I hear a noise behind me. An engine. I turn and see a gray car coming. In the window I see that it is Crystal with a C.
She drives next to me and stops. Her window is down. I keep going because I don’t want to talk. The car pulls in front of me and stops. “Ginny, stop!” Crystal with a C yells. She gets out of the car.
So I stop to hear what she will say.
“Where the hell are you going?”
“I’m going to Harrington Falls,” I say.
“We already talked about this. You have to go back to the house. If you don’t, you’ll get caught.”
“I will not get caught,” I say.
“Ginny, you’re as subtle as an elephant in a traffic jam. You can’t take care of yourself at all. And this proves it. You need to be watched constantly. But, honey, I have to go to work! I have to go to work, or people will start to wonder where the hell I am.”
I look at my fingers.
“And now you’re trying to hike across the whole state and you don’t even know which way to go. And you have no clue how to deal with people. When it comes to dealing with people, you stick out like a sore thumb. See what I mean?”
I don’t say anything.
“Ginny, get in the car.”
“No.”
“What do you think is going to happen if you find your way all the way to Harrington Falls? It’s a two-hour drive! Do you know how long it would take you to walk that far? Even if you get there safely, the police will find you. They talk with Gloria every day. Don’t you get it? They’re actively looking for you! If you go there, they’ll take you back to the Blue House. And I’ll go to fucking jail! Now get in the damn car before someone sees us!”
I hear a sound. Another car. I look up and see a black car coming from where I think town might be. It goes by and doesn’t stop.
“See?” says Crystal with a C. “This isn’t safe, Ginny. We have to go back to the house this second, or this whole thing will fall apart in a very big way. I’ll even stay home with you, all right? I’ll call in sick to work. Ginny, please!”
I make sure my mouth is closed and then I think. It’s true that if I get to Harrington Falls and find Gloria’s apartment the police will find me. I didn’t think of that before. Plus they already know about my hiding place under the sink. They’ll find me and take me away again. Crystal with a C is right.
But my Baby Doll is still alone with Gloria.
So I say, “But my Baby Doll isn’t safe.”
“Yes, she is. I swear she is. She’s much, much safer than she ever was before. I just can’t tell you why because you’ll flip! Remember what happened when you asked if there was a Santa Claus? Gloria kept saying there was, and then I told you the truth. Do you remember what you did?”
I remember exactly. I got mad at Gloria and duct-taped all her drugs to the Maine coon cats and let them out of their cages. Then I flushed all her socks down the toilet.
I nod my head yes.
“So you’ve got to trust me,” says Crystal with a C. “Because I promise, Ginny—I promise that your Baby Doll will be safe until we all get up to Canada. I just can’t tell you why. You’re not ready to hear it.”
Gloria used to lie when she said I promise but Crystal with a C is different. I know she is trying to help me for real. And I know I can trust her.
“Ginny, please! You have to trust me that she’s safe!”
I walk around the car and get in.
“Thank you,” says Crystal with a C when I shut the door. Her hands are shaking and her face is wet. “Holy shit, thank you. Thank you!” Then she turns the car around and drives back up the driveway.
27
EXACTLY 11:33 IN THE MORNING,
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21ST
“Ginny, did you use all the milk?” says Crystal with a C.
From the living room I hear the refrigerator shut. The milk is still in my backpack. I forgot to take it out when we got back to the Little White House.
Crystal with a C walks into the living room. I am sitting on the couch looking at the fire. “Look,” she says, “I don’t want to leave you by yourself. Shit. I mean, I really don’t want to leave you by yourself, but we need milk for the batter I’m going to make. And I know you like to drink milk in the morning. So I have to run to the store. It’s right down the road. If you get hungry, make yourself a snack. A small snack, okay? Don’t go eating all the cheese and ketchup again.”
I nod my head yes.
“I’ll only be gone for twenty minutes,” she says. “And, Ginny, stay in the house, all right? Don’t go outside for any reason. Remember what we said before—your Baby Doll is safe, and if you try to go back to Harrington Falls, the police will find you.”
She looks at me. I keep looking at the woodstove because she didn’t ask a question.
“Ginny, did you hear me?”
I nod my head yes.
“I do wish you’d be a little more...talkative,” she says.
When she leaves I stand up. I am going to make myself a snack.
28
EXACTLY 11:40 IN THE MORNING,
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21ST
Crystal with a C said that when you make scrambled eggs you crack them in a bowl and mix them up and pour them in a frying pan and cook them for five minutes. She showed me how to crack the eggs. That part is already done. I even picked the shells out. So I start to mix them.
I pour the eggs into the frying pan. My watch says it is 11:42. I take the dish towel off my shoulder which is where Crystal with a C puts it when she cooks. I put it on the counter next to the stove. Then I turn the stove on.
I go into the living room and sit down to wait.
At 11:44 I smell smoke.
I walk back into the kitchen. The dish towel is on fire.
At school we learned that if there’s a fire you should call 911 and stop, drop and roll! But there isn’t a phone here at the Little White House and the kitchen is really tiny.
The fire is getting bigger. It crackles. It reaches up to the shelf above the counter. I want someone to stop it but no one is here.
Then the smoke alarm goes off. It is loud and scary and I don’t like loud noises so I put my hands over my ears and recoil. The noise doesn’t go away so after exactly seven seconds I open my eyes and put my arms down and run to the sink.
Now the fire is on the counter too. I fill a glass with water and throw it at the flames. The fire goes down a little. Black smoke is everywhere. I throw more water on it and after three glasses the fire is mostly out but now the dish towel has a big black hole in it. It smokes when I pick it up. It smells bad. There are some red parts on the towel that are still glowing so I throw it away in the garbage. I don’t want Crystal with a C to see it. Plus it’s ruined anyway. My eggs have water in them now so I throw them away too. I scrape them into the garbage and put the frying pan down on the counter. The counter has a big black mark on it where the dish towel used to be. I put a bowl of apples on top of it.