The Wish (Nightmare Hall) (3 page)

The cool, clean air cleared Alex’s head a little. They’d had an accident. A bad one. Julie, her roommate, was hurt. Gabe, Julie’s boyfriend, was hurt, too. And the boy who had tried to open the front window was Marty, and the twin in the back seat was Jenny, another roommate. Alex didn’t think she had more than two roommates, but she wasn’t sure.

There were many cars parked along the roadway, and people, most of them students, stood on the grass watching the firemen hose away the gasoline.

They’re glad they weren’t in this car, Alex thought. They’re sorry for us, but they’re glad it wasn’t them.

She didn’t blame them.

Although she insisted repeatedly that she was fine, just fine, Alex was loaded into an ambulance with Marty and Jenny. Julie and Gabe were placed in another ambulance. Sirens screamed again as both vehicles spun around and headed back toward the community hospital in Twin Falls.

The doctor in the emergency room found nothing more than a bruise on Alex’s forehead and a deep scratch on her neck from flying glass.

“I didn’t know what was happening,” she admitted with some embarrassment. “I mean, I was really out of it back there. I thought maybe it meant that something had happened to my head.”

“That was your mind protecting you from the knowledge that something terrible had happened,” he explained. “Perfectly normal. Too bad we can’t escape like that all the time, right?”

Alex didn’t agree. It had been awful not knowing what was going on.

She came out of the emergency room just as Marty did.

“You okay?” he asked, taking her elbow.

Alex winced. Another bruise. “I’m fine. Are you?”

He nodded. But she noticed he was limping slightly.

Together, they walked to the waiting room, anxious for word of Julie and Gabe. The stuffy little room was crowded.

“Where’s Jenny?” Alex asked Kyle, who met them at the door, two cups of hot coffee in hand. He handed a cup to each of them.

“Still in the emergency room with Julie. No one’s told us a thing about Julie. But Gabe’s already on his way to surgery. His legs are a mess.”

Feeling suddenly faint, Alex sank into an orange plastic chair. “But Julie’s okay, right?”

“Don’t know yet.” Kyle leaned his bulk against the wall. “It’s Jenny I’m really worried about. She wouldn’t even let a doctor look at her. She didn’t want to leave Julie. I guess they let her stay in there, because she never came back out.”

Then Kyle told her that Bennett had broken one of his crutches trying to break a window to get them out of the car.

For a moment, Alex couldn’t remember who Bennett was, and worried again that her brain had been dislodged when her head slammed into the back of the front seat. But then her eyes focused on a big, blond guy in jeans and a Salem U sweatshirt, standing beside Marty. He was leaning casually on one crutch as if he’d brought it because he liked the way it looked, not because he needed it.

Catching her eye, Bennett hip-hopped on his crutch over to stand by her chair. “Gabe won’t be playing football for a while,” he said.

Alex looked up at him in alarm. “What are you talking about? Have you heard something?”

“No. But I saw his legs when they pulled him out of the car.”

The girl Alex now recognized as Kiki was not so delicate. “His legs looked like they’d been attacked by a power mower,” she said bluntly. Then her voice hardened. “Why wasn’t Julie paying more attention?”

Shocked, Alex cried, “You can’t possibly blame Julie! It wasn’t her fault.” Julie certainly hadn’t planned to smash up her car…and her face.

Just then Jenny appeared in the doorway. Her face was mushroom-colored and she swayed dangerously.

Kyle rushed over to lead her to a chair. The others gathered around, eager to hear about Julie’s condition.

Jenny had difficulty getting the words out, as if saying them aloud would make them real and she couldn’t bear that. She twisted the edge of her gray university sweatshirt as she struggled to speak.

“Her face…her face…she hit the steering wheel so hard…and when the windshield shattered…she has so many cuts…” Her blue eyes were bleak, the edges rimmed scarlet from her tears. “The doctor said…he said most of the bones in her face were broken…her jaw is fractured, and one cheekbone…” She couldn’t continue. She covered her face with her hands.

No one spoke. The dismal news had rendered Julie’s friends speechless with horror.

Jenny lifted her head. Her eyes, full of pain, moved to Alex’s face. “Oh, Alex,” she said so quietly that Alex had to bend her head to hear, “Julie’s beautiful face, the one she said was so boring…it’s ruined. It will never look the same again.”

Then she leaned back against the seat and closed her eyes.

