Firestone (30 page)

“
They said they didn’t see
anyone in the alley.” Sissy nodded. “The police mentioned ‘other
agents’ in the alley and . . .
well . . .”

Sissy gave a knowing nod.

“
No one appears to have
seen anything,” Sissy moved her eyebrows up and down with the
words. “That’s what the policeman said. Then he said, ‘I hate to
ask you
again
 . . .’”

“
He said ‘again’?” Tink
asked.

“‘
Again.’” Sissy nodded
firmly. “So, he asked if Sandy knew who hit the hockey puck. Sandy
looked all surprised and got all watery. So the policeman looked at
Aden.”

Sissy nodded.

“
What?” Wanda asked with
an outraged exuberance.

“
I know, right?” Sissy
nodded. “Aden said he didn’t care where the puck came from, just
that someone did something. The policeman said, ‘That’s what
O’Malley said.’ So, Sandy said . . .”

Sissy nodded.

“
She said, ‘My father’s
the most observant person I’ve ever met.’ And the policeman said,
‘Yes ma’am, that’s my experience of him.’ And Aden said, ‘If he
didn’t see the person, then no one saw
him
.’”

“
Him?” Tink
asked.

“
He emphasized the
him
.” Sissy nodded. “The
policeman caught it too. He said, ‘It was a man?’ And Aden said,
‘Who else plays hockey?’ And then he got all blustery. ‘I hate to
be sexist, but I don’t know any women who play hockey, and blah,
blah, blah.’ Aden just filled up the whole room with noise and
words.”

“
Wow,” Tink
said.

“
But you know what?” Sissy
asked.

The girls shook their heads.

“
They were lying.” Sissy’s
head bobbed up and down so vigorously that the girls’ heads
instinctively followed. “I just know it!”

“
Why would they lie?”
Wanda asked.

“
Why do you think?” Sissy
asked.

“
I don’t know, that’s why
I asked,” Wanda said.

“
It was Heather,” Tink
said. “Had to be. She and Blane play all the time. She’s really
good — and Aden knows that because they do it in the Lipson parking
lot when no one’s there. We all go. Aden’s played with us. A couple
of times.”

“
I’ll never tell a soul,”
Wanda said.

“
Me either,” Sissy
said.

Tink zipped her lips. For a few moments, the
girls stared off into space.

“
Wow,” Tink
said.

“
How’s Blane?” Wanda
asked.

“
He seemed normal,” Tink
said. “Fine. I saw him this morning. They’re giving him chemo, so
he won’t be able to have visitors soon. Like probably
tonight.”

“
Even Heather?” Sissy
looked horror struck.

Tink nodded.

“
Wow,” Wanda
said.

“
We should go to a movie,”
Sissy said. “That way Tink doesn’t have to think about Blane being
sick, and we can get popcorn.”

“
Movie, movie, movie,”
Wanda chanted.

“
What do you think, Tink?”
Sissy asked.

“
Okay,” Tink
said.

“
Let me go ask my dad if
he’ll take me,” Wanda said.

“
Your dad?” Tink and Sissy
said in unison.

“
Oh, didn’t I tell you?”
Wanda blushed. “He moved back in. Trial basis, stuff like
that.”

Wanda nodded.

“
Wow,” Tink
said.

“
When did that happen?”
Sissy’s voice was indignant. “Why didn’t you tell us? Are you
hiding stuff? Are you eating? Are
you . . .”

“
I didn’t know!” Wanda’s
voice rose. “
Gaah
! I didn’t know!”

“
Sissy!” Tink ordered.
“You have to breathe.”

Sissy scowled.

“
Breathe,” Tink
ordered.

Sissy took a breath.

“
But . . .”
Sissy started.

Tink gestured to Wanda.

“
I haven’t relapsed,”
Wanda said. “I’m not hiding anything. I didn’t tell you because I
didn’t know. They had therapy last night, which you
know
because I was
with
you
last
night.”

