The Key to Every Thing by Pat Schmatz

Author:Pat Schmatz [Schmatz, Pat]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781536201246
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Published: 2018-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

Tash hurried back through the halls. The whole place made her snarly, with all of the fake-happy decorations. Everything looked like a pink Tigger. Now Naomi probably wouldn’t like Tash. Most people didn’t like snarlers unless they were one. Well, except for Kevin.

The door to Cap’n Jackie’s room was open. Kevin had pulled the chair up next to the bed. Cap’n Jackie was lying there with her eyes closed.

“Is she sleeping?” Tash whispered.

“I don’t think so.” Kevin spoke in a normal voice. “She just came back a few minutes ago. They said occupational therapy tired her out.”

Liars, thought Tash.

She looked around. The only place to sit was the empty wheelchair, so she sat in it and crossed her arms.

“Kevin, what happens if Cap’n Jackie gets worse instead of better?”

Kevin twisted his mouth sideways. His shoulders went up and down with a big breath.

“There’s no reason she can’t get better,” he said. “I talked about it with Nathan last night. The break wasn’t a bad one — the surgery repaired it. Unfortunately it was her good hip, not the bad one. But still. If she’ll do the therapy and work at it, she should be able to go home and live independently again.”

“Do you think the hip hurts her a lot?”

“It’s hard to tell,” said Kevin. “She’s on a fair amount of pain medication, although they’ve tapered it down some.”

Tash leaned forward. Cap’n Jackie’s face didn’t move at all, but Tash didn’t think she was sleeping. She looked more like she was faking.

“Quitter,” said Tash.

“Bug!” Kevin said. “Don’t say that.”

“Well, if she is,” said Tash. “I mean, she’s acting like one, right?”

“We have no idea what any of this is like for her.”

“Cap’n Jackie, are you a quitter?”

Nothing moved. Not Cap’n Jackie’s face. Not her fingers. Nothing. Tash sat back in the wheelchair and crossed her arms again.

“If she could hear me, that would’ve made her mad. Nobody likes a quitter — she says that all the time.”

“I don’t think she’s a quitter,” said Kevin. “I think she has her own agenda.”

“What’s that mean?”

“It means, when can you ever make Cap’n Jackie do anything?”

But Tash had just the thing to make her want to do something.

“Kevin? Can I have some privacy with Cap’n Jackie?”

“Sure. I’ll wait out by the fish tank.”

He left, and Tash scooted in closer. She put her hand out to touch Cap’n Jackie’s hand but then stopped. What if — she imagined Cap’n Jackie sitting up like the dead bathtub lady in the movie. Growling like a zombie, or laughing at her. No, no, this is Cap’n Jackie. She wouldn’t do that, even if she was dead. Would she?

“Cap’n Jackie?” Tash said. “Hey, I found the key.”

No reaction.

“Do you want it back now?”

Tash pulled it out of her pocket and held it up.

“See? It’s right here. Open your eyes.”

The sheets moved up and down just slightly with Cap’n Jackie’s breathing.

“I went to your house today while Kevin was at work, and I found this at the bottom of the stairs.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.