Shotgun Opera

?I was not running away,? Lizzy flared. ?When you?re ten you run away. When you?re an adult it?s just leaving. I was leaving. What did you think? Did you think I was going to stay at home forever, sitting there looking into Mother?s vacant eyes and watching her knit until hell froze over? I had to get out of there. I had to find some kind of life. And you and Meredith just left me there. You left me. Alone in that house with Mother. Even Dad got to die!? She realized she was standing, fists so tight her fingernails dug into her palms, drew blood. She trembled all over.

?You see?? Nikki said. ?Look at you. You fly off without warning. You remember doing that in court? Remember what the judge said??

?Fuck you.?

?It was the institute or jail. We were looking out for you.?

?Just get me out of here,? Lizzy said. ?Get me out and I?ll do whatever you want.? But when your back is turned, you can kiss my ass good-bye.

* * *

The institute was in a wooded area on a small lake in Slidell, and the drive back to New Orleans was wet and gray. Nikki drove her mother?s Bentley. The windshield wipers slapped a hypnotic rhythm. The radio weatherman assured listeners that the real heavy stuff was still stewing over the Gulf but would arrive soon.

The weather seemed to match the mood of the girl slumped in the passenger seat. Baby Sister was a brooding enigma. What sort of disturbed thoughts lurked behind those dark eyes, Nikki could only guess. But Lizzy had been right about one thing. Nikki and Meredith had left her alone to look after Mother. They?d ditched her. Why worry that Mother was knocking around in a great, empty house? Lizzy was there. Lizzy would keep her company. As if Baby Sister were some sort of accessory they?d purchased online as a companion for an old lady. That alone might drive the girl bonkers. It certainly explained? at least in part? the anger.

Apologies would have to come later. Sometime in the unknown future they might go on some women?s get- in-touch-with-your-feelings retreat and Nikki and Lizzy could have some sort of warm and fuzzy moment of healing and they could go on Dr. Phil and everything could be candy and roses.

But not today.

Today they had to shove their differences aside. They had to watch each other?s backs. It was time for family to come together. There was a bond. A family bond of blood, and such a bond superseded any petty differences she and her sister might have had in the past. Now Nikki just needed to explain all that shit in a way that seemed believable.

She told it to Lizzy like a little story, didn?t rush it, left in all the gory details, didn?t try to embellish or gloss over anything. The job she?d taken to erase these guys in New York, how one had fled to Oklahoma, the wrist injury, Nikki?s own nagging doubts about her place in the world and how she needed a life change. The only part that was hard to tell was about Meredith. Nikki felt guilty she?d bullied Middle Sister into doing her dirty work, felt frightened that there had been no word from Meredith since Nikki had sent her into the line of fire.

The more Nikki tried to tie up these final loose ends so she could get on with her new life, the more the loose ends frayed and unraveled and became a tangled mess.

Nikki ended her account with the break-in by the thugs who?d tried to kill her. ?That?s why I came to get you. I needed somebody I could trust.?

?I?m not interested in being your bodyguard,? Lizzy said.

?I don?t need a bodyguard,? Nikki said. ?I need a sister.? A sister who can hack a man?s heart out with a shrimp fork.

The silence stretched. The gray sky deepened to black. A storm was coming.

?I guess I should get out to Oklahoma then,? Lizzy said.

Nikki blinked. ?What??

?Somebody should find Meredith,? Lizzy said.

?No, that?s not? you can?t just run off to??

?You said family has to stick together.?

Nikki shook her head. ?That not what I meant. I didn?t??

?What was all that you said about being sisters? Who?s going to look out for Meredith? You said it. We?re sisters. What if she needs help??