Lisey's Story(135)
Amanda gave Lisey a thumbs-up as she said this last, then returned her attention to the phone.
"I'm glad I caught you guys before you started rolling, because I'm not at Greenlawn anymore. Lisey and I are at Acadia Mental Health in Derry...that's right, Derry. "
She listened, nodding.
"Yes, I guess it is sort of a miracle. All I know is I heard Lisey calling and I woke up. The last thing I remember before that is you guys taking me to Stephens Memorial in No Soapa. Then I just...I heard Lisey calling me and it was like when you hear someone calling you out of a deep sleep...and the docs at Greenlawn sent me up here for all these tests on my brain that probably cost a fortune..."
Listening.
"Yes, hon, I do want to say hi to Canty, and I'm sure Lisey does, too, but they want us now and the phone won't work in the room where they do their tests. You'll drive up, won't you? I'm sure you can be in Derry by seven o'clock, eight o'clock tops..."
At that moment the skies opened again. This cloudburst was even fiercer than the first had been, and suddenly the car was filled with its hollow drumming sound. For the first time Amanda seemed completely at a loss. She looked at Lisey, eyes wide and full of panic. One finger pointed at the roof of the car, where the sound was coming from. Her lips formed the words She wants to know what that sound is.
Lisey didn't hesitate. She snatched the telephone away from Amanda and put it to her own ear. The connection was bell-clear in spite of the storm (maybe even because of it, for all Lisey knew). She heard not just Darla but Canty as well, talking to each other in agitated, confused, jubilant voices; in the background she could even hear a loudspeaker announcing flight delays due to bad weather.
"Darla, it's Lisey. Amanda's back! All the way back! Isn't it wonderful?"
"Lisey, I can't believe it!"
"Seeing's believing," Lisey said. "Get your ass up to Acadia in Derry and see for yourself."
"Lisey, what's that noise? It sounds like you're in a shower! "
"Hydrotherapy, right across the hall!" Lisey said, lying giddily and thinking We'll never be able to explain this later - not in a million years. "They've got the door open and it's awfully noisy."
For a moment there was no sound but the steadily downpouring rain. Then Darla said,
"If she's really all right, maybe Canty and I could go to the Snow Squall anyway. It's a long drive up to Derry and we're both famished."
For a moment Lisey was furious with her, then could almost have punched herself in the eye for feeling that way. The longer they took, the better - wasn't that right? Yet still, the put-upon petulance she heard in Darla's voice made Lisey feel a little sick to her stomach. And that was also the sister thing, she supposed.
"Sure, why not?" she said, and made a thumb-and-forefinger circle at Amanda, who smiled back and nodded. "We're not going anywhere, Darl."
Except maybe to Boo'ya Moon, to get rid of a dead lunatic. If we're lucky, that is. If things break our way.
"Can you put Manda on again?" Darla still sounded peeved, as if she'd never seen that dreadful catatonic heaviness and now suspected Amanda had been faking all along.
"Canty wants to talk to her."
"You bet," Lisey said, and mouthed Cantata to Amanda as she handed the phone back. Amanda assured Canty repeatedly that yes, she was all right, and yes, it was a miracle; no, she didn't mind a bit if Canty and Darla went through with their original plan for lunch at the Snow Squall, and no, she most definitely didn't need them to divert to Castle View and pick up anything at her house. She had everything she needed, Lisey had taken care of that.
Toward the end of the conversation the rain stopped all at once, without the slightest slackening, as if God had turned off a faucet in the sky, and Lisey was struck by a queer idea: this was how it rained in Boo'ya Moon, in quick, furious, off-and-on showers. I've left it behind, but not very far, she thought, and realized that sweet, clean taste was still in her mouth.
As Amanda told Cantata that she loved her and then broke the connection, an improbable shaft of humid June sunlight broke through the clouds and another rainbow formed in the sky, this one closer, shining above Castle Lake. Like a promise, Lisey thought. The kind you want to believe but don't quite trust.
8
Amanda's murmuring voice called her away from her contemplation of the rainbow. Manda was asking Directory Assistance for the Greenlawn number, then writing it with the tip of her finger in the fog forming on the bottom of the Beemer's windshield.
"That'll stay there even after the windshield's completely defogged, you know," Lisey told her when Amanda had rung off. "It'll take Windex to get rid of it. I had a pen in the center console - why didn't you ask?"
"Because I'm catatonic," Amanda said, and held the phone out to her. Lisey only looked at it. "Who am I supposed to call?"
"As if you didn't know."
"Amanda - "
"It has to be you, Lisey. I have no idea who to talk to, or how you even got me in there." She was silent for a moment, twiddling her fingers on the legs of her pajamas. The clouds had closed up again, the day was once more dark, and the rainbow might have been a dream. "Sure I do," she said at last. "Only it wasn't you, it was Scott. He fixed it somehow. Saved me a seat."