Cal nodded. “Maybe she’s in her room?”
I went upstairs, running as fast as I could. Our older sister, Emily, was eighteen to our thirteen and the only constant in our lives. She was more like a mother figure than a sister. I didn’tcare about telling my mum and dad about the win, I only cared about telling Emily.
I got to her room and knocked frantically. No one answered, so I pushed inside.
It was quiet. There was no one here. I searched in the wardrobe—sometimes she hid in there just to mess with me—and then in her en suite bathroom. Nothing.
I ran out into the hallway.
“Cal! I can’t find her,” I complained.
Silence met my call. I sighed, disappointed, and went back downstairs.
Cal stood at the edge of the kitchen, right where it met the open-plan living room. He stood so still, it made me stop and watch.
What was he doing?
“Cal?” I called to him.
He didn’t budge. He didn’t even seem to hear me.
“Cal! What’s going on?” I asked, wandering toward him. “Emily wasn’t upstairs.”
“She’s—she’s here,” Cal said slowly, in a voice I’d never heard before.
I got closer to him. He was shaking. Cold crept over me as I took him in. It felt like the place where he was staring, the dark living room, yawned like an abyss beyond us.
Suddenly, I was scared to look. It was too quiet. Emily was never quiet. She was loud, messy. A force of nature. And just like that, even at thirteen, I knew.
I knew she had finally gone where we couldn’t follow. Something slammed shut inside me. That last part of my heart that had resisted my father’s lessons and his urging to turn away from football and friends, and acting my age. The door banged closed inside me, and in that second, I said goodbye to my youth, to childhood and innocence and hope. I shut the door on all of it.
A tear ran down my brother’s face. He blinked faster and faster.
“Brody?” Cal whispered.
“It’s okay. Go upstairs and call an ambulance. Then go and get Millie. She’ll be in the garage sorting the laundry. Tell her I need her in here.”
“She’s—she’s cold already,” Cal said haltingly.
“Okay, then get Millie first. She’ll decide what to do. She’ll call the police. Go on.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to take care of her. Don’t worry.”
Cal watched me a second longer, more tears falling.
“Go now. Go on.”
He turned and walked stiffly away.
And I was alone with my sister’s body.
I turned around, the cold that had blossomed in my chest spreading out, sending ice into my veins.
Emily lay beside the couch. The carpet was dirty around her. Vomit. She was on her back. Had she choked? I crouched in the mess on the carpet, uncaring. I reached out and touched her cheek.
Cal was right. She was cold. We’d been gone all day. Swimming right after school. Today was the housekeeper’s day off. She’d been lying here, just like this, all day.
