Page 88 of Not Quite Dead Yet

‘Need me to open it?’ Billy asked.

‘Kind of feels anti-feminist if I let you do that.’

‘No one’s watching.’

‘Apart from Reggie.’

‘He won’t tell,’ Billy said, leaning forward, placing one hand over Jet’s on the bottle, the other on the lid, pressing down and twisting it off. ‘There, you did most of the work. I just finished it off.’

‘Don’t humor me.’ Jet looked inside the bottle.

‘Yeah, you humor yourself too much already.’

Jet tipped the bottle and poured the contents out against the white toilet lid. Little yellow capsules rolled everywhere, a small mountain gathering together in the center. Tiny black writing printed on each one:Lotrel 2260.

‘What do these pills actually do?’ Billy asked, picking one up to study it.

Jet did the same, pinching it in her left hand.

‘It’s acalcium-channel blocker,’ Jet said, quoting from thepackaging, long ago memorized from the times she’d forgotten to bring her phone to the bathroom with her, had to find something else to read. Shampoo bottle also worked in a pinch. ‘Treats high blood pressure, a side effect of PKD, which can make our kidneys worse, me and my dad. That’s why we gotta take these. See anything strange?’ Jet brought the capsule closer to her eye, picked up another one instead. They both looked normal, no dents, the top half aligned with the bottom.

‘Not really,’ Billy said. ‘But you’re the one who’s taken them every day for years. You see anything strange?’

‘Not really,’ Jet repeated him. ‘Can you open one up, pour out the powder?’

Billy screwed one of the small capsules between his fingers, working one end away from the other, splitting it into two halves, the powder sitting inside the bottom part. He bent forward and tapped the white powder out onto the toilet seat.

‘Is that what it’s supposed to look like?’ Billy asked, his breath tickling the powder, scattering some.

Jet lowered her head, bringing her eyes down to the level of the powder, studied it. ‘Don’t know,’ she whispered. ‘I’ve never opened one before. What does it taste like?’

Jet licked her left index finger and pressed it to the pile, the powder clinging to her damp skin. She stuck out her tongue and swiped her finger across, tasting it.

Her mouth filled with saliva to wash out the sharp taste.

‘Not good?’ Billy watched her face, tasting some too.

‘I don’t know,’ Jet said. ‘Tastes chemically. Chalky. Tastes like medicine, really.’

‘So maybe they aren’t tampered with?’ Billy pulled the same face, retracting his tongue.

‘Well, I don’t actually know what poison tastes like either. Probably chemically and chalky too.’

‘They don’t look tampered with.’ Billy picked up another one. He unscrewed the two halves and then tucked them back together into a whole. ‘See, it doesn’t look perfect now. There’s a dent there, and that line isn’t exactly aligned. It’s hard to make it right again without denting it more.’ He tried. ‘I think we’d be able to tell if she’d opened every one and replaced the medicine with something else.’

He held out the evidence to Jet and she picked up the slightly deformed capsule. He wasn’t wrong.

‘But we literallysawher taking my pills away, then coming back to plant them an hour later. What was she –’ Jet’s mind got there before her words did, not even a close race. At least that part of her brain still worked. ‘Notmypills,’ she hissed, scattering more powder, capsules rolling away from her. ‘My dad takes the same ones. It washispills Sophia took. Come on. Can you –?’

Jet gestured to the mess on the toilet seat.

Billy understood perfectly, scooping the capsules with both hands, sliding them into the open bottle. He blew to clear away the last of the powder, re-screwing the lid and handing the bottle to Jet. Wrong hand. He blushed. Jet didn’t.

‘Come on.’

Jet rattled as she left the bathroom, pill bottle swaying at her side, stepping over Reggie. He got up to follow immediately as they headed out of Jet’s room, down the hallway toward her parents’ bedroom.

The bed was immaculately made, always was. Old hardcover books on the wall-mounted shelves that weren’t actually for reading, display only. The large French double doors leading to the balcony that looked out over the garden, over the pool.

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