1
Dawn came out of the bathroom after her morning retch. Nothing had come up and the nausea didn't seem so bad this time. Maybe it was easing off. But she was like totally exhausted. She could so fall right back into bed this minute, but her mouth was parched.
As she passed through the bedroom, she glanced at Jerry, still asleep. She stopped short and stared.
Ohmygod, his nose! What happened to—?
Then she remembered. How could she forget that beating he got? His nose looked awful. Worse than last night. At least she thought so. Last night was a little fuzzy, almost as if she'd been drinking. But no chance of that with Jerry around.
She went downstairs and flipped on the TV on her way to the kitchen. She gulped Diet Pepsi straight from the bottle, then carried it back to the living room. She sipped more as she watched some news story about a "suspicious" suicide in Forest Hills. The woman's identity was being withheld until next of kin were notified. The suicide was deemed "suspicious" because of the phone call that had tipped off the police.
A strange feeling swept over Dawn as she listened. For some reason she thought of her mother.
Mom? No way. She so wasn't the suicide type.
Yeah, she'd been acting totally strange lately, but she'd never…
A wave of nausea rippled through her stomach—a different sort of nausea. She went cold.
Mom?
She hunted for her phone, found it on the kitchen counter—didn't remem-ber leaving it there, but whatever. She speed dialed her home. She wasn't going to speak to her, just hear her voice and hang up.
One ring… two…
Come on, pick up—
A man's voice came on after the third ring.
"Pickering residence. Who's calling, please?"
Dawn's voice locked and her heart froze. Her mouth moved but made no sound.
"Hello?"
"Is… is Mrs. Pickering there?"
"Who's calling, please?"
"I-I'm her daughter."
"You're Dawn Pickering?"
"Yes." She felt her knees softening. "I-I-I want to speak to my mother."
"We've been trying to get hold of you since last night. I'm afraid I have some bad news."
Dawn dropped the phone and began to scream.