Is She for Real? (12 page)

The sand was damp and chilly. There were more rocks under the sand than there were on top of it, and the sand got coarser the deeper it was. But there she lay, and there her friends piled sand on her. It felt clammy on her body, and the burying part seemed to take forever. How many handfuls of sand did they have to put on her, anyway? It felt like a thousand. She felt the weight of the sand increase with each scoop they added, and felt increasingly claustrophobic lying there.

She reminded herself to breathe deeply. But even that was hard, with the weight of the sand on her chest. She breathed in through her nose and out through her mouth, the way her mom did when she did yoga. She even counted her breaths slowly, as her mom had taught
her when she was little and needed to calm herself down.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.

It didn't help much.

“Isn't it fun, Sandy Lady?” Lissa asked Bethany.

Bethany couldn't answer.

“Do you want us to decorate you in shells?” Olivia asked her as they patted the sand down more tightly. Bethany was now completely buried. Her long hair was splayed out on the sand, but other than that, just her head showed.

Bethany tried to nod her head no, but she couldn't move.

Lily smiled at her. “You look like a mermaid with your hair out like that!” she said, as if it was a compliment. All Bethany could do was try to keep breathing and wait for it to be over.

“How do you like your first Sandy Lady?” Lissa asked her.

Bethany managed to whisper a few words.

“I … changed … my mind!” she said slowly and softly.

“What?” Lissa said.

Bethany was finding her voice a bit better now.
“Start thy digging … fair maidens … and do free me!” she whispered.

“What'd she say?” Olivia asked. The others leaned in.

“My heart be broken … good ladies … do render me free!” she whispered.

“Huh? What is she talking about?” Lissa said.

“My heart be torn in two,” Bethany continued. “And I want not to be in this cold earth.”

Bethany was no longer buried in warm sand. Instead she was deep in cold earth. It was all rocks and hard soil, not sand and shells. She no longer smelled the carefree scents of summer: salt air, sunscreen, and the briny whiff of seaweed. Instead she smelled the rich mustiness of packed earth. She felt grubs and earthworms wriggle against her skin, and tangled roots pressing against her limbs.

Because she was not a Sandy Lady. In fact, she was no longer Bethany.

How could she make them understand what was happening and how much she needed to be free? And why did her left ring finger feel like it was on fire? It was as if the ring was burning into her skin.

She began gasping for air. The girls stood frozen in fear, just staring at her.

She tried to wiggle herself free underground but couldn't move. Then she began feeling herself fading away, as if she were about to faint. But there was nowhere to fall, because she was already down. Everything was growing dimmer at the edges, and soon she saw nothing at all.

She could barely speak, but managed to murmur two words: “My lord …” Then there was no more talking. Her eyes were closed, and she stopped wiggling around.

But in her head she was screaming.

Oh my God! Where am I?

How shall I ever get out of here?

My Lord, how could you do this to me?

Help! Be it known! I'm down here! Do help me!

The girls stood transfixed, all thinking the same thought:
Lady Warwick buried alive.

Now Lissa was the one who could hear her heartbeat in her ears. She ran with Olivia and Lily as fast as they could back to the house. They didn't stop to put on their flip-flops, and the hot sand burned their feet. Then the grass in Lissa's yard was scratchy and full of burrs. But in the panic of the moment, the girls didn't bother to complain. Adrenaline surged through their veins as they focused on the crisis at hand.

Lissa hoped her parents would still be home, that they hadn't left yet to go antiquing with the Warrens, but at home she found only Nate, sitting at the kitchen table, calmly eating a grilled cheese sandwich. He had just gotten back from his fishing trip with his friends, but they hadn't caught anything.

When the panting trio entered, Nate looked up and put down his sandwich.

“What's the matter?” He could tell something was very wrong.

“We were playing Sandy Lady …,” Lissa said, her voice breaking. She felt like a little girl. She hoped Nate wouldn't be scornful of the way she was acting. Of course, that was the least of her worries, she reminded herself.

Olivia grabbed Lissa's hand and held it hard. Lissa's voice was trembling so much that Olivia continued for her.

“And we buried Bethany and she kind of freaked out, and then she stopped talking and moving. She went completely still,” Olivia finished.

“Well, what happened when you dug her out?” Nate asked, raising his eyebrows.

The girls stood silent. Nate pushed his chair back loudly and broke the silence. He ran straight for the door, saying sharply, “Why didn't you dig her up right away? And why didn't one of you stay with her?”

And then he was gone, out the door, sprinting toward the backyard beach.

“Oh my God,” Lissa said, breathing hard and holding back tears. “He's right. What were we thinking?”
Something about the way he ran out reminded her of how serious this situation really was. She wished she could turn back time and listen to Bethany when she was saying she didn't want to be buried. Why hadn't she listened? Why had she gotten so caught up in Sandy Lady that she hadn't heard her friend's real fear?

“We're so close to the beach,” Olivia said, trying to sound reassuring to the others. “She was only alone for a minute or two.”

No one moved.

