Unbreakable (9 page)

Sometimes Mrs. Priest would give in and sometimes Jacie, but tonight her mother had held strong, knowing that Jacie wanted to be turned loose to go trick-or-treating with her friends.

Nina tapped on the window. Jacie's scowling face softened into a smile as she got up and with a grunt opened the window. She shivered a little when a blast of cool air poured into the room. "Hi."

Nina grinned. "Hi!"

"Hurry up, Jacie!" Katy called from the hedges below. "It's almost dark!"

Jacie sighed and stuck her head out the window to observe her friends. "It's Brussels sprouts night."

A chorus of sympathetic groans and retching noises met her words.

"Can't you just eat ‘em real fast?" Gwen suggested, thinking that her shoulder would break from Nina's weight.

"No way," Jacie said. "I'll barf."

Katy pushed off from the house. "Pitch 'em out the window then."

Jacie shook her head. "Last time I did that, my dad found them the next day when he was trimming the bushes and I had to go pick my own switch from the back yard. My butt was striped for a week!"

Nina frowned. Jacie wasn't exaggerating about that. "I could do it," she offered bravely, wobbling a little on the bigger girls' shoulders.

Jacie's eyes went round. "You could?"

"Y-yes," Nina answered firmly, her knees cold against the bricks. "I like ‘em."

Gwen and Audrey both went "Ewwwww."

"Neato," Katy said, clapping her hands, her mood swinging from one end of the spectrum to the other as it often did. "Hurry up and do it then or all the best candy's gonna be gone. I've already seen Bucky Lee in front of Old Man Kressler's house dressed like Frankenstein and eating a big bag of Sugar Babies."

Jacie digested this information with a dour look. There was no way that Bucky should be getting candy while she was stuck in her kitchen. She regarded Nina seriously. "You really like Brussels sprouts, Nina? Because I am not eating them," she said stubbornly. "You guys can go on without me."

"Aww... Jacie," Gwen moaned.

"No," Nina answered quickly. "I me-mean yes. I like ‘em. Really."

Jacie stared at her for several seconds before grinning broadly and dashing back for her plate. She snatched it up off the table, then poked her head out of the kitchen to make sure one of her parents wasn't on the way back for a cup of coffee or another slice of pie. "Here ya go." She held out the plate.

Nina lifted a hand but began to sway dangerously. "Whoooa. I c-can't reach them."

"She needs to hold onto the trellis or she'll fall," Gwen panted, trying to save time by explaining things on Nina's behalf.

A look of indecision flickered across Jacie's face.

"Just put ‘em in my m-mouth." Nina opened wide and waggled a pink tongue

Jacie nodded quickly and picked up a large, soggy Brussels Sprout between two fingers. "Uck!" She turned the same gray/green color as the mushy vegetable when Nina happily chomped it to pieces, gulped, then opened her mouth for another bite.

Gwen, Audrey, and Katy wholeheartedly cheered her on, forgetting that they were supposed to be quiet as they hid in the shadows of Jacie's house.

When she'd swallowed the last bite, Nina licked her lips and signaled for Audrey and Gwen to let her down. Katy moved quickly behind her to help her to the ground.

Jacie let out a triumphant whoop and climbed out of the kitchen window and down the trellis like a one-armed monkey, hampered, but still agile. "Thanks, Nina!"

"No problem," Nina said shyly, her face heating. She was so proud of herself that she was about ready to bust.

Gwen pointed upward. "What about the window, Jacie?" The wind changed directions and she caught the strong whiff of coffee and what she thought was chipped beef on toast.

Jacie peered back towards her house and the window she'd forgotten to close on her way out. She shrugged. "Doesn't matter. It was too hot in there anyway and this will get out the smell of green mush."

The girls laughed and half-walked, half-skipped down the sidewalk. Porch lights were just being flipped around the neighborhood and the eerie, glowing smile of jack-o-lanterns lit most front steps. Leaves chased each other in driveways and the cool wind gusted fitfully, rustling them and rattling branches.

Jacie pulled out a large pillowcase that she'd stuffed into the waist of her pants, fluffing it out the best she could with one hand as she walked.

"You think that'll hold enough?" Katy teased, eyeing the pink pillowcase with interest.

"You're just jealous." Jacie grinned. "Heh." Then Gwen caught her eye. "What are you supposed to be dressed as?"

