He reached out and grabbed my upper arm, his thumb digging into the muscle just below my shoulder. He did not shake me, but the pressure was constant, pushing me back toward the edge of the brick step.
“We are going to have that discussion tonight,” he said.
I tried to pull back, my heel catching the empty space where the concrete dropped six inches to the lower patio. My weight shifted.
The blue thread on my wrist snapped as my arm flailed, the silver beads scattering across the dry stone like tiny drops of water.
The concrete under my cheek was cold, and the blue sky above the patio fence split into tiny, dark pieces.
“Daniel, pick her up,” Patricia whispered.
Her voice came from somewhere above the metal patio table, thin and dry like paper.
“We need to call an ambulance,” she said, her silver rosary beads clicking against her palm. “Before the Hendersons look over the wall.”
“No ambulance,” Daniel said.
He was breathing hard, his shadow falling across my face.
“We are bringing her inside first,” he said. “Help me with her legs.”
I tried to speak, but the air in my throat felt like dry sand.
Daniel lifted my shoulders, his grip digging into my skin.
My head fell back, and the silver beaded bracelet Madison had made for me dragged against the rough stucco of the house wall as he carried me through the back entryway.
“The table,” Patricia said, her voice receding toward the kitchen. “Daniel, you left a mark on the glass.”
“Get the keys, Mother,” he said.
He laid me down on the hallway bench, the wood hard against my lower back.
My ribs burned with a sharp, deep heat every time I tried to draw a breath.
Patricia stood by the front door, a linen dish towel in her hand, rubbing at a small smudge on the glass console table with quick, hard circles.
“Did you call them?” I whispered, looking up at her graying hair, pinned back in its usual neat bun.
She did not look at me, her fingers moving rhythmically over the silver beads in her left hand.
“I called the office,” Patricia said, her eyes fixed on the glass. “I spoke to your partner’s secretary. I told her you would be late.”
“The office?” I asked, but the word caught in my chest.
“We are going to the hospital,” Daniel said, coming back down the hall with his leather car keys in his hand.
