
me. “I can’t believe I missed my birthday!” My eighteenth! In two years, I’d no
longer be a teenager. Why did twenty sounded so old? And for that matter, how
many days had I been in a coma? If the accident was November twelfth, and I’d
missed my birthday—I ticked off the days on my fingers.

“Open
it,” Ethan urged, pushing the box closer.

Although
I usually thought birthdays and holidays were overrated—possibly a scam by the
Hallmark people to sell more junk—I beamed at him, happy to see him happy
again.

           
“You must have checked my chart at the hospital,” I
announced, still grinning.

“Didn’t
have to . . .” Ethan raised his eyebrows. “Your family threw a bedside party
for you that day. You wore a pointy hat.” I grimaced. It sounded perfectly depressing—my
family gathering around my limp body, blowing out my candles, wishing me
another year to grow on. Ethan shrugged. “What can I say? It was Brody’s idea.”

Fumbling
with the velvet box in the palm of my hand, I flipped it open and gasped. It
was like nothing I’d ever seen before. I reached for the cord, but my fingers
were clumsy so I grabbed at the round, craggy pendant suspended from the
velvety cord.

“I love
it! I’ve never seen anything like it,” I cried. “What is it exactly?”

“It’s a
necklace,” Ethan replied, laughing. I sent him a look, which only made him
laugh harder.

“What’s
it made of?” Suspended from a thin black cord, the pendant had an uneven edge.
Various shades of green and purple shimmered in the sunlight as I twisted it
back and forth. It was the most beautiful gift I’d ever received.
    

“Here,
let me put it on you.” He slipped the necklace from the box. His long fingers
easily undid the clasp, and I felt the cold metal as it touched my neck. The
glistening stone landed just beneath my collarbone.

“How
does it look?” I asked, fingering the stone.

“Beautiful,”
he said. “Just as I imagined.” I noticed as he spoke he wasn’t looking at the
necklace, only at my face.

I had no
words. Speech was so overrated.

“The
pendant is made from a hollow rock that’s lined with crystals. Once they slice
it thin and flat, you see all those amazing colors. It’s called a geode.” His
voice dipped deeper, softer. “I wanted you to have something that would never
let you forget me—something you would love from the moment you saw it. And for the
girl who loves to climb rocks, nothing else would do.” Ethan tapped the stone.

“Mom and
I used to have a girl’s day out on my birthday,” I sighed, a sudden rush of
sentiment causing me to think of her. “In truth, it was a tradition I never got
used to. At her insistence, we’d get pedicures, then have lunch at a tearoom in
town, ordering three deserts between us. It was always just Mom and me. Not
even Claire was invited.”

“Maybe next
year I can take you there . . .”

I
returned to the present moment, still rubbing the geode. “Yeah, I’d love that.”

Ethan
reached up to brush back my hair, allowing his hand to linger on my cheek. With
his other arm, he pulled me closer. We were no longer two separate pieces. I
couldn’t tell where he ended and I began. My half melded with his half.

“By the
way, mine’s April eighth,” he breathed near my lips. “Looks like I’m your other
half . . .” he said. Then he kissed me.

It was
and wasn’t like all my other kisses. Intense—yes. Passionate enough to erase
the troubling questions in my mind . . . Questions about what the future held
for us, and the myriad of choices that loomed before me . . . But somehow different,
too. He seemed to have a purpose in mind. His lips lingered on mine—fierce then
tender, patient then urgent, crazy then gentle. I could feel his strong will,
urging me to . . .

Just.
Wake. Up.
 

When his
lips left mine, the words came rushing out. “I need to tell you something. I
should have told you sooner. Something bad happened, Ethan. It’s about
Da
—”
            

But
before I could finish, darkness swallowed me up. Into the emptiness, I groaned.
I couldn’t help wondering about Ethan’s sudden untimely awakening. There was
usually a fair warning of sorts—a fading—not an abrupt ending. For some reason,
Daniel’s sarcastic taunt came back, “Are you sure about that?” He’d uttered it
in response to Ethan’s comment that he wasn’t leaving, Daniel was. I stopped. Had
Daniel . . . ? No, he couldn’t have . . . Had he returned to the living realm
and shook Ethan awake? Could he do that?

I knew
my answer when I heard his mocking laughter resonating in my head.

