Deliver Her: A Novel Read Online Free PDF Page A

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SUNDAY

MEG
    The testimonials from Begin Again parents had been like a drug. Meg scrolled and scrolled, addicted.
     
    Thank you for the very professional service Begin Again provided for us in getting our son Eric to Resolutions Center. You turned what could have been a very emotional and angry confrontation into a very smooth transition.
    —Alicia D., Nashville, TN
    Your assistance with my daughter Marisol has helped to give us our lives back. I would recommend your transportation services to any parents who feel they have nowhere else to turn.
    —Elsa C., Destin, FL
    Nowhere to turn. That’s us, Meg thought.
    She read Begin Again’s checklist for parents:
     
    Has your teen found new friends and left the old ones behind?
Do you suspect your child is using drugs or alcohol?
Has your teen adopted an “I don’t care” attitude?
     
    Check, check, check.
    The last item:
     
Do you feel you are losing your teen?
     
    A little bit, every day. Swallowing the lump in her throat, Meg watched Begin Again’s video of a simulated transport: A mother leads two agents into a teenager’s room. They talk with the girl briefly, then lead her outside to a car, the mother watching from a window. Clearly, the mother and child were actors. But the agents seemed real, the whole process humane, possible.
    The cheesy two-minute movie gave Meg hope. Too revved up to sleep, she slipped out of bed and shut herself in her closet to dial the 800 number. Despite the ungodly hour, Carl Alden was gracious and professional as Meg tearfully related Alex’s story and her own plan to rescue her. It was fate that Begin Again contracted with The Birches for transportation services; Meg had never even thought to ask the school. Alden knew the facility well and spoke highly of it.
    They talked for nearly an hour, Meg holding her breath at the sound of Alex finally coming upstairs, though it would have been unusual for her daughter to stop by her room.
    Until that moment, all that separated Alex from The Birches in Silver Mountain was a phone call from Meg and a way to get her daughter there. But in Carl Alden and Begin Again, Meg found the missing piece of the puzzle: a transporter. Alden offered references and directed her to complete Begin Again’s online Transport Request Form.
    All of that had been last night. Today, Meg had printed the form clandestinely at work and had it with her now. She’d come out to the promenade, a detour after work, so she could read the form and think about what she would write. She gazed out at Long Island Sound from a bench and contemplated the ruffle of clouds stitched to the horizon like lace. A few people took advantage of the bonus hour of daylight: a bundled figure chasing a dog at the water’s edge, a fisherman sitting low in a beach chair, his twin lines anchored in the sand.
    Meg chose a different bench every time she went to the water. She was a few yards away from where she and Alex had fought over the boarding school idea; today’s bench was “Your Wish Fulfilled.” For five hundred dollars, the town soldered a personalized plaque to a bench. Dedications were strung along the walkway like love letters, bouquets lashed to the benches on birthdays and anniversaries, wreaths and even some battery-powered fairy lights attached at the holidays.
    Meg wanted her own bench one day. She’d thought about surprising Jacob with one for their twentieth anniversary. They’d certainly logged enough stroller miles with both kids. After Jack’s colicky infancy, they’d jokingly crafted their inscription: “Silence Is Golden.”
    Obviously, that bench wouldn’t happen now, Meg thought, lighting a cigarette filched from Alex. The dog on the beach now obediently fetched the driftwood its owner hurled into the water, dropping it back at its master’s feet. Digging in her pocket, she pulled out Begin Again’s form and unfolded it. The first part was simple enough: name, address, contact information. Next, the