Two Girls Down(114)

She came closer to him.

“I’ll be back soon,” she said quietly.

She wasn’t looking at him. He liked to think she couldn’t, that it would be too overwhelmingly emotional for her, but really he didn’t know. What he did know: he knew she liked to break down service rifles to relax and that she liked tea instead of coffee. Her mother died when she was young, and her mentor died a few years back and that seemed to follow her around. She had a high tolerance for pain and a low tolerance for bullshit. She moved her hands and fingers when she was trying not to assault someone. She was the kind of beautiful that snuck up on you. Once she kissed a man she just met in the woods on a warm spring morning.

“That’s it,” he said for the last time. “You’re gone. Like a traveling circus.”

That made her smile, and then something caught her eye against the wall. It was a lunch order that had been delivered to Cap’s examination room by mistake. She reached over to it and grabbed the bread roll, the applesauce cup, and the small pack of cookies. She held all three in her hands and looked at them thoughtfully, mouthing numbers.



And then Alice Vega started to juggle the items successfully, her eyes following each one as it ascended, her mouth in an open grin now, and Max Caplan laughed and laughed and wondered just how long she could go without dropping them.

—

Jamie Brandt had the dream again.

She couldn’t see anything—either it was dark or she was blind. She was looking for the girls but they were babies, and she could hear them crying, the two-year-old toddler wail and the quivering scream of a newborn. Then Jamie was on her knees, clawing around in the dirt or sand, looking for them like a set of car keys. She must have dropped them; they must be here.

She woke up in her bed and realized it was she who was screaming, yet she couldn’t stop herself.

Bailey came running in and jumped onto the bed. Kylie followed behind her slowly in a trazodone daze, which was the only way she would sleep at all since she got back.

“Mama!” yelled Bailey, holding Jamie’s face in her hands. “Mama, stop, wake up.”

Jamie stopped.

“Breathe, Mama,” said Bailey. “Take deep breaths.”

Jamie breathed.

“You just had a bad dream.”

Jamie nodded. Bailey’s face was like a flashlight in the room. Kylie slipped into bed next to Jamie and was already on her way back to sleep while Bailey spoke the words.

“We’re here. We’re right here.”





ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Louisa Luna is the author of the novels Brave New Girl, Crooked, and Serious As a Heart Attack. She was born and raised in the city of San Francisco and lives in Brooklyn with her husband and daughter.