Fuming,
I wished myself back to the Station. This was going to take several slices of
pie to calm me down. And he had better not intercept me! He had better
not!
          

19
Reminders

Of all the
things to do, we played cards.

After
devouring three pieces of cheesecake—plain, cherry, then blueberry—I felt much
calmer. We sat at our usual booth where
Rin
had me boxed-in
at the corner. Through the windows, I could see the spotless yellow-bricked street;
the businesses that lined it—all of them in exquisite old-fashioned detail, and
always closed. Last but not least, the perpetual
purpley
-blue
horizon. This place made it easier to forgive the stupidity of Daniel’s nonsense,
and easier to forget the role that I played in it—though it killed me to admit
that.
 

Creesie
and Gus sat across from us, and Charlotte had pulled up an extra chair on the
end. No one asked what had happened since I’d last seen them. No one pressured
me about going back to my body. And no one asked anything about my necklace,
although I had taken the time to pull it from under my collar so everyone could
see it. Even Cat was on her best behavior.
 
If I hadn’t been on such a sugar high (and
looking forward to my next visit with Ethan) it might have occurred to me that
this was a little strange. But in the midst of cake, cards, and laugh-out-loud
stories from Gus, little else registered.

Charlotte was nearly as
good at rummy as Sophie was at Monopoly, so we switched to poker instead. Dad
ran a game with his old college buddies every Wednesday evening, and I’d
watched and played hands often enough to be considered just slightly dangerous.

But several
hands into it, Charlotte
started winning at penny poker as easily as she had at rummy. I was ready to
throw in the towel, my shirt, my final ten cents, when Charlotte suddenly excused herself without any
explanation. She was in such high spirits, though, I knew it had to be a visit
with her mother.

“I’ll
see you soon,” she giggled in her little-girl voice.
Creesie
smiled back, laying out a full flush as Charlotte
fled into the crowd.

After
numerous groans from the four remaining players, we switched to
Go Fish
. At last, a game I could win at!
It did occur to me that they might be letting me win. Given their mind-reading
abilities, they could certainly see my cards—well, everyone’s cards—but I was too
engrossed in winning to think too much about it.

Creesie
glanced at the clock on the wall, the one without
any hands.

“Time to
go,” she said. “Let’s not dilly-dally.” Her announcement was so abrupt that
everyone was out of the booth before I had a chance to move.

“Why are
you still sitting there?”
Rin
asked me in a rush. She
had her hands on her hips, and was standing next to the booth waiting for me. I
was scarcely on my feet before she had taken me by the elbow and whisked me
through the Station,
Creesie
and Gus in the lead.
Seconds later, she yanked me through the wall of glass and dragged me up the
three steps of the shiny, flat-nosed bus.

“Is
there a fire?” I panted. “Where are we going?” She didn’t answer me, but just
as we disappeared, her hand in mine, I thought I heard someone mention a party.

Before
us sprawled an impressive home, with a bleached-blond door and plenty of lush
landscaping. The scent of salt hung in the air—I tasted it on my lips—and I
could hear waves crashing somewhere close. A steady breeze was blowing and a
full moon hung in the evening sky. Unbridled excitement filled the air like too
much static electricity. It emanated off of
Rin
, Gus,
and
Creesie
in waves, just like the ones I heard
nearby.

“Where
are we?” I asked, to no one in particular. I tried to place the house. “Did one
of you say something about a party?”

A fresh
ocean breeze lifted my hair. Something caught my eye, and as I looked to my
right, I saw that
Rin
had changed into a shimmery
silver dress, very modern, her hair pulled up in a loose chignon. Glancing over
my shoulder, I did a double-take.
Creesie
and Gus had
slipped into equally striking attire. Gus, in a retro-suit and skinny tie. And
Creesie
, in a fitted fifties stunner and sky-high heels.
Rin
, pushing past me to ring the doorbell, nearly knocked
me over into a plump bush with tiny flowers. Chimes rang. I was still gawking
at the three of them when someone else spoke.

“About
time the guest of honor arrived . . .” The deep voice was unmistakable. My
heart skipped several beats when I saw him, now standing in the open doorway. “We’ve
been waiting for you.” Ethan was wearing black slacks and an expensively
tailored shirt that was the same shade that he glowed. Guessing he had chosen
it for me, I smiled. When I glanced down and saw that his feet were bare, my unease
at being underdressed faded away.