My Family Saved Their Adopted Daughter First, Then I Died Before Their Eyes novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: The Lawn

Nell sends the doctor away by pointing at the news van outside, tells the camera she is moving out, catches Birdie before a pickup on the road, and takes her for one night while Marian whispers a deadline of nine.

I didn't take the pen.

"Doctor, do you know what happened at Bellwether Park today?" I asked.

He glanced at my father. "I understand there was an accident."

"I stopped the ride before it killed anyone. That's why my face is on your phone."

His hand went to his jacket pocket. He had checked it twice since I walked in.

"Nell, nobody is saying you did anything wrong," my father said. "We're saying you need rest."

"Then why is the form already filled in?"

The doctor looked down at the folder. My name was typed in the first box.

Outside, a car door slammed. Another one followed.

I crossed to the window and pulled the curtain back.

A white van with a station logo sat at the curb. A woman with a microphone was walking up our drive, and a man behind her carried a camera on his shoulder.

"Dad, the news is here," I said. "Do you want me to tell them a doctor came to commit the woman from the video?"

My father's face went red.

"Close that curtain."

"Mr. Ostrander," the doctor said, in a smaller voice, "I think I should reschedule."

He shut the folder and left through the kitchen door.

I went out the back door and across the yard to the guest cottage where I lived.

I packed a duffel bag in four minutes. Then I walked around the house to the drive with my keys in my fist.

The reporter caught me at the porch steps. "Are you Nell Ostrander? The woman who stopped the wheel?"

"Yes."

"How did you know the axle would fail?"

"I heard it. I'd like to say thank you to everyone who ran."

The camera light went on.

"There's something else," I said. I kept my voice level. "Today my mother told the police I have episodes and that I'm unwell. I'm not. I'm going to stay somewhere else tonight."

Behind me, the front door opened.

"Oh, honey," my mother said.

She came out onto the porch with her hand pressed to her chest and tears already in her eyes.

"She's overwhelmed," she told the camera. "We're all so proud of her. She just needs her family."

"I need a bed that isn't in this house," I said.

"Nell, please."

Then a small voice cried my name from upstairs.

"Nellie! Wait!"

Birdie burst out of the front door in her pajamas, with no shoes on.

She ran past my mother and across the lawn.

"Birdie, stop!"

She didn't stop. She ran down the drive toward me and the van, and she kept running when she reached the gravel.

A pickup came around the corner and braked hard.

I dropped my duffel and caught her under the arms a foot before the bumper.

The truck stopped. Birdie's heart hammered against my chest.

"Nellie, you were leaving," she said.

"I'm here. I've got you."

"Don't touch her!"

My mother had run down the drive. She grabbed my wrist and knocked my hand off Birdie's back, hard enough to sting.

"Don't you ever put your hands on her."

"She ran into the road, Mom."

"She ran because you scared her."

The camera was on us. My mother saw the red light and stopped.

She straightened up and wiped her eyes.

"I'm sorry, honey," she said, softly, for the microphone. "It's been a very long day."

Birdie had both fists in my cardigan.

"Nellie, I want to go with you."

"Birdie, baby, come inside," my mother said.

"No." Birdie pulled her face out of my neck. "I want a sleepover with Nellie."

My father came down the porch steps. He looked at the camera, then at the neighbors standing in their yards, then at his wife.

"Let her go," he said.

"Dale."

"Let her take Birdie for one night. She's earned a sleepover." He smiled at the reporter. "Nell's the family hero today."

My mother didn't smile.

She leaned in and fixed the collar of Birdie's pajamas.

"Nine o'clock tomorrow, Nell," she said, very low, so that only I could hear. "She's home by nine, or I call the police and tell them exactly what I told them today."

"Keep your phone on," my father said.

I picked up my duffel and carried my sister down the drive.

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