The Accident

by Diane Hoh

  Vicki Deems had been out on the lake. But if Vicki wanted Justin Carr for herself, how would hurting Connie Logan help her get him?

  Maybe Vicki just hates everyone in Lakeside. That was a scary thought. But, picturing Vicki’s cold, dark eyes, Megan found it easy to believe that the girl could hate someone enough to hurt them.

  Discouraged because there was nothing to see or hear, Megan explored the lake for a while, then moved through the cool gray mist toward home.

  She arrived to find Justin’s red car parked in the driveway, facing the lake. That was no surprise. What was a surprise was finding Juliet and Justin still in it, seated so close together they looked like one person.

  And they were kissing. Intensely.

  Justin had kissed Megan before. But never like that. It had been more of an I-like-you-Megan-and-I’m-glad-we-know-each-other kind of kiss. Not a Wow-are-you-ever-terrific kind of kiss, which was what he was giving Juliet this very minute.

  It was so hard to remember that Justin believed he was with her, Megan. She wanted so much to tell him the truth, to shout, “Justin, it’s me, Megan, over here. That’s not me you’re kissing, it’s a ghost named Juliet!”

  But he wouldn’t be able to hear her.

  Justin pulled Juliet even closer. Mist clouded the windshield and the windows, obliterating the outside world. The pair didn’t seem to mind.

  Megan fled.

  Twenty agonizingly long minutes later, when Juliet entered the bedroom, a dreamy smile on her face, Megan was waiting for her.

  “Juliet,” Megan said, “someone could have come up behind that car and pushed it straight into the lake, and you and Justin wouldn’t have known it until your shoes started to get soggy. I don’t call that being careful!”

  Juliet threw herself across the unmade bed, rolled over on her back, and thrust a lace-edged pillow under her head. “Sounds to me like somebody’s jealous,” she said with a grin. “Gosh, Megan, I don’t see why. Justin thinks that was you he was kissing.” Another grin. “And kissing and kissing and … listen, I was doing you a big favor. Jump starting his motor for you.”

  “Justin’s going to get suspicious. He knows I’m not that … that outgoing.”

  Juliet grinned, catlike. “He doesn’t seem to mind.”

  Just then the phone rang.

  “Oh, hello, Hilary.” Juliet’s voice became ice cream, smooth and cold. “Yes, my mother’s fine. She came home this afternoon.” She listened for a moment and then said, “Well, I just don’t think I have anything to apologize for. You’re too sensitive, that’s all.”

  There was an audible click on the other end.

  Juliet shrugged and replaced the phone.

  Megan had been listening. “What did you do to Hilary? Why does she want an apology?”

  “Because she’s silly, that’s why. And because she never learned that three is a crowd. My goodness, Megan, I learned that when I was two years old.”

  Megan, thinking that the last thing in the world Hilary needed right now was to have her feelings hurt, said, “She didn’t really leave last night because she was tired, did she? Juliet, what did you do?”

  The heat wave had finally broken, and a gust of wind sent a cool mist into the room, stirring the curtains. Juliet jumped up to close the window and then went to the closet and grabbed a white terrycloth robe hanging on the back of the door. “I simply said that it was too bad she didn’t have a date on Saturday night and had to hang around with Justin and me. The next thing I knew, she was calling her father to come and pick her up, and five minutes later she was out of here. It’s really not my fault, Megan. I didn’t mean to hurt her feelings, but I wanted to be alone with Justin.”

  “You told her she was in the way? Juliet, that’s awful!”

  “I didn’t hear Justin complaining.” Her eyes became cloudy with pleasure. “Megan, if I’m going to make the most of this week, I can’t do it with Hilary hanging over my shoulder.”

  And without waiting to hear any more, Juliet left to take a bath.

  Megan stared longingly at the telephone. If only I could pick it up and fix things with Hilary. She must be so down right now. How am I ever going to make this up to her?

  But there was nothing Megan could do, except wait. Six more days. Six long days.

  Chapter 13

  IT BECAME VERY CLEAR to Megan the next morning that Juliet wasn’t going to be much help to a recuperating mother, in spite of her promise to Megan to “take care of your mother.”