Gwen gave her friend an indignant snort and fingered the satin sash that was draped across her shoulder. She was wearing an ill fitting puffy dress and a rhinestone tiara. "Miss Missouri, of course."

Jacie stepped closer and squinted.

Gwen held out the sash that actually read "Miss Missouri."

"Figures," Jacie murmured with a smirk.

"Let's start here," Audrey suggested, readying her bag. "Last year Mrs. Foster gave out popcorn balls."

"Big ones!" Katy agreed, humming her approval.

All the girls but Nina trotted up the sidewalk to the first house. Gwen rang the doorbell.

Jacie noticed that Nina wasn't with them; she turned towards the tattered hobo, who was staring down the street. Curious, she trotted back to her and looked in the same direction, pale eyes were riveted. "Wow!"

A police car, red lights flashing sat in the driveway of a house about a block down the street.

Jacie turned to Nina. "Is that coming from your house?"

"I-I don't think so." Her chin began to quiver. "B-but maybe. I dunno."

Even in the dim light, Jacie could see Nina's heart beating in her throat. "C'mon, guys!" Jacie motioned for Gwen, Katy, and Audrey to join them, and the girls took off sprinting down the sidewalk with Gwen lagging behind in her fancy dress.

Nina skidded to a stop in her yard, her breath coming in soft pants. Her eyes were wide and glassy, and Audrey instantly wrapped a comforting arm around her shoulder. They could hear voices inside the house, but the girls were frozen in the face of what they might find if they went inside.

They stared warily at the cruiser in the driveway.

Nina looked as though she would burst into tears long before she made it to her front door. Police captured crooks and bad guys. And there were none of those in her family, so there was no good reason for the police to be at her house.

Jacie swallowed and took Nina's hand, leading her up the sidewalk. "C'mon, Nina. Maybe your dad caught a bank robber or something?"

Nina turned hopeful pale eyes in her friend's direction. "Ya think?"

Jacie shrugged. "Could be. A regular guy helped catch a criminal on MacMillan and Wife just last week."

Katy, Gwen, and Audrey exchanged worried glances as they trailed after their friends.

When they reached the front steps, Nina could hear a police officer speaking in low, soothing tones. The front door was wide open and through the screen door she caught sight of her mother sobbing hysterically and a group of people gathering around her in comfort. Nina's stomach lurched.

Even under her dirty hobo makeup, Jacie could see that Nina had gone pale as a sheet.

The smaller girl's feet froze. "No! I-I-" Nina shook her head wildly. She dropped the broom stick with a kerchief tied on the end that made her hobo pack in order to grasp the porch railing with both hands. "I don't wanna g-go inside!"

The other girls soaked in her fear like little sponges, the flashing lights illuminating their frightened faces. It wasn't long before the sound of sniffles filled the air.

Nina whimpered.

"I'll go see what it is," Jacie offered, not knowing what else to do. "Is that okay?" She searched Nina's face and received a wary but pathetically grateful nod in response.

Jacie gulped down her fear and reached for the screen door with a shaky hand. Once inside, all adult eyes turned her way. There were several seconds of utter silence where she felt as though she might melt into a puddle. Then she said, "Ni–" she had to stop and clear her throat so that her voice wouldn't shake. Whatever this was, it was bad. Very bad. "Nina's outside." She glanced around the room and the mournful faces looking back at her caused her stomach to twist painfully.

At her words, the noise in the room resumed as quickly as it had stopped. A horrible keening noise was coming from Nina's mother, who was bent at the waist and jerkily swaying back and forth like a screen door in the wind. Nina's father had a large hand resting lightly on his wife's back. He was staring off into space and standing so stiffly that he looked as though he might crumble into dust with the slightest breeze. Several neighbors that Jacie recognized stood around looking uncomfortable and talking quietly to each other and the officer. She heard the words "party" and "balcony" several times but couldn't make out much more than that.

Two older policemen entered the front door and a heavy-set man with several yellow stripes on his sleeve growled at the younger cop for attracting the attention of the entire neighborhood. The red-faced young man quickly apologized to Mr. and Mrs. Chilton and ran past Jacie on his way to turn off the squad car's flashing lights. Jacie began to tug nervously on her ponytail while she waited for something to happen. She was about to go back outside when several milling neighbors stepped aside and the room parted to allow a slim woman with a pointy chin and salt and pepper hair worn in a bun to make her way through the crowded living room.

