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Ehed

"It’s just that I never kne to fix you I hated seeing you struggle, and I couldn’t help you, and if there was ever a worse feeling in the world than failing your only child, I don’t knohat it is, Emmaline Please cut ood enough"

"Mom, you didn’t fail me You replaced me"

"That’s not true"

"You were more than happy to ditch me on Nana, and then four hter How is that not replacing me?"

"You’re the one anted to live with my mother You were so much happier out there How could I say no?"

"You could’ve at least pretended todown softly so Squeaky Chicken seemed to ood would it have done to tell you that when you were so obviously i stutter I wanted to kill it for all the trouble it gave you, and when you called home and it was so much easier for you to talk, I couldn’t burst into tears and tell you that I slept in your bed, could I? Hoould that have helped?"

Emmaline paused "Did you just drop the F-boela was a somewhat impulsive decision I felt like a failure as a ain If I’d have known it would hurt you, I wouldn’t have done it"

"Can you give her back?" Em asked

"What? No! Of course not"

"It was a joke I actually love Angela, you know"

"Oh Well That’s good"

The rushing of the falls was full and lovely "I love you, too, Mo There was no sound fro?" Emmaline asked

"Yes"

"In a happy way?"

"Yes"

E "Come and visit, okay? Soon?"

"Okay," Mom said There was a pause "Emmie, I’m so sorry I couldn’t help you with the stutter"

E time since her mother had used that nickname "It wasn’t yours to fix, Mohed, then blew her nose "It sure did No one has ela?" Ely flawless"

"Except she’s pretty fabulous"

"Exactly All right, I’ll let you go" There was a pause "Can I call you again toht"

"Don’t tell Angela I said she was boring She’s not"

"I knoas a joke, Mo up, she knehere she had to go "Up and at ’eo, people to see"

SHE BROUGHT FLOWERS Yellow tulips, because nothing seemed more cheerful than that

They didn’t work of course Em realized that the second she knocked on the door of Room 405

"Mrs Deiner? It’s ht of the accident"

Gloria Deiner looked up from where she sat at the side of the bed "Oh Hello" Her voice was flat and quiet

The Deiners were not particularly popular in Manningsport They’d o, froht a perfectly lovely far side of the lake, away from the vineyards where the Mennonite farms dotted the land, then torn it down, much to the heartbreak of the forarish McMansion with a five-car garage and eight bedrooms, eleven bathrooms, an indoor pool and an outdoor pool, just for the three of them

From what Em knew (and had heard), Josh was the worst of the spoiled rich-kid cliché--drugs and drinking and sex and the insanely fast car Trips to Vail and Turks and Caicos and London His parents would pull him out of school for vacations, sometimes for weeks on end, then throw a hissy fit when he stayed back a grade Nothing was too good for their boy, who deserved everything just because he’d been born

Guess the Deiners were rethinking their child-rearing philosophy now

But the fact that Gloria Deiner was here alone That was just too sad "Would you like soht"

The respirator breathed inthen out Inthen out A beeping alarm of some kind went off in the next room, then stopped

Em set the vase of flowers, which now looked obscenely happy, on the sill It was the only arrangement there She went over to the bed and looked down at Josh

Oh Oh

He looked so small under all that equipment, the tubes and lines and swath of blankets A downy beard sprung in patches on his face, and his eyes were open a slit but didn’t move His hands curled in toward his chest, which itself was sunken and thin His hair was ragged and greasy, and he smelled of body odor and Ivory soap

"Hi, Josh," she said, touching his hand "It’s Emmaline Neal One of the cops in town"

"He can’t hear you," Mrs Deiner spat "He’s brain-dead But I’ for a miracle" Her words were heavy with bitterness, as if she wanted E facts and tell her to accept reality

Inthen out