  “Dishes? Gosh, I don’t have time! Justin’s picking me up in two minutes. Can’t Thomas do them?”

  Thomas, gulping down the last of his cereal, howled a protest. “I have to put air in my bike tires. I don’t have time for dishes.”

  Megan, watching, disapproved of both Juliet’s attitude and her outfit. The perfectly innocent white peasant blouse Megan was so fond of looked very different on Juliet, who had pushed the tiny, puffed sleeves off her shoulders, baring them.

  “I don’t wear it like that,” she had told Juliet upstairs.

  “It’s more fun like this,” had been Juliet’s response.

  Hearing that her father had decided to take the day off to stay with his wife, Megan followed Juliet to school. Leaving Juliet alone for any length of time would be not only dangerous, but foolish. After Juliet had left, Megan heard her father turn to Thomas and say in a perplexed voice, “Now, what’s got into that girl? She didn’t even tell your mother goodbye.”

  Megan hoped that Juliet’s behavior at school wouldn’t cause the same reaction from her friends and teachers. Would everyone be chorusing, “What’s got into Megan?” by the end of this week? Maybe even by the end of this day?

  But none of that mattered as much as being sure that Juliet was safe. Maybe my being around her won’t protect her, but if I don’t know that she’s okay, I’ll go crazy worrying.

  Fighting her anxiety, Megan searched the halls and classrooms at Philippa Moore for Juliet. The complete silence in the building seemed to Megan positively freakish. There was no laughter, no chatter, no footsteps clattering down the halls, no slamming of locker doors. The building itself seemed to be holding its breath, waiting to see where disaster would strike next.

  Being in the school but separated from it by the hideous invisible wall between her and her familiar world made Megan wish ferociously that she hadn’t daydreamed her way through so many classes. I took it all for granted, she scolded herself, and now, if anything happens to Juliet, I might never get it back.

  No. That couldn’t happen. It couldn’t!

  Megan found Juliet in the cafeteria with Hilary. But her relief was short-lived when she realized they were arguing.

  Juliet and Hilary were sitting at a corner table in the sparsely occupied room. Hilary’s face was scarlet, her short, squat body rigid with anger. Juliet seemed perfectly relaxed.

  Uh-oh. What’s going on?

  “You could at least say you’re sorry!” Hilary said. “You embarrassed me in front of Justin. That stinks, Megan! I could have had a date Saturday night if I’d wanted one, and you know it.”

  Toying with a plastic fork on her tray, Juliet said, “Then why didn’t you? I mean, Hil, you keep telling me to go for it with Justin. How do you expect me to do that with a chaperone around all the time?”

  Hilary’s mortified flush was painful for Megan to see. “Oh.” Hilary’s voice sank to a near-whisper. “I guess … I guess you’re right. I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking. I didn’t realize I was in the way.”

  Why isn’t she fighting back? Hilary always fights back. She doesn’t sound like herself any more than Juliet sounds like me.

  Megan realized then that Hilary’s plunge toward death had affected her far more deeply than she’d let anyone know.

  Jenny and Cappie and I always knew that as tough as Hil was on the outside, she was a soft, warm marshmallow inside. She would die before she’d hurt anyone on purpose. And the idea that someone would deliberately hur
t her for no reason, has really shaken her.

  And Juliet, whether she knew it or not, was making it worse.

  Hilary stood up, clutching her books to her chest as if they might somehow protect her. “See you,” she whispered, and hurried out of the cafeteria.

  As angry as Megan was, she decided it would be foolish to confront Juliet here in the cafeteria. Juliet could hardly sit in a public place and reply to an unseen Megan’s questions. She’d look like an idiot, talking to herself. Megan would have to wait until they were both back home.

  As Juliet got up and left, Megan noticed that she was not the only person watching. Vicki Deems, seated alone off to Megan’s right, had fixed her eyes on Juliet. They smouldered with … was that hatred? Why? Because Vicki wanted Justin?

  If Vicki was evil enough to have hurt so many people, would Juliet be able to feel that when she shared an English classroom with Vicki later that day?

  Before she left school, Megan went with trepidation to the art room. Approaching the cubbyhole cautiously, she said a quick prayer that it would be empty.

