Sneaking around the big, white building, they left their bikes at the back entrance in the shadow by an overgrown hedge.
“Jordan, you wait here with Cat,” Jack instructed. He turned to the others. “Do you all know what you need to do?”
The rest of them nodded. Following Jack’s lead, they walked up to the entrance. For the moment, the front desk wasn’t occupied and they took the opportunity, hurrying up to the elevator. As they reached the second floor, they heard hushed voices speaking down the corridor.
Pressed to the wall, Jack moved forward and peered around the corner. Retreating, he told them, “It’s Mr. Hamilton and another man. I’ve never seen him before.”
“Hannah’s dad,” Gabriel suggested.
Jack nodded. “We need to make them leave or they’ll ruin everything.” He moved forward again, looking around the corner. “Wait!” he whispered. After a few seconds he returned to them. “They just walked away down the corridor.”
“I’d call that lucky,” Liam said. “I guess we should move.”
“We should,” Jack confirmed. He looked at his watch. “It’s 8:13 now.” He turned to Gabriel and Liam. “You got ten minutes.” Then his eyes shifted to Eddie. “In ten minutes the downstairs hall needs to be free of personnel. I don’t care how you do it. Just make sure no one is there.”
Eddie grinned from ear to ear. “No problem.”
“All right, I’ll keep an eye out up here. In ten minutes I’ll knock on the door three times if the coast is clear.” They all nodded their heads. “Okay, move out.”
***
Gabriel took a deep breath before pushing down the handle and opening the door to Hannah’s room. As he set a step inside, Liam following after him, he felt his heart stop for a second. The monitor was dark, no beeping sound echoed in the dim light shining into the room from the street lamps outside the window.
His eyes shifted to the pale figure buried in white bed clothes. Her eyes were closed but her chest slowly rose and fell. Gabriel felt the tension leave his shoulders and his hands relax.
Placing their feet carefully on the linoleum floor, they approached the bed. For a second, Gabriel felt reluctant to wake her but he quickly shook off that thought. He couldn’t back down now.
Eyes on her face, he placed a hand on her shoulder and gave her a soft shake. “Hannah,” he whispered. “Hannah, wake up.”
At first she didn’t respond, but then her eyelids began to flicker and a moment later she looked at him, a smile coming to her face. “Gabriel.”
He smiled back at her. “We’re sorry to wake you,” he said, looking at Liam standing beside him. “But we came to…to give you a choice.” He remembered how she had spoken to him only a few days ago at the Dive. Then and there, it seemed like a lifetime ago.
“Yes,” she said, not waiting, and held out a hand to him.
Gabriel took it and slowly he pulled her into a sitting position. As weak as she was he had to keep an arm around her shoulders so she wouldn’t sink back down into the pillows. With wondrous eyes he looked at her. “But you don’t know what it is yet.”
Again she smiled at him. “Anywhere is better than here.” Her eyes shifted to the white walls around her. When her gaze returned to him, she nodded. “Yes.”
“Okay,” Gabriel said. “Liam, what time is it?”
“8:19.”
An eye on the watch, they helped her pull on a woolen sweater over her pajamas. A moment later, there came three, quick knocks on the door.
“Open it,” Gabriel said, keeping his arm around Hannah.
Liam sprinted to the door and instantly rushed back. Each putting an arm around Hannah, they linked their other arm to form a seat for her. Then they picked her up and carried her to the door. She was as light as a feather and the hands with which she held on to their shoulders had barely any strength left in them.
As they turned down the corridor, Jack was already waiting at the elevator. With his foot in the light barrier, he kept the doors from closing. “C’mon,” he gestured.
Riding down to the first floor, Jack started tapping his foot. “I hope Eddie was successful.”
Gabriel nodded, remembering Mrs. Hall. “Don’t worry. He can do this.”
As the elevator doors slit open, Jack leaned out, scanning the entrance hall. “The coast is clear,” he whispered and took a step forward, gesturing them to follow. “Let’s go.”
Passing by the empty front desk, they heard voices speaking in a back room. Although Eddie’s voice rose above the others, they couldn’t hear what he was saying. Jack grinned. “Maybe he’s not completely untalented after all.”
