All Chapters of My Last Walk Home: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

My left leg bent the wrong way. Blood kept spreading under me.It had to hurt.But I couldn't feel anything anymore."Someone got hit!""Don't move her! Wait for the paramedics!""Oh my God... she's just a kid..."Voices came from everywhere.I could hear again.The driver stumbled out. He looked maybe forty, wearing a faded puffer jacket.He rushed over, but his legs gave out. He dropped to his knees, hitting the icy pavement with a dull thud."I didn't mean to." He was shaking badly. "The brakes failed. I swear, I hit them. Pushed them all the way down, but nothing happened... The road was too icy."Someone spotted my uniform."She goes to Eastview Middle! That's an Eastview uniform!"A girl in the crowd was my classmate, Mia.Mia leaned closer.Her face went white."Mom, that's my classmate Vienna! Call her mom!"Mia's mom looked shaken too. She got Mom's number from a teacher and called right away.The second it connected, she rushed to explain."Ms. Dudley, Vien

Whenever Mom went off like that, Sadie stood quietly beside her. Sometimes, she even spoke up for me."Aunt Florence, Vienna has it hard too. She can't hear well, so it's tougher for her to focus in class."It sounded like she was defending me.But every time she said it, Mom got even madder."Her hearing's bad because she did it to herself," Mom snapped. "If she hadn't been so stubborn that day—standing in the rain until she got sick—she wouldn't have lost her hearing."I just stood there, apologizing over and over.Promising I'd study harder.Do better next time.***When I floated home, Mom and Sadie were eating dinner.The food was still steaming.Sadie loved cilantro, so Mom had put it in everything.It was everywhere.Just like Mom's love for Sadie.I was seriously allergic to cilantro.The last time I accidentally ate some, my lips swelled for three days, and a red rash crawled across my neck.Mom took me to urgent care for meds, but still complained."Everyone

But I couldn't feel the cold anymore.The ambulance arrived.Two paramedics jumped out and ran to me. They knelt, checking my pulse. My breathing.The younger one pressed his fingers to my neck.Then he looked up at his partner and shook his head.Still, they lifted me onto a stretcher, covered me with a thermal blanket, and loaded me into the ambulance.They took me to the morgue.A doctor called Mom.By then, Mom was dead sure I'd hired people to help me fake the whole thing, so she ignored every random number.She was helping Sadie with homework.Sadie had barely started seventh grade, but she was already doing ninth-grade work.I stared at her worksheet and got nothing.Quadratic functions. Similar triangles.The symbols might as well have been another language.Mom explained everything patiently, solving each problem step by step on scratch paper.Her voice stayed calm. Easy.Whenever Sadie didn't get it, Mom tried another way.I floated nearby, watching.It remi

Fast footsteps pounded down the hall.A man burst into the doorway in a black puffer, hair wrecked by the wind, panic written all over him."Vienna!"He dropped down beside the bed and reached for his daughter's face. His hand shook—and stopped midair."Vienna... Daddy's here. I came to see you..."Then he spun, grabbed Mom by the collar, and hauled her away from the bed."Florence!" His eyes were red, veins popping in his forehead. "I wanted to take her with me! Why wouldn't you let me?"Tears ran down Mom's face, but she kept her chin up."Let go of me!""I trusted you with our daughter!" Dad shook her with every word. "Is this how you took care of her? What did you do to her? I wanted to see her for years, and you never let me. Not once. You wouldn't even let me visit. Who the hell gave you that right?""How did I not take care of her? I fed her, clothed her, sent her to school. She was fine with me!""Fine? Then how did she die? Tell me. How did she die?"Mom's hair had

"It's... Vienna's hearing aid...""Why is it in your backpack?" Mom cried. "Why is Vienna's hearing aid in your backpack? Answer me!""I was just doing what you said..." Sadie's voice shook. "You said Vienna needed to be independent. I thought if she walked home alone... even without it... she'd learn."Mom went still."So you took her hearing aid?" Her voice dropped to a whisper. "And sent her across the street alone?""I was only trying to help—""Help?" Mom's voice went shrill. "How did you help her? You helped her die?"She slammed the hearing aid onto the desk, rushed over, grabbed Sadie's shoulders, and shook her hard."Who told you to take it off? Who told you to touch her hearing aid? Without it, she couldn't hear anything! How was she supposed to get home alone? How was she supposed to cross the street? That car was honking, and she couldn't hear it! She wasn't ignoring it—she couldn't hear it!"Sadie's head hit the headboard with a loud thud. Tears filled her eyes.