Fairy Read Online Free PDF Page B

she’d ever get out of her head the image of Judy holding out the bloodied, dead fetus. Judy. The most level-headed, professional person she knew. Jesus, she thought, if Judy can go off the deep end like that, I’m screwed.
    Her hands shook as she petted Skittles on the neck and behind her ears.
    A fairy? Put a fucking baby under my pillow?
    The whole thing sounded too twisted to have even entered Judy’s brain, let alone try and persuade Cecilia to participate in it. Like some maniac’s version of the tooth fairy. Cecilia wondered if Judy had been crazy all this time, if she was just good at hiding it, a functioning psychopath. But it just didn’t add up. Not Judy.
    Smears of dried blood coated Cecilia’s palms, and the sight of it turned her stomach. She got to her feet, ran a hot shower, rested her head against the tiled wall as the scalding water engulfed her.
    She woke up to a message on her cell phone. From Judy.
    Please tell me I imagined all of that. Please tell me Judy didn’t really tell me to put a stillborn under my pillow.
    She picked the crust from the corners of her eyes as she checked her voice mail. Her heart pounded in her chest as she anticipated what Judy would say.
    â€œHey, Celia. I’m sorry about last night. You’re right, I was just tired, all messed up from what happened. I went straight to the medical examiner and dropped off the baby, then went home and crashed. Please forgive me. Anyway, I’ve got another woman due in a couple of weeks, and I was wondering if you would be interested in coming with me again. Talk to you later.”
    Cecilia erased the message, tossed her phone onto the bed. It was good to hear Judy’s voice back to normal, strong and stern, not that whispery and dreamy tone she had last night. Just the thought of it and the look on the woman’s face turned Cecilia’s stomach into a tangle of nerves.
    I just won’t mention it, that’s all. I’ll pretend none of it ever happened.
    As patient as Judy had been toward Cecilia through all the recent bullshit, it was the least she could do.
    She got dressed, brushed her teeth, filled Skittles’s bowls with water and kibble, then started to drive toward the office.
    She told me to hang the placenta outside of my window. And the fairy would come.
    Cecilia was relieved to see that Judy wasn’t at her desk. Though she had no plans to speak about the events of last night, she knew the unspoken words would be loud and clear anyway, knew that awkward silences were inevitable.
    â€œWhere’s Judy?” Cecilia asked Rhonda, another of the doulas.
    â€œCalled, said she was having some trouble with her kid. Said she wouldn’t be coming in today, maybe tomorrow too.” Rhonda never once lifted her gaze from her cell phone as she said it, using both thumbs to text, her fingernails clicking against the screen.
    An image of Judy’s youngest, smiling from the harness swing, covered in blood and wrapped in a towel entered her mind, sat there for a minute, refused to wander off. Cecilia shook her head the way Skittles does after a bath, and now Rhonda looked up at her, raised an eyebrow.
    â€œDid…did she say what was the matter?”
    â€œNo, and I didn’t ask. Not my business.”
    â€œYeah, okay, thanks.”
    As Cecilia walked out, she heard a whispered snicker from behind her, then the repetitive tapping sound.
    She walked back outside, squinted against the sun. The air smelled of wet leaves and cooking hamburger meat, and her mouth watered as she stared at the Burger King across the street. A cup of coffee and some food would be welcome, she thought, so she strolled across the parking lot, stood at the crosswalk.
    She couldn’t help but think about Judy, about what she had said last night. Not only what she was trying to make Cecilia do, but the fact that she believed her third child came into the world this way. Judy had never mentioned