Firestone Read Online Free PDF Page B

head.
    “ They wouldn’t,” Sandy
said. She looked up to see Honey roll into the room. “Do you need
these? I haven’t started this one yet, I
can . . .”
    “ No,” Honey said. “Mike
did ours while I was at work.”
    Sandy started the second washer.
    “ How was the job site?”
Valerie asked.
    “ Scary. Hard. So many
people lost their lives.” Honey shook her head. “Now that it’s
light, I can see just how stupid Rodney and I were to be out there
in that pit.”
    Honey gave a shiver and wheeled further into
the room. Sandy pointed to Honey’s hands.
    “ What?” Honey
asked.
    “ Your hands,” Sandy
said.
    “ Yeah,” Honey nodded.
“Isn’t that weird? It happened while I was at the site this
morning. One minute, they were like they’d been forever, the next
minute, they’re like this. They both work.”
    Honey closed and opened both of her
hands.
    “ There’s a little weakness
but . . .,” Honey said. “I’ve been busting my
butt—in PT and with Blane—to get even the slightest movement in my
hands. And look.”
    Honey picked up the laundry soap.
    “ It’s like they
aren’t . . . um . . . broken,” Honey
said. “At all.”
    Honey stared at her hands.
    “ Do you think
it’s . . .?” Honey started to ask. She looked at the
women and fell silent. “MJ did the laundry and went back to sleep
after I left. He’s just getting up. That’s six hours of solid
sleep. Edie took care of Maggie today.”
    Honey gave them a slow nod.
    “ He isn’t taking his sleep
meds so he can hear Maggie when she wakes up,” Honey
said.
    “ Did he get her last
night?” Valerie asked.
    “ Sure,” Honey said. “He
went to sleep with me but was up when she woke up. Val and I
decided not to meet last night because the living room was kind of
ripped up. Anyway, he didn’t wake me. He fed her and changed her in
the middle of the night, and made breakfast for me this
morning.”
    Honey nodded.
    “ He hasn’t slept more than
four hours a night since his injury,” Honey said. “I mean, the meds
conk him out, but that’s not really sleep. And he’s been a lot more
tired than he was this morning. The sleep thing, it’s one of the
symptoms of his brain injury. I mean, he woke up to say ‘hi’ to me
and then went back to bed!”
    “ We were both just saying
that things are odd today,” Valerie said. “Delphie feels excited,
not terrified, to have Ivy and Keenan. Mike’s headaches are gone,
and he wants to have another baby.”
    “ Mike?” Honey asked. “What
about ‘How can you bring a child into this evil world?’”
    “ I know!” Valerie
said.
    The women looked at Sandy.
    “ So?” Valerie
asked.
    “ So?” Sandy
replied.
    “ What happened with you?”
Valerie asked.
    “ I remember my mom, Andy,”
Sandy nodded. “I had dreams last night, all night, about her. And
Seth and . . . how much they love me and how much
they loved each other and . . .”
    Sandy’s eyes welled with tears.
    “ I
feel . . .,” Sandy gave a slight shake of her head,
“ . . . loved.”
    Sandy put her hand over her heart.
    “ Fairies wouldn’t have
done that,” Sandy said. “How could they have known?”
    “ Who knew about my hands
and Mike’s headaches and Delphie’s fear and Sandy’s mom?” Honey
asked.
    The women looked off in the distance for a
moment.
    “ Jill,” they said in
unison.
    “ But how?” Valerie
asked.
    “ No idea,” Sandy
said.
    “ I think we should just
look at this as a gift and not question it too much,” Delphie
said.
    The women were silent for a moment.
    “ Why?” Sandy
asked.
    “ I don’t know,” Delphie
said. “Just seemed like the right thing to say.”
    The women laughed.
    “ There you are!” Charlie
came into the laundry room. His voice was raised with desperation.
Sandy took Rachel from Valerie. “Ivy just called. She’s at the bus
station. You said you were going
to . . .”
    “ Let’s all go,” Valerie
said.
    Charlie looked