Then I brace myself and head to the kitchen. There is no new wall up, which I had already guessed, and the thin plastic is back up. The place actually doesn’tlook too different from how it looked all weekend. I assume they fixed the pipe, since we have water, but not a swimming pool amount of water.
This time, though, there’s a door cut into the plastic just to the side of where my sink usually is. It’s about as high as a regular door, but only as wide as the space between studs. I’m guessing they did it so they can travel between the two townhomes without having to go outside. The only thing holding the plastic sheeting door closed is four pieces of blue painter’s tape.
It’s fine. I can handle this. No big deal. I’m too exhausted tonothandle it, anyway.
I search upstairs in both my room and Reese’s for any sneaky people hiding, change into my comfiest clothes and fluffiest socks, order Chinese food, do a quick sweep for bugs, and when my food comes, I sit on the couch to eat it. In fact, sitting on the couch feels so good that when I’m finished, I decide to stay there and just read a cozy mystery. It’s not often that I get a quiet night like this, and I’m going to just soak all the relaxation in.
I’m in the middle of chapter four when I hear Owen answer his phone and say, his voice getting more muffled as he walks further from our makeshift wall, “Oh, hi, sis! Do you mind if I put you on speaker? I’m in the middle of doing laundry.”
I’m trying very hard to pay attention to my book as the main character is realizing that thevictim was someone she knew, but all I can seem to picture is Owen doing laundry. Is he sorting his clothes before putting them in the washer? Folding them? Dang, if the image of him sitting on his couch, folding clothes on his coffee table, isn’t getting me right in the feels.
You are avoiding him. Focus!
And I can. Mostly. That is, until he comes back out of his laundry room, and I can hear their conversation better. They’re mostly just talking like brother and sister, shooting the breeze. It’s obvious that they have a good relationship, and it’s cute hearing him in this role.
I’m ignoring. I’m totally ignoring.
Then I hear Owen say, “Oh, Mom is calling.”
“Don’t answer it!” his sister says in a rush. He asks why, and she says, “Because I want to tell you first.” Pause. “But I don’t want you to panic.”
“You do realize that saying ‘don’t panic’ is the easiest way to get someone to panic, right?”
She lets out a tight chuckle. “Okay, but seriously, don’t.”
“Where are you?” he asks warily.
“The hospital.”
“What? Why?”
I close my book. There’s no way I’m going to be able to focus on it now.
“I was hanging out with a bunch of friends just in front of the KOBL building. It’s right by the quad, andthere’s a BBQ and a table, and some good cement. Several of the guys were riding on skateboards, doing tricks, as we were all just talking. There’s kind of a half wall going up on one side of the area where we were, because there’s a sidewalk up there. So, of course, there was also a railing. But the railing wasn’t right at the edge, and the space between it and where the wall dropped off was wide enough for a skateboard.”
I can tell that Owen is up and pacing by the way the sound of his sister is changing, like it’s getting closer and clearer and then further and more muffled. He hasn’t said a word throughout her story, but I can almost feel his nerves.
“Then one of the guys bet another that he couldn’t skateboard along it. The guy said, ‘You’re right.’ But they were ribbing each other, and I don’t know. I just kind of said that I could do it in my sleep.”
“You didn’t.”
“I can’t help it if I get accidentally competitive sometimes.”
“You can barely walk in platform shoes! Please tell me you didn’t actually try it.”
“I would, but I know how much you value honesty.”
Owen takes a deep breath. “What happened?”
“Well, I went up to that sidewalk, climbed over the railing, and put one of the guys’ skateboardson the ledge. Then I got on it, and… kind of proved that I was wrong.”
“You fell?”
“Right onto the cement below.”
“Tessa! How badly did you get hurt?”
“Now, see? You’re panicking. You’re supposed tonotpanic.”
