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Her e cereal circles with the back of her spoon, coating thehter's room I was in, huh?"

Her mother nodded, but didn'thappened to her, didn't it?"

"Yes, Danny, so did," her father answered

"You don't have to talk about it," Allie said, realizing this was going too far

"No, that's okay--it was a long ti, Allie wanted to say, but instead she said, "I'll bet she loved you very much"

She should have left it there, but she could see a police cruiser pulling up to the curb outside, and then a second one If she was going to do this, she had to do it now

"Soo away," Allie told them "They don't mean to, but they can't help it It's nobody's fault I'll bet if she could, she'd want to tell you that it's okay--that she's okay I one"

Then her mother and father looked to each other, then back to Danny Rozelli with moist eyes, and her rinned It was so like her parents to see things that way "Of course she's not As long as you reuess she'll never really be dead"

"No," her father said "We mean that she's still alive"

Allie slowly lowered her spoon into the bowl, staring at them "Excuse me?"

"She's just asleep, Danny," her father said "She's been asleep for a long, long time"

Chapter 28 The Sleep of the Dead

Coetative state

All complicated words used by medical specialists to label a patient who remains unconscious You would think that the labelson in the brain of a co A cos, but at its heart, all it really means is that someone simply won't wake up

Allie Johnson had suffered internal injuries and severe head trauh the windshield, into another boy as on his way through his oindshield Nick was, of course, killed instantly, but Allie was quite a fighter Her heart continued to beat It was beating as they rushed her to an e as they hooked her to a dozen different life-supporttable for five hours to repair herafter all the operations were done Thanks to ive up, Allie did not die Although her wounds were severe, her daed body eventually healed, and her brain still showed a hint of basic brainwave pattern, proving that she was not entirely brain-dead Brain-dead would have been easy It would have given everyone a reason to just throw in the towel But now Allie's parents were both blessed, and cursed, with the sarcoat this for you," the doctor had told her parents several weeks into Allie's coma "She could wake up toht never wake up at all--and even if she does, there's a good chance she won't be the girl you renitive functions--right noe just don't know" Then, in that compassionate yet heartless way that doctors have, he told Allie's distraught parents this: "For your sake, I hope she either wakes up the sairl you knew, or dies very quickly"

But neither of those two things happened And now in a hospital somewhere, in a room somewhere, in a bed somewhere, Allie Johnson lies asleep unable to wake up

because her soul is in Everlost In her book, You Don't Know Jack, Allie the Outcast gives this as her final word on skinjacking:

"There is a truth about skinjacking that I can't tell you, because it's not ht It's the reason e can skinjack, e don't forget things, and e're different froht in Everlost It's a truth that all skinjackers must learn for themselves-- and if you are a skinjacker, then you will learn it, because the more you skinjack, thea current to the head of a stream I can only hope that once you do know the truth, you find the courage to face it"

Chapter 29 Teed for Two

Little Danny Rozelli was having a bad day It began aking up in a strange house, and nowany better He was talking to hi short of spinning his head around and vo pea soup In the olden days, people would have said the boy was possessed, but modern science knew better Danny was just sick Very, very sick

"Get out of me!"

--I can't!--

"Get out of me!"

--Just calet out of s like that out loud! They already think you've gone crazy!--

Danny Rozelli was a willful little kid, as still too teed off to be reasonable He had already discovered the trick of thinking out loud It gave him more power over his own body--it helped him to stay in control Unfortunately, when you think out loud, people can hear you

"Danny, honey, it's all right--everything's going to be all right" But clearly Danny's mother didn't believe this, because she turned to her husband and cried, "What do we do? What do we do?"

Allie fought against the boy, and regained control of his body long enough to say, "Nothing's wrong with ht back, his body went into convulsions, and he wailed, "Make her LEAVE!"

It was all Allie's fault If she hadn't fallen asleep in his body, and skinjacked him for seven whole hours, none of this would have happened

She should have tried to peel out of hi in her parents' house, but no, instead she asked her parents to feed her, and over a bowl of Apple Jacks they told her that she was still alive

Alive!

The neas such a sudden shock that it not only echoed in her ownhis way to the surface She tried to run, but when she opened the front door, she ran right into the police there In a second evena distraught couple, who had woken up two blocks away to find their sonWhen Allie's father had called 911, the police had apparently put two and two together, and raced Danny's parents over for a family reunion