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Chapter 2

Author: Michelle
Owen was crouched beside a broken pipe, blood drying on his forehead. When my light reached him, he held out a flattened piece of chocolate.

“I saved it for you,” he said between sobs. “Grandma says there’s chocolate pie tonight. You can sit with us.”

I braced myself against the wall and crouched to wipe the blood away from his eye.

Last Thanksgiving, I had asked for chocolate pie. Mom said it had been made especially for Serena and placed a slice of pumpkin pie in front of me. Ever since, she answered for me whenever anyone offered dessert.

Lily loves pumpkin.

“Keep it in your pocket,” I told him. “We’ll eat it upstairs.”

He nodded and caught my sleeve. I tried to lift him, but pain tore through my side, dropping me to my knees in the muddy water.

He immediately loosened his grip.

“Did I hurt you?”

“Just hold on to my arm.”

I turned the light upward and called that I had found him. His grandmother began sobbing above us, and Mom told me to give him the rope.

The volunteer leaned over the opening.

“Lily, can you stand? Are you hurt?”

Warmth had spread beneath my coat. When I touched it, my fingers came away bloody.

“My incision,” I began.

“Get Owen up first,” Mom interrupted. “His head is bleeding.”

The volunteer asked someone to bring another line from his vehicle. Mom waved at the guard holding ours.

“Use this one. Lily, help him.”

I looked up through the glare.

“What about me?”

“We’ll lower it straight back down. You’re talking perfectly well. He’s been down there much longer.”

Owen clung to my coat and whispered that he could wait with me. His grandmother kept calling his name. I heard Mom promise her she would have him safely in her arms in a moment.

My hands shook as I began removing the rope.

The volunteer saw what I was doing and told me to stop, but Mom was already speaking over him.

“His father never asked Serena to wait when that house was burning. How long are you going to make his son wait?”

I straightened Owen’s twisted coat and asked him to raise his arms.

The volunteer called my name until I looked up. With the rope already around Owen, he directed the men above to hold it steady, then talked me through what he needed me to do.

“We’ll bring the line back for you immediately.”

“Immediately?”

“Yes, Lily. Stay where I can see you.”

As Owen’s feet left the ground, Mom leaned over again.

“Give him the light. He’s frightened.”

I covered it with my hand.

“It’s dark down here, too.”

“Leave her the light,” the volunteer said. “We can see him.”

Mom kept looking at me.

“His father died in the dark. Must his son go through that as well?”

“Bring me the ledger,” Mom said now.

I unclipped the light.

“Please don’t write anything. He can have it.”

Owen tried to push it back, so I slipped it into his coat pocket with the beam pointing outward. As they lifted him, he kept reaching for me, crying that they had to bring me, too.

The light rose out of the cistern. I lowered myself against the wall.

Owen’s grandmother was crying with relief when the volunteer called down again.

“Lily, I’m lowering the rope. Answer me.”

“I’m here.”

He aimed a flashlight through the opening. Its beam caught my sleeve, but the projecting rim left the floor beside me in shadow.

“Mom,” I called, “can you cross this one out?”

She was telling Owen I would be up soon.

I tucked my bloody fingers inside my sleeve. There would be time to wash before dinner. Owen had promised me a seat beside him, and perhaps this time I could answer for myself when someone offered dessert.

The rope brushed my shoulder. I reached for it as Mom leaned over the rim.

“Wait. Owen’s toy car is still down there.”

“Can we find it later?”

“His father left it to him.”

The volunteer told her to move back. I loosened one hand from the rope and felt through the mud, finding wet leaves and sharp pieces of stone.

“I can’t see. Please send the light down.”

“There’s hardly any space to search. Use your hands.”

I tried to shift forward, but the pain forced me against the wall. I caught the rope again.

“Please let me come up. It really hurts.”

Mom looked at my outstretched hand.

“Find the car first, Lily. Everyone is waiting on you.”
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  • My Mother’s Ledger Ended With My Death   Chapter 7

    Mom pressed her palm against my cheek, then touched my forehead and turned to Dad.“Give me your coat. She’s cold.”He took it off immediately. She spread it over me and pulled the collar close, avoiding the bloodstained areas.I stood beside the stretcher while she arranged the sleeves. The last time she had cared for me like this was before the fire. When I was sick, she used to reach beneath the blankets to check whether my feet were warm.“Lily, let’s get you to your room.”She tried to lift me, but the doctor intervened, explaining that they needed to wait for the personnel who would take custody of my body.“She can’t stay outside,” Mom said, supporting my shoulders. “Look how little she’s wearing.”My coat was in the bag nearby. She had made me wear it for three years. When the cuffs frayed last winter, I asked for a new one. She reminded me that she had just paid a widow’s rent and told me to be considerate.Now she kept gathering Dad’s coat around me. Her fingers brushed an in

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    Dad held the phone and looked at the officer by the door.“Why do you have her watch?”“It was removed during resuscitation. Please come outside with us.”Mom had already picked up her coat. As she passed me, she straightened the collar.“We’ll see for ourselves. Lily can barely tolerate pain. If it were that serious, the whole house would have heard her screaming.”The volunteer looked at her.“She did scream.”Mom’s fingers paused on a button before she slipped her purse over her shoulder.Serena rose to follow. Dad adjusted her shawl and told her to stay inside, but she glanced at the officers and came with them.I walked beside my family. Cables crossed the path where Mom had dragged me earlier. Floodlights illuminated the grass, and the metal frame removed from the cistern lay beside the opening. The severed rope had been placed in an evidence bag.Mom slowed when she saw it.“I only wanted her to finish what she’d started.”“Do you mean finding the toy car?” the officer asked.“I

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  • My Mother’s Ledger Ended With My Death   Chapter 4

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