I spent most of the next few days lying in bed. My mom had come to pick me up later that day. Father Dom had explained how I'd been held back in a 'class president meeting' which had unfortunately over-run. Then I'd been caught in the storm and he thought it would be better if I used some kind of transportation getting home. I could tell he was still kind of mad at me for the tree thing, but was doing his best to hide it. Jesse was a different story. He went mental when he made me tell him exactly what happened after I'd missed my ride home. I managed to miss the parts where Paul had ditched me and the ghost girl had made the tree fall-on top of me. This of course was the bit he wanted to know. The ghost thing I mean.
Not that I was telling of course. I wanted to figure it out on my own. And if what she said was true; I had a feeling I'd be seeing her sooner rather than later.
That is why, instead of relaxing in bed to get rid of my fever. I was actually lying wide awake with a four inch knife beneath my pillow. Pretty picture huh? Well better to be safe than sorry. The only problem being that if she came here looking all sweet an innocent, I don't think I'd be able to. You know. Stick a knife in the poor girl. I truly think she doesn't actually want to kill me.
Yeah Suze, that's why you have an axe under your mattress. So yeah ok; I believed she wants to kill me. So what? Since when have I ever been right about anything anyway? Stop asking yourself questions! Just then I heard the floor boards outside my room creak. I quickly closed my eyes and spun to face the wall. I hate it when you fake being asleep and they see your eyes twitching or something. The door opened and in padded my mom. Well I think mom anyway. I got the shock of my life when I found myself being shook awake by Doc. He pulled on my shoulder so that I had no choice but to turn round and face him. I really felt like hitting him right then. I really did.
"Suze. I thought you were awake. No-one sleeps like that." He whispered sounding slightly out of breath. It stung all the same. I'd been tricking my mom for years like that!
"What do you mean 'no-one sleeps like that'? I sleep like that, thank you very much"
"Well maybe some people do." he said uncomfortably. Obviously thinking that maybe he'd been wrong for once.
"What do I owe this pleasure?" I asked, carefully lowering my voice so it didn't carry outside the room. Doc seemed to have a problem with closing the door.
"It's Jesse." He said equally quietly. But the words sounded like a violent scream. Jesse. I'd been so rude to him yesterday, when all he'd done was save me from another of my messes. I didn't see how Doc would know that though.
"Close the door and then you can explain." He did as I asked. He almost tripped over his own foot running to close my door. That's why I like the little guy. He doesn't even feel the need to question me. Unlike some people I could mention. He flew back down next to me, looking way too eager to explain something to me.
"I found out what happened to his sisters for you. I think you mentioned it a little while back." He was of course right. I had asked him to find out about that some time ago. But now I didn't really see the point in knowing. What with the Jesse-not-speaking-to-me thing. Well ok, so maybe it was me not speaking to Jesse. Does it matter? Then seeing the excited expression on my step brothers' face, I couldn't turn it down. He'd obviously gone to great lengths trying to find this information. For me. Suddenly I felt all warm and fuzzy inside.
"Hey, thanks Doc. What'd you find?" I asked. Which was exactly what he wanted to hear. He was practically wetting himself as he told me. They'd all grown up to be fine young women, with wealthy husbands and many children. Just like I'd thought.
"..........except this one girl. She was the youngest. Her name was Rosa-Lynne. She didn't do any of that." He held up a picture for me to look at. All at once I got the feeling. I'd seen that girl before. She was very beautiful, with shoulder-length pale blonde hair. But it was her eyes that startled me. They were blue. Suddenly I knew where I'd seen her before.
"Why so?" I asked quietly.
"She died." And my day pretty much went down-hill from there.