In an Instant(26)

“How are the others?” Uncle Bob asks.

Aunt Karen is in the bed beside the window, her hands wrapped with warm compresses but not splinted, and I’m guessing her frostbite is less severe than my dad’s and Mo’s. Natalie curls in a recliner chair in the corner, the skin on her fingers chapped but otherwise unharmed. Both are asleep.

Uncle Bob’s ankle is in a neoprene boot and elevated on a foam block.

If I were a good person, I would be happy that they are not seriously injured, that their fingers and toes and ribs and lungs and legs are fine. But at the moment, I am not a good person. I am an angry spirit who is dead and whose family and best friend are suffering, and I hate that the three of them are so damn fine.

Burns gives Uncle Bob a rundown on my family and Mo. The color drains from Uncle Bob’s face when Burns tells him the search was suspended and that Oz and Chloe and Vance are still out there. From the way Burns says Chloe’s name, I can tell she is the one he’s most worried about. Perhaps he has a daughter, or perhaps it is because of the description my mother gave, with Chloe the least athletic and she and Vance in the elements the longest. He has every reason to be concerned. Chloe is not doing well; slowly she freezes in the crook of the tree as the seconds tick by, so slow I cannot bear witnessing it, each tick a dagger to my heart.

“Mrs. Miller was brought in a few minutes ago,” Burns says.

“Ann is here?” Bob says, straightening. “In the hospital? Is she okay?”

“She needed to be sedated,” Burns says. “It’s not serious, but for the moment, the doctors are recommending keeping her on Versed until the morning so she can get some rest. That’s why I’m here. Because Ann is sedated, there’s no one from the family available to speak with the press, and I was hoping perhaps you could talk on their behalf. The more public interest we can generate, the more support we’ll get for the search.”

Uncle Bob nearly leaps from the bed, then stumbles with dizziness from rising too fast.

“Take your time,” Burns says. “Get dressed, gather your strength, and meet me in the lounge when you’re ready.”

Uncle Bob nods, and Burns walks toward the door. Halfway there, he turns. “One more thing. There’s something I’m not quite clear on. The boy, Oz—his mom was certain he wouldn’t have left on his own. You told the ranger that he left to look for her. Why would he do that?”

Uncle Bob’s eyes flicker side to side as the options of how to answer tick through his head. “Oz is . . . well, I’m sure Ann told you . . . he’s off.”

Off, I scream. What the hell does off mean?

“And when he gets upset, he gets emotional and can’t be reasoned with.”

Burns’s face shows nothing, his sharp eyes steady on Uncle Bob’s.

“I think the situation was just too much for him, and when he got violent—”

“He got violent?” Burns interrupts.

Uncle Bob nods. “He hit Karen.” He nods toward his sleeping wife. “It was her turn for a sip of water, but Oz wanted the water for the dog, so he grabbed it from Karen, and when Karen didn’t let go, he hit her.”

Burns glances at Aunt Karen, the left side of her face exposed—pale, white, unmarked.

“That’s when I took him outside. I asked if he needed to go to the bathroom to get him away from the others, hoping it would calm him down. But when we got out there, he got it in his head that he needed to find his mom. I tried to stop him, but there was nothing I could do.”

Burns nods, starts to turn, then hesitates and turns back. “How did you get back in the camper?”

Uncle Bob tilts his head. “How did I what?”

“How did you get back in the camper? Ann said Oz and Kyle were the only ones strong enough to pull themselves onto the camper in order to climb back inside. She was concerned that Oz was the only one left to boost the rest of you, worried he’d climb in without remembering to lift the others first.”

The beat before Uncle Bob answers is all the confirmation Burns needs to realize something is off with the story. “I never got down from the camper,” he says. “Like I said, Oz was upset, and when Oz is upset, it’s best to steer clear. So when he and the dog got down, I stayed on top.”

“Hmm,” Burns says, nodding. “So he left while you were still on top of the camper?”

Uncle Bob nods.

“That could be helpful. Which way did he walk?”

I swallow hard. Surely Uncle Bob isn’t going to answer and send the rescue crew in the wrong direction. He has no idea which way Oz walked. Oz hoisted Uncle Bob onto the camper, and Uncle Bob was already inside before Oz chose his path.

“He went the same way as Ann and Kyle,” Uncle Bob answers, and panic and rage turn my vision red. Oz walked the complete other way, downhill like my mom said, in the direction of the taillights.

“Good to know,” Burns says. “I’ll see you in a few minutes.”

The sound of the door closing wakes Natalie, and she sits up sleepily.

“Angel, can you give your old man a hand?” Uncle Bob says.

Together they manage to get him dressed, and then she helps him stand and hands him his crutches. He chuckles when he cannot figure out how to use them. To Natalie’s credit, she doesn’t laugh along with him. She actually looks like she might be sick. Either that, or there’s a tinge of disgust on her face as she watches her dad amuse himself as he practices his crutch walk for his fifteen minutes of fame.