Page 80 of The Lady on Esplanade
“And I’ve been memorizing lots of ABBA lyrics and songs.”
“Even better,” I said, unable to keep myself from smiling.“Hopefully you won’t have to resort to using either the brooch or ABBA.We’re just going to have a chill weekend filled with lots of pizza, popcorn, and chick flicks.Doesn’t that sound like fun?”
When she didn’t say anything, I lifted my head again.“Sarah?Are you regretting not calling Melanie?Because I can call her right now and have you on the first flight home if—”
“No.It’s not that.”
I did my best to scooch back in the bed to rest against the headboard without my foot coming dislodged from the stack of pillows it rested on, and I waited for her to say something.
“I want to help.With Beau’s mom.And with whatever is haunting that creepy doll.”
I didn’t add Cooper’s ghostly female companion.Even I couldn’t grapple with all the lost and lonely spirits that were inhabiting my world at the moment, and I was presumably an adult.“You shouldn’t have to worry about any of it, Sarah.You’re a kid, and one day soon you’ll be all grown up, and then you’ll have to worry about stuff.Enjoy it while you can.”
“When you were my age you were on a Greyhound bus all by yourself, moving across the country.”
“Yes, but—”
“Sometimes we know what’s best for us even if other people think we’re too young.You have bravery on steroids, and I can talk to deadpeople.It’s, like, our superpowers, you know?And I think we have them so that we can help others.I would feel selfish if someone needed my help and I said I couldn’t help because I wasn’t old enough.”
We lay in the dark without speaking, with only the sound of Mardi’s snoring interrupting the silence.Eventually I said, “What is it you want to do that you think I’ll say no to?”
“How did you know?”
“I was once a dumb preteen, too.I know how you think.So, what is it?”
“Since you asked, I need you to tell Beau to let me help him talk to his mom.He needs to.There’s something…not right in Mimi’s house, and I think it’s about Adele.And how she died.She wouldn’t let me see anything, but I felt it.Felther.She really needs to talk to Beau.He needs to find his dad before they do.”
Chill bumps bounced along my spine.“Who are ‘they’?”
She lowered her voice to a whisper.“The same people who hurt Adele.”
I lay against the pillow.“Madame Zoe said the same thing.And why are you whispering?”
“Because I don’t want anyone else to hear,” she whispered back.
By “anyone else” I knew she wasn’t referring to Jolene.
Mardi left my pillow and stepped across me to settle into Sarah’s lap, as if he sensed that she needed comfort and support.In the same low voice, she said, “Something’s building—something real bad.It’s like a pimple right under the skin getting ready to pop.”
It was refreshing to be reminded sometimes that Sarah was just a preteen with a grown-up gift.
She leaned closer to me.“Beau’s in real danger.”
My apprehension turned into full-blown panic, and I had to force myself to keep my voice calm.“All right.And if I convince him to talk to Adele, you believe that you can help him with what’s next?”
“Yeah.Pretty much.”
“If I do that, you have to promise me that if you are in any kindof danger, you will stop immediately and let me send you home.Melanie would kill me just for having this conversation.”
“I know.But since she didn’t make you disappear when you were a teenager, or me when I was a colicky baby, I think we’re safe.”
“That’s very dark, Sarah.Very dark.”
“It comes with the territory.”
I sighed.“What makes you think Beau will listen to me?”
“Seriously?”I imagined Sarah rolling her eyes in the dark.“Do you really need me to answer that?”
