“I need water,” she said as the sobbing finally ebbed into a light whimper. She hadn’t had anything to drink in hours and knew all too well that dehydration was not a preferable way to die.
She was on the damp grass, cold seeping in through her cargos, a boulder at her back. Charlie’s nose had stopped bleeding at some point, dried blood smeared across his lower face like lipstick applied by a toddler.
“I’ve got a 7 Up in my bag,” said Charlie, pulling himself to his feet from beside her. He walked over to where he’d dropped the duffel and fished out a one-liter bottle.
“Why?” was all Nora could bring herself to say.
“I packed the essentials.” He sat back down and handed Nora the bottle. She tried twisting off the cap, but her wrist sent pulses of pain screaming “absolutely not” down to her elbow. She winced and nudged Charlie with the cap until he took the hint and opened it for her. She glugged.
The car still steamed in front of them, the hood accordioned where it had struck the wooden post.
“How far are we?”
Charlie sheepishly dug into his pocket and pulled out his phone, the screen smashed, black, and streaked with multicolored lights. They would almost have been pretty if they didn’t signify the demise of the twins’ only means of directions. Nora’s own phone had died some hours back, and neither she nor Charlie had a charger. Apparently that wasn’t one of Charlie’s essentials. She took another swig of the soda that had made the cut.
“For fuck’s sake.”
“I know, right?” Charlie leaned back against the boulder that could have killed him. “Hey, you still planning on crying somemore, or should we figure out a plan? I’m freezing my balls off out here.”
Nora looked over at Charlie in his blood-streaked T-shirt and threadbare flannel pajama pants. “You didn’t pack a coat?”
Charlie seemed to consider the suggestion for a moment. “Huh.”
“Christ.” Nora hauled herself to her feet. “Okay, well, the road leads that way. I guess we follow it until we reach civilization. We should really get looked at by a doctor. I know neither of us lost consciousness, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t sustain concussions, and concussions can cause brain damage, which increases the risk of—”
“Doctor, got it.” Charlie got back up and grabbed Jessica’s cage from where it sat by his feet. The bird, for her part, gave an affronted squawk at the sudden movement. “I’ll keep my eyes peeled for anyone with a stethoscope and college debt. Can we get this party started?”
Eventually the silver-speckled blanket of black above them began to crack with the first hints of morning light as they trudged down the endless winding road, taking turns with Nora’s jacket to stave off hypothermia. Jessica, for her part, was back in Charlie’s duffel and away from the bite of the air, and she’d yet to complain about this mode of transportation.
It felt as if someone had scooped out the bones and muscles and other fun goop in Nora’s legs and replaced them with equal parts bricks and steel. “Fatigue” was too easygoing a word for the raw exhaustion that pressed down on her with each step, dragging her shoulders lower, stifling her stride. Beside her, Charlie marched along as easily as if they were on a late-night quest to the corner store for snacks. It was infuriating.
Eventually the paved road ended, gravel carrying on in one direction, paths carved into the grass by years of tire tracks splitting into two more. The twins silently agreed on the gravel road, following it along the coast until a little buttercream-yellow clapboard building appeared at the top of a hill, a wooden coffee cup jutting out beside a green-and-blue awning.
The sun was fully risen now, bathing the landscape in rays that promised heat and failed to deliver. The ocean sat in the near distance, waves lazily lapping in the light morning breeze. Long, browned grass curled over itself from harsher winds past, little houses scattered near the rugged beach below.
“Think they’re open?” Charlie asked, jabbing a thumb at the café, his tone only half-serious.
Nora checked her watch. Even if the café was operating under regular hours—which she doubted, what with this definitely being the offseason for whatever picturesque little community they’d stumbled into—it was still too early for most of civilization. Still, it was worth a try. Above the little café sign was evidence of a residence. That meant the proprietors could be inside, which meant they could help.
Nora pulled back the screen door and gave a firm knock, which was promptly answered by silence. Another knock, this time met with a sharp gust of wind that crept down the neck of Nora’s shirt, but still nothing from within. It had been a long shot. She shook her head at Charlie, who stood at the base of the three fat stairs leading up to the door, and began her descent. It was too cold to wait any longer.
Just as they got back onto the gravel road, the café door opened. A woman in a powder-pink bathrobe and matchingslippers stood in the doorway, her already saucer-sized eyes widening as the twins turned around, revealing Charlie’s bloodied face and the ash in Nora’s cheeks.
“Goodness,” the woman said. “You kids all right?”
“We were in an accident,” Nora said, bristling at the word as it left her mouth.
“Well, come in, come in,” said the woman as she stepped to one side of the doorway and ushered them inside with a wave of both hands. “It’s right freezing out there, and it seems as if this young man here was the only one with the foresight to wear a coat.”
Charlie smugly wrapped Nora’s jacket tighter around his shoulders as he walked past the woman and into the café. “Yeah, I keep telling my sister to pack the essentials, but does she listen?”
Nora glared at her brother’s back but quickly followed him inside, desperate to escape the morning chill.
The café was a bright little spot, painted in pastel blues and yellows, sunlight streaming in through bay windows that framed a table topped with a single white plastic flower in a vase. Four other tables dotted the room, a cashier counter at the far end separating the café proper from the kitchen. Charlie and Nora took the seat in the window as the woman instructed, then she disappeared behind the counter and reappeared just as quickly with two steaming mugs of strong black coffee.
Nora never drank coffee. She produced enough anxiety naturally that the assistance of caffeine didn’t feel necessary. But that morning the warmth of the bitter liquid made it seem like a worthwhile trade-off. And besides, with all the adrenaline shestill had coursing through her body from the past twenty-four hours, she could barely tell which jitters were her own and which weren’t.
“I can wake my husband and get him to drive you to a hospital, if you’d like.” The woman in the bathrobe hovered above the table. The sunlight left deep shadows in the lines on her forehead and around her eyes and lips, her gray hair in tight curls close to her head. “The closest one is about forty-five minutes back that way. Unfortunately we don’t get ambulances coming out here unless it’s tourist season, when all the houses are let. But Johnny’ll drive you if I ask.”
