Free Pandora's Key by Nancy Richardson Fischer

gardenias lined the covered porch.
    “Okay, then,” Dr. Sullivan said when he’d put the car into park.
    Evangeline didn’t move.
You have to ask.
“Is she really that sick?”
    Dr. Sullivan stared out the rain-splattered windshield. “Yes.” Undoing his seatbelt with a click, he got out of the car and walked in the downpour to Evangeline’s door, opening it. She climbed out of the car and walked to the front door, the doctor right behind her. When she couldn’t get her hands to stop shaking to unlock the door, the doctor did it. He followed her inside and stood dripping on the polished floors. “You mother wanted me to remind you to eat.”
    “Um, okay—thanks,” Evangeline said, certain that there was no way she would be able to swallow even one bite of food. The doctor awkwardly shifted from foot to foot.
Why isn’t he leaving?
And then it hit her.
He feels bad about my mom and he wants to say something nice, but he doesn’t know what to say to me.
The telephone rang but Evangeline didn’t move to get it.
    Dr. Sullivan walked over to the old fashioned rotary phone on the front table and picked up the receiver. “Theopolis residence.” Evangeline could just barely hear the other voice on the line asking, “Who the hell is this?”
    “This is Dr. Tim Sullivan. And you are…I’m sorry, it’s hard to hear you—can you turn down the music?”
    “I said, Samantha Harris, Olivia Theopolis’ agent and Evangeline’s god-mother,” Sam shouted so loudly that E could hear her. “Is Evangeline there?”
    Dr. Sullivan held out the phone to Evangeline and she forced herself to take it. “Hi, Sam. No, it’s OK. He’s mom’s doctor and he’s nice…Yeah…I can’t hear you that well—” There were bells or something playing in the background—it was a familiar tune…but it didn’t really matter, did it? Her mom was in the hospital and she had cancer. Bad cancer.
    “Everything’s going to be okay, honey,” Samantha said. “I promise.”
    Evangeline felt terror circling her like a shark, deadly and just below the surface. “You can’t.”
    “I promise that we’ll deal with this together, okay?”
    Deal with this.
“Yeah.”
    “I’ll be there soon. Is the doctor leaving now?”
    Dr. Sullivan was halfway out the front door. “Um, yeah.” Evangeline hung up the phone without saying goodbye.
Do something!
    “Wait! Please—can I show you something?” She walked over to a black and white photograph hanging on the wall at the base of the stairs. In it Evangeline was barely a year old, wearing a pink-flowered bathing suit and floating in the middle of a swimming pool. Her mom was sitting on the edge of the pool, clapping and with a euphoric smile. “I was born knowing how to swim, Dr. Sullivan. My mom was, too.”
    “Why are you telling me this?”
    “People only care about people they know.”
    Dr. Sullivan walked out the front door. At the last second, he turned and fixed her with an earnest look. “Ms. Theopolis—Evangeline—I’m truly sorry about your mother’s illness.”
    The doctor hustled to the Volvo, shoulders hunched against the rain. Through the doorway, Evangeline watched him drive off. Lost in thought, she traced the onyx key—it felt warmer than her skin and the heat seemed to match the steady pulse of her heartbeat. The warmth started to return to her body in a soft wave and she stopped shivering.
    Evangeline closed and locked the front door and walked into the living room, curling up on the overstuffed, shabby-chic couch her mom loved because it was ‘just the right amount of worn-in.’ Jasmine wandered into the room and climbed onto the couch, nestling beside Evangeline, her head resting against her neck. At some point, Evangeline drifted off into a troubled sleep….
    • • •
    Riding through the sun-dappled forest atop a thoroughbred whose ebony coat glistened with sweat, Evangeline heard the sound of other horses thundering behind her. She didn’t look back