The Night Sister

Piper had run to the drugstore (spending no time at all on rectal-thermometer selection), then back to Margot’s, where she found her sister sound asleep. She’d deposited the plastic Rite Aid bags on the floor near Margot’s bed, and left her a note:

“Going to watch Lou for a couple of hours, then off to Foxcroft. Back by dinner.”

“That your lunch?” Piper asked the little girl. Lou was wearing the same clothes she’d been in the last time Piper had visited her. Her hair was in tangles.

Lou stuck two pieces of chocolate-covered bread together to make a sandwich and smiled up at her. “Want one?” she asked.

“No, thanks,” Piper said, looking around the kitchen. “Where’s your aunt Crystal?”

Lou frowned slightly, then took a big bite of her sandwich. “Don’t know,” she said, mouth full. Chocolate sauce dribbled down her chin.

“Did she leave already?”

“Mmm-hmm.”

“Really? When?” Piper asked.

“This morning. She got mad at me. Said she was going to call Social Services and find some other place for me to go.”

“What? Why on earth would she say that?”

Lou shrugged. “Because of Ray, I guess.”

“Ray?”

Lou nodded her head. “They got in a fight. About me. He doesn’t think I should be here. Not enough room, he said, for three people, so he went out last night to go stay with a friend.”

Piper cringed at the thought of their fighting like that in front of Lou. And how could Crystal even think of getting rid of Lou, much less say it to her face? Didn’t she realize she was all Lou had?

“Let me just see if I can reach Crystal,” Piper said, smiling and pulling out her cell phone.

She dialed Crystal’s cell, got voice mail, and left a terse message. “I’m at the trailer. Maybe I misunderstood, but I didn’t think you had to leave for work until one. Lou says she’s been by herself since this morning. Call me when you get this.”

“Is Crystal in trouble now?” Lou asked.

“No, sweetie. I just wish she hadn’t left you on your own like this.”

Lou nodded. “I don’t like it here,” she said. “I want to go home. I want my mama.” Her eyes filled with tears.

Piper took Lou in her arms and held her, stroking her tangled hair. “I know. I’m sorry.”

They stayed like that a few minutes, Lou snuffling into Piper’s shoulder, and Piper wondering what she could possibly do to help this girl.

“Well,” she said at last, when Lou pulled away, rubbing at her red eyes, “let’s see if I can find something to fix for a proper lunch.” She began opening cabinets and found very little: canned string beans, boxed macaroni and cheese, microwave popcorn, a dusty box of chocolate-cake mix. “Do you like macaroni and cheese?” she asked brightly.

“Mmm-hmm,” Lou said, stuffing more of her sweet sandwich into her mouth.

Piper made lunch, chattering brightly about the most neutral topics she could think of—Piper’s love of macaroni and cheese when she was a kid, the beautiful weather this time of year, how different Vermont was from Los Angeles, which is where Piper lived, did Lou know that? She cleaned up the tiny kitchen while Lou wolfed down the gooey orange noodles and soft green beans like it was her first meal in a week.

“How about we pour you a bath and get you into some clean clothes?” Piper asked. “I brought you lots of choices. You had a lot of nice things in your closet.”

The girl nodded gratefully.