The Long Sleep by Caroline Crane

away?
    She laughed. “He was such an idiot. I never
saw anybody so lovesick. He messed up his whole future just because
he couldn’t keep away from you.”
    Now we were on a topic I knew something
about. “You call that love? It has nothing to do with love. As I
said to my friendly neighborhood cop, it’s nothing but a sick
obsession, and I mean sick. It wasn’t about me. ”
    “How come you have a friendly neighborhood
cop?” Glyn asked.
    I backed down a little. “He’s not exactly
neighborhood. But he’s friendly.” I turned to Cree. “Remember that
guy at the police station, with the green eyes?”
    She blinked, and then remembered. “He was
cute. But not much help.”
    “He’s been a help to me other times.” I
didn’t want to get into the whole shooting thing. Glynis didn’t
know and it would take too much explaining.
    “Evan was really into you,” Glyn said. “Or
maybe not, because he told . . . oh, look!” She held up a dark blue
tube with a pattern of gold stars. It was lovely packaging but the
package isn’t what you wear on your face.
    That was obviously a diversion. I said, “He
told what?”
    Glyn pressed her lips together as if she
wished nothing had gotten past them.
    I tried again. “What did he tell? And who did
he tell it to?”
    She saw that I wasn’t going to let go.
“Um—everybody. He was telling all these lies.”
    “About me? What sort of lies?”
    “Oh, things like you slept around and that’s
why he broke up with you.”
    “He—said— that? ”
    “Um...yes.” She couldn’t look at me.
    “To the whole school? All of Lakeside?”
    “Um, just a few people, but it got
around.”
    “He said he broke up with me? Did anybody believe him?”
    “Maybe some people did. But everybody knows
you, Maddie. And they know what he can be like.”
    Cree listened, wide-eyed. “What a rat! I’m
glad you got rid of him.”
    “He’s worse than a rat,” I said. “He hit me. He’s violent.”
    “And has the muscles to prove it.” Glyn put
back the starry tube.
    “Not to worry, Mads.” She gave me a weak
smile. “He’s gone.”
    At first I thought she meant dead, and I was
shocked. Then I realized. “You mean New Hampshire.”
    “It’s got to be a couple of hundred miles. Do
you think that’s far enough?”
    “Not with phones and Internet. Last night he
kept calling. Playing music.” Who else could it be but Evan?
    “Sounds as if he still has the hots for you,”
Glynis said.
    And I said, “I wonder why he went to New
Hampshire.”
    She giggled. “I think it was the only place
that would take him. Right in the middle of the school year. He was
lucky to get in anywhere.”
    Evan led a charmed life. If he needed luck,
he always got it. “I suppose,” I said, “he’ll be back for the
holidays.” That was a chilling thought.
    “I’ll be your bodyguard,” Cree offered.
    So loyal. But I knew she’d rather spend time
with my brother.
    As for bodyguards, I thought of a certain
green-eyed cop. And then I thought of Hank.
    “We have to get going,” I said. “Where would
the markers be?”
    “Try the stationery aisle.” Glyn went back to
her lipsticks.
     
    * * *
    We supplied ourselves with markers, poster
board, and whatever else we needed, and set out for the hospital. I
wasn’t at all sure I could see Hank. Cree had brought a magazine to
read while she waited in the lobby.
    I avoided the volunteers at the information
desk and made straight for the elevator. By then I knew my way. But
the nurses’ station outside the ICU was as far as I got.
    I could see him through his big window, but
they wouldn’t let me in. All I could do was ask how he was.
    “He hasn’t woken up yet,” a nurse said almost
apologetically.
    “I wish I could talk to him. I have some news
that might cheer him up. Is it true that people like that can often
hear and understand what’s going on?”
    “They can unless it’s a very deep coma.” But
she still wouldn’t let me get any