  It wasn’t.

  The sheet of paper was a bright sunny yellow. It took her a few moments to decipher the message drawn in vivid purple. The crude strokes depicted what looked like a drum. A round, squat drum with a green zigzag trim bordering the top and bottom edges. Two short, skinny drumsticks with padded ends lay crisscross on top of the drum.

  It’s not a drum. It’s a tom-tom. Thomas. Tom. There are two of them in my family: Big Tom and little Tom.

  Was this drawing a threat to both of them? Her brother and her father?

  Megan’s cold and lonely world began spinning wildly around her. The tomblike silence of the building shouted at her, “Watch out for your family, Megan!”

  Why hadn’t Juliet told her about the drawing?

  “I didn’t go to art,” was the answer Megan got when, at home, she asked that question. “Justin had to go pick up some stuff for The Scribe, so I cut and went with him. I hope you’re not mad. I mean, nobody seems to think anything of it. Gosh, if I’d ever cut a class, my father would have killed me!”

  “Not your mother?”

  “My mother died when I was nine.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry, Juliet.” What terrible things had happened to Juliet. First her mother’s death, and then her own. And all she wanted now was this one week.

  Still, Megan wished with all her heart that she had never given the week away. She wanted it back. But how could she do that to Juliet? It would be so cruel.

  “Juliet, did you cut English, too?” Like art, English was an afternoon class. She shared it with Vicki.

  “Yes. But I promise I won’t do it again. I wouldn’t want your teachers to be mad at you because of me.”

  Megan was bitterly disappointed. She had counted on Juliet to let her know if she sensed anything evil from Vicki. But she didn’t want to say anything that might influence Juliet’s reaction to Vicki. It would just have to wait.

  As would another evening of fun for Juliet, as she discovered at dinner when Megan’s father put his foot down.

  “You’re staying in tonight,” he said emphatically as they finished their meal. Juliet had asked permission to meet Justin at Lickety-Split, the ice cream store in the mall. “No one in this family is stepping one foot outside this house. Do I make myself clear?”

  He looked tired. Worry lines etched a pattern across his forehead, and his thick white hair stuck up all over, a sure sign that he’d been nervously running his fingers through it.

  What happened to Mom has really upset him. Poor dad. Then she remembered the new drawing. If only there was some way I could warn him and Thomas.

  This time, Juliet didn’t argue. She seemed to understand that arguing would get her nowhere. Although she pouted over the change in plans, she did the dishes and swept the kitchen floor before going upstairs.

  Megan expected her to call Justin immediately to cancel their date, but she didn’t. Instead, she took a shower, changed into jeans and a pretty green blouse, blew her hair dry, applied fresh makeup, and then sat down on the bed, a paperback novel in hand.

  And stayed there until she heard Thomas go into his room and close the door, and shortly after that, the plodding footsteps of a very weary Tom Logan on the stairs. A minute later, the door to the master bedroom clicked shut.

  And Juliet, with a whispered but triumphant, “Yes, yes, yes!” picked up the denim purse, tiptoed down the stairs, and out of the house. Megan knew she was on her way to Lickety-Split to meet Justin as planned.

  Her disobeying Megan’s father was more than annoying to Megan. It was frightening. Going out at night now was a risky, stupid thing to do. Juliet’s need to have fun this week was easy to understand, but Megan couldn’t just let her go. Anything could happen to her. And anything that happened to her happened to Megan, too.

  The only solution was to go to the mall and make Juliet come back home before anyone knew she was gone.

  Thinking again of the new drawing, Megan made sure that both her brother and her father were safe in their own beds.

  Then she followed Juliet.

  Chapter 14

  MEGAN ARRIVED AT THE mall to find Hilary arguing vehemently with Vicki Deems in the corridor outside of the ice-cream store. Justin and Juliet were inside, sitting opposite each other in one of the pink-and-white-striped booths. They were the only customers in the store, and they seemed blissfully unaware of the argument going on outside.

