Alice in Jeopardy

Начало книги

When the same nightmare awakens her, she sits bolt upright in the middle of the bed.

Where am I? she thinks.

And blinks at the bedside clock.

7:15 A.M.

She is instantly wide awake.

“Kids!” she yells. “Jamie! Ashley! Up! We’re late! Up, guys!”

She hears grumbling down the hall. Ashley’s voice. Jamie hasn’t spoken for almost eight months now.

“Guys, are you up?” she shouts.

“Yes, Mom!” Ashley calls.

Ten years old, the elder of the two. Her eyes and her hair brown, like Alice’s. Eight-year-old Jamie favors his father. Blond hair and blue eyes. She can never look into those eyes without recalling that terrible day.

She shakes off the nightmare and gets out of bed.

In the shower, she realizes she set the alarm’s wakeup time, but neglected to slide the ON-OFF switch to the right. Hurrying to lather, she drops the soap, the heavy bar falling onto the little toe of her left foot. Yelping in pain — it feels as if someone has hit her with a hammer — she yells, “Damn it to hell!” and bends down to recover the slippery bar. Her butt hits the HOT-COLD lever on the tiled wall. The water turns instantly ice cold. She straightens in surprise, drops the soap again, missing her foot this time, and backs away from the icy stream, thinking None of this would be happening if Eddie were still alive.

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