Leaving the hospital, they hurried down the sidewalk to the back of the building where Jordan and Cat were waiting. Cat barked as she saw them coming and Jordan had to shush her.
“Quickly,” Jack said and he took two bikes by the handlebars, pulling them out from behind the hedge. Attached to them was an old wooden handcart that their grandfather had used long ago to transport chopped wood to the house. They had modified the handle to be able to pull the cart with two bikes lashed in front of it.
Inside, a couple of blankets cushioned the hard bottom of the cart and a big pillow rested against the back wall. Carefully, they lowered Hannah into the warm nest and draped another blanket around her shoulders. “Is this okay?” Gabriel asked.
Hannah nodded. “This is wonderful.” Smiling, she looked at them. “It feels like an adventure.”
“All right then, let’s go,” Jack said, climbing on one of the bikes pulling the cart. Jordan took the other.
“What about Eddie?” Hannah asked.
“He knows where we’re going,” Jack replied, signaling Jordan to start pedaling. “He’ll follow.”
With Cat trotting beside them, they stayed close to the shadows as they circled around and left the hospital grounds. With each minute that ticked by, the night darkened, making the stars overhead shine even brighter. Hannah lay back in the cart and gazed up at them, her eyes sparkling as she breathed in the fresh night air.
***
When they left the paved streets and pulled into the dirt road, leading past Hannah’s house into the woods, their progress slowed. Every now and then they had to stop to set the cart straight. But with the uneven terrain, the ride got too bumpy at high speeds any way and Hannah wasn’t up to it. So eventually, they got off their bikes and walked, pushing them and in doing so pulled the cart.
As the clearing by the woods came in sight, Eddie finally caught up to them.
“Where have you been?” Jordan asked. “Took you a while.”
Eddie rolled his eyes. “Hey, you can’t rush perfection,” he said, jumping off his bike and coming to walk beside them.
Eyes glistening in the dark, Hannah laughed.
“So then how did you distract them?”
Smiling Eddie shook his head. “A magician never reveals his secrets.”
Jordan’s eyes narrowed, but before she could say a word, Jack cut her off. “Give it up,” he said grinning. “He is who he is. I don’t think there is a cure for that.”
Still smiling, Eddie raised his eyebrows at them. “Hey, why would you cure—”
“Perfection?” Jordan finished for him, her voice mocking. “That’s simple. Because perfection is a huge pain in the ass and if perfection doesn’t shut up, perfection is going to get his ass kicked. Does perfection understand that?”
Hannah’s faint laughter rose into the night sky and they all looked at her.
“She’s right,” Jack said as they pulled into the clearing and walked on to the edge of the forest. “We should just ignore that. Nothing good ever comes from paying Eddie too much attention.”
With the woods in their back, they settled down, spreading out blankets and sleeping bags. Jack and Gabriel helped Hannah out of the cart and sat her propped up against a tree log, blankets tightly wrapped around her. Cat came trotting over and lay down beside her, watching the others work.
>
Liam looked up. “Do you want her to move?” he asked. “I mean because of your allergy.”
Hannah shook her head. Reaching out, she placed a hand on Cat’s head. “I’m not allergic,” she said, an apologetic smile on her face. “I just wasn’t supposed to touch animals because my immune system wasn’t all that good.” She stroked Cat behind her ears. “But that doesn’t matter now.”
Hand in hand, Jack and Jordan got a small fire going. On a dirt patch, they set up thick branches and filled the empty spaces with twigs. Around it, they placed hand-sized rocks in a circle, making it look like a typical campsite.
“This is wonderful,” Hannah repeated, staring into the flames. “Almost like the bonfire.”
“Exactly,” Gabriel agreed. “And we brought this.” He pulled a bag of marshmallows from his backpack. “You want a s’more?”
Hannah nodded. “I never had one.”
Soon they sat gathered around the fire, spearing marshmallows on sticks and holding them into the flames. “This is delicious,” Hannah said, licking her fingers. “Can I have another?”
Gabriel felt relieved seeing the rosy glow on her cheeks, but at the same time he noticed her breathing growing more labored. After finishing her second s’more, she lay back, looking exhausted, and for a while closed her eyes.
