Dr. Abbott unlocked his office door and ushered his family inside. His wife showed his children into one of the rooms and Dr. Abbott walked into a different room to get what he'd need to fix his son's nose. He looked down at his hands and parental worry filled his heart as he saw his son's blood on them. Suddenly Dr. Abbott's beeper went off. He groaned as he picked it up and looked at it.
"On no, not now…" he said. Tionè was going into labor and was in too much pain to leave the house. Dr. Abbott looked in the direction where his son was. He sighed and picked up his cell phone. He dialed a number and was preparing himself to have the one conversation he'd rather die then have.
Dr. Brown vowed that night never to wear tights again. Who ever came up with idea of tights must have been very drunk. Dr. Brown walked into the kitchen and poured himself a glass of milk. Delia was gone for the night and Ephram would probably be out late with his friends. Dr. Brown paused when a thought occurred to him. His 15-year-old son was out, in the middle of the woods, at night, with five girls… It was a good thing Dr. Brown trusted his son, mostly. The phone rang and Dr. Brown picked it up.
"Hello?" he asked into it.
"I need you to come down to my office," Dr. Abbott's voice said.
"What?" Dr. Brown asked smiling in surprise.
"I need you to come down to my office and fix my son's broken nose. A patient of mine is giving birth to twins and I can't do two things at the same time. So if you could just forego the wisecracks and come set my son's nose," Dr. Abbott told him.
"I'll be right there," Dr. Brown said and hung up.
Ephram and Desi stood at the fork in the road and looked down both sides. Ephram scratched the back of his head and turned to Desi, who was biting her lower lip.
"Which way?" he asked her. Desi turned to him a little worried.
"Well, um, let's see," she said pulling Bright's flashlight out of her pocket and shinning it down both roads and along the ground. After a few minutes she turned the flashlight off and placed it back in her pocket.
"Well?" he asked her. She turned back to him worried.
"Well, uh, one road is a mile to Everwood, and the other is five miles to the abandoned chicken farm," she said and paused, "but I don't know which is which."
Ephram turned an obviously displeased look to her.
"How can you know so much, but not know which road leads where?" he asked her. Desi shrugged and Ephram turned away from her scoffing. Angry he turned back to her.
"You planned this didn't you! You told them to leave us so you and I could 'bond' or something and you'd get your story, didn't you?" he accused her. Desi's lost look was replaced by that of one more defensive.
"Oh yea Ephram! I planned for them to abandon us out here like this so we could walk for miles in the dark and so I could freeze my ass off! And, as you can probably imagine, Jig and Amy went right along with it! You know, I need a little help with my story title, how about 'The Morning I Was Found Frozen to Death With Ephram Brown!' Personally I think it needs a little work, how about you?" Desi yelled at him. Ephram exhaled and turned away from her. Desi scoffed and turned away from him too, wrapping herself tighter in her cloak. Eventually Ephram sighed and turned back around to her.
"How about 'The Night I Walked Safely Home with Ephram Brown?'" he asked her. She turned around and nodded. Ephram sighed and looked back to the two roads.
"So, which one do we take?" he asked her. Desi sighed and looked at the roads too.
"Um, well, we could, always, uh, sit down," Desi said walking over and sitting on a log in defeat. Ephram sighed and walked over to her.
"You're going to get your cloak dirty," he told her.
"I don't care. I'm cold, and lost, and that damned noise is getting to me! What is that?" Desi yelled looking behind her. Her outcry brought Ephram's attention to the loud tapping noise coming from somewhere in the forest.
"What is that?" Ephram asked walking over to her. Desi stood up when he reached her and looked out into the woods with him.
"I don't know but it's getting on my nerves," Desi said.
"Well let's just forget about it and get back to the road," Ephram said. As the two turned around, an owl, upset by their presence, flew from its tree and right at Ephram and Desi. They both yelled in surprise and jumped backward onto the steep hill that descended from the road they were on.
"There you go, how does it feel now?" Dr. Brown asked Bright. Bright was sitting up on a table with an uncomfortable bandage on his nose. His mother and sister stood on either side of the table, watching him worriedly. If one had been observing the scene and taking special note of the mother and daughter pair, there were many similarities to be seen. Each bit her lower lip, tugged at her dress, and shifted nervously from side to side.
"It feels better Dr. Brown," Bright told him with the same, slight tone of distaste which his father used when addressing the neurosurgeon.
"Good. Now if you just… well, I'm sure your father will make sure you heal alright," Dr. Brown told him.
"Thank you so much Andy," Rose told him. Dr. Brown waved it off.
"It was nothing. How exactly did you break it again?" Dr. Brown asked him. Bright frowned.
"Karma," Amy responded for him with a grin on her face.
The steep hill was about fifty feet down and Desi and Ephram tumbled every foot of it. Desi got up from where she lay and onto her hands and knees. She was covered in mud and her clothes and hair were filled with leaves and twigs. She looked over to her left to find the flashlight lying on the ground, smashed beyond repair. She breathed in heavily, regaining the air she had lost. Once she felt safe to move without pain she looked up and saw Ephram sitting up against a tree. His clothes were about in the same shape hers were in, but his mask had been lost somewhere from the fall. Desi groaned as she got to her feet and walked over to him. When she got close she found him clutching his right forearm. His face looked like he was in pain and the better look she got at his arm, the better she saw the fragment of wood lodged in it and the blood on his white shirt. She knelt at his right side and looked around for a sharp stone. She found one and used it to cut his sleeve off at the elbow. She cringed seeing just the wood jutting into his skin.
