The second guy, also muscular, but with short dark hair, pushed his fingers into my wrist and then my neck. “Well, your heart’s still beating—that’s good for TV ratings.” Then he smiled until his dimples caved in on both sides of his face.
Blonde Muscles spoke again, “Whad’ya say we get you out of here and make sure you live to see another season?” Then he grinned. It must be a requirement for paramedics to be charming.
“Can I ride with her?” Kendall was now at my side. “I sing, and I’m told that it calms people down.”
“I don’t see why not,” Blondie said. “As long as one of her parents comes too. I think we can squeeze you in.”
“How is she?” Mom came in from the side and placed her clammy hand on my forehead.
“She looks good. I don’t see any sign of shock or agitation.” Dark-Hair Dimple Man patted me on the shoulder. “But she’s precious cargo, so we should take her in to have a once over.”
“I’ll call Dr. Snow,” Mom said. “Maybe he can meet us at the emergency room.”
“Should we all get in the cars and follow you?” Mamaw pulled a coat on over her bulky red sweater with the long-bearded Santa face on the front.
“Please,” I clasped my hands and begged. “Can we just go ourselves in the car? This is embarrassing enough.”
Kendall nudged me. “Oh, it’s not embarrassing enough yet.” Then she pointed over to the corner, where the film crew sat quietly with their cameras. Filming.
I could tell by the flickering red light.
CHAPTER 2
Can You Help Me?
The emergency room was packed. I guess others were missing out on giving candy to monsters too. Kendall took a seat next to me, and since it was now obvious I wasn’t going to die, my parents disappeared into a side office to fill out some paperwork.
“I feel ridiculous wearing this.” I was referring to my ugly sweater—red with gold candles all over it which was supposed to resemble wrapping paper on a Christmas present. The ridiculous part was the huge gold bow that felt like it stuck up a mile on my right shoulder.
“Mine’s not much better.” Kendall pointed to her blue sweater that had a Christmas tree on it. She grabbed one of the shiny pom-poms—that was supposed to be an ornament—and pulled it off.
She grinned, threw it up in the air, and caught it. “Wanna play catch?”
I shook my head. “Not feeling it right now, Kendall.”
“Shall we see if the crowd would like to sing some Christmas carols?”
I looked at her with a straight face.
“That would be magical if it weren’t Halloween.”
“Can you help me?” A fairy princess with ultra-blonde curls who couldn’t have been older than four approached me with a little plastic pumpkin hanging from her wrist. “I can’t get this wrapper off ‘cause my arm is a little bit broked.” She handed me a swirly blue-and-green lollipop with her pumpkin hand. The other was tied up in a sling made from a camouflage T-shirt.
I smiled down at her and took the lollipop.
“Sure.” I pulled the plastic off and handed it back to her. “How did you hurt your arm?”
“A ghost chased me. I ran away, but then I tripped on the sidewalk.”
“Ouch,” I said. “I’m sorry that happened.” I looked a little closer at her sling, and noticed it was a Carried Away with the Carroways T-shirt. I almost told her who I was, but something stopped me.
“It’s gonna be okay,” the fairy princess said. “I got spongey bones. I been here before.” She stuck the lollipop in the side of her mouth and kept talking. “Momma says I gotta stop runnin’ all the time.”
Then she turned and walked back to the corner of the room where some people sat who looked like her family members.
“Huh,” I said to Kendall. “That was strange.”
Kendall, who now had some earbuds in, pulled them out and turned toward me. “Did you say something?”
“Yeah. I said that was strange.”
“What was?”
“That little fairy princess with the arm sling. She came all the way over here to me to ask me to help her open a sucker.”
“What’s strange about that? She probably recognized you from the TV show. Happens to me all the time. Plus, you’ve got that big bow that makes you stand out.”
I shook my head.
“She didn’t say anything about recognizing me.”
Just then, a short nurse wearing a pink wig and a crown came through the electric double doors.
