Rosebush (19 page)

Black and white spots flashed in front of my eyes and there was a roaring in my ears and my body was convulsed in a spasm of agony as though my skeleton was trying to crawl out. I heard screams, my screams, and I felt a prick on my arm.

Then I was swimming, swimming through the brown water, and someone was yelling,
Get out of the way, you jealous bitch,
and I swam to the top and broke through the surface and—

Suddenly everything was fine. My body relaxed. My eyes cleared. My ears stopped ringing.

Everything went back to normal. Even better than normal.

Loretta leaned over me. “We had to knock you out there for a moment. How are you feeling?”

“Great,” I said, and meant it.

But that wasn’t true of Langley. The color had drained from her face and she was trembling, slumped in a chair in the corner as though trying to make herself as small as possible. “My God, I’m so sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean to hurt you. I didn’t mean to hurt her.”

Loretta gave her a nice smile. “Don’t worry. Just an accident with the IV line. No permanent damage done.”

Langley’s head was buried in her hands. “I feel awful.”

I beamed at her. I didn’t know what Loretta had given me, but I felt great. “I’m fine. Nothing wrong. And now I know how much I need that IV.”

Langley looked at me from between her fingers. “Yeah, I guess you do.”

Never one to miss a party, my mother rushed in just then, in a cloud of Coco Chanel and questions. “What was that? What happened?” Joe followed her.

“Just a little mishap, nothing to worry about,” Loretta assured them.

“Are you certain?” my mother demanded. “Jane looks pale as a ghost.”

“Not a ghost yet, Mother,” I told her.

“That’s not funny,” she snapped.

I looked behind her. “Where’s Annie?”

“She’s at the Monteros’ for the day playing with Dora.” Dora was Ollie’s younger sister. Turning, my mother saw Langley for the first time. “Langley, darling, so good to see you here. How are your grandparents?”

Since Langley’s grandparents were two of the most socially prominent people in the area, it was important to ask this, even with a daughter paralyzed in the hospital. One couldn’t let a little thing like near death interfere with one’s manners.

“They’re doing as well as can be expected, and they both send Jane their best wishes.”

“Please thank them for us. It really means the world to us.”

“Have there been any new developments?” Langley asked.

“The police have credible evidence that it was the robbers who held up the convenience store. They hit Jane when they were speeding away.”

“What does ‘credible evidence’ mean?” I asked.

“A vehicle matching the description of the robbers’ was sighted in the vicinity of the ten fifty-seven. That’s a hit-and-run in the ten code the police use,” my mother explained like she’d just graduated from the police academy. “And the striations on the skid marks are a possible match to the getaway vehicle.”

“Ten four, Officer Rosalind,” I said.

Her lips got thin, but she ignored my snarky tone and addressed Langley instead. “We’re holding a news conference about it in a few minutes to try to get information about the robbers’ whereabouts, if you’d like to stay.”

“So that means they’ll catch whoever did this,” Langley said. “That’s great news.”

My mother nodded. “What it means is that Jane is a casualty of the rising crime rate in this area. A symbol of what is at stake for us all.”

If I could have clapped, I would have. “That line’s a winner,” I told my mother. “I hope you’re planning to use it on TV.”

“This constant negativity and sarcasm is so—” She stopped talking, and if I hadn’t known her better, I might have thought she was about to cry.

But I did know her better. “You can’t imagine how hard it is for me to maintain,” I said. Which was true. I wasn’t like this with anyone but my mother. For the first time, as I stared at the wrinkle across her forehead, I wondered why.

She sighed and reached tentatively for my hand. “Don’t you see, darling, it means this can all be over soon.”

Oh yes, that was why. I didn’t know what she meant by “all” or “be over,” but I did know that one of us was still completely paralyzed. And would be no matter how many convenience store robbers she caught. It was more evidence of how she refused to see me as I really was. Refused to see the person in front of her, now or ever.

Langley stood up from the chair she’d been sitting on, sparing me from having to think up an appropriate retort. “I wish I could stay for the press conference, but I have to be getting home. My grandfather.”

“Of course, dear. Thank you for coming and cheering up our poor girl.”

“My pleasure.”

“You see, Mother. Everyone thinks I’m a pleasure to be with but you.”

Langley kissed me on the forehead, giving me a whiff of grapefruit. “Goodbye, jelly bean. I’ll try to come by again later.”

“Take care of Popo. That’s more important.” I meant it. She was so sweet to spend time with me when her own life was so rocky. That was what Langley was like—always ready to be strong for you, no matter how much she needed her strength herself.

My mother followed her out the door, but Joe lingered behind, hovering near the foot of my bed. He coughed once, cleared his throat. “Jane, I don’t understand why you’re so angry at your mother, but I want to be sure you know that she is really upset about this.”

“She doesn’t seem to be. She seems to be having the time of her life.” My voice sounded petty and small, but I didn’t care.

“That’s your mom. She’s a trooper.”

“How would you know? You’ve only been in her life a year. How can you tell what she’s like?”

Joe huddled with his hands in his pockets, seeming sort of sheepish. “I love her and I admire her, so I’ve made a special study of her. I just—I just want you to know that everything she’s doing, she’s doing because she cares.”

“All my mother cares about is how things look for her press conferences.”

He sucked in breath through his mouth as though I’d slapped him. “That’s not fair. And I’m pretty sure you know it.”

“Fine. Thank you for delivering that message.”

He looked like he was going to say something else, then shrugged to himself and left. I kept my eyes on my flowers and balloons and the get-well bear on the windowsill. Those were from people who actually cared. People who
liked
me for who I was, not some imaginary perfect daughter I
should
have been.

