Lily Dale: Discovering Part 19

When they were in Florida, she overheard him telling Dad that he'd show them around campus if they came to visit.

"I don't know,"she says. "Maybe we shouldn't do that this weekend."

That would mean she'd have to miss her Beginning Medi-umship cla.s.s two weeks in a row. She really can't afford to do that. She needs all the tune-in/tune-out help she can get.

"Calla, you have some decisions to make about where you're going next year. By now, your mother would have had you filling out applications for early decision. I really dropped the ball. We've got to go look at some campuses and figure out where you want to go."

"But-"

"We can't put it off any longer. I'm not asking you. I'm telling you. We're taking a road trip this weekend. I'll pick you up at school on Friday and we'll get right on the road. Got it?"

She sighs. "Got it."

She was right about having him here. Her life is no longer her own.

THIRTEEN.

Lily Dale

Thursday, October 11

2:10 a.m.

Calla is on an airplane, soaring high above an urban skyline.

"Those of you folks who are seated on the left-hand side of the plane will recognize Lady Liberty there in the harbor,"the pilot announces, and Calla leans her head against the window to see.

Lady Liberty.

New York City.

Through the window, she recognizes the familiar patina of the statue, perched on an island the size of a dime.

"And there's the spire of the Empire State Building,"the pilot continues, "and the building with the slanted top is Citicorp. . . ."

Calla spots both.

"That over there is Thirty Rocke feller Plaza, where you'll be able to see the Christmas tree and go skating in just a few months."

The plane swoops lower.

High atop 30 Rock, a tiny figure is waving.

"Who is that, Captain?"Calla calls, but there's no reply.

They circle the building, spiraling lower and lower.

Now Calla can see that the figure is female.

She looks young- maybe Calla's age, maybe a little older.

She's wearing an old-fashioned calico dress with an ap.r.o.n and a matching sunbonnet identical to the one Odelia had on in the garden. It shades her face so that Calla can't make out her features, but there's something familiar about her.

"Who is that?"she asks again, but n.o.body replies.

The plane drops lower still.

I know her. There's something so familiar about her. If only I could see her face. . . .

"Who is she? Can someone please tell me?"

"She's your sister,"says the pa.s.senger in the next seat.

A pa.s.senger whose voice is hauntingly familiar.

Shocked, Calla turns to see her mother sitting there.

"Mom!"

Even as she cries out, her mother vanishes.

She jerks her head toward the window again, but the waving girl has disappeared as well, along with the buildings, and the sky, and . . .

With a gasp, Calla sits up in bed.

It was just a dream.

Of course it was.

She doesn't have a sister.

The baby died.

She sinks back against the pillows, staring into the blackness, her heart still pounding.

It's a long time before she drifts back to sleep.

FOURTEEN.

Lily Dale

Thursday, October 11

7:54 a.m.

"So . . . he knows,"Calla tells Evangeline as soon as they round the bend in Dale Drive on the way to school beneath a steely gray sky.

There's a pause as Evangeline- who, before Calla interrupted, was wondering aloud what to wear when she and Russell go to the movies together on Friday night-digests this information.

"He does?"she asks, wide- eyed.

The cool thing about Evangeline is that she can shift gears pretty easily.

Another cool thing is that she's tuned in to Calla well enough to know exactly what she's talking about without having to have it spelled out for her.

"You told him?"

"No. He figured it out."

"Wow. I've been so careful not to say anything, and my aunt has, too."

Calla doesn't bother to tell her Ramona's uncharacteristic silence on the topic of her work might be what tipped off her father.

No need for anyone to feel guilty about the cat being let out of the bag. It was bound to happen sooner or later.

And Calla has realized, in the last twelve hours or so, that sooner is better than later.

Last night, while she and Dad were going over her math problems, she was a lot more comfortable than she has been in a long time. It's easier to spend time with him when there's nothing left to hide.

Well, there are a couple of things. . . .

Like the fact that Calla herself has supernatural abilities.

And the fact that Mom had another child.

But even Evangeline doesn't know about that.

And Calla doesn't want to think about it now. Not with last night's strange dream still lingering, still oddly clear, almost as if . . .

No.

She doesn't have a sister.

Maybe she did once.

But she's dead, along with both her parents.

"Wow . . . how much did your dad figure out?"Evangeline glances at the sky, then holds out her hand to see if drops are starting to fall.

"Everything. About your aunt and my grandmother being mediums . . . along with pretty much everyone else in town."

"Including you."

"No. Not including me."Calla feels a raindrop land on her hand and flips up the hood on the fleece jacket she pulled on this morning. The temperature must have dropped at least thirty degrees overnight. So much for Indian summer.

"I thought you said he knew everything,"Evangeline reminds her, flipping up her own hood.

"Yeah, but not that."

Not about Mom, either. But it's only a matter of time.

"Why didn't you just tell him about yourself?"

"Because I'm afraid to,"she says simply. "I mean, he's surprisingly okay with the two of us living here with all of this stuff he doesn't understand going on around us. But I think he'd be a lot less okay if he realized that I'm directly involved."

"I think you're right."

"The other thing is, he's decided he's taking me away this weekend to go looking at colleges-including Cornell."