“Allie Carroway?”
As soon as she said that, heads turned my way, and a buzz of conversation spread through the room.
“I wish she hadn’t said that so loud,” I whispered to Kendall.
I stood and walked toward the nurse. Kendall followed. Someone’s phone flashed as they snapped a picture. Really, people? We’re in the ER! I could feel all eyes on me—except two. The fairy princess was standing on her chair, the sucker stick still protruding from her mouth.
“Sit down, Emmy.” A young woman dressed as a ladybug reached over and steadied the little girl. “Do you want to break your other arm too?”
Emmy giggled. “No, Momma.”
Emmy sat down, and then she saw me. “Momma, there’s the girl with the sprinkly eyes.”
Emmy waved her sucker at me, and I waved back. Her mom laughed.
“You mean sparkly. She has sparkly eyes.”
“Oh, yeah. Sparkly.” She ran over to me. “Thank you. I knew you would help me.”
I knelt next to her and straightened her T-shirt sling. “You’re welcome. I’ll be praying for your arm.”
“Thank you. Can you pray I stop runnin’? I hate breakin’ bones.”
I smiled. “Sure. I’ll do that.”
“I knew it.” Then she returned to her mom.
A funny sensation ran through my body as I followed the nurse to the exam room. Like tingles, but good. Or maybe it was peanut poisoning.
“Kendall, do my eyes look sparkly to you?” I turned to my cousin and opened them wide.
“Um . . . hardly. The white part is all bloodshot. And remind me again, what color are your pupils normally?”
“They’re a rich azure blue! You know that.”
“O . . . kay. Whatever you say. They’re lookin’ a little werewolf blue right now.”
We followed the nurse through a maze of white curtains.
“I’m sorry we don’t have a private room for you, Miss Carroway, but it’s been busy in here. Must be the full moon.” She finally stopped and pulled one of the curtains back to reveal a bed and a little chair next to it. “Climb on up and we’ll get your blood pressure.”
I jumped up on the bed and Kendall sat down on the chair. The nurse grabbed a light stick and shined it in both of my eyes. Kendall tilted her head up and gave a little howl.
“Where are your parents?” the nurse asked.
I shrugged. “They went into some room with all my papers, and never came back.”
“Maybe they were eaten by werewolves,” Kendall said.
The nurse laughed. “Could be. There’s never a dull moment around here.” She pushed up my bulky sweater sleeve, strapped a band around my arm, and then pumped the little bulb and waited for the blood pressure machine to register some numbers. “Well, so far, so good.” She stepped back and wrote some things on the papers attached to a clipboard. “It says here you may have ingested a peanut, and you’re highly allergic.” She pulled a tongue depressor out of a glass container and motioned for me to open my mouth. I did, and she placed the dry, wooden stick on the back of my tongue.
“Sounds like you got a trick and not a treat,” she said.
“You have no idea,” I tried to say, but it sounded more like “OO AHH OH EYE EEE UH.”
“Hmmm. Things don’t look swollen. That’s a good sign.” She referred to the clipboard. “Doctor wants some blood.”
“Is he a vampire?” Kendall was having way too much fun for thi
s being the emergency room.
“Could be,” the nurse said, and she wiggled her eyebrows up and down. “Now that I think about it, the lab has been extra busy tonight too.”
We followed her down a long hallway, where at least twenty people sat in chairs against the off-white walls, waiting to have their blood drawn.
“I’m going to go find your parents. Have a seat, and if you start feeling funny, alert the guy at the desk, okay?”
She pointed to a young, bored-looking twenty-something who was checking people into the lab.
“She hasn’t laughed at any of my jokes yet,” Kendall said, “So I doubt she’s gonna feel funny, but I’ll keep an eye on her.” Kendall winked, and we both sat down.
Kendall watched as the nurse disappeared around the corner. Then she turned and gave me an intense stare. “Looks like it’s gonna be awhile, so let’s dispense with all the Halloween humor and talk.” She crossed her arms in front of her and slumped down a little. “I’ve got some issues.”
