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cemetery.
    Intent on throwing herself on the pyre of
her life, she raced toward her home. She heard Larry shout from
behind her and Lisa scream. She easily dodged the
one-too-many-doughnut-policemen standing around gossiping about her
and Don.
    She was almost at the front door when a
man’s forearm went around her middle. He yanked her back. She
fought with everything inside her. She used every bit of her pain
and loss, all of her boxing training, and every ounce of strength
to get to the fire, but the man was too big, too strong. He dragged
her back. The harder she fought, the more he held on. When he set
her down at the street, she took off toward the house again.
    She made it halfway down her walk when the
same strong arms threw her over his shoulder and carried her to an
ambulance. She was still fighting when the paramedic sedated her.
As she faded from consciousness, her intrusive rescuer bent over
the gurney.
    “ Come on, Lo,” the fireman
said. “You’re a fighter. Hell, you beat the crap outta me more than
once. You can’t just give up.”
    Q

CHAPTER THREE
     
    Sunday night—9:45 p.m.
    John Peter Smith Hospital Emergency Room,
Fort Worth
     
    Days:
8
    Afterwards, she couldn’t remember if they
had kissed once or had kissed for hours. All she remembered was
being encompassed by him. In his arms, she knew she was exactly
where she was supposed to be. She felt like she’d waited her whole
life to be right there, with him, forever.
    “ Lo? That you?” Her mother
had yelled when she ran in the house.
    “ Yes, Mom.”
    Lo ran past the living room, up the stairs
and slammed the door into her room. She threw herself on her bed.
Lost in the overwhelming sensation, Lo stared at the ceiling for a
good while. There was a knock at her door.
    “ Lorraine,” her mom said.
“Don Downs is here. He says he wants to marry you. What do you
think?”
    “ I want to marry him,” Lo
said.
    “ What about Manny
Rodriguez? I thought he was your boyfriend.”
    “ Manny dumped me for Mindy
Sue right after Dad died,” Lo said.
    “ He did?”
    “ He did,” Lo said. “And
anyway, I never felt this way about him.”
    “ What way?” her mom
said.
    “ Like I belong with him,”
Lo said. “I’ve never felt that ever.”
    Lo’s mother shifted uncomfortably.
    “ He says he’ll help us out
and make sure Lisa goes to college,” her mom said. “But Lorraine,
you don’t have to marry him to take care of me. You should marry
someone you love. Your dad and me, we loved each other very much
and…”
    “ I want to be with him. I
love him. I can’t explain it. I just do.”
    “ This is not some crazy
thing, is it?”
    “ Mom! I’m not Larry or
Lisa! I don’t do stupid stuff,” Lo said.
    “ Yes, that’s right. You can
be a little impulsive though,” Mom said.
    “ About food or shoes, but
not about people,” Lo said. “Name one time I’ve been that way about
a person.”
    Lo’s mother blinked her eyes like a computer
light flickering while it was thinking.
    “ I can’t think of one
time,” her mother said. “If you change your mind, you promise to
tell me.”
    “ I promise,” Lo
said.
    As her mother closed the door, Lo heard Lisa
ask:
    “ What’s going
on?”
    Someone was shaking her shoulder. Someone
was taking the memory away. Lo fought to stay there, on her bed,
overwhelmed by her first brush of love, but the shoulder shaker
wouldn’t let up. Lo opened her eyes.
    “ What’s going on, Lo?” Lisa
whispered. Her head was inches from Lo’s ear. “They’re saying they
have to keep you for seventy-two hours because you tried to kill
yourself. I told them you’d never kill yourself.”
    “ I can’t live without him.”
Drugged, Lo’s voice was more of a slur than syllables.
    “ Lorraine
Downs. You promised me you’d never kill yourself. After
Mom hanged herself, you promised . You said
you’d never be that weak.”
    “ I didn’t know. I didn’t
know.”
    “ I’ll tell you what,” Lisa
said.