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Ellen was in her mid-sixties with soft blonde hair to her shoulders and bones that seemed a little too big for her body. Because of the accident, she was covered in bruises—across her cheek and along her arms and legs. She’d broken her left arm and her right ankle, and bandages were wrapped around her head.
When Rina had arrived in California on New Year’s Day, she’d learned the accident hadn’t been automobile-related. But when Rina had asked what kind of accident it had been, her father hadn’t told her. This was another mystery Rina was left to solve.
Ellen’s eyes fluttered open, and she turned her gaze toward Rina. She seemed to size her up, demanding more of her than a newly conscious woman should have been able to.
But something about her mother was so broken. Rina’s heart ached just seeing her like this.
“Mom?” Rina stepped toward the side of the bed and reached for her hand. “Mom, it’s me. It’s Rina.”
Immediately, her mother’s eyes grew shadowed. Rina turned to look at her father, whose eyes remained downcast.
“Where am I?” Ellen asked wistfully. “What is all this, Wally?”
Wally stepped around to the opposite side of the bed and took Ellen’s other hand. “You were in an accident, honey,” he explained. “And this is your daughter, Rina. You remember?”
Ellen’s eyes flickered back toward Rina to size her up. She scowled. “I know who she is. I know what she did to our Penny.”
Rina hurried away from the bed and smacked her back on the wall. Penny’s name rang through the air between them. Before Rina could come up with something to say, something to calm her mother down, a nurse arrived to take Ellen’s vitals, and Rina leaped out of the room and stumbled down the hall.
“Rina! Wait a second.”
Rina stopped, touched the wall, and gasped for breath. Her mother hadn’t brought up Penny in decades. Why now?
“She’s not completely in her right mind,” her father explained from behind her. “The doctors are calling it a form of amnesia caused by the accident.”
Rina turned and blinked back tears.
“I didn’t know she would bring that up,” her father insisted. “And I’m sure she didn’t mean it.”
“We both know she did,” Rina breathed.
“Rina, she’s sick,” Wally blared. “She needs you more than ever right now. And she needs your forgiveness.”
But Rina was falling apart. Her mother’s horrific face filled her mind’s eye. “I just need some air,” she said, stumbling toward the elevator.
“Come back up when you’re ready,” Wally begged. “We’ll be here.”
Rina rocketed back down to the ground floor and stomped through the halls, her heart pumping with anger and sorrow. Everywhere she looked, people nursed themselves back to health; they were bandaged and bruised; they wore eyepatches and stumbled along with walkers. Life seemed inescapable and tremendously cruel. Was pain really always the result?
Before Rina knew what she’d done, she pulled up Steve’s number on her phone and listened as it blared across the continent. She could feel it ringing over Kansas fields, through the streets of Chicago, along Pennsylvanian highways, all the way to Steve in his mechanic’s shop.
“Rina. Are you okay?” Steve sounded choked up.
Rina tugged her hair and blinked out across the parking lot. Her throat felt thick with tears. “I don’t know,” she answered finally. “I really don’t.”
Steve sighed into the phone. “Something has happened.”
“What?” Rina couldn’t make sense of what he said. “What do you mean?”
“I just got off the phone with Claire,” Steve said. “Gail is gone. She’s missing. Nobody knows where she is.”
And just like that, Rina found herself catapulted into yet another mystery. But she was beginning to think she couldn’t handle any more of them. She could only take so much.
“What do you need me to do?”
“Everyone is pretty sure she’ll show up,” Steve stuttered, perhaps sensing the reticence in Rina’s voice.
Rina breathed heavily through the receiver. She was on the verge of bursting into tears. Her mother’s voice rang in her head:I know what she did to our Penny.