The phone next to my bed started to ring. Maybe it was David again. Just the thought gave me tingles all over, and without thinking about it, I reached out and picked it up.

“Hello?”

“How are you today, Jane?” a voice that wasn’t David asked. I didn’t recognize it, but I didn’t care because as it spoke, I realized I’d just regained use of my left arm. I tried the right one. Yes, that one too. I could move.
I could move!

“I’m great, how are you?” I answered.

“I’m well. Looking forward to our eventual meeting.”

That was starting to sound weird. “Wait, who is this?”

“Don’t you know?”

“No.”

“I’m the person who tried to kill you. Or, I should say, who is
going
to kill you.”

My entire body went cold. “This isn’t funny.”

“I assure you, I’m dead serious.”

I swallowed. “What are you talking about?” Now my arms were working, but my brain felt more numb than ever.

“We both know what happened to you was no accident.”

I started to shake.

“Don’t we?” the voice needled.

“Who
is
this?!” My hands clasped around the receiver were freezing. “Tell me who you are.”

“That’s for me to know and you to find out. See you soon.”

 

The line went dead. A guy I’d never seen before came into my room holding a cell phone in his hand and a large box cradled under his arm. He looked from it to me and said, “Hello, Jane.”

Chapter 17

“
Get out! Get out!
Help!” I shouted.
“Loretta!”

The guy dropped the cell phone.

Loretta rushed in. “Yes, sweetheart, what is it?”

I pointed at the guy. My arm was trembling. “He—he’s going to kill me.”

“Who, Pete?” She looked at the guy, who was now stooping to retrieve his cell phone. “I doubt it.”

“Someone—someone just called to say they’re going to kill me. And then he walked in.”

Loretta came closer to me and pulled out a flashlight. She shined it in my eyes. “Look up for me, sweetheart. Good. Now left.” She clicked the light off.

“I’m not hallucinating. I didn’t make it up. Someone called me.”

With her finger on my wrist she said, “Tell me what happened, sweetheart.”

“The phone rang and I picked it up.”

“You picked it up? You moved your hand?” She was gazing at me with surprise.

“Yes. I can move both my arms now.”

“The Lord works in strange ways. The phone rang and you picked it up and what happened?”

“The voice on the phone said what happened to me was no accident. That they would finish what they started. And that they’d see me soon.”

“I see. And then what?”

“Then he”—pointing to the guy, who was now slouching along the wall, looking amused—“came in. This isn’t funny, by the way.”

“I’m not laughing at you. I’m laughing at that bear.” He pointed at the windowsill. “It’s—kind of hideous.”

Loretta had gone out for a moment, but she came back in now. “That’s Pete,” she said. “He’s volunteering here. Like a candy striper.”

“I’m not sure
volunteering
is the right word.” He pushed off the wall and came toward the bed holding out the box. “I was supposed to deliver this.”

It was wrapped in paper that said WACK ATTACK all over it, clearly from the Just 4 Teens! section of the Hallmark store.

“I don’t want a stupid box. Are you two listening? Someone called and threatened to kill me.” I enunciated each word. “We need to tell the police. I didn’t hallucinate it this time, Loretta. Someone called me.”

Loretta said, “I already have security on the way up along with—”

There was a noise in the corridor and my mother and Officer Rowley came in together. But not in a rush. More like they were having a stroll.

I told them what had happened and they acted like I’d just shared an interesting but not terribly important fact with them.

“Are you listening? Someone threatened my life.”

Officer Rowley had the kindness to get out her notebook. “Tell me about the call again. Did the voice sound familiar?”

“No, it was like it had been disguised.”

“Could you tell if it was a man or a wo—”

“No, like I said, it sounded like it was disguised. Like it was coming through a voice changer.”

“What about the sound quality? Could you tell if it was a cell phone or a landline?”

“A cell phone, I think. Can you trace it?”

She tapped the hospital phone next to my bed. “On an institutional system like this it would be nearly impossible to trace the call unless they called back. Possibly more than once. If they’d made the call to a cell phone—”

“In other words, no.”

“That’s correct. But nine times out of ten these kinds of calls turn out to be pranks.”

“You see, darling,” my mother said, smiling brightly. “There’s absolutely nothing to worry about.”

I stared at my mother. What was wrong with her? I knew she hated to be wrong. And if my caller
was
real, it meant I couldn’t have been a victim of a ten fifty-seven by the convenience store robbers in their getaway vehicle. But this denial was extreme even for her.

“Are you crazy?”

“No. I just trust that the police know what they’re doing. If someone called you, it was probably just an attention seeker.”

“If?”
I repeated. “You don’t believe there was a call.” I looked around the room desperately. The sinking feeling came back to the pit of my stomach. “None of you do. No one believes I actually got a call. I did.”

She smiled at me, a smile I was sure was meant to be kind but felt like she was mocking me. “It doesn’t matter one way or the other, darling.”

“Yes, it does.” Tears of frustration hung in my eyes. “I didn’t make this up.”

“No one is saying you made anything up. There’s just a chance that not everything you experience right now is genuine.”

I laughed without joy. “You are brilliant, Mother. I’ve never heard you do a better spin job.”

“Don’t be sarcastic, Jane.”

When did she become this robot? What happened to the mom she used to be? The one who ran beside me at the park, hair bouncing around her face, saying, “You can do it, yes, that’s it, keep going, keep going! Don’t give up!” as I tried to get a kite up for the first time by myself. The one who, when I
did
get it up, stood by my side with her arm around my shoulders watching it, a fish with a long pink-and-blue tail that twisted and looped against the cloudy sky. I’d looked up at her and her hair was messy and her cheeks were pink and she had a smudge of dirt on her face and I thought she was the most beautiful woman in the world.