Free Forgiven by Karen Kingsbury

sat down next to her. Her arms were shaking as she pressed her elbows into her knees and covered her face with her hands. “I can’t believe this is happening.”
    It was then, before Rhonda could say a word, that they heard the scream. A shrill, piercing scream that exploded beyond the walls of the reception area and filled the waiting room.
    Katy’s hands fell to her lap, and she stared at Rhonda. But there was no need to say anything. The scream almost certainly belonged to Mrs. Hanover, and a person didn’t cry out like that unless…
    The scream came again, and this time it was a series of words. “No… no, please no!”
    A pain started in Katy’s chest and burned a trail around to her back. “Was that Mrs. Hanover?” she asked Rhonda, her voice scratchy.
    Rhonda didn’t say anything. She only stared at her lap and 56
    FORGIVEN
    shook her head. She was still shaking it when a doctor came out and took steady steps in their direction.
    Katy grabbed onto the vinyl sofa seat. “He’s coming toward US.”
    “No.” Rhonda lifted her eyes. They were wide and unblink ing, scared to death.
    When the doctor reached them he said, “Katy Hart?”
    She wanted to run, wanted to get in her car and speed back to the theater, back to the way things had been four hours earlier with all the kids in one place, singing and listening to their peers and dreaming of a role in Annie. Instead she looked up and said, “I’m Katy.”
    “Well…” The doctor crossed his arms, his lips a straight line. “Mr. Stryker and the Hanovers have asked me to talk to you.”
    Katy could barely concentrate. All she could think about was something her mother had always told her. That sometimes on the journey to being a grown-up, something would happen that would advance the trip a whole year in a single day.
    Graduation or a first speeding ticket or the first night in your own apart ment.
    Katy pressed her elbows to her sides, bracing herself. This was one of those times.
    The doctor met Katy’s eyes. “Alice Stryker and both her kids are alive, but they all have serious injuries. The Hanovers’ daughter, Brandy, is in serious condition. She has a punctured lung and a shattered femur. She’s going to need surgery yet to night, but we feel good about her chances. The most critical is the twelve-year-old, Sarah Jo Stryker. She has severe head inju ries. The next twenty-four hours will be critical.”
    Katy touched her fingers to her throat. SarahJo had head in juries? What would that mean when she had time to recover? And what if… ? No, she couldn’t think like that. She massaged the muscles in her neck and caught a glimpse of Rhonda.
    Her thumb and forefinger were pressing against her temples.
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    Rhonda kept her head low, her eyes focused on her knees. No question she wasn’t ready for whatever else might be coming.
    The doctor seemed to look at something near his feet. Then he released a slow sigh, and Katy knew. She knew without a doubt that whatever news the doctor was about to share, it wouldn’t be good. It wouldn’t be mildly terrible. Rather it would be devastating. “I’m afraid the Hanovers’ son, Ben, didn’t make it. He died on the way to the hospital.”
    The news came at Katy like a battering ram. She bent over her knees and rocked forward. Not little Ben. Not the pixie-haired, brown-eyed kid who at six years old was only this week able to take his first CKT class. Katy closed her eyes and pictured him, sitting next to his mother at auditions earlier today, swinging his legs and grinning. Before they left he’d come up to her and tugged on her sleeve.
    “Guess what?” He had been so excited he could barely get the words out. “My mommy says in two years I get to try out. Can we do Peter Pan in two years, Katy?”
    Now there would be no Peter Pan for Ben, no CKT class to attend, nothing. She moaned and sat up a bit. Her body knew the way through this type of pain. Losing her boyfriend, Tad, three