Goodbye Earl(64)

She’d call Silas when she was safe in the city. She’d call Rosemarie and Ada and Caroline too. They’d be so mad at her, but she’d sneakily left them letters so they wouldn’t think she was missing. She left Silas’s next to the black wooden bear at the lake house. Rosemarie’s, tied up with the lilac sundress she’d borrowed last month, and left on her doorstep. Ada’s, underneath the windshield wiper of her pink car. Caro’s, peeking out from underneath the trailer’s ladybug rug.

Maybe if she and her mom had run away a long time ago, everything would be different, but it was too late. Run, baby girl. Kasey cried with her head against the warm bus window until Goldie and everything in it was gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone.





2019


27





Caroline


In the hospital, Caroline dreamt she was married to Beau, not Trey. She and Beau had a baby, and Beau was holding the baby up in the air, swooping it back down. He put his arm around Caro and touched her cheek. He kissed her softly and called her Muffin Mix, and he held their baby’s little foot in his big hand.

When she woke up in a regular room, her grandma was sitting in the chair right next to her bed, knitting and watching a cooking show. Mimi told her she’d said Beau’s name more than once in her sleep.

“One time, it was so breathy I thought I’d teleported into my romance novel, Ladybug,” Mimi said, motioning her head down at her lap, where a glossy paperback sat. Caro looked at it. The woman on the cover had red hair like hers, blowing in the wind. The man’s face was hidden. He was kissing her neck. The woman was Caroline and the man turned into Trey. He put his arms around Caro’s neck and started squeezing. Caroline sat up and gasped. She couldn’t remember how long she’d been in a coma. Was it only one day? Someone told her that, but who? Those words, in a coma, on top of all the pain medicine running rivers through her blood and the strange, new surroundings of the hospital were creating a distress signal in her body.

Her grandma put her knitting down and reached out to touch her. “What do you need, honey? Some more water? I’ll call the nurse,” her grandma said, taking her hand.

“No…no. Sorry. I’m fine. I think I was half-asleep…still dreaming. I’m okay now,” Caro said, taking a deep breath. She told herself she was okay now, safe. She had murky memories of being in the ICU. Of Rosemarie, Ada, and Kasey coming in and out. Of her grandma and possibly her mother too. She asked Mimi about that.

“Yes. She was here. She couldn’t stay, but she was here. You talked to her. Does it feel like everything’s okay with the baby? I love that baby so much. I’ve been talking to her while you’ve been sleeping, you know,” Mimi said, winking at her.

“How do you know it’ll be a girl?” Caro asked. She put her hand on her stomach. It seemed like magic how she could feel the flash of life inside of her now that she knew it was there. She had no clue she was pregnant until she woke up in the ICU. Four weeks.

She wasn’t like her mother. Caro knew she’d be a real mom to her baby; she’d do anything to protect her baby.

Her baby.

The baby.

She didn’t have time to talk to her grandma about the baby being a boy or a girl right now. First, she had to protect it from Trey. He’d kill it. He’d take it.

I have to protect the baby.

Grandma Mimi continued talking.

“Where’s Trey?” Caro asked, interrupting her.

“I’m not sure, but you don’t have to worry about him. He’s not coming up here right now. Silas will let us know what’s going on soon.”

“Is he in jail?” Caro asked. Her bottom lip quivered quick. “Does he know about the baby?”

“No, and he’s saying all this was an accident, honey. I don’t want you making yourself upset over it, though. You’re safe here. We don’t have to worry about him right now. All we need to worry about is getting you better. And no, he doesn’t know about the baby, and we’ll keep it that way for as long as we can,” Mimi said confidently.

Caro wanted to believe her, but Mimi didn’t know what Trey was capable of. She hadn’t seen the look in his eyes. Caro tried to reach her arm out to touch Mimi’s face, but couldn’t. She couldn’t move like she wanted, and it hurt too much to think of trying again.

“Remember, day after tomorrow is the surgery on your shoulder,” Mimi said, triggering Caro’s memory. It was broken, her shoulder. They’d told her that yesterday. A fuzzy calendar flipped in her mind.

Yesterday was Tuesday. Today is Wednesday. It was Monday afternoon when I was at the house and Trey came home.

“I don’t want him to know about the baby. He’ll kill me if he gets the chance,” Caro said. “When he gets the chance.” The panic and the urge to cry had flown over. If Caro looked up, she could see it—a toy plane gliding through the blue and clouds of where the hospital ceiling should’ve been. It flew toward the door and slammed into it, crashed to the floor. A puff of black smoke sputtered from the back end and it disappeared.

She could also see Trey standing over her with both hands holding her hair, his fingernails pressing her skull, slamming her head into the concrete. Telling her he’d kill her because she was so fucking stupid and hardheaded, and he was so fucking tired of her.