Free The Year of My Miraculous Reappearance by Catherine Ryan Hyde

really important.” As soon as I said how important it was, I started to cry.
    That's when I could tell, by her face, that she really did feel bad for me.
    “Could you go check on my brother Bill and tell me for a fact that he's okay?”
    She sighed, just like the other nurse. “I guess,” she said. “I guess, when I get a second.”
    I waited for what felt like hours, and I never really got to crying all the way—the kind of crying that washes it out of you and makes you feel better—but I couldn't exactly stop, either.
    Then she stuck her head back in. “He's doing okay,” she said. “His poor little ribs are all taped up. But he's awake and all. He's saying something. I can't tell what it is, though.”
    “Thynnie,” I said.
    She tilted her head and looked at me funny. “Yeah. How'd you know that?”
    “It's the only word Bill knows how to say.”
    “What does it mean?”
    “It means me.”
    After she left I thought about how bad I wanted something to drink. I had those needles in my stomach, and this feeling like I was walking into a dark room that had a monster in it but I didn't know where he was. I knew I couldn't stand to feel this way for long. But I couldn't figure out how to get to anything, or how to get anything to me. What a time to get stuck with just myself.

    That night, while I was sleeping, I felt a hand touching my arm. My good arm. I thought it was the nurse. I didn't understand why she had to wake me up. Every time I woke up I just felt hurt and scared. I just wanted to stay asleep. But then the hand was shaking me.
    I opened my eyes. At first it was too dark to see much. But then my eyes got used to the dark and I saw it was Snake.
    “Snake,” I said. “Are you okay?”
    “Yeah,” he said. “But I'm leaving.”
    “What do you mean, leaving? Where are you going? Did you get hurt bad?”
    “Not so bad,” he said. “It was a lot worse on your side of the car.”
    “Do me a favor?” I said. “Can you go by Bill's room and tell him I never meant for him to get hurt?”
    He didn't say anything for a long time. I didn't think it was such a big deal, what I asked. Especially since he wasn't hurt that bad.
    “Did you hear what I said, Cynnie? I'm leaving. This is it. The end of the line. The last we see each other.”
    “Where are you going?”
    “I don't know. But I'm not going home. They called my dad to come get me. So I have to get away before he gets here. Because I'm not going back with my dad.”
    “But … what'll you do?”
    “I don't know. Something. I'll think of something.”
    I guess it was a weird question, asking him what he was going to do. Because we'd already run away. What were the two of us going to do when we took off from home? Why should this be any harder? I guess it had dawned on me more, since all this happened, how much bad stuff can happen out there in the world. I guess it didn't seem like such a small thing anymore, taking off with no money and no plan, not even knowing what you're going to do to be okay.
    “So will you tell Bill that for me before you go?”
    He made a sound that was almost like laughing. But it wasn't a happy laugh. I could tell nothing was funny for real. “Nice to know you're gonna miss me so much,” he said. He got up and walked halfway to the door. Then he stopped, but he didn't even turn around to look at me. He just talked like he was talking to the door. “I really liked you,” he said.
    I said the only thing I could think to say. “Why?” I said it like it was a great big mystery. It was. I really couldn't imagine.
    “I guess I thought we sort of … you know … understood each other. Or something. Like not everybody knows what it's like to be us. But we know.”
    Nobody said anything for a long time. I wondered if I was supposed to say something. Maybe I was supposed to say I liked him, too.
    “Did you ever even like me?” he asked.
    I didn't know what to say. I remembered Kiki telling me that guys only like us