“Get him from where?”
Izzy took a deep breath and let it out with a painful moan. My breath caught deep in my chest, waiting for her to speak, praying that every word she spoke wasn’t the last one.
“He’s in a foster home. I got messed up with some bad people and made some horrible choices. I lost my—”
I hated that silence. “Lost your what, Izzy? Izzy?”
“I lost my home, my business, and my son. I swear I would have found you sooner if I could have. This isn’t just about Vander. I love you. I’ve thought about you every day for the last thirteen years.” Izzy stopped talking and coughed, choking between words.
My heart beat hard in my chest when I heard her gasp and then nothing. “Izzy? Izzy, stay with me. Tell me more. Izzy!”
Nothing. I heard nothing but the wildness going on around me. A raging river, an angry wind, and rain coming down in buckets. “Izzy, please,” I cried.
“I’m here. Listen to me Gabby. You have to go get him. You have to take care of him. He needs you.”
“No, I’m going to help you take care of him. You’re going to be okay. We’re going to be okay. Someone will find us as soon as this storm passes. We’ll get him. Don’t worry, Izzy.”
Izzy made a snorting noise, a short laugh. “Do you want to know how I found you?”
“Of course. Keep talking, I want to hear everything.”
“Total coincidence. Your husband had an ad in the back of a magazine. A Christmas card with his logo, and his family. It was you, Gabby. You and your family, standing in front of beautiful landscaping, a blue-lit pool right behind you.” Another sarcastic laugh. “I have no idea why that magazine was even in Michigan. It was some garden magazine based out of Sarasota, Florida. A Christmas edition at the garage where I waited for my car to get new breaks.”
“I’ll help you. We’ll go get him, Izzy.”
Her tone turned desperate. “You have to promise to take care of him, Gabby. He doesn’t have anyone else. You’re his only family. He needs you, Gabby. Promise me you’ll take care of him. Promise me, Gabby. Promise.”
“We’re going to take care of him together, Izzy. Don’t you give up on me. Don’t you dare.”
“He’s really smart, but he gets bored easy. He’s just like you. He’s always got to be doing something. I’ve told him that so many times.”
“You told him about me, Izzy?”
“Oh yeah. He knows all about you.”
A sense of guilt fell over me when I couldn’t say the same. I never told Row and Phi about my sister. I couldn’t. “I can’t wait to meet him.”
“He deserves so much better than I’ve given him.”
“We’ll make it better. Just stay with me. I can’t lose you again. I have so much to tell you.”
“You’re not going to lose me. You have my name. I’m always going to be a part of you.” Izzy gurgled and coughed, choking until she was out of breath.
Again the sound of my heartbeat was heard loud in my ears. “Izzy?”
“Gabby, I’m just going to close my eyes and rest. You’re going to be okay. I know you are.”
I tried to push the car from my own legs, but I couldn’t. I bit down hard on the inside of my jaw to keep from screaming out in pain. I didn’t want to scare Izzy, but it hurt. It hurt bad enough to black out for a second, probably from holding my breath.
“No. No you’re not going to rest. Keep talking to me, Izzy. Don’t you give up on me. Don’t you dare. I need you. Your little boy needs you.”
Moments went by before she responded. I thought she was gone. I thought that many times throughout the dreamlike ordeal.
“I got my Clyde, too, Izzy I can’t wait for you to meet him.”
I breathed a sigh of relief, happy when I felt my chest rise from the breath. “That’s why you’re going to be okay.”
Izzy laid still, no movement at all. “Izzy, can you hear me? Izzy, wake up! Please don’t leave me. Izzy! Please! Somebody help us! Help,” I called, over and over, screaming in agony.
The wind whipped a strand of wet hair into my face, stinging my right eye, but I couldn’t rub it. One hand was stuck behind my back, and the other one held something metal, keeping my upper body from sliding. The door frame, maybe. A gasp of air was heard over the howling wind and I felt panic. I didn’t want to lose her. I just found her. I had so much I wanted to share with her. She had so much to tell me. I needed her.
“I’m here.”
“Don’t do that. Keep talking. Someone’s going to find us,” I said with an empty promise. Nobody was finding us. Nobody was out in this. Izzy needed help now. Not when the sun came out and the storm passed.
“Vander Clyde Delgardo. That’s his name. I call him Van mostly, unless he’s in trouble. He’s a typical boy, always into something. You gotta watch him—”
“Izzy?” I said again for the fiftieth time when I heard a breath and then silence.
“He’s a handful sometimes, but he has a big heart. He’s a little love bug when you can slow him down. You have to show him whose boss though. He’s a smart one; he’ll have you eating out of his little hand if you let him.”
“No, don’t talk like that. You don’t need me to do anything. You can do it yourself,” I argued, eyes darting to the trees, whipping back and forth through the wind and rain. My arm hurt from holding the door-jam, but I couldn’t let go. The muddy surface mixed with the rain made my body slide toward the raging river. A river that was rising by the minute.
My mind couldn’t even begin to keep up. I didn’t even try to comprehend what she was saying. I suddenly had something else on my mind. I stared at her with wide eyes, not moving a muscle, not even a breath. Oh my, God. I felt it again. The car moved, barely, but it moved. We were seconds away from being swept away with the storm.
“Keep talking. Tell me more about him,” I coaxed while I stretched, trying to grab a flimsy branch, sticking straight out of the bank. The intention was to pull myself out and make it to a little landing to the right of us. If I could just get there, maybe I could go for help.
“He loves books, transformers, and skateboarding. He’s really good for being four. Wait until you see him.”
I obsessed our situation while keeping her engaged. “Keep talking. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t want you to be disappointed in me. I was ashamed of myself. I waited for four hours at the end of your drive, trying to talk myself into walking up to your door. I almost did it when you,” Izzy said and then paused. The silence catching my attention until she spoke again. “When you went to the mailbox, but you didn’t see me. You were looking up to the sky.”