“Issues? With me?”
“No. Not with you. But with everything else in my life, and the number one thing on my list is the show.”
“The TV show?”
“Yeah. I’ve been thinkin’ lately that I need a break.”
“A break?”
“Yeah. I’m just not feelin’ it these days.”
“Kendall, it’s reality TV. You just have to act like yourself. What’s not to feel?”
“Allie, don’t you get tired of livin’ your life in front of a camera? It’s like we can’t do anything without people knowin’ about it.”
“Not true,” I said. “Look at all the fun we’re having right now without a film crew.”
“Yeah, but all those people in the waitin’ room were starin’ at us, and takin’ our picture. And you just came from having an allergy meltdown in front of the film crew. You know they’re gonna want to use that footage for some kind of public service announcement.”
“They will not. Mom and Dad won’t allow it.”
Kendall pointed a finger at me.
“You just wait and see. I know what I’m talkin’ about. But hey, I’m glad you took all the camera attention away from me and my enormous zit.”
Kendall then pointed to her chin, which did have a big blemish hiding under gobs of makeup that Hannah had used on her before our Christmas dinner filming.
I tried not to laugh, but it didn’t work.
“Okay, so I look like a werewolf and you look like a goblin. Seems perfect for Halloween, right?”
“Yeah, but we were filming Christmas! Allie—that’s another problem. Reality TV is confusing me! Look at what we’re wearing.” She reached over and flicked my bow.
Okay, maybe she had a point.
“Allie, don’t you ever feel like we’re livin’ in a different reality than everyone else? I mean, what season is it really?”
“Well, I know in a couple of weeks it’s going to be duck-hunting season.”
Kendall jumped out of her chair and grabbed the sides of her head with both hands.
“No! Didn’t we just have that?”
“Twelve months ago, yeah.”
In the middle of November, most families begin to over-schedule and stress out because the holidays are coming. The Carroways do that too, but we also add duck-hunting season, which means our dads are gone all the time. It’s like throwing a battery into an already roaring campfire.
Kendall sat back down and dug her fingers into my arm.
“I’m not ready! I’m gonna get more zits, and I know I can’t keep up with my homework, the filming, and all the extra chores!”
I pulled her hand off my arm and set it on her leg, so she could dig into her own skin.
“Kendall, aren’t you the one who’s supposed to be calming me down right now? Killer Peanut Sludge could be forming in my system to stop my heart as we speak.”
Kendall turned to face me. “I’m so sorry, Allie. I don’t know what got into me. Are you feelin’ okay?”
She leaned forward to look in my eyes again and frowned.
“Still bloodshot?” I asked.
Kendall stuck out her lower lip and nodded. “They look worse.”
“Great.” I put my hands to my cheeks. “Maybe I do need a break.”
“Excuse me, young lady. Can you help me?”
An older woman, wearing a purple sweat suit and using a walker with purple tennis balls shoved on the ends, shuffled right up to me. I sat up straight, and looked her in the eyes. They were clear and azure blue.
“I do believe I’m lost. I just stepped around the corner to use the ladies room, and now I can’t find my way back to my husband. He’s in the emergency department.”
“Sure, I’ll be glad to help.” I turned to Kendall. “Save my seat, and I’ll be back to the vampire line in a minute.”
I stood and then walked slowly next to the woman.
“Hospital hallways all look the same to me,” she said.
I nodded. “I know what you mean. They should paint the hallways different colors or something. Luckily, I just came from emergency, and I have a good sense of direction.”
The woman grinned, and as we rounded the corner, her face lit up.
“Oh, there’s my Howard!” The woman let go of her walker and reached out to give me a gentle hug. “I knew you were the right person to ask for help.”
Out of all the people sitting in that long hallway? Weird.
“What’s your name, honey?”
“Um, it’s Allie. Allie Carroway.”