No one knew what to say.

They all waited together. But there was no further word about Julie or Gabe.

Jenny refused to leave the hospital. The doctors and nurses assured her that Julie would probably sleep through the night. Alex and Marty reminded Jenny that she’d had a bad time herself and needed some rest. Kyle told her gently that she wouldn’t be any help to Julie if she herself was exhausted.

Their efforts were futile.

“I’m going to be there when my sister wakes up,” Jenny said firmly, her face bleached white, an ugly purplish bruise forming on her forehead. “Whenever that is, I’m going to be there.”

Giving in, one of the nurses arranged for a cot to be installed in Julie’s room, and led Jenny away.

Alex’s expression was forlorn as she watched them leave. She wanted to stay, too. Her roommates were in pain. How could she just walk away? But she wasn’t a member of the family. She would have to go back to the dorm…alone.

Kyle drove them home. No one talked on the way.

Alex sat staring out the window, unseeing. There had never been a darker, more vicious night, as far as she was concerned. When they drove by the accident scene, she began to shake violently. Julie’s car was gone, but skid marks were clearly visible on the highway. Bits of broken glass sparkled like jewels in Kyle’s headlights. The cruel tree branch that had impaled the windshield lay beside the road, its grasping black claws reaching up and out.

Waiting for another victim. Alex wrapped her arms around her chest and pulled her eyes away from the road, staring down at her lap instead.

Without Jenny and Julie, room 614 in Lester dorm seemed cold and forbidding, like the night outside.

Seeing the bleak expression on Alex’s face as she stood in the doorway, Marty offered to stay with her. “If you think you won’t be able to sleep, we could talk. And we could call the hospital every once in a while to see if there’s any word about Gabe or Julie.”

Alex shook her head. “Thanks. But I’ll be fine. You could help tomorrow, though, by giving me a ride into town. I want to get flowers, and maybe some magazines for Gabe and Julie. There’s a nice flower and gift shop right next door to Vinnie’s. If it wasn’t struck by lightning,” she added darkly.

“Sure. What time?”

Since neither had a ten o’clock class, they settled on nine-thirty.

Before he left, Marty put a hand on her shoulder and smiled down at her. “You sure you’re not going to sit here obsessing about what happened? You’re going to get some sleep, right?”

Grateful for his concern, Alex returned the smile. “Right.” She sighed. “I think I could sleep for a year right about now.”

His smile disappeared, and he nodded grimly. “Right. See you in the a.m.”

When he had gone, the emptiness of the room, in spite of its clutter, seemed to shout the twins’ absence. Alex stood by the open door, watching Marty walk, limping, down the hallway. In her mind, she saw the accident again, watched as his head snapped forward and back. She winced.

Alone in her room, she slipped off her jacket, and without changing out of her jeans, blouse, and suede vest, collapsed on her bed. When she closed her eyes in the dark, quiet room in the dark, quiet building, her head began to throb. She saw again the anguish in Jenny’s face as she’d told all of them that Julie’s face would never be the same. And quiet tears began to streak her own face.

Plastic surgeons could work miracles, couldn’t they? Was Julie going to need a miracle?

Just before she finally fell into an exhausted sleep, Alex remembered Julie’s comments at Vinnie’s. What was it she had said? Something about being sick of her “boring old face”? It wouldn’t be the same old boring face now, would it?

But the face that appeared then in Alex’s semiconscious mind wasn’t Julie’s. It was the dark, chiselled face of The Wizard.

And he seemed to be smiling.

A
LEX AWOKE EARLY THE
next morning to a bruised and aching body. Her left eye was encircled in purple, her lower lip swollen and painful. Showering and dressing was agony. Her jeans hurt her legs, and the soft blue turtleneck sweater she slipped on felt like rough wood against her aching neck.

When she called the hospital, she was told that information about Ms. Pierce and Mr. Russo could only be given to relatives.

I should have said I was Julie’s mother, Alex thought sourly as she hung up. Why wasn’t a roommate and best friend as important as a relative? Not fair.

Marty arrived on time. He, too, moved stiffly, his customary confident swagger defeated by aching muscles. Purple bruises streaked his cheekbones and discolored his strong, square jaw.

He greeted her with a gentle hug. “Sleep at all?”

She nodded. “But I can’t find out anything about Julie and Gabe. Have you heard anything?”

“No. We’re not going to learn anything unless we go to the hospital. We can do that after we get the flowers and stuff.”