"This is going to hurt," she warned him as she grabbed his wrist with one hand and the wood fragment with the other, and pulled. Ephram yelled in pain and Desi almost joined him. She threw the piece of wood away from them and took the sleeve she had cut off and wrapped his arm. The sleeve wasn't enough so she took the same sharp stone and cut off a strip from her cloak and wrapped that firmly around his arm. With his other arm Ephram pushed himself up into a better sitting position against the tree. He looked at his right arm as he moved it stiffly. He opened and closed his hand and was surprised by how much it hurt. He turned to her and smiled.
"Thanks," he said. She smiled too.
"You can thank me when we get you to a doctor," she said standing up. She offered him her right hand and he grabbed with his left and together Ephram got up. They were standing at the bottom of one hill, and another twice as tall loomed in front of them. But to either side was a long valley through the middle of which ran a small creek. With no more trees to hide them, the stars and the moon were able to shed light enough to see well on Ephram and Desi. Ephram turned to her.
"Now where do we go?" he asked her. Desi, not really used to being in charge of important situations, looked back up the hill they had fallen down.
"Well, we could try climbing back up, but I'm not a good climber and I doubt you'd get very far with that arm, so, um, I suppose we, just, go that way," Desi said pointing down the valley. Ephram looked where she was pointing. It would have been the direction one of the roads they could have taken. Now they didn't really have a choice.
When Jig walked into her house to tell Irv and Edna that they needed to go pick up Ephram and Desi, as well as call Dr. Brown to tell him, she discovered the house empty and Dr. Brown not at home, or at least not picking up the phone. It was almost one o'clock, how could no one be home? How could her 70-year-old legal guardians be out so late? Now fully distressed for her friend's well being, she called the Abbotts. No one was home their either. They were probably still getting Bright's nose fixed. Jig was tempted to call the Quincampoix household but she knew there was no way to get that number. She paced back and fourth across the living room floor quickly. This was all her fault. If she hadn't gone and broken Bright's nose, Ephram and Desi would probably be in bed right now. She'd probably be in bed right now. Neither of them were the out doors type, what if they got lost? What if they fell asleep and froze to death? What if a rabid raccoon ripped their throats out with its teeth! It could happen! Maybe! Maybe Jig was overreacting… But she would not let Ephram and Desi spend the entire night in the woods. She really needed to find Edna and Irv.
Another hour had passed and Ephram and Desi found themselves walking up a gentle hill. Ephram was in the lead and tired, but forced his long legs to move. Desi, not used to walking many places thanks to her father's limo, was tired and felt like she was half dead.
"I gotta stop!" she yelled bending over and dropping herself on the grass. Ephram turned around and walked back. He then sat down next to her with a sigh. He listened as she caught her breath and they looked out at the dark scene. The hill they were on had been inclining for some time and gave them a nice view of the valley. Ephram had to imagine what it'd be like in the daylight. Ephram turned his attention to Desi as she was still breathing heavily. He chuckled slightly at her. Hearing this she turned to him, and a smile lifted the sides of her mouth.
For awhile Ephram, his features, his voice, the way the entire bottom half of him moved when he walked, all of him had reminded her of someone. She had never been sure of whom, but his chuckling filled her in.
"That's right, I shouldn't have forgotten that. You are like him," Desi told Ephram. He looked at her with a curious smile on his face, the smile being the remains of his chuckling.
"Like who?" Ephram asked, hoping she wasn't about to say 'your father.'
"My older brother," Desi said with a full sigh. Ephram was relieved and yet still curious. No one had ever mentioned the Mayor having a son.
"You have a brother?" he asked her curiously. Desi paused before answering him.
"You know… you know how everyone seems to have this great tragedy in their life?" she asked him, not looking at him. He knew that very well, but she didn't seem like she'd care if he answered. She turned to him now.
"Christopher's mine. He died about six years ago. He went to college in New York City, got mugged, got shot, got sent back here in a wooden box," Desi told him. Ephram fell silent. I had to be New York, didn't it? The two remained silent for awhile until Desi started talking again.
"I was Delia's age when Christopher died. He was all I had in the world. My dad does nothing but politics and my mom does nothing but talk on the phone. When the press wasn't around Christopher was the only one who remembered I existed. Christopher was the one who made sure I ate when I needed to, smiled when I needed to, and cried when I needed to. For the past six years I've gotten up and walked around, but I'm dead inside…" she said and paused, "do you know how important you are to Delia?"
Ephram looked down to the ground at the question. He had never thought of exactly how important he was to Delia's life, now that their mom was dead.
"You need to make sure you stay okay Ephram, you can't go off and do anything stupid that might get you killed. You need to be safe for Delia," Desi told him. He looked at her and nodded.
"I know that," he said. Desi smiled. They were silent again before Desi spoke.
"But I'll make you a promise, Ephram Brown, if anything should happen to you, I'll make sure Delia eats, and smiles, and cries," Desi promised him. That promise took him off guard. As far as he knew, Desi had never even met Delia let alone grown attached to her. But Ephram knew Desi's promise wasn't meant to make him feel better, it was meant to let Desi know that she could help stop the pain she felt from happening again.
"Thanks, but I don't intend on getting myself killed," he said standing up. Desi stood up too.
"Good to hear," she said. Ephram turned and started his way back up the hill.
"Ephram!" Desi yelled after him. Ephram stopped and turned back to face her, "I didn't plan this, honestly."
Ephram smiled, "I know."