“Well, come on!” Olivia said to her two friends, who seemed to be standing frozen. “Let's get back there already! Hurry!”

It was as if Lissa and Lily had been slapped. They quickly snapped out of their stupor, and the three of them ran back to the beach.

As they approached, they breathed sighs of relief when they looked for Bethany's head in the sand and didn't see it.
Thank goodness, he must have pulled Bethany out
, Lissa thought, tears springing to her eyes.

They could see Nate in the distance, standing next to where Bethany had been. But there was no sign of Bethany.

As they approached Nate, they still saw no Bethany. Just Nate looking around.

And the hole barely looked like it had been dug up. The sand was practically undisturbed, still all neatly patted down. Bethany just wasn't in the hole anymore. That was the only difference.

“She told me she took gymnastics in New York City,” Olivia said weakly. “Maybe that's how she got out of the hole without messing up the sand.”

Nate stood next to it, shading his eyes, looking up and down the beach for her.

“What
exactly
happened? Break it down for me,” he said impatiently, as he dug furiously in the sand where Bethany should have been. He sounded a lot like their father, Lissa thought.

“We buried her in the sand, and we don't think she liked it,” she said, trying not to cry. She realized with shame just how much Bethany hadn't wanted to be buried, and how uncomfortable she'd been down there. Lissa felt just terrible. Why hadn't she been more sensitive?
Bethany always seems like she can take care of herself
, she thought.
I guess I just thought she was being dramatic.

“She was talking strange, like in a whisper, and
using really old-fashioned words like ‘Start thy digging, maidens,'” Olivia added. “She said she was heartbroken. We didn't know what she was talking about.”

“She said she was …
heartbroken
?” Nate said slowly and deliberately.

“Yes. And she said ‘my lord.' That was the last thing she said before we ran home,” Lissa told Nate.

“And now we don't see her anywhere,” Nate said angrily. “She's obviously run off.”

“But the sand hasn't been dug up,” Olivia pointed out.

“But she's not here,” Nate said, sounding increasingly angry.

“I see that, but like Olivia said, the sand hasn't been dug up,” Lissa said, and then realized that this was no time to bicker. “Okay, let's go up and down the beach, looking for her. Two of us will go in one direction, and the other two will go in the other direction. We'll meet back here in twenty minutes. Do you guys have your phones?”

“Wait,” Nate said. He didn't sound mad anymore. He sounded puzzled. He was staring intently at the sand, into the hole he had dug up.

“What?” Olivia and Lissa cried in unison.

“Her ring,” he said in disbelief, pointing. It was
true. The ruby ring lay in the sand, in exactly the place Bethany's hand had been.

“Why would she have left her ring?” Lily said, speaking for the first time. “She loves that ring.”

“Because she's mad at me,” Nate said, feeling his own composure start to crumble now. “We sort of had a fight.” His stomach hurt as he remembered the conversation at the door just a few hours ago. Had he upset her so much that she would actually run away? Where
was
she?

“I'm sure it's not your fault,” Lissa said to her brother. “She's been acting like such a drama queen lately. Come on, take the ring and let's split up and look for her.”

Nate bent down and put the ring on his pinky finger. It went on only halfway.

Lissa and Nate went in one direction along the shore, Olivia and Lily in the other. Both pairs passed only happy families and kids playing in the waves. Everything in the world seemed so normal.

Except this.

When they got back to the spot Bethany had been buried, they all expected to find her sitting there, laughing. “Fooled you!” But no Bethany.

They went back to the house to try to figure out what to do. In silence, they sat at the kitchen table, where Nate's unfinished grilled cheese still lay.
Everything was so normal when I started eating that
, he thought,
and now everything is so different
.

“We have to tell her parents,” Lily finally said.

“We can't,” Lissa snapped. “They're out antiquing with
our
parents, remember? And we can't tell her aunt. She couldn't deal with it. We were so dumb to leave Bethany alone. We'll be in huge trouble. Let's just find her, and then Bethany can tell them the whole story if she likes. But first we need to
find her
.”

Nate grabbed a paper and pencil and started sketching their search area. He quickly ruled out the beach area, which they'd already searched. Instead he tapped the pencil on the woods area of his map.

“We'll begin in the woods behind the graveyard,” he said. The girls were secretly relieved that he was acting as if he were in charge. Usually Lissa would resent him being so bossy, but not this time.

“And we'll stay together,” Nate said sternly. “It'll get more confusing if we split up and meet back here. And you guys will probably get scared,” he said, but not meanly. The girls were relieved they'd be sticking together. In fact, they were already holding hands.

“If she's not in the woods, we'll check the beach
again,” Nate continued. “She couldn't have gone far. She doesn't even have a bike or skateboard.” He was acting serious, but not panicked. Lissa noticed again how much he was acting like their dad, and she was glad he was. Her dad was great in an emergency. Lissa wished her mom and dad were really there right now.

The four went out the back door straight into the woods, passing the tree house that Nate and Lissa's dad had built them so long ago, where they used to spend so much time. It had been a year or so since they'd been up there.