As the others stared, feeling unsure about what to say or do, Jack walked over and kneeled down beside her. He put a hand on her shoulder and she opened her eyes and looked at him. “If you need anything,” he said. “Anything at all, just say so. We can call in the cavalry at any time, all right?”
Hannah nodded. “I’m okay.” Her eyes shifted across the clearing. “It’s so wonderful out here. I don’t want to leave.”
“Okay, just know you’re not alone.”
She smiled at him. “I know.”
Gabriel took a deep breath and tried to chase away all gloomy thoughts. He turned to her with what he hoped to be a genuine smile on his face. “Do you think she’ll come?”
Hannah’s eyes shifted to him and without another word she knew what he was talking about. “Yes,” she whispered, looking out into the dark. “I know she will.”
“Who?” Eddie asked, eyes going back and forth between them.
“My mom,” Hannah whispered.
Chapter 22 – Carried Away
The crescent moon hung high in the sky looking down at the small circle of friends camped out in the woods. Chasing away the fresh breeze blowing in from the east, a warm fire burned in their midst. Tiny sparks rose into the air, dancing upward into the night sky. Their voices echoed across the clearing, teasing and laughing, telling stories and singing camp songs.
“You’re a goof,” Jordan said rolling her eyes at Eddie.
Jack laughed. “What else is new?”
Eddie grinned at her. “C’mon, admit it. It’s what you like about me. If I wasn’t who I am, you couldn’t get down at me for it and then your life would be boring.”
A scowl on her face, Jordan threw a marshmallow at him. “You better watch it. Next time it’s gonna be something harder.”
“Harder than a marshmallow?” Eddie laughed. “I dare you to find something softer.”
The smile vanished from Jack’s face. “Don’t say that!” He turned to Jordan. “And you better keep it together.”
Jordan shook her head. “I’m not going to let him bait me. Not tonight.”
“I’m proud of you,” Hannah said, looking at Jordan from her little nest across the fire. “Must be difficult for you.”
“It is,” she said, taking a deep breath. “But this way I’m winning and he’s not.” Her eyebrows rose mockingly as she looked at him. “Is this the best you got?”
Eddie laughed out loud. “Believe me, this is not over. I know tricks you’ve never seen before.”
“Bring it!”
“All right, change of topic,” Liam said, lifting his hands to stop them. “We’re getting on dangerous terrain.” He looked at Eddie. “How about one of your annoyingly insane stories?”
“Oh yes, please,” Hannah said, rubbing her hands. “I’ve never heard one before.”
“Are you cold?” Gabriel asked, knowing that the temperature couldn’t have dropped below a balmy sixty-five degrees. Grabbing another blanket, he sat down beside her and draped it around her shoulders. “Better?”
Hannah nodded, then looked across the fire. “How about that story?”
Sitting up straight, Eddie put on his most serious story-teller face. “Not too long ago there lived an old man deep in the woods.”
“An old man?” Jordan asked. “You’re losing your touch. You had an old man in your last story.”
“Hey, I don’t get to pick who the story is about and neither do you. It’s what really happened.”
Jordan’s eyes opened wide. “Really? I never would’ve guessed.”
“Just let him tell the story,” Liam begged.
“Where was I?” Eddie mused. “Right, he lived deep in the woods and he had a dog. He loved that dog and he always took him hunting. But one day when the dog went after a rabbit, he lost him in the high grass.” Looking around, Eddie pointed at the long-stemmed stalks covering the clearing as far as the eye could see. “Gone he was. The old man called his name, again and again. But nothing, the dog was gone.”
“Not really spooky yet,” Jordan remarked, spearing another marshmallow on a stick and holding it in the fire. “Shouldn’t there be a ghost or zombie somewhere in that story?”
“Jordan please,” Liam said.
“I like it,” Hannah whispered, cuddling closer to Gabriel and he put an arm around her. “What happened next?”
“Nothing,” Eddie said, staring wide-eyed at them. “For a year nothing happened. The dog was gone and the old man felt lonely. He even thought about moving into town. But then one day…” His voice trailed off.
