Free Uncharted by Angela Hunt Page A

medications. Everything should be obvious; just make sure you give them the morning doses around eight and the evening doses around nine. I know that’s not exactly twelve hours apart, but I’ve found they sleep better if you give that last dose a little later.”
    The home health worker, a small, unsmiling woman with a tight white perm, nodded and slipped a hand into her pocket. The movement released the sweet smell of rose sachet. “And I’ll be sleeping—?”
    “In my room.” Lisa gestured to the hallway. “Last door on the left. I’ve made space in the closet if you want to hang anything up. You’ll be close enough to hear if either of my parents calls out in the night. Mom has a tendency to get up and wander, so be sure to bolt the front and back doors of the house. She can’t manage the bolt with her fingers.”
    The nurse pressed her thin lips together. “I can stay only until eleven on Tuesday morning, so if you’re delayed, you’ll have to call my office and arrange for another nurse.” The firmness in her voice verged on the threatening.
    Lisa managed a smile. “I won’t be delayed. I’m flying all night to get back.” She paused as her gaze fell on the college yearbook she’d pulled from a box beneath her bed. “I wouldn’t be going anywhere if the man who died hadn’t been a dear friend.”
    She glanced around the kitchen one final time, then walked into the living room, her boots thumping on the vinyl-covered floor. How long had it been since she’d worn high heels? Her calves would be cramping within the hour.
    “Okay, Mom, Dad.” She bent to place a kiss on her mother’s soft cheek. “I have to leave for a couple of days, but Miss Harrison will stay here with you. She has my cell number if you need to reach me.”
    Her father looked up and blinked, uncomprehending, but her mother’s eyes narrowed. “Where are you going?” She clutched the lapel of Lisa’s coat. “Why are you leaving?”
    Lisa’s hand closed around her mother’s. “I have to go to Boston. David Payne, do you remember me talking about him? He died. I have to go to the funeral.”
    “Merva’s boy?”
    “No, Mom, I don’t know any Merva.” Gently, Lisa broke her mother’s grip on her coat, then pulled those arthritic knuckles to her lips. “Be good, okay? I’ll be back before you know it.”
    The nurse walked Lisa to the door. “In case of emergency, you want me to call your cell phone?”
    “Call the hospital first,” Lisa said, her voice sharper than she’d intended. “Don’t call me unless it’s an extreme emergency. I don’t want to be interrupted for anything that’s not crucial.”
    She looked out the screen door. The taxi waited at the curb; everything had been arranged. She waved at her parents one last time, then picked up her overnight bag and stepped into the early morning sunshine.
    For some people, you moved heaven and earth. Because they were part of your history, they would always be part of your present.
    The cabbie opened the trunk as she walked up, but Lisa shook her head and opened the rear door. “No need. I’m traveling light.
    “The airport,” she told him when he slid behind the wheel. “United.”
    The man nodded and pulled into traffic. When they reached the interstate, he caught her eye in the rearview mirror. “Long trip ahead?”
    “All the way to Boston. I’ll be flying all day.”
    “You got family in Beantown?”
    She couldn’t stop a smile. Colored now with the sepia tones of nostalgia, her memories of the group had become precious. Karyn, David, Susan, Mark, and especially Kevin—at one point, she couldn’t have imagined living more than a mile from any of them. How had they drifted apart?
    “Yes,” she said. “I’ve got family there.”
    “Ah, a reunion.” The rearview mirror filled with a flash of crooked, coffee-stained teeth. “Those are always nice.”
    As Seattle slid away, Lisa realized why it had been so easy to ignore David’s e-mail