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“I don’t know if it’s just my hunch,” I start, lowering my voice, “but I think something happened to Lily.”
“The woman? Why do you think so?”
I shrug. “I don’t know, but I think it is something terrible. She won’t talk about it, but she has nightmares every night, and it leaves her frightened the following day.
“The one time Madison came to get me, I saw her trying to push someone away, even though she was still asleep. When I touched her, she yelled at me to get my hands off, and then she wouldn’t speak to me for a while.
“Thrice, I’ve found her in the hallway, crouched with her eyes closed and her hands on the wall. I—”
I halt my explanation when my peripheral vision catches Madison peeping through the slightly open door, and Ethanturns around seconds later, laughing when he realizes why I paused.
“Do you want to hear about the boring stuff?”
Madison takes that as an invitation, throwing the door open and stepping out. “Yeah,” she nods excitedly. “I do. I know it is work, but I like your job, Uncle Ethan.”
“No, you don’t.” I shake my head.
“I do. I like to help people,” she replies, shrugging.
Ethan mirrors her shrug. “What are you going to say to that, Dad? Will you tell your daughter she’s not allowed to follow her dreams?”
“Honey,” I say in the sweetest tone possible, “you can save people in other ways. Like being a doctor or a lifeguard—you know what, scratch that last part. You can be a doctor, and you’ll save more lives than doing Ethan’s job. Okay?”
“Nope.”
I exhale, rubbing my fingers through my hair. “Sure.”
“Lily was awake when I went to her room. She said to tell you thank you for the pizza, although I told her that Mrs. Owen would come to give us a proper meal later on.”
“Thank you for relaying the message,” I say.
Madison gives me a curt nod and a bow before skipping off.
“Do you want me to meet with her?” Ethan asks.
“Honestly, I don’t know. It’s one thing to have her meet a stranger, but meeting a cop? I don’t want her spooked.”
“Remember that one time I got beaten up so bad I couldn’t remember shit for a week?” he says.
I nod, chuckling as the memory pops into my head.
“You wouldn’t let anyone come close to you, and each time you thought you were being watched, the nurses had to come to sedate you because you would always get into scrapes trying to escape.
They didn’t think you were going to regain your memory, and the doctor spoke with Grace about admitting you into a mental hospital,” I say.
The situation wasn’t humorous, but the topic never fails to resurface every year, and somehow, it’s become something to laugh about.
Ethan nods. “Exactly. I know how she feels… kind of. I feel like I can offer her a sense of belonging, even if it’s only briefly. Let me?”
I think about what would happen if Lily assumed we were ganging up on her or if Ethan’s presence didn’t inspire the goal he has in mind. But the other part… giving her a reason to trust people again, to open up slowly, makes me agree.
We walk back into the house, and I tell him to wait in the living room while I check on Lily. I knock on her door thrice until she tells me to come in.
“Hey,” I say, seeing her sit on the edge of the bed, hands between her head.
“Hi,” she looks at me, and the dark circles under her eyes have only added more colors.
Does she sleep at all? I resist the urge to check on her at night because I don’t want to make her uncomfortable. So, I have no idea if she spends all hours of the night tossing and turning, running away from what I don’t know and what she can't remember.
