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"What happened?" I say again, this time a little louder "How come you didn’t call? Why didn’t you come by to see if I was okay?"

She does turn around then I don’t knohat I was expecting--pity, maybe?--but I’m totally unprepared for how she looks: like her face is a plaster e of collapse Horribly, the fact that she’s about to cry makes me feel a teensy, tiny bit better

"I didn’t knohat to say I didn’t knohat I could say I felt--" She breaks off And suddenly she is crying, in big hiccuping gulps, without bothering to try and conceal it I’m shocked into silence I haven’t seen Ariana cry since she was in fifth grade, e bribed Nick into helping us pierce our ears and Nick was so nervous she slipped and drove the safety pin straight into Ariana’s neck "I’m so sorry It was all my fault I was a terrible friend Maybeer has turned to pity "Stop," I say "Stop You were a great friend You are a great friend Coht" Without knowing it, I’ve crossed the space between us When I hug her, I can feel her ribs poking into me She’s so thin she hardly feels real; I think of birds, and hollow bones, and flying away

"Sorry," she says again, and pulls back, dragging a hand across her nose Her eyes are raw-looking, as if she hasn’t slept in days "I’ve just been kind of fucked-up lately"

"Join the club," I say, which at least gets a laugh out of her--the ragged, low-throated laugh Ariana clairandfather, a cross-country trucker and lifelong two-packs-a-day shts sweep around the bend, te It’s only then I realize how quiet it is outside Nor across front yards, shouting, playing Wiffle ball, chasing one another in and out of the woods Not until Cheryl pokes her head out of the passenger-sideand yells, "Yoo-hoo!" do I reht

Ariana seizesout, just you and "

I h of the Drink for a while" Ariana looks so disappointed I quickly add, "But yeah, sure Soh, I knoon’t We never used towith Ariana was just part ofasleep

It’s like the accident punched a hole straight through my life Now there’s only Before and After

Dad taps the horn He hasn’t turned off the brights yet, and it feels like we’re standing on aa hand to her eyes, but she doesn’t wave My parents used to love Ariana, but ever since she shaved half her head freshive her piercings for free, they’ve soured on her It’s a shairl

Now it’s ize "Sorry," I say "Dad has custody for dinner, apparently"

Ariana rolls her eyes I’ She looks et it, believe ot divorced when she was five, and since then she’s had a stepdad and et what I said about hanging out, okay? Callso hard, I force a srilare of e to run after her, to slide into the front seat and tell her to gun it, to peel off into the darkness, leaving Dad and Cheryl and the patchwork of sleepy houses and empty lawns behind

"Ari!" I call out When she looks up, I lift the plastic bag "Thanks"

"No probleh she still looks sad "I always liked it when you called ie Nichols

Have the police finally caught a break in the Madeline Snow case?

Sources close to the investigation tell this reporter that the police have named Nicholas Sanderson, 43, an accountant with a home in the upscale beachfront community of Heron Bay, a "person of interest"

What does thisofficer in charge of the search for Madeline Snow, "We’re investigating a possible connection between Sanderson and the Snow family That’s all No further co, here’s what I’ve learned: Nicholas Sanderson and his wife vacation a good forty-five miles from the Snow residence They attend different churches, and at no ti services Nicholas Sanderson has no children, and no obvious connection to Springfield, where the Snows live

So what’s the connection? Post your thoughts/co Sanderson could’veat Walmart, whatever Maybe he reached out to her online Madeline’s sister has a car, doesn’t she?

posted by: bettyb00p at 10:37 am