While she slept, her brain bled.
And then she died.
She was probably already dead when I got home from work that night. I’d stayed late to work on a report for Ellis. She was already in bed by the time I walked in the door.
Must have been a long day, better let her sleep, I thought when I found her door closed. So that’s what I did.
“Subdural hematoma,” the coroner said.
“Criminal working conditions,” Emma told me.
“She’s sick. She just needs rest,” I told everyone who asked.
There’s a sound. It’s soft, pitiful, and made by something small. It’s me. I’m crying,
“Emma, my mom is dead.”
My voice is so slurred with tears and whatever was in that water that I can barely understand myself.
She must understand me because she responds. “I know. I know. I’m so sorry. Lou, I need you to give me the phone. I need you to do that for me.Pleasedo that for me.”
The phone? The phone. Everything is heavy and loose. I’m a water balloon sloshing across the ground. My stomach jumps and I think I might throw up.
Emma’s face is wet and her eyes bloodshot. She’s already got her arm stretched across the carpet, like it’s been that way for a while. I push it toward her. The phone slides, slides, stops just out of her reach.
She makes a frustrated, angry sound and reaches out to it with her foot.
A tentative voice calls down the stairs, “Leah?” just as Emma makes contact with the beaded chain attached to the phone’s case.
The voice is unbelievably congested, which makes me laugh. It’s Greg!
Greg’s talking to another person and the other person is talking back. Emma has the phone to her ear and she’stalking too. The only sound that makes sense is the feet thumping down the stairs.
I flop over to watch. There are legs standing in front of me. The legs belong to a man. The man crouches. He’s close enough that I can smell the spice of his cologne, feel the intense focus of his stare.
Ellis regards me. He’s wearing a crisp white T-shirt while the other people wear maroon scrubs. His hair’s in a low ponytail and there’s a streak of dirt on his cheek. I think, absurdly,He looks good. Smells good too, like pine. It was really nice when I thought he was going to save me.
Emma is yelling, furious and frantic as a hissing cat. Abruptly it cuts off. The room feels empty without her voice in it. No, that’s not right. It’s not the room that feels empty.
It’s me.
There used to be a point to me.
Ellis rests the back of his hand on my forehead. He’s warm, and it makes me want to cry.
“Aw, Lou. What are we going to do with you?”
Lou 1:13 pm:Cn you watch Ripleuyy?
Emma 1:22 pm:Of course. When?
Emma 1:23 pm:Are you okay?
Emma 2:13 pm:There are cops all over your house. they’re saying it’s a crime scene? They won’t tell me where you are
Emma 2:41 pm:Fuckers weren’t going to give her to me but I got ripley. You need to call me as soon as yo ucan.
Emma 3:13 pm:Please call me.
