The Purgatorium by Eva Pohler

freed him, and he gave me his magic.”
    Daphne nodded, thinking, How nice for you both , but kept her thoughts to herself.
    Then Daphne gasped. As Dr. Gray removed her purple velvet jacket and laid it across one side of the desk, one of her arms, usually covered by long sleeves, was briefly exposed. Daphne caught sight of a number of scars, where long gashes must have once appeared. The doctor noticed and quickly pushed the wrinkled sleeve back down across her arm. Daphne wondered how the doctor got the scars but was too afraid to ask.
    Hortense Gray cleared her throat and said, “I know more about you than you might have assumed, Daphne. I have a complete file on you. And there’s something about your case, a piece of the puzzle I don’t think you’ve noticed is missing.”
    Daphne felt her neck and back go limp and wobbly, so she grabbed the arms of her chair. She wasn’t prepared to discuss her “case.”
    “According to my records, your brother, Joey, exhibited symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia by age sixteen and was diagnosed at age seventeen, but your parents opted not to put him on medication until much later. Is that correct?”
    Daphne nodded, her mouth too dry to speak.
    “And he was nineteen when he attacked and killed your sister, Kara.”
    Daphne waited. What was the doctor’s point?
    “Your mother shared with me what she said to you the morning she discovered Kara’s body.”
    Daphne stared at the floor as sweat tickled the back of her neck and the inside of her palms. She wanted out.
    “She thinks she’s the reason you tried to take your life.”
    Daphne’s mouth dropped open. She couldn’t believe what the doctor was saying. Her mother blamed herself? “But that’s not true.”
    “She made you feel like it was your fault.”
    “It was. You don’t know the whole story.” Daphne’s heart pounded.
    “But if your parents had gotten proper treatment for your brother…”
    “Stop! It wasn’t their fault!” Daphne stood from the chair. Why was the doctor saying such things? Was this part of her crazy therapy? Time to lie and blame others?
    “So maybe this is about your need to believe in your parents?”
    Daphne stared back at the doctor in shock. She heard a pounding in her head. “I don’t know what you mean, but you don’t know everything.”
    “Look at me, Daphne.” Hortense Gray also stood. “Kara’s death was not your fault.”
    But she was wrong. The doctor didn’t know what had happened that night.
    Again, Dr. Gray said, “Kara’s death was not your fault.”
    Tears flooded Daphne’s eyes and, since she couldn’t speak, she ran from the room.
    She heard Dr. Gray calling after her, but she took the stairs to the bottom floor and ran from the building. The other kids were still at the pool, most of them lying on loungers. She avoided them again, feeling numb and weak. As she reached the door, Cam appeared around the corner of her cabana.
    “Daph?” His smile faded. “What’s wrong?”
    She ran inside and flung herself on her bed. “Nothing.”
    He followed her inside and closed the door.
    “Aren’t you supposed to stay away from me?” she asked accusingly.
    He stretched out on the bed beside her, on his back. “I don’t care. Talk to me.”
    “I’m tired of talking.” She couldn’t look at him, didn’t want to look at another person again. She wanted to crawl into a hole and die.
    He turned to her and wrapped his arms around her and held her, stroking her hair, not saying anything, until, at some point, she must have fallen asleep. When she awakened, entangled in arms and legs, in that twilight between sleep and wakefulness, she looked at the boy beside her, expecting to see Brock. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw it was Cam.
    Then he awoke with a start. “What time is it?”
    She glanced at the clock. “Eleven. Are you hungry for lunch?”
    “I’ve got to go. Promise me you’ll go horseback riding?”
    “Is Bridget going?” she felt petty for