Glimmerglass

It didn’t sound particularly funny to me. “So what did you decide?”

“We decided that we’d talk more tomorrow.”

I groaned. “You have got to be kidding me.”

His smile was wry. “We are all politicians, my dear. Coming to a consensus will take some time and energy. We did agree that we need to arrange a safe house for you.” I must have looked alarmed, because he continued hastily. “Not that you aren’t safe here. You’re just … too accessible.”

“To who?”

He shrugged. “When you have enemies as serious as yours, it is best that those enemies not know where you are.”

Gee, I was so glad Dad was still being open and honest with me. Did he think I didn’t notice that he didn’t answer my question?

“Don’t worry,” he said, taking another sip of brandy. “My home is as good a place as any right now. It’s just not the best permanent solution.”

I didn’t say anything, because I was beginning to feel the bars of the gilded cage rising around me. I was already under a sort of twenty-four-hour watch, and I saw the little freedoms I had now—like going shopping—slipping away. If they put me someplace where no one else could find me, then I’d be even more in their power. They’d be cutting me off from the outside world.

It was a depressing thought, but if I had any hope of arguing the Big Three out of it, I had to have better fuel than “I don’t want to be hidden away in some secluded location like a princess in a fairy tale.” Right now, that was all I had, so I decided to keep my mouth shut. Maybe after a good night’s sleep, something would come to me.

I started to force a yawn, and it turned into a real one very quickly. Dad gave me a look of paternal sympathy.

“You’ve had a long day,” he said. “Perhaps you should get some sleep.”

“Yeah, I guess so.” I swallowed down another yawn.

There was an awkward moment, as neither one of us seemed to know what to do. It wasn’t like I was going to kiss him good night or anything, but there was still an uncomfortable feeling like I should make some demonstration of affection. I think Dad felt it, too, but was just as flummoxed by it as I was.

“Well, good night,” I finally said.

“Good night,” he replied with a formal bow of his head. “Sleep well.”

And I supposed that was about as affectionate as we were going to get.

chapter twenty-one

I couldn’t sleep. I felt exhausted from today’s ordeals, but my mind refused to shut down and let me escape for a few hours. Tonight, the futon felt as hard as I expected a futon to feel, and I tossed and turned restlessly. I had come to Avalon in part to get away from my mom and her drama, but I think in part I’d also hoped that I would find in Dad the parental care and guidance I was missing in Mom. I had wanted someone older and wiser to help me make sense of my life and plan for the future.

You know that old Chinese proverb about being careful what you wish for? Man, did I ever understand it now.

I shoved the tangled covers away from me, sitting up and turning on the light. If I wasn’t going to sleep, then I had to find something else to do, or else I’d be lying there making myself into a nervous wreck until morning. I glanced at the clock and saw it was almost one A.M. Which was prime time in the United States. Maybe I’d get lucky this time and my mom would answer the phone. You know what they say about the third time being the charm.

I held my breath as I dialed, hardly believing how badly I wanted to hear my mother’s voice, even if it was all drunk and sloppy. Even if she screamed and yelled and then burst into tears, which I would usually try to avoid at all costs.

I almost gasped when I heard the click of the call connecting. But the voice that greeted me was not my mother’s.

“Hathaway residence, may I help you?” the woman said, like I was calling a business or something.

My heart gave a nasty thud in my chest. Oh my God! What did it mean that someone other than my mom was answering? Was she hurt? Sick? Dead?

My whole body was one aching knot of tension, and I could barely manage a whisper, my throat was so tight. “Where’s my mom? Is she all right?” Oh, please, please, please let her be all right! I couldn’t bear it if something had happened to her because I’d run away.

“Dana?” the woman asked. I still didn’t recognize her voice.

“Yes.”

“This is Frances, your neighbor?”

I recognized her now. Frances, who made a point of looking down her nose at my mom and made everything she said sound like a question.

“What are you doing answering our phone?” I demanded. “Where’s my mom?”

“Don’t you worry, Dana honey. Your mom’s just fine. You gave her a nasty fright, you know?”

The last thing I was in the mood for right now was being lectured by our nosy, snotty neighbor. I wanted to crawl through the phone and shake her.

“Please tell me where she is,” I begged, and I guess I sounded pathetic enough that Frances decided not to continue the lecture.

“I imagine she’s somewhere over the Atlantic right about now.”

“What?”

“She’s going to Avalon to find you. I’m watering the plants while she’s gone.”

My mind reeled, though not so much that I couldn’t entertain the cynical thought that Frances was in our house to snoop. If Mom was on a plane right now, then she’d only been gone a few hours, and the plants would hardly need watering yet.