Lock and Key Read Online Free PDF Page B

and the radiation, but not enough,” Dr. Braden said. “Some studies have shown that a bone marrow transplant may benefit the patient, but the percentages are rather low. It is a relatively new procedure and quite costly, I’m afraid.”
    “I’ll be here first thing in the morning to have my blood drawn,” I said and dug the heels of my boots into the floor as I rubbed my cold fingers together. The jangling of my silver bracelets tinkled against the desk of the nurse’s station. “No matches on the national list yet?” I asked. But I knew the answer.
    “No, unfortunately. You should ask anyone you know to get tested. We might get lucky that way. Every moment counts.”
    My sister’s life was coming down to test tubes filled with blood and soggy swabs in plastic baggies. Tens of them so far, but still no hope in sight. I suppose I shouldn’t say no hope. Being pessimistic wouldn’t help her, or Alex, or their son, Jake. And being pessimistic wasn’t Ruby’s way. It never had been.
    Out of the two of us, Ruby was the beautiful one. We had the same hazel eyes, but Ruby had a thick mane of honey-blonde hair like our mother’s. My hair was a light chestnut color like Dad’s. She was taller than me by two inches with long legs and a slim, but curvy body. I was curvy, too, but I had to work at the slim part. She was three years older than me and my best friend, always had been.
    Ruby had a great, big, loud personality that I envied and adored. I loved dancing in the glow of her brash aura. Our differences were never a source of divide between us. In fact, we cherished them. As we grew up, we found how well my quiet clicked with her loud. We needed each other. We were the opposite sides of the same coin, Mom used to say. Even she liked that about us.
    However, Ruby was also the one that got us into trouble over and over again. Half the time it was fun, a lot of the time, especially as we got older, it was freaking scary. She had plenty of brazen bravery, but oftentimes crap luck. Her brain was sharp as a razor’s edge, and she was able to put a spin on at least 80% of the trouble we got into and find a loophole out.
    We had a pact from our girlhood: “ Love you no matter what, so just suck it up .”
    By the time she got into high school, Ruby’s evenings out ended with Mom catching her sneaking back in through my bedroom window. I would clutch onto Ruby, but my mom would drag her out of my arms and into the kitchen. The slaps would crack over Ruby’s smirking face. Once, twice, three times.
    “Punishment doesn’t work with you! Grounding you sure don’t work! What’s it gonna take, you good-for-nothing tramp? I’m not gonna let you take your sister with you on your little joyride to hell!” My mother’s shrill, shrieking desperation filled the house every time. I would cover my ears and slump on the floor in between my bed and the nightstand when it got really bad.
    Ruby’s great big hunger for tasting life eventually got her into drugs. I had tried to dabble right alongside her, but it made me anxious, and I never enjoyed it like she did. That’s when I lost her to the rave parties and a variety of eager boy-men in their fancy trucks. Then there followed the menacing outcasts on their loud bikes who seemed to have endless supplies of pot, mushrooms, cocaine, an assortment of pills.
    I went back to getting ready for college. That would be my escape from Meager. But I was always there to pick up her pieces when she needed me to. Because Ruby and I only had each other. Forever and no matter what. So we sucked it up.
     

     
    I can’t remember a time when our parents got along.
    Our little brother Jason was nine when he got run over by a car while out riding his bike on our street after school. He died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital while my mother held onto his broken arm. Jason was her baby, and he was the apple of Dad’s eye. His death was devastating for all of us. Ruby and I tried to