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*
"I know this may be hard to hear… so I will be as direct as I can, okay?"
Mrs. Easton nods repeatedly, clutching her hands together, gulping between sobs. Her face wet with tears.
"Sometime after dark, the tide from the rainstorm we had earlier came into the mountain's entrance. According to the paramedics on arrival, and Miss Salerno, Beth appeared to be trapped under the rock collapse for around eight or nine hours. She was unable to free herself…"
The emergency room's doctor stops talking, patient as Beth's mother sobs harder, Sheriff Hollinger's arm tightening on her.
Crouching down by the nurse's station, Jody listens, her eyes widening.
Her hair drips, drips, drips onto her cheeks. Jody calls to Beth, hopping over. She leaves the backpack under her friend's neck, cushioning her, and leaves a Snickers bar, and leaves the flashlight pointing in Beth's direction. That'll help the rescuers find Beth. Jody leans over, gripping Beth's dirtied hand into hers, pressing her lips hastily over Beth's forehead wrinkling with concentration. It's a promise.
"She drowned and remained unresponsive to the Wheaton County paramedics that found her."
"Y-you got her back, didn't you? She's okay?" Mrs. Easton insists, sobbing and begging the doctor. "Tell me my little girl's okay."
Before anything else happens, Jody hears a faint knock on door-glass.
She turns around, no longer crouching.
Also hiding, Beth peeks out from a set of hospital doors. Jodie expected her to be wearing one of the hospital gowns underneath a fluffy pink robe. Instead it's what Beth wore earlier. Her rolled up shorts. Yellow crop top. A light-colored plaid overshirt. Brown belt. Sneakers.
Beth silently gestures to Jody with her unbandaged hand. (Shouldn't she be bandaged?)
Dazed, Jody hurries over.
She forgets about everything else. Oh god, Jody doesn't think she needs anything else ever again.
Relief swims in Jody's eyes.
Her arms hug Beth, fiercely, and Jody kisses the right side of Beth's cool, clammy face.
"Just be strong, Beth. I won't let you down."
*
Down in the stairwell between the first floor and second, they laugh and grip the banisters and hug again.
"Well, it's not like I was trying to get hurt," Beth protests.
Jody sneers, deciding to tease. "You practically drove the boat underwater!"
"I was SAVING the boat! You're welcome!"
Beth's indignation, lighting her up, twinkling her hazel eyes… Jody couldn't be more glad to see her.
"Anyway," Beth interrupts, cradling where her sling should be, "I think I ended up with mild hypothermia but nothing's broken."
Kicking the wall, Jody shrugs. "They made me at the police station," she announces, ignoring the sympathetic tug of Beth's frowning mouth. "I couldn't get away. I wanted to get away then… but the place was swarming. And with Ray alive…" she hesitates, going quiet to bite her lip.
Beth's uninjured hand rubs Jody's shoulder.
"Are you still gonna gondola down the Grand Canal when you're outta here?" she asks, cheerfully changing the subject.
"Yep!" Jody boasts, also ignoring the moisture in her eyes. "And camel across the Sahara!"
"And surfing on the Black Sea?" Beth adds. "Or skinny dipping in the Gulf of Mexico?"
Jody 'hmms' and pretends to stroke her chin.
"Or maybe I'll just skip all of that crap and go RIGHT UP into outer space!" Jody crows, raising her arms high.
Beth sticks out her tongue a little, grinning.
"Too bad NASA won't hire people stealing television sets from the local elementary school…"
"Who cares!" Jody says, excited. Too excited to notice footsteps approaching. "They're gonna hire ME!"
"Jody, what was that? Hmm?" Ray speaks up from the bottom stairs with two cops behind him. His voice sickeningly sweet. Jody's heart lodges in her throat. She doesn't wanna look at Beth. None of their eyes go to Beth, like she's not even important or even not there or something.
One of the cops gets to Jody first, lifting her by the elbow.
"Alright. Up ya go now."
She's nudged right out of the stairwell and into Ray's truck waiting in the hospital parking lot.
There is no point in fighting.
*
She knows what everyone says.
What they're always saying about Jody.
Beth would reassure her that it's not true, and it's never been true, and she's a hero… Jody saved her life… and the town is gonna realize that, Beth would insist. Even when they're glaring at Jody while she crosses the road, or busy making up more rumors, or scowling… they will.
On July 1st of 1980, at 9:57am, Jody goes into the pasture field outside of Beth's farmhouse. Geese flap around her.
She signals with her location into the opened bedroom window, using a compass.
