“I know; I know.” James started the engine then peeled out of the parking lot while slamming the door.
“Head back. They’ll expect us to get further away.”
“Will you let me drive?” He laughed lightly; Sian guessed he was nervous. “I know what I’m doing.”
“All right, all right.” She hung on to the door as he pushed the pedal to the floor and shook as the needle on the speedometer rose to above ninety. He dodged the cars expertly.
“You’ve done this before?”
“No.”
“We’re going to die!” She started laughing uncontrollably.
“No, we’re not.”
“Yes, we are.” She stopped laughing and stared straight forward as the trees flew by.
“Shit!” James swerved hard left to avoid a red station wagon in front of him. Sian was thrown against the door and felt the sunglasses fly off her face, heard them as they clattered against the window.
“Are you okay?” He put a hand on her shoulder. “Sian?”
She looked at him without the glasses and nodded, then winced as he drew back in shock and faced the road again. His reaction didn’t surprise her; she knew her eyes were grey, grey enough, in fact, to be mistaken for metal.
“What the-”
“Keep on driving.” She picked up her glasses and put them back on, thengrabbed onto the door again as James sped up.
He checked the rear-view mirror, then sighed in relief. “I think we lost them!”
Suddenly, a dark green two-door sedan pulled horizontally in front of the jeep. Sian could see the man inside, dressed in a suit. She heard the brakes squeal as James hit them, not bothering to shift gears, and turned the wheel hard to the right.
They began to grind to a halt and swerve, not quickly enough. She felt the impact
as the Jeep clipped the edge of the car, and turned over, landing on the grass next to the
roadway. Then, she felt nothing.
She could hear voices outside her room. It was typical of her
mother to talk as if walls were magic things able to make even shouting quieter than a
whisper; she spoke in a loud, audible voice.
“You’re sure. . .it’ll be the same as before?”
“I’m sure. You have your daughter back. Be grateful.”
“You can’t tell my husband. He’d. . .”
“I understand.” The doctor’s voice was audibly strained. “I won’t tell him.”
“Thank you, Doctor, for all you’ve done.”
“Don’t-”
“I have to. If she had died. . .it would have destroyed Cal.”
“She did die, Mrs. Mackenzie. This is all an illusion.”
Sian heard footsteps, growing fainter as they moved away from her, down the
hallway, and the constant sound of her mother crying. She took it as another strange
dream, and huddled under the covers, closing her eyes and wishing to either sleep or
wake up.
She was awake in the hospital; she had always been awake in the hospital. Sleep
only came in shut eyes and slow breathing. She was always thinking, always trying to
solve something or dreaming. Sian wondered if she would ever sleep, really sleep, again.