Secrets in Summer(80)

On the coffee table sat two empty bowls and another bowl still full of watermelon chunks.

“I want to eat my watermelon,” Henry cried.

“Shut up!” George yelled.

“Here, Henry, I’ll hold the bowl. Can you use your left hand?” Darcy leaned over and held the bowl close to the boy, still managing to keep her other hand firmly around his wound.

The back door slammed and Willow charged into the room. Her eyes were so wide she looked like an enraged animal, and her complexion was paper white.

“We have to go.” Willow said. “Now.”

Darcy stood up, her hand still on Henry’s finger. “Willow, are you all right?”

“It’s so gross, they’re so gross!” Willow burst into tears. “People are disgusting!” She clenched her fists and brought them in front of her, holding her body tight, as if to make herself smaller in the world.

“Okay,” Darcy said calmly, “we’re all going to the hospital now, because I think a doctor should see Henry’s finger.”

“No!” Henry yelled. “I don’t want a shot!”

“Needle, needle, Henry’s gonna get stuck with a needle!” George chanted, and Alfred chimed in.

Henry yelled “no” even louder, and wrenched himself away from Darcy, causing the cold, bloodstained towel to fall on the sofa.

“Willow, do you know where the car keys are? We need the boys’ car seats.”

Willow burst into tears.

“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” Darcy said. “This is like a carnival.” She was fairly certain threats wouldn’t get the boys in the car, so she went for treats. “Let’s all get in my car. After we go to the hospital, I’ll take you to the Hub and buy you any candy you want.”

“Yay!” George and Alfred shouted, jumping up and down.

Darcy picked up the paper towel, seized Henry by the wrist, and stuck the paper towel back over his finger.

“Willow,” she ordered, in a no-nonsense voice, “you need to hold this on his finger while I drive.”

“Nothing matters anymore,” Willow sobbed, but she obeyed.

“Willow! Calm down!” Darcy was stunned that the girl was overreacting so dramatically.

George did a transformer move, switching from crazed boy into his father. “You can’t drive unless you have your driver’s license with you.”

“Right,” Darcy agreed. “George, go in my front door and fetch my straw purse. It’s sitting on the front hall table. You can’t miss it.”

George’s chest puffed out with pride. He marched off.

Darcy guessed that the Brueckners would be organized, and they were. Susan’s keys to her car were on a hook in the kitchen, with a labeled tag. With Willow’s sobbing help, Darcy herded the boys out of the house and into the car. George came running to hand Darcy her purse and squeezed in with the others. Henry sat on Willow’s lap so she could hold his hand.

“We need our seatbelts on!” George screamed.

“It’s only a few blocks to the hospital,” Darcy assured him, “and all the streets are one-way. I’ll drive slowly. We can’t get all your seatbelts on with Willow in the back, and Willow has to be in the back to hold Henry’s finger and you children are too small to sit in the passenger seat in front.”

To her delight, her logical explanation satisfied George. He nodded once sharply.

“Willow,” Darcy said, “Get out your cellphone and call Susan. We need to tell her what’s happened.”

“No!” Willow cried. “I can’t talk to her!”

Had everyone gone mad? It was impossible to think with the racket the boys were making. George and Alfred had begun to chant, “Henry’s going to die-i, Henry’s going to die-i!”

“What’s going on with you, Willow?” Darcy yelled, looking at the girl in her rearview mirror.

Willow wailed and at last managed to say, “I saw my mother with—” She jerked her head at the boys.

“You saw your mother? What?”

“They were on the dining room table! I’ll never eat again!”

“You’re not making any sense, Willow,” Darcy said.

But she had a pretty good idea what Willow meant. It seemed that Darcy’s suspicions about Otto Brueckner and Autumn were true.

“We’re here,” she called to the menagerie in the backseat. She pulled into the ER parking lot. “Boys. Settle down. You have to be quiet in a hospital. George, hold Henry’s hand. Willow, hold Alfred’s hand.”

The three boys and Willow untangled themselves. The boys pitched their frenetic bodies out onto the pavement. Darcy clicked Susan’s cell number.