“You want us to ask what happened, don’t you?” Jordan said, pulling the marshmallow off her stick and placing it between two crackers. “Good luck with that.”
Her eyes beaming, Hannah smiled at them. “What happened?” she whispered.
Jordan shot her an angry glance. “Traitor.”
“The dog returned,” Eddie said.
Jordan stared at him. “Okay, that’s lame.”
“It’s not the end of the story,” Eddie complained. “Would you just shut up?” When Jordan sat back, eating her s’more, he continued. “But the old man only saw the dog at night. As soon as the sun came up, the dog would disappear. One night, a little before sunrise, the old man lay in wait and followed the dog as it ran off into the woods. The dog took the old man deeper and deeper into the forest. Following, the old man had trouble keeping up. When he thought he’d lost the dog, he found it sitting in a small hollow surrounded by huge trees.”
“It’s a forest, of course there are trees,” Jordan snapped, her eyes disinterested and focused on the rest of the s’more in her hand.
“What happened then?” Hannah asked, her head resting on Gabriel’s shoulder.
Eddie leaned forward, his gestures conjuring up what his words created. “The dog sat in the hollow and right there next to it, the old man saw a little girl, standing with her back turned to him. She couldn’t have been older than five or six, and as the old man watched, more dogs appeared. They came from all directions.” Pausing, Eddie looked at them. “But then when the old man was about to rise and walk over to the girl, she turned around and when he saw her face, he dropped back to the ground.”
Gabriel felt Hannah’s hand tighten on his arm. “This is wonderful,” she whispered so only he could hear. “Thank you.”
Eddie jumped to his feet then, his face distorted. “The little girl’s face was sunken in. There was barely any flesh on her bones. She looked dead, rotten even.” His nose crinkled up.
“Excuse me, I’m eating here,” Jordan complained.
Eddie shrugged and continued. “The old man couldn’t believe his eyes. But
then when he was about to turn around and leave, the dogs suddenly dropped to the ground as though dead. He stared at them wide-eyed. But when his gaze shifted to the little girl, his mouth fell open.”
Everyone was staring at Eddie now and, seeing their curiosity on their faces, he grinned back at them.
“All of a sudden the little girl didn’t look dead any more. Her face grew softer and her cheeks turned rosy. She pushed a strand of her blonde hair out of her face and then just turned and walked away as though nothing had happened.” Eddie sat back down, his voice calmer as he went on. “For the next couple of days the old man followed his dog back into the woods and always the same thing happened. Then he followed the little girl and found that she lived in town with her family. She behaved like any other girl her age. There was nothing unusual about her. The old man didn’t know what to make of it. One day he approached the little girl, but when her eyes turned to him, he ran away screaming.”
“Why?” Jordan asked. “It’s just a little girl.”
Liam grinned at her. “Yuh, a dead little girl.”
“Still just a little girl,” Jordan insisted.
“No one knows,” Eddie said. “From that day on, the old man stayed in his house and wouldn’t come out. He wouldn’t even let his dog inside when it came home at night. People wonder to this day what he saw when the little girl looked at him and,” he raised a finger, “they wonder which of the little girls living in town is the dead one.”
“That’s it?” Jordan asked. “There are oh so many flaws in your story. For one, how do people know what happened to the old man if no one else was there? Then, why did the dogs—”
“It’s a story, Jordan,” Jack reminded her. “Not a news report.”
“Fine, have it your way,” she said, sitting back, and crossed her arms.
Suddenly Gabriel felt Hannah shift. He helped her sit up as her eyes kept staring into the distance. “You okay?”
She nodded. “There they are.”
“The dogs?!” Eddie squeaked, jumping up. “Where?”
Hannah smiled. “Not the dogs, silly.” She pointed to the fringe of the clearing. “There.”
From the edge of the forest tiny lights emerged. They hovered in the air, dancing up and down and from side to side. Slowly, they glided toward them, lighting the dark. Once again, Gabriel thought they looked like stars. His arm still around Hannah’s shoulders, he turned his head and looked at her face. Her eyes shone as she watched the fireflies fly toward her. There could be no question as to where they were headed. Their aim was true and in a matter of moments, their tiny lights danced over the camp, mixing with the small, fiery sparks rising upward.