Silt, Denver Cereal Volume 8 by Claudia Hall Christian

They went to
bed without a fuss, which was good because Risa was watching.
    Heather smiled, and began to close the door.
The door was open just a crack when Ivy said something. Heather
groaned at herself, but she couldn’t help but stop to listen.
    “ Tink?” Ivy
asked.
    “ Yeah?” Tink’s
sleep-filled voice came from the bed.
    “ Tink?”
    “ Ok.” The bed groaned as
if Tink sat up to look at Ivy. “What’s going on?”
    “ I just wanted to say that
these people seem really nice,” Ivy said.
    “ They are,” Tink said.
“Wait ‘til you meet Mack.”
    “ No, I mean they aren’t
making you go to school tomorrow because we’re up so late,” Ivy
said. “And we get to see Pan and his new family and everything.
They just seem to get it.”
    “ Blane was out of doors
off and on for most of his life,” Tink said. “I think he gets
it.”
    “ That’s good,” Ivy
said.
    The bedsprings squeaked as Tink lay back
down.
    “ Tink?” Ivy
asked.
    “ Yeah?”
    “ I want you to know that
I’m not going to blow this for you,” Ivy said. “I’ll stay clean and
do whatever I have to. You deserve to be here
and . . .”
    “ I never thought you
would,” Tink said.
    “ Well, I won’t,” Ivy said.
“And . . . thanks.”
    “ For what?”
    “ For including me,” Ivy
said. “I haven’t been feeling really . . . good
lately and . . .”
    The bed groaned as Tink sat up to look at
Ivy again.
    “ It’s the drugs,” Tink
said. “Give it a few days, you’ll feel better.”
    “ You ever wish you had
died?”
    “ All the time,” Tink said.
“But if I had died, I’d never be here. I’d never have a chance at
this great life and . . . I’m glad I made it through
all of this. You will be too.”
    “ I miss Jeffy.”
    “ I miss all of them,” Tink
said. “I figure I have to try to have a real, normal life because
Saint Jude took everything from them, even their life. I kind of
feel like I have to live for them, you know?”
    “ I like that,” Ivy said.
“I have to live for me and for Jeffy.”
    “ Exactly.”
    Heather heard the bed shift as Tink lay down
again. She stood there for a little longer and left to find
Blane.
    ~~~~~~~~
    Monday night—10:39 p.m.
     
    Tanesha pressed the phone against her ear
and closed her eyes. Bone tired, she stepped into the elevator to
the penthouse without opening her eyes. Her mother’s light happy
voice continued to tell her about their “Amazing Trip” to
Paris.
    Tanesha was more than happy that they were
happy. Tonight, she was just exhausted. After last night’s full
harvest-fest, today felt like a long, long haul from lecture to lab
to study group to lab to studying in the library to waiting an hour
for the bus. The elevator doors opened at the penthouse.
    She was finally home.
    With her eyes still closed, she walked into
the house. Still listening to Yvonne, she pulled off her boots and
left them in the hallway. She’d gotten all the way to the kitchen
before she realized something was wrong.
    The loft was empty.
    Jeraine had left her.
    Again.
    And her mother kept talking.
    “ Mom? Mom.” Tanesha’s
voice cut into her mother’s happy tale about how her father had met
a guy who got them into a private part of a famous museum somewhere in the Paris
suburbs.
    “ Yes Tanni?”
    “ I’ve got to go,” Tanesha
said. “I just got home and I’ve got to go.”
    “ Okay sweetie,” Yvonne
said. “I’ll send today’s pictures. Are you all right?”
    “ Just had a long day,”
Tanesha said.
    “ My medical student.”
Tanesha could hear her mother’s smile in her voice. “Love you
Tanni.”
    “ Love you too,” Tanesha
said.
    She tapped the phone against her jeans, and
looked around. The loft was still, silent, and empty. Even the rugs
were gone.
    Of course, it was still dirty. He probably
expected her to clean it up before the IRS came. She made a sour
face and went into her bedroom.
    “ Ah great,” Tanesha
said.
    Her clothing was