I get out of the car and close the door enough to kill the dome lights. I lean against the back door of the driver’s side, and wipe away the cold sweat that forms on my forehead. Where are they? How precise do they have to be? There can only be a minute left. I suppose it’s all part of the mental game.
I hear a whisper in the air, but only because I’m watching and listening for the slightest nuance. Is it the whistle of a bullet or a missile that’s been pinned to my back? The sound doesn’t appear to be moving, but hovering over the house. I peer into the atmosphere, and finally I’m able to see a hole that appears to open up in the sky. From the open doorway, my keen eyesight allows me to trace the outline of a stealthy chopper. I’m astonished by how remarkably silent it is.
Then, in the doorway, I see my sister’s blonde hair flowing from a limp head that’s not being supported by the BOT who lowers her to the ground. My instincts tell me to run to her, but I almost got myself killed the last time I did that. If I make the same mistake now, the trained BOTs’ bullets won’t miss me. I’ll be dead, and they’ll take Evvie back with them.
It takes everything in me to hold myself back from running to her. I focus my energy on inspecting what I can see inside the cargo bay. I’ve hardly begun inspecting it when the BOT member is retracted from the ground and helped into the chopper. The door seems to re-form from thin air, closing the gap. The chopper and its hum disappear from my sight.
Now I sprint through the yards of two vacant houses toward where Evvie was lain down. I hear Rico moving more slowly behind me, and I wish his steps were quieter. I run around to the back of the house where the drop occurred. The windowpane rests up against the wood, probably never returned to its rightful place after she was abducted.
I see Evvie’s dark silhouette against the white sheets that she neatly spread over the bed that was to be ours. I rushed over here to finally see and hold her, but suddenly I feel paralyzed to take another step toward her. It frightens me that all the pieces of my plan have come together. When I get close enough to be able to tell, will Evvie’s chest rise and fall? I’m terrified that I’ll go to her and find her not breathing and I’ll learn that she’s been dead all along.
Rico joins me a few feet away from the window. He holds a flashlight out to me. I take it from him, but I let the hand that holds it drop lifelessly to my side. “What if she’s not alive, Rico?”
Rico responds to my question by doing what I can’t do. He walks over to the window and pulls himself into the interior of the house. I click the flashlight on and face it toward her uncertain form.
“She’s breathing. She’s alive,” Rico exclaims. I’m given an insurmountable reason to smile. Rico comes to the window and helps me inside. He takes the flashlight from me and shines it on Evvie. I watch the motions of her chest and feel the warm breath that she exhales.
This moment is stolen from me abruptly when I notice a small slip of paper resting on her upturned hand. I take it from her palm, and readjust her arm to be more comfortable. I look up at Rico and open the slip of paper.
“What does it say?”
“I have three hours.” The note was scratched in writing and accompanied by a small doodle of a clock timer. A ghastly fear comes over me. “What if she’s a bomb or if she’s been poisoned and it’s seeping into her?” I can suddenly think of a million ways that the county could still kill my sister the moment I cross Miles’ barrier.
“Calm down, Sydney,” Rico tells me. He examines my sister’s wrists with the flashlights. “It’s hard to tell if anything has been implanted with the old scars and the county’s technology to do it so delicately.” Rico releases his eyes from his worry over her and lifts them to me. “I’ll do everything I can to keep her safe. You have my word on that.”
“Rico, would you know if Sheridan has any running helicopters, personal airplanes, or jets or if there are any somewhere nearby?”
“Idaho has a small collection. Why?”
“None here?” I try to confirm.
“Not that I know of,” he replies.
“Then take her to the hospital in two hours. Leave her hidden outside and send for someone to get Della. Help Della sneak her in to examine her without Galvesten knowing. Take her sooner if anything seems wrong. If Galvesten or anyone else finds out, by that time neither he nor anyone else he tells will be able to stop me.”
I unclasp my pack and reach for the letters that are tucked safely inside. “Make anyone who tries to come after me read their letter. Convince them to let me go.” Rico nods dutifully. I place the three letters underneath Evvie’s pillow. This is it. This is the last time I see my sister.
I slide my arm under her shoulders and lift her enough to move the covers underneath her. Rico comes over to help tuck her in. He rests the flashlight on the end of the bed, and leaves the bedroom to give me privacy with my comatose sister.
I tuck the covers tightly under Evvie’s left arm. She always sleeps with this arm out. I rest it comfortably across her. I pull the twisted turquoise headband out of my hair and wrap it around her wrist. We had to leave everything behind in Miles, so this is the only token I can give her by which to remember me.
I wish I could stay to protect her. I wish I could laugh with her one more time. I’ll have to settle with an unreciprocated hug. I lean down and pull her lifeless body into mine and hold her and cry with her in my arms.
“I’m so sorry that I have to leave you, Ev. I’m so, so sorry.” My arms release her and let her lie against the bed again, but my heart is not ready to part with hers. I don’t think it ever could be. “I love you,” I tell her as I kiss her forehead and smooth her hair back. “I love you so much, Evvie.”
I knock on the bedroom door to signal to Rico that I’m ready to go. “Thank you,” I say, throwing a hug on him as he reenters the room. He isn’t able to hug me back or say anything in return as I’m already walking away. I glide from the window and put speed into my jog away from the house. I can’t look back. If I do, I’ll turn around. I have to keep running. I have to force my feet to reach the car.
When they do, I pull the door closed, not caring much now about the sound it makes. It needs to be closed to cover the wailing sounds stemming from my devastated heart—the kind of sound the human ear is trained to hear and react to.
I only allow myself seconds to cry this way before I find the power to turn the ignition and shift the car into gear. I’m saving my sister’s life, I tell myself over and over again as I pass by the homes of the people who make Sheridan what it is—the heart of humanity.
I turn left to head north on Main Street toward the Miles County BOTs, toward the tragic end that awaits me, no matter how fast or how slow.
As I drive, I remind myself of everything that I know to be true. My father died when I was a tiny child. My mother had a beautiful baby, and then fell deeper into psychosis. My grandma tried to help us, but a wicked law took her away. We were alone. Even our mother left us by taking her own life. I tried to protect my sister, but sometimes I failed. Sometimes she felt the same pain that I did.
My vacant soul was saved one day. Two brothers rescued me from the hell that I would have been confined to for the rest of my life. They became my friends, and as friends, they risked their lives to seek my sister. They succeeded, and brought the two of us to the home we never had. They lightened our hearts and freed our spirits. They showed us that our story was still to be written.
But the moment that hope was returned to my future, my sister was stolen from it. A world that Evvie had departed from could not give me anything for which to live. So I chose to exchange our places to bring her certain freedom and the ability to pursue happiness.
I know that I cannot expect the same for myself. Though I drive toward this dreadful fate, I am content knowing that the world will be blessed with the richness that my sister’s life will offer. She will be able to go to a real school, drive a car, have a job, fall in love, get married, have a family, and grow won
derfully old. Evelette Harter will be able to live a full life—a story worth telling.