As the woman drew closer, Jacie could see that her cheeks were wet and her eyes bloodshot. "I'm Imogene Chilton, Nina's grandmother," she said gently, trying to give Jacie a comforting smile and failing miserably. "Is Nina outside, dear?"

Dumbly, Jacie nodded and Imogene patted her on the shoulder with a bony hand as she moved past her. She followed Imogene into the damp night air and stood by silently as the old woman knelt down on the sidewalk and explained in a soft, quivering voice that Janet, Nina's college-aged sister, had fallen from the fourth floor balcony of a friend's apartment earlier that evening. The young woman had died on the way to the hospital.

Nina burst into tears and flew into her grandmother's waiting arms.

It wasn't long before Audrey was crying almost as loudly as Nina. Gwen and Katy, with tears in their eyes, shifted nervously from one foot to the other, wishing they were any place else on earth but here. Jacie stood there behind Nina's grandmother, unable to tear her eyes off her friend, her heart hurting like it never had before, a sick feeling burning in the pit of her stomach. She'd never known anyone who had died. Not that she'd ever done much more than say "hi" to Janet, but Nina was one of her best friends, and that was close enough for her. She reached for her ponytail again and tugged on it nervously.

After a moment, Imogene drew her face up from Nina's tear-dampened neck and focused on Katy, Gwen, and Audrey. A touch of wistfulness entered world-weary eyes before rapidly being replaced by sorrow. "Why don't you girls go on trick-or-treating," she said kindly, patting Nina's slender back as she spoke. "Nina will be fine."

The girls gave her a doubtful look, their gazes flickering back and forth between Nina and the old woman.

"Go on," Imogene prodded, the movement of her hand shifting from a pat to a soothing circular motion "It's a sin for young people to waste special nights like this one, especially since there isn't much that you can do here."

Katy and Gwen nodded, more than happy for the reprieve. Audrey looked slightly guilty for wanting to bolt, but she wasn't burdened with the feeling for long, however, and she quickly gave Nina a sad wave as she hurried to catch up with her friends. The girls made their way down the sidewalk, their step devoid of the liveliness it had had only moments before.

A group of goblins and witches stood at the end of the driveway trying to decide if there would be candy amidst all the chaos. But the police cars spooked them enough so that they hurried past the house and ran to catch up to the girls who were now crossing the street.

Tired eyes swung in Jacie's direction. "Aren't you going?" Imogene asked quietly, straightening to her full height and letting out a soft groan as her spine popped into place.

Stubbornly, Jacie lifted her jaw. "No, ma'am."

A fresh wave of tears spilled onto wrinkled cheeks and Imogene's lips twitched into something resembling a smile. "Good." She petted Nina's head, then a gentle hand moved down to lift the girl's chin. She gazed into lost, red-rimmed eyes. "Why don't we go inside, dear?"

"No!" Nina clutched at her desperately, burrowing her face in her dress and looking as though she'd crawl under her grandmother's skin if she could.

"Shh…. Don't worry. You can go straight to your room and your friend can come, too. Your mother and father will need to go to the hospital soon."

Nina pulled away, her cheeks glistening in the amber porch light. Her befuddlement was clear. The hospital was for sick, but alive people. "But–"

Imogene instantly recognized the source of Nina's confusion. "The ambulance drivers tried their best to save Janet, honey. They couldn't, but they took her to the hospital anyway. Your parents can go see her there and then take her to Parson's Funeral Home. Do you remember it? You went there for your Great Uncle Eugene's funeral."

It had been more than three years since Nina's Uncle Eugene had died and the details surrounding his death were fuzzy at best. What stuck out most in her mind was that it was the first time she'd seen grownups cry. She thought hard, then grasped 'hold of a faint memory she could share. "The p-place with all the flowers and the or-organ? Where we said prayers?"

Imogene nodded her approval at Nina's excellent memory, especially pleased that she'd remembered the praying. "That's the place. I'll stay here to look after you so your parents can leave." Tenderly, she wiped the little girl's cheeks. "Your mother and father are very upset, Nina. If they don't take time to be with you tonight it isn't because they don't love you. You need to understand that."