Tink and Sissy nodded.

“
Dad showed up here this
morning,” Wanda said. “Mom and I were just getting home. They did
the whole, ‘We have to talk about our feelings’ thing.”

“
Ew,” Tink said while
Sissy made a disgusted sound.

“
I know,” Wanda said. “I
just sat there. They talked. And . . .
whatever.”

“
I hope it works out.”
Sissy nodded.

“
It’s just got to work
out,” Tink said.

Wanda nodded but didn’t say anything in case
she jinxed it. Understanding, the girls nodded.

“
Lemme go ask my dad,”
Wanda said.

Wanda ran off.

“
Are you okay about
Blane?” Sissy asked.

“
There isn’t anything I
can do,” Tink said. “He’s . . .”

Her eyes looked so sad that Sissy wished she
could hug Tink through the computer.

“
And the detective?” Sissy
asked.

“
Seems like he got off too
easy,” Tink said. “I kinda wanted him to . . . you
know, like what happened to me, but
then . . .”

Tink shook her head.

“
Blane told me I can’t
wish revenge on him because it will only make me feel bad,” Tink
said.

“
And?”

“
He was right,” Tink said.
“That’s what I’m trying to do. What Blane said. Just let him be him
and me be me.”

Tink nodded.

“
Blane’s a good guy,”
Sissy said.

“
I love him,” Tink said,
and then blushed. “I mean, not like Charlie or . . .
I mean . . .”

“
He’s your soul dad,”
Sissy said. “Like Aden is for me.”

Tink nodded. Wanda appeared on her
webcam.

“
Okay, we’re set,” Wanda
said. “He said he would take us
and
pay.”

“
And pay?” Sissy asked.
“How come?”

“
I guess they want the
night to themselves.” Wanda wiggled her eyebrows. “You know, so he
can get . . . settled.”

Sissy and Tink broke out into hysterical
laughter.

“
What?” Wanda asked like
she didn’t know why they were laughing. “That’s what he
said!”

Wanda chuckled.

“
Anyway, wanna go now?”
Wanda asked when they’d stopped laughing.

Sissy and Tink nodded.

“
Okay, we’ll pick you up,”
Wanda said, and clicked off the line.

“
I like that.” Tink smiled
at Sissy.

“
Wanda’s dad?” Sissy
asked.

“
No, ‘soul dad,’” Tink
said. “I like that.”

Sissy smiled.

“
See you in a bit.” Sissy
clicked off the line.

Tink closed the laptop. She turned around to
see Charlie standing behind her.

“
Nosey?” Tink
asked.

“
Sure,” Charlie said. “I
just wanted you to know that I like that we have soul dads
now.”

“
Me too.” Tink smiled, and
Charlie hugged her.

“
Tink!” someone yelled
from the basement common room. “Wanda’s here!”

