There were so many brothers, and who would take care of them all?

I would have to stand up and jump overboard. I’d have to be fast. The moment he saw me he would reach for me. I’d have to dive deep again, and swim underwater for a long, long time. And I didn’t know where we were, or if I’d encounter the baby again. How long had we been rowing? The other trouble was that my head felt broken, with a sharp pain moving through it in waves.

And then—the rowboat swung, and I opened my eyes, and saw that we were at a dock.

I heard Cole say, “Oh no.” I tried to lift my head, and the pain sliced through. I put my hand on my head. I heard Cole breathing. Then he said, in a different tone altogether, “Thank god you’re here. Help me get her up.”

“Who? What happened?”

I thought I must be imagining Lucas’s voice. But no, there he was, looming above us on the dock, the bandages on his hand bright in the moonlight. “Lydia!” he said. “Oh man, I knew it. What happened?”

“She hit her head,” Cole said. “She was climbing on the railing of the boat and slipped and hit her head on the deck. Here—take the rope?”

“What boat? Why was she climbing on the railing?”

“Running away from me.”

I rolled myself over and sat up. My head was full of liquid that swirled and eddied and bumped over obstacles.

“Are you okay, Lydia? What are you guys doing out here anyway?” Lucas asked.

“I didn’t slip,” I said. “He hit me with something.”

“Listen, man,” Cole said, his voice strangely pitched. “She could have a concussion or worse. She fell hard, okay? I rowed from the—the boat—all the way...”

“Why didn’t you bring her home?”

“I wanted—to—bring her to a doctor.”

“He’s lying,” I said.

“All right,” Lucas said. “Come on. Up you go. Grab my hand. Jesus Christ. Are you bleeding?”

I stood, and Lucas pulled me up. My head sloshed and burned. I was dizzy, nauseous. We were on the dock behind the post office, where the postmaster practiced bagpipes. I could almost hear the goose-honk of those notes. I could see through the buildings a slice of Clara Day Street. I saw half the sign from the T-shirt shop. I saw the window of Island Pie. I saw shapes moving through the streets. The people I’d known all my life. They were coming out of bars, they were eating ice-cream cones. God, I loved them, I loved them.

Chapter 34

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