Reunion by Meli Raine Page A

 
    Minnie’s long face is so drawn and pale. “I’m sorry I couldn’t help her more,” I say. My own tears fill my throat, the ache so different from my pain-filled body. I haven’t seen Amy since we shoved her in the pipe to escape. I know she’s at a different hospital. The guards finally told me I’m in Los Angeles, med-flighted out of San Diego because Mark considered the area t o o unsafe.
    El Brujo’s henchmen might still be out for me.
    Now I understand better why he called Drew in.
    Minnie’s arms wrap carefully around me. A pang, deep and sharp, hits me as her warmth envelops my upper body. Elaine. I miss Elaine. She hasn’t come to see me—not once—and Minnie’s motherly hug makes me yearn for the closest person I have to a mother.
    “Oh, honey, thank you. I can never, ever thank you enough. Amy’s still sedated. T he infection nearly killed her. They’re lowering the sedation and hoping she doesn’t have permanent damage,” Minnie explains. “She’s alive, and that’s what matters. All because of you.”
    I want to protest. I want to argue. I want to say that I didn’t do enough. I want to point out that Amy has no arm. El Brujo took it. He took so much from so many people.  
    He took my dad.
    “I’m sorry,” I whisper through thick regret.
    “Sorry for what?” Minnie’s voice is filled with a layered indignation. “For saving my daughter? For cracking the biggest drug case in American history? For helping rid the world of a piece of evil? You have nothing to be sorry for, Carrie. Don’t you dare let me hear you say that again!”
    I’m stunned into silence. I stop crying and the hiccups start. They hurt. You try hiccuping with a dislocated shoulder and three broken ribs.
    “ You’re right,” I say with a sniff. Hiccup. “I just wish I could have gotten there before they took her arm.”  
    “Thank goodness you got there when you did. You and Allie and Chase and Mark and the man no one will talk about all saved the most precious person on earth to me. I am in your debt forever. Ask me to do anything. Anything in the world.”
    I laugh, then hiccup. Ouch.
    A thought hits me. “What about Wizard? How is poor Wizard?”
    She grins and shakes her head. She’s so solemn. “We’ve got poor Wizard taken care of. Animal Control released him back to that...that...that bastard.” Minnie doesn’t curse, so I know she means the dean. El Brujo. “But Marny and Cindy couldn’t stand knowing they were training him to be an attack dog. So they snuck over to the Landau house and stole him in the dead of night.” She frowns, her face going thinner. “Must have been when you and Amy were...you know. Trapped.”
    “ Cindy and Marny stole Wizard?” I am incredulous.  
    Hiccup.
    “Technically, yes. I prefer to think of it as an ethical rescue that violated the law.”
    I snort. It hurts. I stop.
    “And where is Wizard?”
    “At home. With me. He’s the sweetest thing. I like to think we rescued him from being turned into a damaged version of himself by that sick man.” Minnie gives me a triumphant look and pats my hand. “Just like you did, for Amy.”
    Her phone rings. She answers it. Her face tightens, then releases with a flood of joy so intense I start to cry again.
    “Oh! Oh!” She squeezes my hand. It hurts, but I don’t say anything.
    Hiccup.
    “Amy’s coming out of it! I have to get back home.” She looks at the clock and then gets off the phone, fast. “ I can’t believe it! The one time I leave her bedside and she rallies.”  
    A warm happiness fills me. Maybe it’s just relief, but it feels like more. “Tell her I’ll see her soon,” I say.
    “I’ll tell her far more than that. When you’re ready, we’ll make sure you can see each other.” And with that, Minnie gives me a fast, but soft, hug. She’s out the door before I can wipe my eyes.
    The guard shuts the door behind her.
    A wave of utter exhaustion rolls over me.
    I’m asleep in seconds,