Free Angel's Dance by Heidi Angell Page B

But something bothered
you about it,” Clear finished.
    “ Yeah, at the beginning,
but not now. They are wonderful… amazing. They clearly know what
they are doing and Kat has just blossomed under their
training…”
    Clear cut her off. “What bothered
you?”
    Laura hesitated, but the thoughts came
to her mind unbidden and Clear, fully charged and wide open, caught
them. “You didn’t understand why they would have accepted her. She
wasn’t really that good. Why would they accept her, let alone give
her such a big scholarship.”
    “ How dare you?!?!” Laura
growled, coming at Clear in a very threatening manner.
    “ I can’t help what you
thought,” Clear said calmly as Grant stepped between them. “I could
also see from your head why you thought it and you’re right. It is
weird.”
    “ It is not!” Laura
insisted, tears streaming down her face. “They just can see talent
more clearly than we can. They saw her potential and they were
right…” Laura was shaking her head, trying just as hard to convince
herself as them. “They were right, she is amazing now. She is at
the top of her class and she… she always loves it there. If she
were in danger… I would have… should have…” she burst into
sobs.
    Clear felt the pressure building in
her head again and the emotional-roller-coaster-that-was-Laura was
more than she could take at that moment. She muttered on her way
out. “You couldn’t have, and you shouldn’t, blame yourself.” She
moved into the kitchen mostly to put some space between her and
Laura. She opened the fridge, thinking food might help and grabbed
the carton of milk. Who bought cartons anymore?
    As soon as she touched the
carton, she gasped. The shock hit her so hard that she dropped the
carton and it splattered all over everything. ‘ Oh God! ’ Clear thought
‘ This is not good! ’ Images flashed through her mind of a mother crying, a room
in a hotel being searched, police with dogs, the mother talking to
the police and the mother sitting alone on a bed.
    The girl that Clear had seen Kat
talking to was missing too. Clear’s knees began to buckle under the
weight of the mother’s misery and on her way to the ground a
fleeting thought as she hoped she wouldn’t hit the
counters.

    Grant walked into the kitchen behind
Clear and saw the carton fall. He was about to tease her when her
knees buckled and she started going down too. He barely made it to
catch her under her arms, but the floor was slick with milk and her
weight threw him off balance. They hit the ground, not as hard as
she might have, but hard enough to hurt. Grant’s shoulder took the
brunt of the damage, bouncing off the kitchen cabinet.
    “ Shit!” Grant yelped.
“Clear are you ok?” He looked down and saw she still had that
glassy look in her eyes. He carefully shifted to a more comfortable
position and sat waiting.
    Laura came tearing into the kitchen
hearing the commotion. “What the hell!!” she started, but Grant put
his hand up to silence her. She looked at Clear and the shock and
fear filled her face. “Is she…?” Laura whispered.
    Grant felt for her pulse. It was
racing, but solid. “I think she is… in a trance?” he ventured.
“Don’t disturb her. This could be important.”
    “ Christ,” Laura muttered,
grabbing a dish towel and wiping up the milk around them. Grant
couldn’t help thinking that even in this situation the woman was a
fortress. Cleaning up the milk was the least important thing, in
his mind. He watched Clear’s face looking for any signs of what was
going on. It was completely slack. She almost looked like a
catatonic. Suddenly Grant realized that she wasn’t breathing. He
checked her pulse and it was becoming thready.
    “ Damn,” he
muttered.
    “ What is it?” Laura asked,
looking over as he got Clear into position to perform CPR. He
expertly felt for the sternum and counted three fingers down then
put his hands in position. Just as he was about to start