Elegy by Tara Hudson

Author:Tara Hudson
Language: eng
Format: MOBI, mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780062026811
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2013-06-14T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter

NINETEEN

For a long time I sat in the gazebo by myself, puzzling over the things Melissa had explained, and struggling with the choice she’d given me. With the plan that I’d barely begun to form.

My father. My father. If I believed everything that Melissa told me, then he was waiting for me in the light. So it should have been an easy choice. But obviously, it wasn’t.

If it was just a simple matter of choosing between heaven and hell, between the total absence of my father and an eternity in his presence, I would have already made my decision. Especially since neither light nor dark seemed content to let me stay here, in the living world. But the decision became far more complicated when I thought about Gaby, Serena, Eli, and all those trapped in the netherworld. Not to mention those I loved here, on earth, like Joshua, my mother, and the Mayhew family. My head literally ached from the sheer impossibility of it all.

But I wasn’t the only person with too much to handle. Many of those living people I loved were mourning right now. So I peeled my body off the daybed, cleaned myself up as best I could without a mirror or a change of clothes, and then slipped out of the gazebo surreptitiously since I wasn’t technically supposed to be in there in the first place.

Luckily, none of the Mayhews seemed to have left the house yet—all their cars were still in the driveway, parked in the same haphazard formation that they’d taken late last night. I climbed the patio steps and knocked softly on the back door. I didn’t even realize I’d been holding my breath until Jillian opened it—now I wouldn’t have to awkwardly dodge Rebecca’s hug like I usually did. But still, the sight of Jillian disturbed me. Her eyes were ringed red, and her beautiful hair was ratted up on one side as though she’d thoughtlessly twisted it in her fingers all night.

“Come on in,” she rasped, stepping out of the way so that I could enter the back hallway. After we both walked into the kitchen, Jillian announced, “Amelia’s here.” Rebecca caught my eye and, when her face crumpled into tears, I hurried around the far side of the breakfast table to take a seat beside Joshua.

“Oh, Amelia, honey, thank you for coming over,” Rebecca said, trying very hard to talk around a sob.

“Of course, Mrs. Mayhew. I wouldn’t be anywhere else.”

I meant it, too. Once I saw Joshua’s face, everything about last night’s battle—and everything about my offer from the light and the plan I’d started to consider—just faded away. He looked so worn, so defeated, that I nearly sobbed, too.

I could tell that it wasn’t just the loss of his grandmother that had almost broken him, although that loss would’ve been bad enough by itself; but Joshua was also crushed by our loss of the battle. He’d genuinely thought we had a chance, especially with Ruth on our side.

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