Tink ran out of the room to go meet
Wanda.

~~~~~~~~

Saturday evening — 7:23 p.m.

Heather hadn’t expected it to be so
hard.

After all, she spent most of her days and
some of her nights away from Blane. She’d even gone to the Isle of
Man while he was working at the site!

And it wasn’t like they
were
real
husband
and wife.

Heather flicked herself on
the forehead for thinking that bad thought. She could hear Blane
say,
We’re as real a husband and wife as
anybody. And we’re one better — we’re parents, we’re family, we
love each other completely.

Heather nodded to herself at his
oft-repeated words. She pressed the button to the elevator six or
seven times. One elevator car was in the lobby and the other car
was on the tenth floor. Both seemed stuck.

Heather sucked in a quick breath.

The nurse had come in at seven and said,
“This will probably be it, but we’ll see.”

The nurse was nice enough, really. Heather
hadn’t thought about having to leave his room. She’d focused on
Blane.

He was responding well to the chemo. She’d
cheered and put on one of those blue paper covers over her
clothing. An hour ago, she’d put a facemask on and a blue paper hat
over her hair. He’d joked that she looked like he would when they
had the baby.

No having this child in a store. No way. Not
this time.

They’d talked about all the crazy names they
would give their baby. They’d laughed and laughed until that
moment.

The nurse stuck her head in and said the
words.

“
I’m sorry, Heather,” the
nurse said. “It’s time to go.”

Blane’s face flashed with terror. Heather
smiled.

“
I’ll call you when I get
home,” Heather said.

She started to lean over to kiss him, but
the nurse said, “Don’t do that.” He grabbed her gloved hand, and
she squeezed it. She stayed until the nurse almost pushed her out
of the room.

At the door, she turned and waved. He smiled
one of his confident smiles.

“
Call me when you get
home,” he said.

Heather swallowed hard. Of course, this
elevator would have to move for her to get home. The one on the
first floor started to move. When it stopped on the second floor,
she eyed the door to the stairs.

If Blane were here, he’d have insisted that
they take the stairs. Good exercise for her and the baby.

But right now, Heather was barely standing
up. She couldn’t deal with the stairs.

Not right now.

By the end of the month, she’d probably be
an old pro. She’d run up and down the stairs just for fun. She
smiled at the image of her pregnant self easily jogging up stairs.
The elevator made it to the third floor.

She glanced at a woman who walked up and
stood next to her. The woman looked as freaked out as Heather did.
The woman gave her a kind of warrior smile — not happy or sad. Her
smile said, “I see you on the battlefield of this cancer ward.”

Heather nodded in return.

This was not a place where either woman
wanted to be, and yet there was nowhere in the world they’d rather
be.

The elevator dinged, and Heather stepped in
front of the doors. The elevator opened.

Tanesha and Jill were standing in the back.
Heather waited for the other woman to get on, and then went to the
back of the elevator. Not wanting to make a fuss, she didn’t hug
them. She merely turned around at the back of the car and stood
between her best friends.

Tanesha put her arm around Heather’s waist.
Jill slipped her arm around the other side.

With her friends as support, Heather made it
to the first floor.

When the elevator door opened, the woman got
off the elevator. Heather didn’t move.

“
Going up?” a man asked,
leaning into the elevator.

Heather sighed.

Tanesha took a step forward. Her arm around
Heather’s waist pressed her forward. Heather looked at Tanesha.

“
You can do this,” Jill
said in Heather’s ear.

Heather looked at Jill and then back at
Tanesha. With a nod, she took a step forward.

And then another one.

One more step and she was off the elevator.
She stood in place while the elevator filled with people. She
watched the doors close. She looked at Tanesha and then at
Jill.

Together, they walked through the lobby.

One step after another, Heather walked away
from Blane.

She remembered the moment she’d really
looked at him for the first time. She was just barely pregnant with
Mack and living on people’s couches. Her mother had thrown her out.
She felt so ashamed and very, very alone.

“
She can stay with me,”
Blane had blurted out. “I mean, you haven’t known me since I was
ten or whatever, so I would understand if it seemed
weird . . . But I thought we got along great this
week.”

They had gotten along great since the moment
she’d met him. She turned back to look at the elevator across the
lobby.

“
He’s exactly where he
needs to be right now,” Jill said.

“
Safe and sound,” Tanesha
said. “They’ll take good care of him, and when he’s done, he’ll
come home.”

“
This is what you want,”
Jill said.

Heather nodded her head and went through the
hospital doors. Mike was waiting for them in the driveway of the
hospital. They got in the back of his car together. Mike didn’t say
anything. He just drove them to the Castle. Tanesha and Jill helped
Heather up to Jill’s loft. They looked in on Mack and then helped
Heather call Blane over video chat.

Their conversation was short. Yes, he had
enough to read. No, he wasn’t uncomfortable. Yes, they’d obviously
hooked up the Wi-Fi on his computer, finally. He still didn’t know
if he could stream movies. Yes, they missed each other. No, there
wasn’t anything they could do about it.