She takes a plate of food that Sam assembled for her and sits at the table.
I bravely join her with my coffee.
“Let’s get this out of the way,” she says between mouthfuls. At least she’s eating.
“Get what out of the way?”
“Tell me what you know. About all this.” She waves a fork around. “This death tripping.”
I explain what I can with Sam jumping in to help me when I falter. While Amy refuses to look at me, she does seem to be listening. I tell her about Costa tripping Sam and then me and what he relayed to us about the day of the accident.
“I heard Dad in your room, apologizing. He said he didn’t know what to do.”
Amy slaps her fork against her plate, and I jump. “He should have let me die! That’s what he should have done.”
I’m too shaken to respond, but Sam pulls out a chair and sits next to her. “Costa said the same thing. I know how that feels. And you’re sick right now, so that makes everything worse. You’ve been tripping your ass off, huh? You’ve been surging hard, too?”
“Surging?”
“What happens after you surface.”
He explains the layers of it, and Amy eventually turns her head slightly in his direction.
“Yes,” she finally says. “I surge hard.”
“You’re addicted,” he offers.
“I can stop the surge if I want. I just choose not to,” she says rather proudly.
“What do you mean, you can stop it?” he asks. So far, the only thing that’s prevented us from surging was the aftermath of not finding Toby.
Amy wipes her mouth with the back of her hand. “Watermelon.”
“I’m sorry. What?” Sam looks beyond confused.
“Watermelon. Stops all the craziness. I came back one time and went to a bar. I don’t know about you guys, but I need to get laid when I come back. When Isurface. It’s so crazy to finally have a word for it. Anyway, I went to a bar and ordered a watermelon cosmopolitan.” She moves a finger across her throat. “Cuts it off in a second. Totally sucked. But I keep it on hand if I have a shitty trip.”
Sam laughs. “Seriously? Watermelon?”
“Yep. The imitation stuff works a little, too, if you’re desperate or if you just want to tone it down. You know, watermelon-flavored water or even gum at least takes the edge off.”
I have to smile. I remember the watermelon-flavored water that I found in her bedroom at the condo when I thought she overdosed. Everything about that day now makes sense, even down to the trash in her apartment.
“Now, tell me more about these powers you get. I don’t have that—at least not that I know of. And Stella is your what? Generator?”
I roll my eyes. “Power augmenter, not generator.”
“Whatever. Are all women power augmenters? We don’t get powers? That blows. So, am I a power augmenter?”
Sam shrugs. “No idea.”
Amy studies him. “Maybe I could try augmenting your powers, Sam? What do you say we give it a try?”
I don’t like the way she’s eyeing him. “It doesn’t work that way.” I drink the last of my coffee and loudly set my cup down. “Also, screw you.”
Sam shoots me a look that tells me to leave it alone. Amy is not a threat.
“We don’t exactly have a huge population of death trippers to interview. You and Stella are the only female death trippers we know. Costa and I are the only males, except for your missing father. You can’t find him anywhere?”
