Chapter 18: The One She Called

Jo's POV

On Saturday, a gray rental car stopped outside Linden House, and Elias's parents got out of it.

The Inquirer story had run on Wednesday, and the dean's suspension was in its second paragraph.

The counter on the forum read 24.

Elias's mother was a small woman in a long green coat.

She held the car door with one hand and her chest with the other.

"The doctor told you not to come," Elias said.

"The doctor didn't lose a daughter," she said.

His father got a cane out of the back seat and said nothing.

He was a broad man with Elias's jaw.

He looked up at the dormitory windows for a long time.

I stood a few steps back on the path, with my hands in my hoodie pocket.

Elias turned and held out his arm to me.

"Mom, Dad," he said. "This is Jo."

Mrs. Newcomb looked at me for a long time.

My stomach dropped, and I made myself keep my chin up.

"You're the one she called," she said.

"Yes, ma'am."

"Come here."

She put her arms around my waist, and her head came up only to my collarbone.

She smelled of lavender soap and peppermint.

"Do you know why she called you," she said into my sweater, "and not me?"

"Because I'm a coward."

"No." She pulled back and held me by both elbows.

"At Christmas she told me, if I'm ever stranded in a snowstorm, Jo's the one who'd come."

"She said that?"

"She said you'd drive through anything if someone was waiting at the other end."

My eyes stung.

"I slept through it," I said.

"I know."

"I can't take that back."

"I won't say it's all right," Mrs. Newcomb said. "It isn't."

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