That lifted Alex’s spirits a little. It was good to have a plan. “Maybe we can drag Jenny away from there.” Then she added quickly, “If Julie’s okay, I mean.”

She averted her eyes when they passed the accident scene again. But not before she saw that although the glass had been removed or had blown away, the black, bare tree limb still lay in the ditch by the side of the road.

“Hold on,” Marty said, sensing her tension, “we’ll be past in a sec.”

And they were. But Alex knew she would have to pass that site many times. Would she ever reach the point where seeing it wouldn’t bother her? That seemed impossible now. Maybe, if Julie and Gabe weren’t hurt as seriously as everyone thought they were, maybe after a while she could drive right by that spot without cringing.

If Julie and Gabe were okay.

They bought a white wicker basket filled with rust, yellow, and orange flowers for Julie, and a bouquet of brightly colored balloons for Gabe. They were leaving the gift shop just as Kiki Duff came out of Vinnie’s, a large white pizza box in hand. Kyle and Bennett were right behind her.

“This isn’t for me,” Kiki cried. “I really am on a diet, honest! This is for Gabe. He called Bennett and asked for it, so I guess he’s feeling better.”

That was good news.

And Bennett was walking without crutches.

“I guess you’re better, too,” Alex commented as they all headed for their vehicles in the parking lot. “No crutches? Did you toss them?”

“Had to. With Gabe out, Salem needs all the help it can get. I can’t sit around nursing my lumps when the team’s in trouble. My knees are fine.”

Medical miracle? Alex wondered, but she said nothing. Bennett wasn’t a stupid person. He wouldn’t play—and Coach Jeffers wouldn’t let him—unless he really was okay.

“Here, look at this!” Kiki said, handing the pizza box to Bennett and pushing something toward Alex.

It was a small, white card.

Alex recognized it instantly. It was from the fortune-telling machine.

“You had your fortune told?”

Kiki grinned. “Yep. Go ahead, read it!”

Alex read, SELF-DISCIPLINE IS THE GREATEST OF ALL VIRTUES.

She handed the card back to Kiki. “You wasted a quarter. My grandmother used to tell me the same thing when I wouldn’t clean my room, and she didn’t charge me for it.”

“Well, don’t you get it?” Kiki said. “It’s like he knew I wanted to go on a diet, and didn’t have the self-discipline to do it.”

Alex made a sound of disgust. “Kiki, for pete’s sake! Someone who weighs ninety pounds and doesn’t have an ounce of fat on her could have got that card.”

“Yeah, but she didn’t.
I
got it. And I don’t weigh ninety pounds. But I will now. I’ve already started my diet, and I’m going to stay on it this time.”

Alex knew she wouldn’t. Kiki was always going on a diet of one kind or another, and never stuck to it for more than a few days. “If you weighed ninety pounds,” Alex said as she climbed into Marty’s car, “you’d look like a twig. You’re too tall to weigh that.” That was probably Kiki’s trouble. She dieted briefly, in hopes of looking petite, like the twins, and then got so discouraged when it didn’t happen, that she fell off her diet.

The same thing would probably happen this time, in spite of the little white card.

At the hospital, they were told that Julie was not allowed visitors. But the nurse agreed to phone her room so Alex could talk to Jenny.

She sounded very tired. “Julie’s still not awake. She has a concussion. The doctor keeps telling me that it’s okay, her sleeping like this, but it scares me. Can you come up?”

“They won’t let us. Can you come up to Gabe’s room? He’s allowed visitors, so we’re all going up there. It’s room 312.”

When Jenny stepped out of the elevator on the third floor where Alex was waiting, Alex’s heart sank. She looked terrible. Her face was bruised and swollen, and she obviously hadn’t slept. When Alex hugged her, Jenny said, “I’ve tried to contact my parents. They’re in Ireland on a vacation they’d planned for years. How can I tell them what’s happened? I just left a message. Can we go in and see Gabe now? Maybe that will cheer me up.”

Gabe was grinning at something someone had said when Alex and Jenny walked in. But his freckles stood out like neon dots on a face as white as his pillowcase. Both legs, lying above the sheet, were swathed in white. “Join the feast,” he told the girls. “No one came empty-handed.”

The pizza from Vinnie’s was being passed around, along with boxes of huge, fresh cookies and chocolate candy. Gabe insisted that everyone help themselves.