Death May Disagree

Chapter 26

Someone calls my name and apologizes. "I'm sorry," he says, but I can't open my eyes to see where the voice came from. I feel like I'm waking up from a nap I've taken on a cloud, and the dreams I had were familiar but too numerous to count. Am I dead?

My ears pick up the sound of other voices, but they sound farther away than the first. They talk about synchronized minutes and accidents. One booming voice utters the words "schedule" and "position" before a thunderclap silences everything around me. A low buzzing noise, and then I'm transported somewhere else, where it feels like the air is heavy and I'm no longer weightless.

Someone calls my name again. It's the same voice from before, but the words are clearer. Dad, I think to myself. Is that you?

"Open your eyes," he says, but the voice tapers off in a whisper.

Dad, wait!

"Miranda."

I open my eyes expecting to see Dad, but all I see are white hospital walls, with Mom sitting on the bench to my right.

"Miranda!" she exclaims. She comes up to me with a worried look. "Thank God."

"Where am I?" I ask her and then remember the lake. "Where are my friends?"

Mom doesn't know how to respond because she doesn't know my friends by name.

"Um, there's a girl in the next room," she tries. "The nurse said you drowned. What happened?"

There's a sudden knock on my door, and Demi bounds in with Mrs. Ignacio.

"Miranda!" Demi shrieks, eyes red from crying. So Denise must be the girl in the next room.

As Demi runs up to hug me, I note that she's wearing different clothes. My eyes dart around the room for my blue sequin dress, the purchase I wanted to return before the 30-day return period, but it's nowhere to be found. I do see a white bag with my clothes from home on the edge of the bench, so at least I won't walk out of here naked. Demi moves away to give her mom a chance to hug me, and I immediately start tearing up. I think I'll have to start building emotional muscles for these hugs, because they reduce me to mush when I don't have the strength to hold back tears. Mom looks at me funny, inwardly questioning the waterworks.

"You must be Miranda's mom. I'm Linda and this is my daughter, Demi," Mrs. Ignacio says to Mom and extends her hand for a shake.

Mom takes Mrs. Ignacio's hand in hers. "Nice to meet you. I'm Kate. What happened here?"

"Demi, Miranda and their two friends were driving home from spring formal when a man crashed into their car and pushed them off the road to the lake," Mrs. Ignacio explains.

"Well, where is that man now?"

"They put him in jail for now. He says he doesn't remember any of that, but they found alcohol in his car."

"Did you two know him?" Mom asks me and Demi.

I shake my head. "No. He was just parked there. I really don't think he meant to kill us."

Demi bursts into tears. "Oh, Miranda! If Jason hadn't hurt Dustin, we wouldn't have been on the road at that time!"

"Who's Jason?" Mom whispers to Mrs. Ignacio.

"Her ex," she whispers back.

"Where is Jason now?" I ask Demi, her face now buried in her hands. If Mrs. Ignacio recognizes Jason as her daughter's ex, then maybe Jason is gone for good. Still, I don't want to risk the chance that maybe he's not. He needs to be gone forever.