Free Flyaway by Helen Landalf

She's got on jeans and a Pilates Body T-shirt.
    She nods at the plate of eggs and a mug of coffee on the TV tray beside her. "I thought you might like to eat in here."
    "Thanks." I wait for her to leave, but she doesn't, so I slip back into bed and pick up the coffee.
    Okay,
I think,
here it comes.
The lecture about the Dangers of Drinking and Unprotected Sex, the you're-grounded-for-the-rest-of-your-life speech and all that. But she just asks, "How's the coffee?"
    "Great." Which it is, actually. I was expecting her usual coffee-flavored dishwater, but she's made it strong.
    "Look, Stevie, I don't blame you for last night. If I were your age, I'd probably have done the same thing."
    Yeah, right. Like Miss Perfect would screw up the way I did. I take another sip of coffee and study her face over the rim of the mug. If there's one thing I don't trust, it's Aunt Mindy pretending she gets me.
    "You should have some eggs. You need protein."
    I shake my head, and not only because the sight of them makes me want to puke again. I'm stalling and I know it, and I know she knows I know it.
    "Don't you want to hear how the intervention went ?"
    I scoot away from her and just about spill my coffee, but I don't answer.
    "Well, I'm going to tell you whether you want to hear it or not. It was rough, but it worked. Your mom admitted she has a problem. She drove down to Portland with Uncle Rob last night, and he's taking her to the rehab clinic this morning."
    I set down the mug. Coffee sloshes onto the eggs. "You're messing with me, right?"
    "No, I'm just telling you what really happened. Dave's good at what he does. He caught her up in her own lies, and pretty soon she had no choice. She had to admit she's hooked on crystal."
    I can't imagine in a million years that Mom would admit that, but I guess it must be true. I stare at the coffee mug and try to hold on while my world turns upside down.
    "How long does she have to stay there ?"
    She purses her lips. "Ninety days, sweetheart."
    For sure I want Mom to get better, but the thought of putting up with Aunt Mindy for the rest of the summer makes me want to scream.
    Her voice gets all cheery. "This place has an eighty-percent recovery rate. And I think June's going to love it there. It's right by the ocean. Maybe it's because we grew up in Montana, where the only water is in lakes and rivers, but you know she's always had a thing about the ocean."
    My mind is full of questions: What if the treatment doesn't work? Or what if it works too well and the Mom that comes back isn't like my old Mom at all?
    Aunt Mindy's still talking. "The summer will go by before you know it," she's saying, and "Maybe when she comes back, she'll get herself a decent job." But I can barely hear her. The questions keep echoing over and over in my brain:
What if...? What if...? What if...?
    She pushes herself from the chair and says, "One more thing, Stevie. The boy you were with last night, was he drinking too?"
    I frown at her. "No."
    "Well, I'm glad for that. But you know you could have called me. I'd rather get woken up in the middle of the night than have you ride home with a kid who's had too much to drink."
    I knew she wouldn't let me off without a lecture. She finally leaves for work. I snuggle back under the covers and wonder what's going to happen to me now. When I moved in here a week ago, I never thought it would be for the entire summer. At least I've got the birds to keep me busy...
    "Crap!" I yell, and jump out of bed. It's Wednesday, and I was supposed to be at On the Wing two hours ago. Trying to ignore the pounding in my head and the lurching of my stomach, I throw on a T-shirt and jeans and hop the first bus to Ballard.
    It's cloudy and still, which makes me feel like the whole world's in a coma. I race the two blocks from the bus stop to On the Wing and slip in the back door, the way Valerie told me to. Alan's kneeling by one of the incubators. When he sees me, he stands and stuffs his big paws in