“What is it?” Cady demanded.

Boomer used his right hand to smear a clear spot on the steamed window. He stared out at the rain. “I’m not sure. Pete said Andy called to tell him he stopped by Amy’s house to give her a ride to the pond. He found her in the shower. He said she was blistered from head to toe, but that the water coming out of the shower was ice-cold. Andy said she was out of it. He called 9-1-1. That means I have to go to the hospital. Nine-one-one means the police have to check things out.” He leaned over and opened Cady’s door so she could get out to climb into the front seat. He did the same with his own door.

“Was…was it an accident?”

Boomer looked at her sharply. “I don’t know, Cady. Sometimes…water just…I don’t know. I don’t understand why she would have stayed in the shower.”

Cady could feel her insides start to quiver. She stared out at the gray landscape. How she had looked forward to this day.

“Do you want to come with me, or do you want me to drop you off at home?”

“I want to go with you. Amy is going to need all the support we can muster up. I remember what it was like when I was in the hospital. If it’s okay, I want to be there.”

“Okay. You never talk about that time, why is that?”

Cady continued to stare out the window. “Because it was awful. I hate to remember the pain. There was always someone poking me, prodding me, stretching me until I would just give up and cry. Then Lola would come in and work her magic. She would tell me stories by the hour and tell me what we were going to do once I was better. She was going to take me ice-skating at Rockefeller Center in New York. We were going to go to Disneyland. She even promised a camping trip and some white-water rafting. She said she would take me around the world if I wanted her to, but I had to cooperate and do what the therapists said. I did, but all those wonderful things never happened. The day they said I was well enough to travel, my parents came and took me away. I don’t know who screamed and cried the loudest, Lola or me. Does that answer your question?”

“How did Jeff hurt you on the line? I can’t get that clear in my mind.”

“The rocks hit me. They hit Jeff, too. I felt something warm all over my face and arms. I think it was Jeff’s blood. Jeff was just hanging on, trying to shake my hands loose. He was hissing something in my ear, and I didn’t want to hear it. That was before he was hit.”

“Cady,” Boomer said quietly, “did you hear what you just said?”

“I said, the rocks hit me and Jeff. Jeff was telling me something I didn’t want to hear. The rocks hit me and Jeff. I remember feeling a lot of pain. I guess we both fell at the same time. I don’t remember falling, though.”