The Queen of Cool Read Online Free PDF

“You’re going to tell them you wanted to get something from
the house. That fireman who saved you? He’s one of your training
clients. Andrew something or other.”
    “ Carrera,” Lo
said.
    “ He’s going to back you,”
Lisa said. “And you’re coming home with me.”
    “ So I can get kicked out of
your house?”
    “ We moved into Mom’s house
while you were out of it,” Lisa said. “They’re going to kick us out
tomorrow anyway. That Deputy I slapped told me just to be mean. He
didn’t know he was really helping me out. Ha ha. Loser.”
    “ I want to die,” Lo said.
“I want to be with Don.”
    “ If you say that one more
time,” Lisa said. “I will never speak to you again.
Ever.”
    Hoping Lisa would go away, Lo closed her
eyes.
    “ The doctor’s coming right
now,” Lisa said. “He’s going to give you meds to help you get
through this. You haven’t slept in a week. You’ll feel better when
you’re at home.”
    “ My home burned down,” Lo
said.
    “ You know what I mean,”
Lisa said. “Here he comes.”
    Groggy from the medication, Lo fumbled her
way through the interview with the psychiatrist. The doctor
believed her because he wanted Lo to be all right. When they were
near the end, the doctor asked her about being a fitness model. Lo
made up something and hoped he’d go away.
    He did.
    A nurse appeared in his place. When Lo was
dressed, the nurse left her sitting on the bed. She returned with
her handbag.
    “ I heard your accounts are
frozen,” the nurse said. “You have nothing.”
    “ Don’s dead.” Lo’s eyes
misted.
    “ Here.” the nurse pressed a
wad of bills into Lo’s hand.
    “ I can’t,” Lo
said.
    “ When I was in your shoes,
you and Don saved me with your foundation for widows,” the nurse
said. “You put me through nursing school. I can’t imagine what I’d
be doing to feed my boys if it wasn’t for you and Don.”
    “ Please,” Lo said. “I can’t
repay you.”
    “ I didn’t ask you to,” the
nurse said.
    The nurse clasped Lo tight.
    “ Don’t kill yourself, Lo,”
the nurse said into her ear. “It won’t bring him back.”
    The nurse let her go and walked out of the
room. An orderly helped Lo into a wheelchair. She was wheeled
through the hospital to an entrance where Lisa and her husband
Earl, and their kids waited for her. Earl helped Lo into the car
and they made the journey to Fairmount. Lisa pulled up in front of
the house. While the kids danced around them with happy chatter
about their new house, Earl carried Lo to her old bedroom. Lisa
gave her some pills and Lo was alone.
    “ Don?” She whispered before
the meds took her away.
    Q
    Monday morning—8:02 a.m.
    Fairmount Historic District, Fort Worth
     
    Days: 9
     
    “ What is she doing in
there?” a heavily Mexican-accented voice said.
    “ This is her room,” Lisa’s
voice followed.
    Lo rolled onto her back to see what they
were talking about.
    “ This is a child’s room,”
the woman said.
    “ Yazmin?” Lo
whispered.
    “ Yes, Lorraina, Yazmin is
here.”
    “ How?”
    “ Mr. Downs, how else?”
Yazmin said. “Who do you think cleaned this place?”
    “ Yazmin, I can’t pay you,”
Lo said. “I have no money, nothing.”
    “ Don’t worry about that,”
Yazmin said.
    “ But…?” Lo sat up in
bed.
    “ Later – we’ll talk about
everything later,” Yazmin said. “When you’re feeling
better.”
    “ Oh Yazmin,” Lo began to
cry.
    “ Now, this is not your
room,” Yazmin pointed to Lisa. “Get her other arm.”
    Lo felt herself being lifted from the bed.
Barely conscious, she stumbled but found her footing after a few
steps. The women half carried, half dragged Lo down the hallway,
the stairs and through the kitchen. Lo had the vague impression of
moving through a beautiful garden with big vegetable plots. There
was even a Koi pond like her garden at home.
    “ Oh my God!” Lisa
said.
    “ You didn’t come out here?”
Yazmin asked.
    “ No, we’ve been