“She ran out so fast,” she said, her voice soft and dull. The sky rumbled thunder after her words. “She seemed certain we would stop. She shook the whole car when it hit her. I felt it all the way through my arms. The only reason I didn’t hit the steering wheel is because Jay threw his arm across and stopped me.”
“She flew,” I said, remembering what I had been told.
“Yes. Straight forward. In our headlights like a showgirl doing a tumble.”
I swallowed, stopping myself from stopping her. Why did I think I wanted to hear this? What in the world did I think would be improved?
“And then what happened?”
“Oh Jordan, you won’t like me if I keep going.”
I realized I didn’t like her now. Maybe I hadn’t for a while. The love might take a little longer to die out, but I could work on that. I waited. Daisy abhorred a silence.
“Jay.… did something. Made sure that no one saw. He stood up in the car, closed his eyes, and the world went quiet around us. It was frightening. I never saw him do anything like that before, never saw anyone do anything like that.”
I thought then that it must have been his infernal powers coming into play. Later, when I learned about his half-Chippewa mother, and when I learned that her other half was Black and not white, I came to a different conclusion. The native nations had taken in plenty of escaped slaves after the Civil War, and the old spells to help the hunters helped them now even when they were the hunted. Two eyes, closed.
“And you, Daisy?”
“Oh Jordan, she was right in the road in front of us. Jay was chanting, and doing that crazy stuff, and I knew…”
“You knew, Daisy…”
She shook her head, and the wind caught at the trees, making them sway back and forth like an overly dramatic Greek chorus.
“What was I supposed to do, Jordan? We couldn’t drive around her! So I pulled her off the road, that’s all.”
She must have flown like a bird, I heard in my head. Something deep and dark yawned open in me; I was sick.
“Daisy…”
“She was making the most terrible noises,” Daisy said, shaking her head so that her hair fluffed out like a chick’s feathers. “She was saying something, or at least, she was trying to say something. Jordan, she sounded like she was trying to curse me, and the blood…”
My heart was beating too fast, I had broken into a cold sweat. She flew. She landed. She cried out. She cursed. When had she died? I knew now it wasn’t on the road.
“Her mouth was moving, open and shut, open and shut … it was frightful,” Daisy said, covering her face. “I still see it sometimes when I close my eyes.”
“Good!” I exploded. “Good! I’m glad!”
She was on her feet, slapping me hard on the face just as a crack of lightning struck off the headland. We stared at each other, in shock, and as the sky opened up to drop a torrent of cold autumn rain on our heads, I reached up to touch the ringing flesh. It felt oddly good, real in a way that nothing had been since we’d gone to the city for the day.
“Oh darling, I’m so sorry,” she said, her fingers brushing over mine as she touched my cheek. The rain slicked her hair straight to her head, dripped off the delicate point of her chin. “I’m so sorry. This has been terrible for you, hasn’t it?”
It had, and for a moment, I swayed towards her.
“Come with us,” she said, her voice warm in spite of the rain. “Come with us. Why go to dirty old Shanghai when you can come to Barcelona with me and Tom? Barcelona’s a delight, and we can come back in October, just in time for the best part of fall, won’t that be grand?”