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After the pills, Coach had brought balloons, which looked absurd in the sterile psych-ward roo hours ended

"I quit," Eureka told her She was embarrassed to be seen with her wrists and ankles bound to her bed "Tell Cat she can have ested that after a suicide attehed less, like bodies on the h two divorces and a sister’s battle with cancer," Coach said "I’ this just because you’re the fastest kid onis the therapy you need When you’re feeling better, come see me We’ll talk about that locker"

Eureka didn’t knohy she’d agreed Maybe she didn’t want to let another person down She’d proainst Manor today, to give it one more shot She used to love to run She used to love the team But that was all before

"Eureka," Dr Landry pro you remember about the day of the accident?"

Eureka studied the blank canvas of the ceiling, as if it ht paint her a clue She reme heron the far wall of the office Eureka rose and stood before it

"What do you see?" Landry asked

Traces of the girl she’d been before: same small, open-car-door ears she tucked her hair behind, same dark blue eyes like Dad’s, same eyebrows that ran wild if she didn’t tame them daily--it was all still there And yet, just before this appoint lot, whispering, "Her own nize her"

It was an expression, like a lot of things New Iberia said about Eureka: She could argue with the wall in China and win Couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket covered in glue Runs faster than a stomped-on pissant at the Olympics The trouble with expressions was how easily they rolled off the tongue Those wo about the reality of Diana, ould know her daughter anywhere, anytime, no matter the circumstances

Thirteen years of Catholic school had told Eureka that Diana was looking down fro her now She wouldn’t hter’s school cardigan, the chewed nails, or the hole in the left big toe of her houndstooth canvas shoes But she ht be pissed about the hair

In the four in dirty-blond to siren red (her mother’s natural shade) to peroxide white (her beauty-salon-owning aunt Maureen’s idea) to raven black (which finally see o Eureka tried to se, like the co on her drama class wall last year

"Tell me about your most recent positive memory," Landry said

Eureka sank back onto the couch It must have been that day It must have been the Jelly Roll Morton CD on the stereo and herwith her awful pitch as they drove with the n along a bridge they’d never cross She re at a funny lyric as they approached thethe rusted white sign whizz by--MILE MARKER FOUR

Then: Oblivion A gaping black hole until she awoke in a Miami hospital with a lacerated scalp, a burst left eardrum that would never fully heal, a twisted ankle, two severely broken wrists, a thousand bruises--

And no e of her bed He cried when she came to, which made his eyes even bluer Rhoda handed his, Williaers around the parts of her hands not enclosed in casts She’d smelled the twins even before she opened her eyes, before she knew anyone was there or that she was alive They shts

Rhoda’s voice was steady when she leaned over the bed and prolasses to the top of her head "You’ve been in an accident You’re going to be fine"

They told her about the rogue wave that rose like a myth out of the ocean and swept her e They told her about scientists searching the water for a ht have caused the wave They told her about the construction workers, asked whether Eureka knehy their car was the only one allowed to cross the bridge Rhoda o They asked Eureka about her miraculous survival They waited for her to fill in the blanks about how she’d ended up on the shore alone

When she couldn’t, they told her about her mother

She didn’t listen, didn’t really hear any of it She was grateful that the tinnitus in her ear drowned out most sounds Sometimes she still liked that the accident had left her half-deaf She’d stared at Willia it would help But they looked afraid of her, and that hurt more than her broken bones So she stared past theaze on the off-white wall, and left it there for the next nine days She always told the nurses that her pain level was seven out of ten on their chart, ensuring she’d getlike the world is a very unfair place," Landry tried

Was Eureka still in this roo woman paid to misunderstand her? That was unfair She pictured Landry’s broken-in taupe shoes risinglike minute and hour hands on a clock until time was up and Eureka could speed back to her meet

"Cries for help like yours often result fro misunderstood"