Deirdre sized her daughters up for a moment before answering.
“I made a promise to your father, and I need to help him.” Deirdre could see that Jackie understood right away. They both, Deirdre and Jackie, looked at Megan, hoping she would sort it out for herself. She didn’t.
“Help Daddy how?” she asked.
Deirdre was about to speak when Jackie said, “End his suffering, Meg.”
Deirdre looked at Jackie. She was reminded how children never fail to surprise their parents. As soon as you get to know them, understand who they are, they change. She wondered if it ever stopped.
“That’s right, honey,” she said in a calm and even voice.
“But what if Daddy wakes up?” Megan asked. “Sister Benedict said it could happen.”
“There is nothing I want more in this world than for Sister Benedict to be right,” Deirdre answered, “but doctors know more than nuns. Daddy is very, very sick, sweetheart, and he’s never going to get better. The worst thing for him, the worst thing for us, is to watch him waste away to nothing.” Deirdre reached across the table to hold each of her daughters’ hands. “It was his final wish that we not let that happen.”
“I’ll help you, Mom,” Jackie said.
“Me too,” Megan whispered.
Deirdre sat back and exhaled.
“But, Mom,” Jackie added, “there’s one thing I need to do first.”
“Anything, sweetheart,” Deirdre answered.
“I need to get to a computer. Can we go to a library?”
***
Glio was basking in the glow of a brand-new “snow boat.” Unmarked, shiny, and red, like a mid-life crisis convertible, the sled was a thing of beauty.
He, Glio, was a baby again. He did his baby dance, running in place and laughing, as he held the sled’s yellow string. He didn’t even really know that it was meant to be used in the snow, but it didn’t matter. It was, according to his scale of the world, huge, and it was his. He felt pure, unadulterated joy.
But wait, this wasn’t right. He’d seen this exact thing before. He’d felt this exact feeling before. Something was wrong.
Glio probed his surroundings. He saw his first date with Deirdre; he sang to baby Jackie in the hospital OR; he won Twiggy the giraffe at the Greek festival. He had been there, gone there, and done that. What was going on?
He felt around to every corner of Jared’s brain and found nothing but dead, useless tissue. Glio was entombed in a sarcophagus of carbon-based hell. The memories he was eating were now his own.
Glio was consuming himself.
***
Sister Benedict Joan hated the women of the Stone family. She hated them a lot.
The Sister, along with the crew in the control truck, watched Deirdre, Jackie, and Megan’s private moment with Jared. She saw how they could barely muster the emotion to grieve for the man who had provided for them, nurtured them, from whose loins they had sprung.
And then, to hear that woman say, “Girls, let’s go out to lunch”? Disgusting. Even if they felt nothing, didn’t they know the cameras were watching? Didn’t they care what America and the world would think?
The Sister, who had at first objected to the ever-watchful eyes of the ATN cameras, had come to cherish them. There was no room for sin when you were watched twenty-four hours a day. She made a mental note to petition the Cardinal for funds to install cameras in the convent.
She supposed she shouldn’t blame the Stone girls; they were just children after all. But as much as she tried, she couldn’t find forgiveness in her heart. Jacquelyn in particular was a wretched beast. So full of hate, so full of bile. It made her wonder what kind of man Jared Stone was—what kind of man Jared Stone is, she corrected herself—that he could raise such loathsome little brats. It didn’t matter, though. Most of the blame, the Sister was certain, rested with the mother. And now those poor girls will be left alone in that woman’s care, she thought. Tragic.
Maybe, if she tried, she could help the younger one see the way of the Lord, maybe someday entice her to join the convent. It would make for such great television.
She let the idea roll around her mind as she used a cool sponge to mop Jared’s forehead. I wonder, she thought, looking up at the camera, which side is my good side?
***
Hazel was so relieved at seeing Jackie’s name pop up on the Facebook instant messenger that she let all the air out of her lungs at once and giggled nervously.
Hazel
Jackie! OMG! Are you okay? Where are you?
Jackie
Hi, Hazel. Yeah, I’m okay. My mom managed to sneak us out of the house. I’m at a library. My dad’s in a coma.
Hazel
I know. They’re already airing promos for tonight’s episode saying that something big is happening, and one of the blogs that covers the show got a crew member to talk. I’m really sorry, Jax.
They were both silent for a moment.
Hazel
Did you see the latest episode of the “Real Family Stone”?
Jackie
I did!! Was that your voice?
Hazel
Jackie