Why Did She Have to Die? Read Online Free Page B

sounds into the wonderful, quiet cloud of gray.
    As she swirled through the darkness, she felt a pinpoint of light flash deep inside her eye that made her wince. She smelled the sharp bite of alcohol. She felt hands lifting her. Something rubbery slid over her mouth and nose. Elly slipped deeper into the fog.
    Elly saw a darkened room split by a brilliant white spotlight. Inside the circle of light, Kathy danced. Elly watched, fascinated, as her sister, dressed in a gown of billowing white gauze, twirled and spun in slow, graceful spirals. Elly heard no music.
    She tried to move closer to Kathy, but every step she took made Kathy spin farther away across the stage. Elly struggled to call out Kathy’s name, but her voice wouldn’t work. She waved, but Kathy’s eyes were closed as she danced to the silent music. Elly reached out, fighting against the unknown force that pushed her away from her dancing sister.
Wait!
her mind cried.
Kathy, please wait!
The spotlight began to shrink and with it, so did Kathy, melting into the darkness.
    From far away, Elly heard someone calling her name. Over and over, the voice called to her. Pulled in two directions—one way by her sister’s disappearing shape and the other way by the pull of the voice—Elly hesitated. Then slowly, the voice began to draw her toward it.
    “Elly! Elly! It’s Mom and Dad, honey. Wake up, Elly.”
    Elly floated out of the fog. The stage disappeared, and she opened her eyes to see a hospital room. The first thing she saw was her parents’ anxious faces. The first thing she felt was pain. Elly moaned, longing to return to the quiet sea of gray.
    “Oh, honey. Honey, . . . look at us,” Mrs. Rowan begged.
    “Don’t go back to sleep, baby girl,” her father whispered.
    Baby girl.
Her father hadn’t called her that since she’d been five years old and in the hospital with pneumonia.
    “My—my head hurts.” Her whispered words sounded like a croak.
    Her mother smoothed Elly’s forehead, which was covered in bandages. “I know it does. But you’re going to be all right. You’ve come back to us, and you’re going to be all right.”
    Elly heard heaviness in her mother’s voice.
Back?
she wondered.
Back from where?
    “What happened?” Elly tried to move, but her arms felt heavy. For the first time, she noticed that her leg was covered in white plaster and was suspended from a system of pulleys. Tubes and needles ran into her right arm. An inverted bag of clear liquid hung from a metal stand next to her bed.
    “You were in a bad car accident. Do you remember it?”
    Elly reached through fuzzy layers of memory. She recalled green eyes, gray-colored auto upholstery, the lush cascade of Kathy’s hair. She remembered a little girl on a bike, the lamppost rushing toward her side, the sound of metal against metal. Elly squeezed her eyes closed to block out the pictures. “Yes. I remember.”
    “You have a concussion and a badly broken leg. The doctors operated on your leg and put special pins in it. But it will be okay.”
    Operated?
Elly struggled to ask the questions that were tumbling in her mind. “How long . . . ?”
    “You’ve been unconscious for a week,” Mr. Rowan said. His voice cracked.
    A week?
Elly didn’t believe it! “A whole week? But what about school?”
    Mr. Rowan caressed her cheek. His big hand caught in the strands of her hair. “It was a way for your mind and body to rest. To recover. The doctors said you’d wake up. Just like Sleeping Beauty.”
    She tried to smile at her father’s silly idea. She was no Sleeping Beauty. Kathy was the beauty. Elly’s strange dream came back to her. “How’s Kathy?”
    Mr. Rowan pulled away from Elly’s bedside, and Mrs. Rowan came closer. “Sh—she’s fine, honey.” Her mother’s voice sounded forced. Elly tried to focus on her mother’s face.
    “Can I see her?”
    “She’s in a different room.”
    “And Russ?”
    “He was treated and released.”
    “The girl on the