I could feel a little piece of my mind slowly start screaming, and I didn’t know. Couldn’t tell. Had no idea if this was an elaborate hoax set up by everyone just to get me here so that they’d never let me out, and how would I-
“There you are.”
Both of us looked up.
A different nurse from the one Uri and I had followed was in front of us, arms folded. “Child, I’ve been looking everywhere for you.”
Me? Is it me?
The girl in the nightgown turned and walked toward the bed. With the teddy bear still in one hand, she climbed up and then sat down. She put the bear on her lap and reached over for a strap. “I lost my mom,” she said sadly. “She died.”
I watched in mute horror as she slowly started to strap one wrist in.
“I lost my dad,” she repeated. “He died.”
“Poor girl,” the nurse murmured, glancing back at me. “She had a mental breakdown. Has to be strapped in just to take her meds. Are you with the other visitor? The gentleman?”
All I could do was nod.
“Well, honey, let me go take you right to him. You must have gotten lost in this maze of a place. Just give me one second.”
She went over to the bed, putting a hand on the girl’s arm. “You don’t need to do that. It’s not time for your medication yet. Why don’t you come with me? I’ll take you to watch TV.”
“Pretty color,” the girl said, looking up at the nurse.
My heart whooshed with relief. It’s not me! I’m not crazy! She is.
Gently the nurse undid the strap and helped the girl down from the bed. Scooping up her teddy bear, the nurse handed it to the girl and then led her to the door.
“You can follow us,” the nurse said to me. “We’re all going to the same place.”
I wanted to laugh hysterically. I knew she meant that we were all going to the same front waiting area, but all I could think was, You’re right. Everyone goes to the same place. I looked back at the bed as I left the room. Some of us just get there faster than others.
We shuffled slowly down the hall but eventually made it to the front desk. The nurse gave me a kind smile and pointed over to a corner, where I saw Uri talking to an older man with white hair. The man was wearing an old-fashioned white suit, and he looked like a college professor. A sad college professor. As I got closer, I could hear what they were saying.
“Don’t you feel any sense of responsibility?” Uri asked.
“He’s made his choice,” the man replied. “It was not mine to make.”
“But aren’t you going to help us at all? You should be there.”
“I can’t. I’m sorry, but he won’t listen to me.”
Uri caught sight of me, and the conversation stopped abruptly. “Ready to go?” he asked me.
“Ready, like, an hour ago. You never came and got me.”
“I was going to as soon as I was done here.”
“How much longer were you going to be? You took a really long time. I had a slight run-in with one of the patients. But it’s cool, I’m fine.”
Something caught my attention, and from the corner of my eye I saw a male aide come to fetch the girl from the nurse. He was wearing leather pants underneath a scrub top uniform, and he looked like he could have been Johnny Depp’s brother.
The male nurses wear leather pants here? This place is really weird.
“I guess we can leave, then,” Uri said, drawing my attention back to him. “We’ve said all there is to say.”
The man in the white suit didn’t say good-bye to either of us but instead turned and walked down another hallway. I watched him go, wondering what exactly was going on.
“Did you find anything out?” I asked Uri.
He led me outside to the golf cart. The expression on his face was angry. “Yeah. I found out that we’re on our own. The person I need isn’t here.”
Chapter Twelve. ADVICE
From his half-itinerant life, also, he was a kind of traveling gazette, carrying the whole budget of local gossip from house to house …
– “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”
Cacey was waiting for us when we got back to the guesthouse. She looked like she still felt pretty awful, but after a short exchange with Uri in which he told her only that he was unsuccessful, we got in the car and drove away from the asylum without looking back.
All I could think about on the ride home was that girl. What had her life been like before she’d gone in there? Does she have any friends that miss her? A best friend? That could have been me. …
Uri’s phone rang when we were almost to the house, and he answered it. He spoke briefly, then hung up. “Slight detour,” he told Cacey. “We need to stop at the cemetery.”
“Are we going to Nikolas and Katy’s house?” I asked. I should have guessed that was where they’d take Caspian.
He nodded, and we drove through the open cemetery gates and headed for the far side. When we got to the trees, Nikolas and Katy were there, waiting for us. And so was Caspian.
I put my fingers on the door handle, ready to jump out and grab him.
“We’ll go get him and bring him to you,” Cacey said. “There are still people around.”
“Yeah, okay. Just hurry.” I would have agreed to just about anything as long as they went and got him right now.
Cacey and Uri got out, somehow managing to look effortlessly cool, like they were just taking a stroll, and wandered over to the trees. Uri pointed something out, making Cacey laugh, and then they came back with Caspian following them. Nikolas and Katy waved to me, and I smiled at them through the window.
When Cacey and Uri got back to the car, Cacey opened the rear door and leaned in to me, like she was saying something. “Get in,” she told Caspian. He slid beside me, and I couldn’t stop smiling.
“You’re back!” I said. “What happened? You wouldn’t wake up-”
“Are you okay? Did anything happen? Did Vincent hurt you?” he said at the same time.
He laughed and moved one hand closer, across the seat. I moved my hand closer to his, too, and felt the buzzing sensation.
“Were you with Cacey and Uri?” he asked.
“Yes. They took me with them to look for someone. But he wasn’t there. Were you with Nikolas and Katy again?”
“Yeah.”
“How long did it take for you to wake up?”
“I don’t know.” He glanced down.
Uri put the car into gear. “Okay,” he said. “Let’s get you guys back home.” Then he grinned at me. “You didn’t mind our little detour, did you, Abbey?”
“Nope. Not at all.”
We shared a smile, and he actually looked a bit bashful.
“So, what do we do if this happens again?” I said as we drove. “Do I just call one of you?”
“We’re going to be around more,” Uri said. “All of us.”
“That sounds more like a threat than a promise,” Caspian whispered after they dropped us off at home and we walked up to the front door.
I laughed. “I think it’s a little bit of both.”
We went inside, and I called out, “Hi. I’m home.”
I knew Mom was doing something in the kitchen because I heard her banging around. She caught up to me when I was almost all the way up the stairs. “How was your girls’ weekend?” she asked.
“It was okay. Cacey got sick, so we didn’t do much.” Technically almost true.
“That’s too bad. You’ll have to plan another one soon.” She turned away, then turned back. “Oh! Aunt Marjorie called while you were gone.”