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."Oh, my baby, my baby.She'd been getting worse, but today she was better.""It happens like that sometimes," Dr.Franklin said."It's almost as if theyrally for a last burst of life.""But I wasn't there for her," Phil's mom said, and now there weren't anytears, just the terrible grating sound of guilt."She was alone when shedied."Phil said, "She was asleep.She just went to sleep and never woke up.If youlook at her, you can see how peaceful it was."He kept saying things like that, and so did Cliff and so did the doctor, andeventually the paramedics went away.And sometime after that, while his motherwas sitting on Poppy's bed and stroking her hair, the people from the mortuarycame."Just give me a few minutes," Phil's mother said, dry-eyed and pale."I need afew minutes alone with her."The mortuary men sat awkwardly in the family room, and James stared at them.Phil knew what was going on.James was fixing in their minds the fact thatthere was to be no embalming."Religious reasons, is that it?" one of the men said to Cliff, breaking a longPage 50ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlsilence.Cliff stared at him, eyebrows coming together."What are you talking about?"The man nodded."I understand.It's no problem."Phil understood, too.Whatever the man was hearing, it wasn't what Cliff wassaying."The only thing is, you'll want to have the viewing right away," the other mansaid to Cliff."Or else a closed casket.""Yes, it was unexpected," Cliff said, his face straightening out."It's been avery short illness."So now he wasn't hearing what the men were saying.Phil looked at James andsaw sweat trickling down his face.Clearly it was a struggle to control threeminds at once.At last Cliff went in and got Phil's mother.He led her to the master bedroomto keep her from seeing what happened next.What happened was that the two men went into - Poppy's room with a body bagand a gurney.When they came out, there was a small, delicate hump in the bag.Phil felt himself losing rationality again.He wanted to knock things down.Hewanted to run a marathon to get away.Instead, his knees started to buckle and his vision grayed out.Hard arms held him up, led him to a chair."Hang on," James said."Just a fewmore minutes.It's almost over."Right then Phil could almost forgive him for being a bloodsucking monster.It was very late that night when everyone finally went to bed.To bed, not tosleep.Phil was one solid ache of misery from his throat down to his feet, andhe lay awake with the light on until the sun came up.The funeral home was like a Victorian mansion, and the room Poppy was in wasfilled with flowers and people.Poppy herself was in a white casket with goldfittings, and from far away she looked as if she were sleeping.Phil didn't like to look at her.He looked instead at the visitors who keptcoming in and filling the viewing room and the dozens of wooden pews.He'dnever realized how many people loved Poppy."She was so full of life," her English teacher said."I can't believe she's gone," a guy from Phil's football team said."I'll never forget her," one of her friends said, crying.Phil wore a dark suit and stood with his mother and Cliff.It was like areceiving line for a wedding.His mother kept saying, "Thank you for coming,"and hugging people.The people went over and touched the casket gently andcried.And in the process of greeting so many mourners, something strange happened.Phil got drawn in.The reality of Poppy's death was so real that all thevampire stuff began to seem like a dream.Bit by bit, he started to believethe story he was acting out.After all, everybody else was so sure.Poppy had gotten cancer, and now shewas dead.Vampires were just superstition.James didn't come to the viewing.-Poppy was dreaming.She was walking by the ocean with James.It was warm and she could smell saltand her feet were wet and sandy.She was wearing a new bathing suit, the kindthat changes color when it gets wet.She hoped James would notice the suit,but he didn't say anything about it.Then she realized he was wearing a mask.That was strange, because he wasgoing to get a very weird tan with most of his face covered up."Shouldn't you take that off?" she said, thinking he might need help."I wear it for my health," James said-only it wasn't James's voice.Poppy was shocked.She reached out and pulled the mask away.It wasn't James.It was a boy with ash blond hair, even lighter than Phil's.Why hadn't she noticed his hair earlier? His eyes were green-and then theywere blue.Page 51ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html"Who are you?" Poppy demanded.She was afraid."That would be telling." He smiled.His eyes were violet.Then he lifted hishand, and she saw that he was holding a poppy.At least, it was shaped like apoppy, but it was black.He caressed her cheek with the flower."Just remember," he said, still smiling whimsically."Bad magic happens.""What?""Bad magic happens," he said and turned and walked away.She found herselfholding the poppy.He didn't ' leave any footprints in the sand.Poppy was alone and the ocean was roaring.Clouds were gathering overhead.Shewanted to wake up now, but she couldn't, and she was alone and scared.Shedropped the flower as anguish surged through her."James!"Phil sat up in bed, heart pounding.God, what had that been? Something like a shout in Poppy's voice.I'm hallucinating.Which wasn't surprising.It was Monday, the day of Poppy's funeral.In-Philglanced at the clock about four hours he had to be at the church.No wonder hewas dreaming about her.But she had sounded so scared.Phil put the thought out of his mind.It wasn't even hard.He'd convincedhimself that Poppy was dead, and dead people didn't shout.At the funeral, though, Phil got a shock.His father was there.He was evenwearing something resembling a suit, although the jacket didn't match thetrousers and his tie was askew."I came as soon as I heard.""Well, where were you?" Phil's mother said, the fine lines of strain showingaround her eyes, the way they always did when she had to deal with Phil'sfather."Backpacking in the Blue Ridge Mountains.Next time, I swear, I'll leave anaddress.I'll check my messages.He began to cry.Phil's mom didn't sayanything else [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]