LITMIR.BIZ

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the image in her head. “Julie … I don’t understand. How did this happen? You weren’t even supposed to be in surf rescue.” She took a breath. “Which we’ll talk about later.”

      “Coach Swanson brought her in and performed CPR, and the water she’d aspirated came up. She came around immediately and was brought here for evaluation.”

      “So you’re saying my daughter drowned.”

      “I got knocked off my board, is all.”

      “What? Knocked off? My God—”

      “I mean, I fell …” Julie said, her eyes darting around the curtain area.

      “The contusion should heal just fine on its own,” Dr. Solvang said.

      “What contusion?” Camille wanted to grab the guy by his crisp white lapels and shake him. “She hit her head?” She touched Julie’s chin, looking for the injury amid Julie’s dark salt-encrusted curls. There was a knot at her hairline above one eye. “How did you hit your head?”

      Julie’s glance skated away. She lightly touched the damp, saltencrusted hair above her temple.

      “We’ve done a neural assessment every ten minutes,” said the nurse. “Everything is normal.”

      “Weren’t you wearing a safety cap?” Camille asked. “How did you get a contusion?”

      “Mom, I don’t know, okay? It all happened really fast. Do me a favor and stop freaking out.”

      Surliness was a new thing with Julie. Camille had started noticing it earlier in the school year. At the moment, her surliness was a hopeful sign. It meant she was feeling normal. “Now what?” Camille asked the doctor. “Are you going to admit her?”

      He smiled and shook his head. “No need. The discharge papers are already being prepared.”

      She melted a little with relief. “I need a phone. I dashed out of the house without mine, and I need to call my mother.”

      Julie indicated her Bethany Bay Barracudas team bag. “You can use mine to call Gram.”

      Camille found it and dialed her mother.

      “Hey, you,” said Cherisse Vandermeer. “Did school get out early today?”

      “Mom, it’s me,” said Camille. “Using Julie’s phone.”

      “I thought you would be buried in your darkroom all day.”

      The darkroom. Camille had an “oh shit” moment, but thrust it away in favor of the more immediate matter.

      “I’m at the hospital,” Camille told her. “Julie was brought to the ER.”

      “Oh, dear heavenly days. Is she all right? What happened?”

      “She’s okay. She had an accident in surf rescue class. Just got here myself.”

      There was an audible gasp. “I’ll be right over.”

      “I’m all right, Gram,” Julie said loudly. “Mom’s freaking out, though.”

      Now Camille heard a deep, steadying breath on the other end of the line. “I’m sure it’s going to be all right. I’ll see you there in ten minutes. Did they say what—”

      The call dropped. Cell-phone signals were iffy this low on the peninsula.

      For the first time, Camille took a moment to look around the curtain area. Principal Drake Larson had shown up. Drake—her ex-boyfriend—looked utterly professional in a checked shirt and tie, knife pleats in his pants. But the rings of sweat in his armpits indicated he was anything but calm.

      Drake should have been perfect for her, but not long ago, she’d admitted—first to herself, then to Drake—that their relationship was over. He still called her, though. He kept hinting that he wanted to see her again, and she didn’t want to hurt his feelings by turning him down.

      She’d tried for months to find her way into loving Drake. He was a good guy, gentlemanly and kind, nice-looking, sincere. Yet despite her efforts, there was no spark, no heart-deep sense that they belonged together. With a sense of defeat, she realized she was never going to get there with him. She was ready to close that short and predictable chapter of her utterly uninteresting love life. Breaking it off with him had been an exercise in diplomacy, since he was the principal of her daughter’s high school.

      “So when my daughter was being dragged out to sea in a riptide, where were you?” she demanded, pinning Coach Swanson with an accusatory glare.

      “I was on the beach, running drills.”

      “How did she hit her head? Did you see how it happened?”

      He shuffled his feet. “Camille—”

      “So that’s a no.”

      “Mom,” said Julie. “I already told you, it was a stupid accident.”

      “She didn’t have my permission to be in the program,” Camille said to the coach. Then she turned to Drake. “Who was in charge of verifying the permission slips?”

      “Are you saying she didn’t bring one in?” Drake turned to the coach.

      “We have one on file,” Swanson said.

      Camille glanced at Julie, whose cheeks were now bright red above the cervical collar. She looked embarrassed, but Camille noticed something else in her eyes—a flicker of defiance.

      “How long has this been going on?” she asked.

      “This was our fourth session,” said the coach. “Camille, I’m so sorry. You know Julie means the world to me.”

      “She is my world, and she nearly drowned,” Camille said. Then she regarded Drake. “I’ll call you about the permission slip. All I want is to get my daughter home, okay?”

      “What can I do to help?” Drake asked. “Julie gave us all quite a scare.”

      Camille had the ugly sense that the words tort liability and lawsuit were currently haunting Drake’s thoughts. “Look,” she said, “I’m not mad, okay? Just scared out of my mind. Julie and I will both feel better once we get home.”

      Both men left after she promised to send them an update later. The discharge nurse was going down a list of precautions and procedures when Camille’s mother showed up. “The X-ray shows her lungs are completely clear,” the nurse said. “As a precaution, we’ll want to have a follow-up to make sure she doesn’t develop pneumonia.”

      “Pneumonia!” Camille’s mother was in her fifties, but looked much younger. People were constantly saying Camille and Cherisse looked like sisters. Camille wasn’t sure that was a compliment to her. Did it mean she, at thirty-six, looked fifty-something? Or did it mean her fifty-something mom looked thirty-six? “My granddaughter will not come down with pneumonia. I simply won’t let it happen.” Cherisse rushed to the bed and embraced Julie. “Sweetheart, I’m so glad you’re all right.”

      “Thanks, Gram,” Julie said, offering a thin, brief smile. “Don’t worry. I’m ready to go home, right?” she asked the nurse.

      “Absolutely.” The nurse taped a cotton ball over the crook of her arm where the IV had been.

      “Okay, sweetie,” said Camille’s mom. “Let’s get you home.”

      They both helped unstick the circular white pads that had been connected to the monitors. Julie had been given a hospital gown to wear over her swimsuit. Her movements as she got dressed were furtive, almost ashamed, as she grabbed her street clothes from her gym bag. Teenagers were famously modest, Camille knew that. Julie took it to extremes. The little fairy girl who used to run around unfettered and unclothed had turned into a surly, secretive teen. “You don’t need to wait for me,” Julie announced. “I can dress myself.”

      Camille

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