Aunt Jule stared coolly at Holly.
“Nora, you are so messed up!” Holly said. “You are really sick.”
“Holly!” Aunt Jule chided.
“You’re out of control, Nora,” Holly went on, pacing back and forth, combing her hair with her fingers. “You need to be locked up! You belong in a lunatic—” Suddenly Holly stopped, the color draining from her face.
She yanked on her hair, then she reached back with her other hand. I saw her swallow hard. I thought at first that it was her hands flexing her hair, picking it up off her neck. I watched with disbelief as a long strand of black hair twisted itself into a knot Then another, and another.
Holly clutched at her hair, her eyes widening with fear.
She leaned over and shook her head, pulling on her hair, as if she were being swarmed by bees.
“Make it stop, Nora!” Holly screamed. “Make it stop!”
Aunt Jule stood paralyzed. Nora looked terrified.
I know what this is, I told myself; there is nothing to be afraid of. I reached for the frightened Holly, trying to steady her, then caught her hair in my hands and held it till the bizarre storm of energy had passed.
The hair fell limp, though still in tangles. Nora turned and ran out the porch door. Aunt Jule started after her.
“She’s crazy, Mother,” Holly said, her voice shaking.
“She’s psychotic. Lauren is right — that was no accident last night.”
Aunt Jule looked silently at Holly, then continued after Nora.
Holly was trembling all over — with anger or fear — perhaps both. I felt bad for her but relieved for myself. Finally I wasn’t alone.
“Sit down,” I said gently. “Let’s get you untangled.”
It took a half hour to work the knots out of Holly’s hair; for a few of the tangles I had to use scissors. I knew Holly was upset because she didn’t say a word except yes each time I asked if I should cut out a knot.
Aunt Jule returned without Nora. Holly had regained her composure, but when she spoke she still sounded irritated.
“I know where Nora hides. I’ll find her when I’m ready.”
That wasn’t for another hour and a half. We cleaned up from the party, then Holly left me with the final task and went off in search of her sister.
“Where is she?” Aunt Jule asked, when Holly returned alone to the kitchen.
“I don’t know. I checked all of Nora’s hiding places twice.
And I looked at Frank’s.”
“Did you call her name?”
Holly struggled to keep her temper. “No, Mom, I called out Susie! Let her be for a while, okay? Her behavior is outrageous. It will be good for her to think things over.”
“She thinks too much already,” Aunt Jule said, and retreated to the dining room.
Through the doorway I saw that a lid had been put on the basket of knots and the broken lamp cleared away. With the yard clean and the house quiet, it seemed like just a peaceful day on the Shore. But I knew all of us were waiting; it was only a matter of time before something else happened.
As I headed outside I heard Nick in the garden greeting Rocky. When he saw me, the warmth in his voice quickly disappeared. “How are you?” he asked tensely.
“Okay,” I replied. “But we’ve had another incident.”
“What kind?”
Holly emerged from the house carrying her school backpack.
“You want to explain?” I asked her, not wanting to be the only one relating bizarre events.
“You can,” she said, “but he’ll just defend Nora. He always has.”
When I’d recounted what had happened, Nick put his arm around Holly. “Is Lauren exaggerating?”
I bit my tongue.
“No, it was just so freaky, Nick.”
He touched her hair softly. “Are you okay?”
“Yes. Thanks.”
He turned to me. “Where’s Nora now?”
“We don’t know. Missing, hiding.”
“What happened before the incident?” he asked.
“What do you mean?”
“What did you say to Nora to set her off?”
The heat rose in my cheeks.
“Be fair, Nick,” Holly interjected.
“I didn’t say a word,” I told him.
“You didn’t bring up what happened last night?” he asked.
“You didn’t start talking about your mother again?”
“No!”
“Nick, Nora is crazy, as crazy as they come,” Holly said.
“Maybe,” he replied, “but it sure would help if Lauren forgot the past.”
I looked him in the eye. “You’re asking for the impossible.”
“I’m asking that you think about the effect of dragging Holly, Nora, and Jule through a lot of pointless stuff. You’re making it hard on all of them.”
My eyes stung with tears, and I quickly blinked them away.
“Come on, Holly,” he said.
She looked at me uncertainly. “Lauren?”
“Bye.”
I walked back into the house. I thought I’d be relieved to hear the sound of Nick’s car fade away, but it only made me ache. Why had he turned against me? There had to be more to it than the cartoon. Had someone told him something else that angered him or made him mistrust me?
I paced around the garden room, thinking about Nora. For her safety — and my own — I would feel better knowing where she was.
There was a jingling of tags, then a nose pushed in the soft screen of the porch door.
“Hey, Rocky. Wouldn’t Nick take you to school?” I let him in. When I sat down, the dog rested his chin on my knee, wanting me to pet him. “Maybe you can help, old boy. How are you at retrieving people?”
He wagged his tail.
I wondered if Nora was hiding somewhere off the property. There would be plenty of places in town where she could melt into the surroundings undisturbed by others — the college campus, the docks. I decided to search for her and hurried upstairs to put on my running shoes. The phone rang and I picked it up in the hall.
“Lauren? Frank.”
“Hi, Frank. What’s up?”
“Holly was over here earlier, looking for Nora.”
“Yes,” I said quickly. “Have you seen her?”
“Just now. I was chasing an army of geese off my lawn and saw her enter the boathouse.”
“The boathouse!” I exclaimed. “She’s afraid of going in there.”
“That’s what I thought,” he replied. “What worries me is that she, well — to put it mildly — looked disturbed.”
“We had an incident this morning,” I began.
“Holly told me about it. Is Holly there now?”
“No, she’s gone to school with Nick. I’ll check on Nora.”
“Is Jule at home?” he asked.
“Yes. Do you want to talk to her?”
