Amanda blinked and sat back, recoiling from the fury in Lisey's voice.
"Darla and I had to stick you in there, we had no choice. You were nothing but a breathing lump of meat with drool running out one end and piss running out the other. And my husband, who knew it was going to happen, did not just take care of you in one world but in two. You owe me, big sissa Manda-Bunny. Which is why you're going to help me tonight and yourself tomorrow, and I don't want to hear any more about it except
'Yes, Lisey.' Have you got it?"
"Yes, Lisey," Amanda muttered. Then, looking down at her cut hands and starting to cry again: "But what if they make me go back to that room? What if they lock me in and make me take sponge-baths and drink bug-juice?"
"They won't. They can't. Your committal was purely voluntary - Darla and I did the volunteering, since you were hors-de-batty."
Amanda snickered dolefully. "Scott used to say that. And sometimes, when he thought someone was stuck-up, he'd say they were hors-de-snotty."
"Yes," Lisey said, not without a pang. "I remember. Anyway, you're okay now. That's the point." She took one of Amanda's hands, reminding herself to be gentle. "You're going to go in there tomorrow and charm the socks off that doc."
"I'll try," Amanda said. "But not because I owe you."
"No?"
"Because I love you," Amanda said with simple dignity. Then, in a very small voice:
"You'll come with, won't you?"
"You bet I will."
"Maybe...maybe your boyfriend will get us and I won't have to worry about Greenlawn at all."
"Told you not to call him my boyfriend."
Amanda smiled wanly. "I think I can manage to remember that, if you can drop the Manda-Bunny shit."
Lisey burst out laughing.
"Why don't you get going, Lisey? The rain's letting up. And please turn on the heater. It's getting cold in here."
Lisey flicked it on, backed the BMW out of its parking space, and turned toward the road. "We'll go to your house," she said. "Dooley's probably not watching it if it's raining as hard there as it has been here - at least I hope not. And even if he is, what's he going to see? We go to your house, then we go to my house. Two middle-aged women. Is he going to worry about two middle-aged women?"
"Unlikely," Amanda said. "But I'm glad we sent Canty and Miss Buggy Bumpers off on a long trip, aren't you?"
Lisey was, even though she knew that, like Lucy Ricardo, she was going to have some 'splainin to do down the line. She pulled out onto the highway, which was now deserted. She hoped she wouldn't encounter a tree lying across the road and knew it was very possible that she would. Thunder growled overhead, sounding ill-tempered.
"I can get some clothes that actually fit me," Amanda was saying. "Also, I have two pounds of nice ground chuck in my freezer. It'll thaw nicely in the microwave, and I'm very hungry."
"My microwave," Lisey said, not taking her eyes off the road. The rain had stopped entirely for the time being, but there were more dark clouds up ahead. Black as a stage villain's hat, Scott would have said, and she was struck by the old sick wanting of him, that empty place that could now never be filled. That needing-place.
"Did you hear me, little Lisey?" Amanda asked, and Lisey realized that her sister had been talking. Saying something about something. Twenty-four hours ago she had been afraid Manda would never speak again, and here she was, already ignoring her. But wasn't that the way the world turned?
"No," Lisey admitted. "Guess not. Sorry."
"That's you, always was. Off in your own..." Amanda's voice trailed away, and she made a business of looking out the window.
"Always off in my own little world?" Lisey asked, smiling.
"I'm sorry."
"Don't be." They came around a curve and Lisey swerved to avoid a large fir branch lying in the road. She considered stopping and tossing it onto the shoulder, and decided to leave it for the next person to come along. The next person to come along would probably not have a psychopath to deal with. "If it's Boo'ya Moon you're thinking of, it's not really my world, anyway. It seems to me that everyone who goes there has his or her own version. What were you saying?"
"Just that I have something else you might want. Unless you're already strapped, that is."
Lisey was startled. She took her eyes off the road for a moment to look at her sister.
"What? What did you say?"
"Just a figure of speech," Amanda said. "I mean I have a gun."
11