The River Runs Dry Read Online Free PDF Page B

“I didn't even know she was missing. I thought she was just in LA.”
    “She was,” Darcia sniffed. “She went there a few months ago. We all thought that she was just focused on her career, that's why she wasn't getting back to our messages.” She sobbed again. “Poor Millie and Andrew,” she cried, “I can't imagine how they're feeling.”
    Jessie let a small tear run down her face as Darcia kept sobbing loudly in her shoulder.
    Imagine losing your own daughter like that. It must be the worst thing in the world.
    “We should go see them, do you think?” asked Darcia, lifting her red eyes from Jessie's shoulder. “Go and see if they're OK?”
    “I don't know, Darc. It's a bit soon, maybe give them some time.”
    Darcia nodded and stared back at the blank screen. “I guess. But why would anyone do this. Who could do such a thing?”
    Jessie shook her head. “There are a lot of weird people out there babe. Some people don't understand right and wrong like we do.”
    “What sort of excuse is that?! How can someone not understand right from wrong?!”
    “There's lots of reasons honey. People are complicated.”
    Darcia sniffed again. “Well, I hope they catch whoever did it and send him to the chair. Probably some weirdo stalker or something. She was so beautiful Jess, I always thought she was going to be a star.”
    Jessie nodded, her eyes down. “We all did.”
    “Do you have any alcohol. We should drink to her, to her memory.”
    “Sure,” said Jessie, standing and rushing off into the kitchen. She came back a minute later with two small glasses of whiskey.
    “To Taylor Lane,” said Darcia, lifting her glass, “the brightest star this town had ever seen.”
    They both sunk their drinks together, grimacing slightly as the liquid oozed down their throats. Darcia looked broken, her face a deep frown as she stared at the bottom of her glass. “Do you have any more,” she whispered, tears once again starting to swell in her eyes.
    “Sure honey, I've got a bottle...it was my mom's.”
    Darcia looked up quickly. “Oh Jess, you don't have to use that, not if it was your mom's. We'll have something else, or go out...”
    “No, it's OK,” said Jessie quietly. “My mom would have wanted us to toast our friend.”
    She left the room and quickly came back with the bottle, setting it down on the table between them.
    They toasted again and drank, each time filling their glasses and drinking to another memory, another story they told of their time at high school together. They'd all been close friends, so close that people thought they were sisters. Not just because of the time they all spent together, but the way they all looked: dark brown hair, blue eyes, all of them with pretty faces.
    They used to speak of forming a band, of singing together, but that ambition never made it through high school. When Jessie left, Darcia and Taylor stayed behind, their friendship growing stronger as Jessie's life started to move away. Until, that is, the death of her mom brought everything crashing back down.
    For Taylor the dream of being a star began to form into reality. She sang at local festivals and in bars in the town and surrounding area. The town loved her, and she was always going to be their star, their claim to fame. Finally, it seemed, Burgess would be put on the map.
    The sky began to slowly darken outside as the beating heat of the sun settled under the horizon, leaving an orange hue that crept in through the window. The girls kept talking, laughing and crying at points, as they reminisced about their friend, their sister.
    When the whiskey and emotion got too much for Darcia, Jessie lay her down on the sofa, asleep, and placed a light blanket over the top of her. Then she stepped, quietly, out of the front door and onto her chair, sitting on the porch.
    She looked up, as she used to, into the night sky, the stars as bright as they ever had been. She imagined that there was a new one out there, one she'd never