Counting by 7s(29)

All the teenagers had stared as she was led from the stuffy room. Mai wondered if her classmates assumed it had something to do with her shady brother.

She had to admit the thought had crossed her own mind.

But no. Mr. Duke wanted to see her.

It wasn’t until the nosy receptionist had finally left them alone in the cramped little room (which smelled like the sweat-soaked stuff in the overflowing lost-and-found box) that the counselor got down to business.

He blurted out:

“Willow is missing.”

Mai was not one for drama. Her voice was unmoved as she replied: “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Dell felt his jaw clench.

This girl needed an attitude adjustment! She should have been intimidated by him and at the same time shown deep concern for her missing friend.

He saw no evidence of either.

Dell cleared his throat and reminded himself not to get too cranked up.

“A woman from Social Services picked her up from your mother’s nail salon. Willow was at their facility when she fell and cut her forehead. She needed stitches and it was all taken care of at the emergency room at Mercy. But then before they could leave she said she had to go to the bathroom and no one’s seen her since.”

Mai’s eyes narrowed.

“What do you mean she fell?”

Dell’s eyes widened. Why did she have to question the facts?

He tried to remain in control.

“She fainted.”

Mai’s voice was smug.

“That’s not falling. Falling is an accident. Fainting is a medical thing.”

Dell pulled an old piece of beef jerky out of the inside pocket of his jacket and ripped off a chunk with his coffee-stained teeth.

He silently cursed himself for thinking this smart-mouth teenage sister of the troublemaker known as Quang-ha could ever help.

He found himself chewing the jerky with loud, thrashing vigor, hoping it made him look tough, not just hungry.

“Her injury is not the point. Maybe I didn’t make myself clear. The problem is that no one can find her.”

Mai couldn’t help but smile. Willow had given them the slip.

“You took her to the hospital?”

Dell was relieved that he could at least answer: “No. They only brought me in to help find her after she disappeared.”

Mai liked that his idea of finding Willow was to come to her for help. She smiled as she said: “She will probably end up back at the salon. But I have some ideas for where she’d go before she gets there. You need to sign me out of here.”

Dell didn’t like the way that sounded. This wasn’t an episode of CSI: Bakersfield. They weren’t all of a sudden crime-fighting partners! He wanted Mai to give him a few leads. That was all.

Dell sputtered:

“Well, I didn’t—that wasn’t what I—”

But Mai was already out of her chair and heading for the door.





Chapter 28





My eyes open and I realize that I’m looking at a pair of green shoes without laces.

I know these feet.

One of the shoes lightly taps my left boot for what I realize must be the second time.

But I’m wedged back between the doughnut-chair and the wall, and I have to wiggle out.

When I do, I see my teenage friend, who whispers:

“They’re looking for you.”

The Old Me would have been flooded with shame or worry or guilt.

But not now.

Mai looks at me more closely.

“You got stitches. How long do they stay in?”

My hand goes up to check my glabella. I forgot about the elephant attack.

I mumble:

“They are made from Vicryl, which is polyglycolic acid. They will absorb by hydrolysis. So I won’t have to have them taken out.”

Mai appears to understand the principle of absorption.

“Do they hurt?”

I’m not able to feel anything between my eyes right now, but my hip is sore from the position on the floor.

And the rest of me is just so emotionally numb that I have no idea where the pain stops and starts. I pull myself into a seated position and my right hand goes up to my cheek.

I have the swirled carpet pattern on one whole side of my face. I must have been asleep for a while.

Mai continues:

“Dell Duke is trying to find you. Maybe there’s some kind of reward, because he’s pretty fired up.”

The smile on Mai’s face is both kind and wicked at the same time.

I admire that in her.



Dell calls Social Services right away and I hear him report the news.

He is extremely excited.

I get in his car and sit in the back with Mai like we are in a taxi, which we are not.

Dell thinks that he’s going to take me right back to Jamison, but Mai puts her foot down, metaphorically speaking.

She says we must go to someplace called Happy Jack’s Pie n’ Burger shop.

He doesn’t stand a chance against her.

And not just because she says that she’s going to open the door and jump out of the moving car if she doesn’t get her way.

Mai whispers to me that she’s never actually been in the hamburger and pie place, but she’s driven by many times and I guess she intuitively believes that a place named “happy” might be moving the car in the right direction.