Nothing…
It's 11:46am, and getting sweltering hot, and Beth never sees the flashing compass-light. Or she doesn't want to.
*
Ray disappears as the 'Wheaton Annual 4th of July Parade' goes on.
He locks everything.
But… he, they couldn't keep her caged up. Not Molly Morgan. And not Jody.
"I gotta do community service," Jody complains, wolfing down the hotdog Beth gives her. "What a bummer."
She notices the faraway look in Beth's eyes.
"Hello?" Jody snaps her fingers. "Beth? You there?"
Beth's smile strains. "M'fine," she says, and her yellow crop top blows in the summer wind. "Just… I hated being in that cave. The bats." Jody watches as Beth shudders, crossing her arms and rubbing them, and the uneasiness doesn't look exaggerated. Beth's usually honest anyway.
Jody 'pffts!', taking another mouthful of stinky, relish-covered hotdog.
"You're such a city girl," she garbles.
Beth rolls her eyes.
"Whatever. It's better than being a redneck who sleeps in the woods."
Jody retorts, "Better than a little miss goody-two-shoes having to pretend to like Tracy and Samantha."
Their smiles get bigger, and bigger, and Jody can't help but laugh at the ridiculousness. Jody's horse-laugh, or so Beth calls it.
Summer should be like this forever. Both of them, alone, running off together. Picking arguments. Gathering up berries and reciting Winnie the Pooh to each other without missing a single line. Running away. Away from Jody's boozer of a mom, and Ray Karnisak, and whatever the hell else.
"Hey," Beth murmurs, looking up through her eyelashes. "Do… do you miss me?"
Jody scrunches her nose.
"What kind of question is that?" she asks, and it's like getting a sudden, cold wash of water pouring down Jody's back.
"Jody?"
Appearing on the other side of the large, dark green bush, the one they ducked behind, Mrs. Easton watches her.
Her eyes bloodshot.
"Who are you talking to?"
*
This is crazy…
Jody might be crazy… seeing her dead best friend, all of the time…
But when Ray is drunk, and he's really drunk…
It's crazier.
She cries softly to herself, hunching down. It's dark inside of Bear Mountain. Everything echoes.
And…
Beth died here.
Jody didn't keep her promise to Beth.
Even in the darkness, Jody sees her French braid. Beth's rolled-up, khaki shorts. Her eyes.
"Take a deep breath. It's okay," Beth encourages the other girl, kneeling down. She circles her arms around Jody's quivering body, holding her, kissing the top of Jody's head over and over. Beth's colder than before. So cold. "Shhh. Jody, be strong. You know… be strong like Molly."
"No…"
"C'mon, Jody… let's try to find a way out of here."
"I didn't save your life," Jody says, crying harder and desperately looking into Beth's eyes. "Why would you…"
For a moment, it's nothing but the mountain's deep and rumbling echoes.
"The first time I saw you, Jody… you punched out some boy on the street with your bare hands. And his friend." Beth admits, rueful, "That scared me at first… but what's scarier is knowing that I could do something for the person I love and I don't. So I'm not leaving you. Not ever."
Jody's lips quiver harder.
"Cross your heart?" she breathes, not feeling Beth's hands rest over Jody's overall-covered knees.
Beth's determined expression softens.
*
Eventually, a light bobs into Jody's face.
Sheriff Hollinger got a call about Jody's mom beaten half to death, as well as Jody and Ray missing. With Mrs. Easton there, she fearfully brings up the mountain, and the dangers, and he goes on a hunch. Not wanting to believe that Ray would do this. Not tracking them down for Jody's sake.
Following footprints, Sheriff Hollinger discovers the unthinkable: a bruised-up and bleeding Jody limping out.
Alone.
*
"Jody, oh my god…"
As soon as she enters, Mrs. Easton rushes for the hospital bedside.
Her hand gently touches Jody's cheek.
"Are you okay? Do you need anything, honey?" Mrs. Easton babbles, and she sounds exactly like Jody's own mom before the drinking.
(Jody hopes Lynette Salerno wakes and remembers how hard she tried to save Jody from Ray.)
"I'm sorry," Jody mumbles, tears dripping, dripping, dripping, on Mrs. Easton's hand.
Mrs. Easton gives her an equally tearful smile.
"I know, honey."
*
Bags of gold are nice. Jody doesn't mind getting filthy stinkin' rich like she always wanted.
Moving out of Washington state…
Taking a flight…
"Hope you're seeing this, Beth," Jody says up into the warm Venice air, raising her gondola-oar proudly.
Friendship's better.
*