The Second Heart Read Online Free PDF Page B

the guest bed. Vi fished
through it and pulled out her pajamas, which were black silk with
deep purple piping. She flashed Meredith a devious smile and
flounced out of the room to change and brush her teeth in the
bathroom.
    Worried, Meredith dug through the pile of
clothes looking for her own PJ’s. Finding the barely-there red silk
negligee that she usually saved only for special occasions,
Meredith groaned. She was going to have to pay Vi back for this
one.
    Meredith checked the various pockets of the
overnight bag and found her own toothbrush. She took it and her
nightie to the master bathroom and brushed her teeth and washed her
face. She let her hair down out of the ponytail that she had
absentmindedly shoved it into at some point and raked her fingers
through it.
    She glanced around and spotted her mother’s
hairbrush next to the sink. Her mother had owned the hairbrush for
as long as she could remember. It was antique silver and made from
real horsehair. The back of the brush was monogrammed with Amelia’s
grandmother’s initials. Meredith gently ran her fingertip over the
inscription, enjoying the feel of the cool metal under her touch.
She took up the hairbrush and ran it through her hair, which she
then wove into a braid at the nape of her neck.
    She browsed through her mother’s closet and
was relieved to find a thick bathrobe, which she happily pulled
over her nightgown.
    When she returned to the guest room, Vi was
already in bed with the lights out. In the slice of light that came
in from the hall, Meredith could see that the clothes that had been
on the bed now resided in a tangled mass on the floor. She frowned;
Meredith would have folded them so they didn’t wrinkle. Ignoring
the clothes as best she could, she stepped into the room and closed
the door.
    Meredith let the robe slide to the floor, and
then she climbed into bed next to Vi, whispering, “Are you still
awake?”
    “I’ve been in here for like, two seconds. Of
course I’m still awake.” Vi rolled over to face Meredith. She
smiled wickedly again. “You look very pretty this evening.”
    “Enjoy the moment now, Vi. It’s going to come
back to haunt you,” Meredith promised.
    “Ooh, I’m scared now.”
    Meredith blew a raspberry at her. As her eyes
adjusted to the dark, she could make out Vi’s delicate features.
Growing up, Meredith had often felt like an oversized brute next to
Vi’s slender and petite frame. Often the tallest in her class,
Meredith hadn’t had the same kind of attention from the boys that
Vi had. She assumed that the boys had all been intimidated by her
stature.
    “So today’s been wicked strange, right?” Vi
said after a pause.
    Meredith blurted, “Did that stuff with the
candles really happen?”
    “Yeah. I still can’t wrap my head around it.
What if I’m remembering it wrong? Things like that don’t happen in
real life.”
    They were both quiet for a moment. Then
Meredith asked, “What do you think tomorrow will be like?”
    “Damned if I know.”
    There was another silence. Then Meredith
spoke again, plaintively. “Vi?”
    Quietly, Vi responded, “Yeah, Mere?”
    “If you die, can I have your stereo?”
Meredith snorted with laughter as Vi giggled and hit her over the
head with a pillow.
    There was a knock on the door and Rob’s voice
came through the wood, “I thought I told you two to go to
sleep.”
    The girls giggled some more and Meredith
said, “Yes, Dad,” just as Vi said, “Yes, Mr. C.” They burst into
peals of laughter again. Rob chuckled on the other side of the door
and continued walking down the hall to his bedroom.
    Soon the girls calmed down and Meredith gazed
out the window as she lay in bed. There was a soft orange light
filtering in from the streetlamp outside. Faintly, she could hear
emergency sirens blaring once again in the distance. Beside her,
Vi’s breathing became regular as she fell asleep.
    Meredith thought about her date with Miguel,
and tried to dissect her