'Aha! Then the chick was right,' Lacey needled him.
'She was right,' he admitted, though he was still angry with Ivy for trying to meet with Eric on Monday afternoon. She had called out to him at the very last minute, when it would have been too late for him to save her. Rushing to her side, Tristan had found her walking with Will away from the dangerous site. Will said he had followed Ivy that afternoon on a sudden hunch.
'Are you still feeling left out?' Lacey asked.
He didn't reply.
'Tristan, when is it going to sink in? We're dead,' Lacey said. 'And that's what happens when you're dead.
People forget to invite you along.'
?Tristan kept his eyes on Ivy. He wanted to be next to her, holding her hand.
'We're here to give a hand when we can and then let go,' Lacey told him.
'We help, and then it's bye-bye.' She waved both hands at him.
'Like I said before, Lacey, I hope you fall in love one day. I hope that before your mission's done, some guy teaches you how miserable it feels to love somebody and watch him reach out for someone else.' Lacey stepped back.
'I hope you learn what it's like to say good-bye to someone you love more than that person will ever guess.'
She turned her face away from him. 'You just might get your wish,' she said.
He glanced at her, surprised by her tone of voice. He didn't usually have to worry about hurting Lacey's feelings. 'Did I miss something?' he asked.
She shook her head.
'What?' he asked. 'What is it?' He reached for her face.
Lacey pulled away from him.
'You're missing the final prayer,' she said. 'We should pray with everyone else for Eric.' Lacey folded her hands and looked extremely angelic.
Tristan sighed. 'You pray in my place,' he said.
'I don't have many good feelings toward Eric.'
'All the more reason to pray,' she replied. 'If he doesn't rest in peace, he may be hanging out with us.'
'Angels, take care of him. Let him rest in peace,' Ivy prayed. 'Help Eric's family,' she said silently, and gazed back at Christine, Eric's older sister. She stood with her parents and brothers on the other side of the casket.
Several times during the service, Ivy had caught Christine looking at her. When their eyes met, the girl's mouth trembled a little, then became a long, soft line. Christine had Eric's pale blond hair and porcelain skin, but her eyes were a vibrant blue. She was beautiful-an uncomfortable reminder of what Eric might have been like if drugs and alcohol had not wasted his body and mind.
'Angels, take care of him,' Ivy prayed again.
The minister concluded the service, and everyone turned away at the same time. Gregory's fingers brushed Ivy's. His hand was as cold as ice. She remembered how cold it had felt the evening the police told them of Caroline's death.
'How are you doing?' she asked.
He slipped his hand through hers and held her fingers tightly. The night Caroline had died, when he had done the very same thing, she had believed that he was finally reaching out to her.
'I'm okay,' he said. 'How about you?'
'Glad it's over,' she answered honestly.
He studied her face, every centimeter of it. She felt trapped, anchored by his hand, his eyes invading her, reading her thoughts.
'I'm sorry, Gregory. You and Eric were friends for so long,' she said. 'I know this is much harder for you than for any of the rest of us.'
Gregory continued to gaze at her.
'You tried to help him, Gregory. You did all you could for him,' Ivy said. 'We both know that.'
Gregory bowed his head, moving his face close to hers. Ivy's skin tingled. To someone who didn't know better, to Andrew and Maggie watching them from a distance, it would look like a moment of shared sorrow. But to Ivy it felt like the movement of an animal she didn't trust, a dog that didn't bite but intimidated by moving its teeth very close to her bare skin.
'Gregory!'
He was so focused on Ivy that he jumped when Suzanne rested her hand on the back of his neck. Ivy stepped back quickly, and Gregory let go of her.
He's as edgy as I am, Ivy thought as she watched Suzanne and Gregory make their way to the cars parked along the cemetery road. Beth and Will started off, and Ivy followed slowly behind them. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Eric's sister walking toward her with long strides.
Ivy had told the police that she and Will were on an after-school hike when they came upon Eric in the car. After Dr. and Mrs. Ghent learned of Eric's death, they had telephoned her to discuss the story she'd given to the police and probe for more details. Now she steeled herself for another round of questioning.
'You're Ivy Lyons, aren't you?' the girl asked. Her cheeks were smooth and pink, her thick hair shining in the rain. It was startling to be confronted by such a healthy version of Eric.
'Yes,' Ivy replied. 'I'm sorry, Christine. I'm really sorry for you and your family.'
The girl acknowledged Ivy's sympathy with a nod. 'You-you must have been close to Eric,' she said.
'Excuse me?'
'I figured you were special to him.'
Ivy looked at her, mystified.
'Because of what he left. When-when Eric and I were younger,' Christine began, her voice shaking a little, 'we used to leave messages for each other in a secret place in the attic. We put them in an old cardboard box. On the box we wrote 'Beware! Frogs! Do Not Open!'' Christine laughed, then tears sprang into the corners of her eyes. Ivy waited patiently, wondering where this conversation was leading.
'When I came home for this-for his funeral, I looked in our box, just on a whim,' Christine continued, 'not expecting to find anything-we hadn't used it for years. But I found a note to me. And this.'
She pulled a gray envelope from her purse. 'The note said, 'If anything happens to me, give this to Ivy Lyons.'' Ivy's eyes widened.
'You weren't expecting it,' Christine observed. 'You don't know what's in it.'
'No,' Ivy said, then took the sealed envelope in her hand. She could feel a small, stiff wad inside, as if a hard object had been wrapped in padding. The outside of the envelope intrigued Ivy even more. Eric's name and address had been typed neatly onto it and her own name scribbled in big letters across it. The return-address sticker bore the name and address of Caroline Baines.
'Oh, that,' Christine said when Ivy fingered it. 'It's probably just an old envelope Eric had lying around.'
But it wasn't just an old envelope. Ivy checked the postmark: May 28, Philip's birthday. The day Caroline died.
'Maybe you didn't know,' Christine continued. 'Eric was very close to Caroline. She was a second mother to him.'
Ivy looked up, surprised. 'She was?'
'From the time he was a kid, Eric and my mother never got along,' Christine explained. 'I'm six years older, and I took care of him sometimes when my mother worked long days in New York. But usually he was at the Baines house, and Caroline became closer to him than any of us.
Even after she divorced and Gregory didn't live with her, Eric would often go see her.'
'I didn't know that,' Ivy said.
'Are you going to open it?' Christine asked, looking at the envelope curiously.
Ivy tore off one corner and slit the envelope with her finger. 'If it's a personal note,' she warned Christine, 'I might not show it to you.'