I expected the name to ring a bell, but no.
The woman put her cool, fragile hand on my arm.
“Bless you, Miss Allie.”
I smiled. “You too, ma’am.”
“Thank you.”
She grabbed her walker and started to move forward, but then turned back.
“Oh, where are my manners? I didn’t ask you why you’re here. Are you sick?”
I shook my head. “No. Just a little allergy scare.”
“Well, I hope everything turns out alright.”
“It will. I think I just need a little rest.”
“Well, whatever you do, Allie Carroway, don’t ever stop shining your light.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
I turned to make my way back to Kendall. The whole time, I wondered, What light?
CHAPTER 3
SOLD
The peanut scare turned out to be a dud—thankfully. But I was still bummed-out, because except for little Emmy with the fragile bones, I never got to hand out any Halloween candy.
“Dad, when exactly does duck-hunting season start this year?”
It was ten o’clock, and Dad was driving Mom and me home from the hospital. I sat in the back seat of our SUV, tired, and trying to come up with a plan to take a break from the upcoming “Deck the Halls and Ducks” madness.
Mom threw her head back on the cushioned headrest.
“Allie, why did you have to bring that up now?”
Dad glanced at me in the rearview and smiled. “Because she’s a Carroway, that’s why!” He turned to Mom. “She can feel the duck mojo in the air! I’m glad you asked, because the excitement all begins November 4th.”
“That’s too early!” Mom dropped her face in her hands.
Dad reached out and rubbed Mom’s shoulder. “It’s never too early! I’m gettin’ goosebumps just thinkin’ about it. It’s the most wonderful time of the year.”
“I thought that was supposed to be Christmas,” I said.
Dad turned the car into our driveway, and as the garage door opened, his phone buzzed.
He looked at his screen. “Bayou’s Best Realty. I wonder why they’re callin’ so late?”
He pulled into the garage, parked, and then put the phone on speaker.
“Hello, this is Jake.”
A high-pitched, rattly voice filled the inside of the car.
“Jake! This is Ellen. I’m glad you’re still up. I
have wonderful news.”
Ellen is the lady who is trying to sell our house. After I added a mold allergy—complete with regular asthma attacks—to my medical resume, my parents decided to build a new allergen-free home around the block from our current house where I’ve lived for my entire life. It’s supposed to take eight months to build it, if the rain goes easy on us this winter.
Ellen continued.
“You’re not going to believe this, but I received an offer on your house today.”
I unhooked my seatbelt and scooted to the edge of my seat.
“Really?” Mom laughed a little. “How so? No one’s looked at the place all week.”
“I know, and it’s the strangest thing,” Ellen said. “The family lives in Florida, but they sent the offer through their realtor over the phone. The gentleman said that he saw the house on the website and he wants to buy it, sight unseen.”
“Are we talking about the same messed-up house?” I joked. Mom reached back and put her hand over my mouth.
“Oh, hi, Miss Allie,” Ellen said. “You are such a funny girl! Yes, he wants your messed-up house, and get this, Jake and Maggie—he offered more than your asking price! AND . . . he’s paying cash.”
Mom gasped.
“Ellen, are you serious?” Dad poked the phone, taking it off speaker. I moved my head closer to try to hear, but Dad turned the volume down too.
“Mom, what does that mean, he wants to pay cash? Don’t people always use cash to buy things?”
“Not for houses. Most people need to get loans from a bank for that amount. But if this guy has cash, and we decide to sell, it’s pretty much a done deal.”
A squirt of adrenaline made its way from my heart to my head and caused it to throb at both my temples. I pushed in with my fingers and closed my eyes a minute, trying to absorb what this all meant. I watched Dad’s every move as he continued to talk to Ellen on the phone.
“Uh-huh, I see,” he said, and he leaned his head back against the headrest. “And what’s the catch? This seems way too easy.”
He waited. And Mom and I waited and watched Dad’s face. Soon a reaction came.
Running from Reality Page 2