I just looked down and resumed eating my Kix. She was living in a dream world.
Then again, what did I know? I’d never taken Delilah Fairweather for the type of person who could run a girl over and just keep going. Maybe she was also the type of person who could break up with her longtime boyfriend immediately after committing vehicular manslaughter. I just couldn’t imagine any breakup conversation with Teddy ever being a calm one.
I poured another bowl of Kix, at a loss for words. Jacinta had lied to me, but for some reason I couldn’t identify, I still cared about her. I was still rooting for her, somehow, to make it out of this thing unscathed.
The doorbell rang then, and Jacinta looked at me, her eyes wide with fear. My heart jumped.
“Do you think it’s the police?” she whispered.
“I don’t know,” I said. “But if it is, you have to tell them the truth.”
She got up without a word and walked through the maze of rooms. I followed her.
When she opened the door, it was a maintenance guy dressed in work clothes, carrying some equipment.
“Pool man,” he said by way of greeting. “I’m here to close it down for the season. You the renter?”
“No one told me you were coming,” Jacinta said.
He shrugged. “Owners sent me. I do it every year. Okay if I head on back?” Without waiting for a reply, he started around the side of the house. Jacinta turned around and rushed through the house, going out on the back deck. I got to the deck in time to hear her plead, “Won’t you please wait another day? Everyone’s gotten to use it, but I’ve never had it all to myself.”
“I heard about the everyone part,” the guy called up to her. “Heard you had a couple of real ragers out here.”
“You heard that from the owners?” Jacinta asked, sounding alarmed.
“Naw,” he said, chuckling. “Word around town. Owners barely check in except with the broker and with me, twice a year. You ever met ’em?”
“No,” Jacinta said.
“Me neither,” the guy said.
“Anyway, could you wait a day?” she asked again. “Please? I want to go swimming.”
He paused for a moment and looked her over.
“Why the hell not,” he said, relenting. “I got another job to get to this morning, anyway.”
“Oh, thank you!” Jacinta exclaimed, jumping up and down and clapping with girlish glee.
My cell rang then, and I stepped away to answer it. It was my mother.
“Hello, Madame IPO,” I said. “Is that what I should call you now?”
“I need you to bring me my bag,” she said. She sounded frantic and out of breath, as if she’d been running.
“Well, hello to you, too,” I said.
“I’m not screwing around, Naomi. I need you to bring my bag.” Her voice cracked on the word “bag.” Quickly, I walked into the first-floor bathroom and shut the door behind me.
“What the hell is going on?” I asked. “You sound like you’re losing it.”
“Dammit, Naomi! I just need you to bring my bag.”
“Which bag?”
“My bag with my two medicine kits,” she whispered.
“Bring them where?”
“To New York.”
“Now?”
“Yes, now! Call a cab. A helicopter will be waiting for you in thirty minutes.”
I was bewildered. “Are you sick? Don’t you have anything up at the apartment you can take?”
“Why would I call you out on the island if I had my pills with me in Manhattan?” she snapped. “I am in the midst of a severe frosting crisis, and I don’t need your stupid attitude. Don’t question me. Just do as I say.”
“Well, you don’t need to be a bitch about it,” I said.
Silence. I figured I’d get in trouble for that one.
But then she surprised me.
“Naomi,” she said quietly. “Please. I need you.”
It got me, the way she said “I need you.” I’d never heard her speak to me that way before. I’d never heard her speak to anyone that way before.
“Okay, Mom,” I said. “I’m coming. Don’t worry.”
“Thank you,” she said, and I could tell that she really meant it.
I paused before I got off the phone.
“Hey,” I said. “I love you.” I felt completely weird saying it to her, but something told me she needed to hear it.
“Oh,” she said, her voice catching. “Oh, me too. Me too.” Then she hung up.
When I left the bathroom, Jacinta was clearing off the table.
“He’s not coming back until tomorrow, love,” she said brightly. “Isn’t that lovely?”
As soon as I opened my mouth to speak, I felt uneasy.
“I need to go,” I said, my stomach beginning to turn over. “My mom needs me in the city.”
“Oh,” Jacinta said, looking disappointed. “Well, I hope she’s all right.”
“I’m sure she’ll be fine. She always is.” Something inside me, that same voice that said I ought to tell my mother I loved her—well, that something told me I shouldn’t leave Jacinta there all alone.
“Maybe you should come with me,” I said, even though it didn’t make any sense, even though my mother would’ve absolutely freaked out if I’d brought anyone with me.
“Oh, that’s sweet of you,” Jacinta said over her shoulder as she resumed cleaning up our breakfast. “But I’ve got to stay here and wait for Delilah to call. She’ll probably want to spend the day here.” She began washing the dishes in the sink.
“Delilah’s not coming over,” I said, but the rush of water was too loud and she didn’t hear me.
“Delilah’s not coming over,” I said louder. She turned off the water and looked at me quizzically.
“What’s that?” she asked. “I didn’t catch that.”
I hesitated.
“Nothing,” I said. “It was nothing. I better go.”
She dried her hands on a dishtowel and came over to hug me tight. She smelled like roses.
“If you’re back tonight, let’s go for a swim,” she said.
“All right,” I said. “See you later.” I left her there, in the kitchen, looking like a kid playing dress-up in a grown-up’s gym clothes. She fairly exuded hope, that most unreasonable thing.
I changed before I went to the city, of course. If my mother’s “severe frosting crisis” had nearly put her in hysterics, then my raggedy outfit might actually cause her to go completely and utterly mad. I picked out the only one of the Marc Jacobs dresses she’d bought me that I had yet to wear. It was her favorite and, of course, it was the one I liked the least—it was pink, with lacy, girly frippery and frills around the neck, short sleeves, and hemline. It looked as if it were made out of candy. I even put on the kind of subtle makeup of which my mother approves—lip gloss, neutral shadow, mascara. I thought that if I looked pretty for her, her kind of pretty, I might make her feel better. As I ran a brush through my hair, I remembered the last time I’d tried to please her with my appearance. I was ten, and she was fighting with my father all the time. I found her crying in her room one day, and even though I was already a little too old for it, I asked her if she wanted to have a dress-up tea party. She wiped away her tears and said that she did. So we got dressed up in these matching Laura Ashley dresses she’d bought us, and we put on hats and had tea in the living room. It was the first time I realized I could change her mood if I tried.
As the cab rolled away from the house, I looked back to see if I could catch a glimpse of Jacinta. But she was somewhere inside the house, waiting for Delilah.
My second helicopter ride was actually a lot more anxiety-filled than my first. It wasn’t the height or the loudness that bothered me. No, what I found was that I couldn’t focus on anything but Jacinta—not on the beauty of the changing landscape below me, not on the dumb magazine I’d brought with me, not even on texting back and forth with Skags, who was trying to tell me some story Jenny Carpenter had told her about how the other Beasts were all really into doing cocaine and how she’d never been comfortable with it and how they always made fun of her for it. I really wasn’t in the mood to think about the Beasts.