  “Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!” Hilary shouted. Her voice echoed with a hollow ring amid the potted trees and park benches. Except for her and Vicki, the corridor was deserted. It was late. The only store open was Lickety-Split, which kept longer hours to attract the after-movie crowd. “You’ve got a lot of nerve calling Megan a flirt. Your own Flirt Alert is on attack status twenty-four hours a day, Deems. A living, breathing male passes within fifty feet of you and you’re all over him like jelly on peanut butter!”

  Megan felt a warm rush of affection for Hilary. Juliet had hurt her feelings, yet here was Hilary defending her.

  “At least I’m not a hypocrite,” Vicki fumed, her mouth twisted in contempt. “Little Miss Muffet in there pretended to be so sticky-sweet until she caught me talking to Justin. Then she bared her fangs.”

  “You never stood a chance with him. He’s only interested in Megan. Give it up, Vicki. Get a life!”

  Vicki’s face went white with rage. “I don’t give up. Ever. If Megan hadn’t come into the Scribe office that day, Justin would have asked me to her party. I’m never wrong about things like that.”

  “In your dreams, Deems.”

  Enraged, but aware that Hilary wasn’t going to back down, Vicki turned on her heels and stalked away. Her long, dark hair swayed on her shoulders like a black silk cape.

  Megan wished fiercely that she could hug Hilary to thank her. She wouldn’t have blamed her best friend if she’d agreed with Vicki, after the way Juliet had hurt her.

  She’d never seen Vicki so angry. Did she really want Justin that much? And how far would she go to get him?

  Inside the restaurant, Hilary refused to acknowledge the existence of Justin and Juliet. Head up, shoulders squared, she marched straight to the counter, where she ordered a half gallon of Triple Trouble ice cream. Then she waited, her back resolutely to the couple.

  “Hil?” Justin called. “Come on over. You’re not still mad, are you?”

  Hilary half turned. “I wouldn’t dream of intruding,” she said stiffly. “I’m just here to pick up dessert. Ignore me. That shouldn’t be a problem for you.”

  Justin got up then and came over to the counter. Draping an arm around Hilary’s stiffened shoulders, he said, “Come on, Hil, ease up. We didn’t mean to hurt your feelings the other night. We feel bad about it.”

  Hilary glanced over at Juliet. She was chewing on a straw and smiling at Justin. Her smile excluded Hilary.

  “Yeah, I can see she’s all bro
ken up about it.”

  “Look,” Justin said, “tell you what. I’ll ask Megan’s father if we can take his boat out. The weather stinks, but it’ll be fun, anyway. Come on, Hil. You can’t stay mad forever.”

  A strangled sound from behind them made them both turn around. Juliet, in the booth, sat up straight and rigid as a pole, her face muscles contracted in fear. “Boat?” she choked. “Justin, you didn’t say anything to me about going out in a boat. I won’t go!”

  Megan was watching. Poor Juliet. Look at her face. She’s terrified of the lake because that’s where she died. But they’re not going to understand. They think she’s me, and I would never react that way to a boat ride. They know I love the lake.

  But Hilary was no longer surprised by anything her best friend did. “Look,” she said while an amazed Justin stared at Juliet. “I just came to get dessert, that’s all. I had to promise my parents I’d be back in fifteen minutes. If I’m not, they’re sending the militia after me. They’re totally paranoid right now.”

  She paid for the ice cream and left without saying a word to Juliet, who didn’t seem to notice.

  Justin hurried over to the booth. “What was that all about?” he asked Juliet, peering into her face. “Since when aren’t you ready and willing to take a boat ride?”

  And Juliet, reaching out to grasp Justin’s hands in her own, leaned across the table and said sadly, “Since my mother ended up floating in the lake. That really upset me.”

  That excuse made sense to Justin. Megan could tell that he had accepted it by the understanding look on his face.

  “Oh. Yeah, sure. But you’ll get over it, right?” Justin wasn’t a great swimmer, but he loved boating.

  “Sure. Of course. Now, let’s talk about something else.”

  “What did you decide to do about the drawing you showed me?” Justin asked Juliet. “You planning to take it to Toomey?”

  It took Juliet a moment to shift gears. “Drawing?”

  “Yeah, you know. The one of Jenny’s car.”

  It’s a good thing I showed it to her, or she wouldn’t have the faintest idea what Justin was talking about.