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"Where are those two?" she asked, referring to Star and Misty. "There wasn't very much traffic. As soon as I hung up from talking to you, I called them and then I sent a cab for Star. Misty took her own cab. She's even closer to you than I am!"

I nodded and looked down at Geraldine.

"I tried to go on a fast in protest, but she didn't get frightened for me. I couldn't even last a day without food," I admitted.

"Protest? Protesting what?"

"Not letting me be friends with you, Star, and Misty." Jade grimaced

"She wouldn't let you be friends with us? What's wrong with her?"

"Nothing now," I said. I gazed at her. "She's dead." Jade started to look a little pale to me, too.

"Are you all right?" I asked her.

"Me? Yes, of course. I'm just trying to stay calm and think straight." She clutched her hands and twisted her fingers a bit. "Where are they?"

"When I was up in the crawl space, I managed to read one of my real mother's letters before Geraldine discovered me and took away the ladder. My real mother put a trust aside for me that I get when I'm eighteen. I never knew it," I said. "But then, there was a lot I didn't know, a lot I still don't know. I had to leave the rest of the letters up there. Maybe you can help me get them down now. We'll need the ladder, of course. It's back in the garage. Everything in this house has its proper place and must be returned to that place," I recited. Geraldine had drilled it into my brain.

Jade stared at me a moment and then looked back at Geraldine.

"She's actually dead," Jade said, shaking her head. "Wow." She stared a moment and then she looked up at me. "What? What about a ladder?"

I realized she hadn't heard a word I said.

We heard the doorbell ring.

"That must be Misty and Star," she said jumping to her feet. "Finally. Wait here."

She went out to let them in. I could hear them whispering in the foyer. They were there for at least a minute or so before they all appeared and gathered around me to look at Geraldine.

"Is she really dead?" Misty asked.

Star, unafraid, knelt down, lifted her wrist and felt for a pulse.

"She's gone for sure," she said. Without any hesitation, she moved Geraldine's head, looking through her hair and then the back of her neck. "No one hit her," she concluded. She looked up at me. "From what you told Jade about her being weak lately, I bet it was a heart attack."

"You have to have a heart to have a heart attack," Jade muttered.

"This is like a movie scene," Misty said. Her eyes were so wide that I thought her pupils might just pop out on tiny springs. "There'll be an investigation, the police, newspaper reporters, all of it!"

"Scare her some more why don't you," Star muttered, her ebony eyes brightening like hot coals. She stood up and looked at me. "How do you feel?"

I shook my head and embraced myself.

"The lamp was knocked over, but it's not broken. It's back where it belongs."

"What?" She looked at Jade who shook her head. "Cat, are you all right?" She reached out to touch my arm.

I shook my head.

"I feel numb," I said. "I don't even feel the pain in my ankle anymore."

Misty asked how I had broken my ankle and I repeated the story for them.

"What a mean thing to do to you," Misty said.

"I've got to-go back in two days for another Xray to be sure it's all healing right," I said, and laughed a thin, nervous laugh. "She thought they were just trying to run up a big medical bill. She didn't want to go back. Now, she doesn't have to."