The Locket Read Free Page A

breath, one that took too long to come and was too shaky to let out. She knew she had to speak but no matter how hard she tried, she just couldn’t force anything but a slight squeak from her voice box. What seemed like an eternity later, she at last summed up another little dose of energy, a dose she knew would cost her.
    “Leukemia.” And then the tears came.
    ***
    After the storm had passed, Savannah settled down to smaller bouts of weeping, and then eventually to that exhausted stage where you wish you were mute. But she had to talk; she had to explain to Marie what happened.
    “The doctor says that she doesn’t have very long to live; that she has about two days left, maybe three if we’re lucky.” Marie nodded her head in understanding. Savannah sat on the edge of her bed, grabbed a tissue off of the nightstand, and swallowed hard. “I should have noticed it before. I should have known.”
    “No. There was no way for you to know. How could you have?”
    Ignoring the attempt to make her feel better, she went on. “If only I hadn’t had gone on that stupid softball trip. I could’ve known weeks ago. I could’ve known weeks before her last…” She stopped from a fresh outburst of tears.
    Marie by now had made her way over to Savannah’s side. She grabbed her arms and made her listen this time. “Anna! None of this is your fault; none of it will ever be your fault! I’m sure your mom didn’t want to tell you before because she just didn’t want you to worry.”
    “She still should have told me,” Savannah said grimly. “I saw how pale she was before I left. I saw how awful she looked. She told me she was fine, but when I got back I knew there was something wrong.”
    The room fell silent for a few minutes, before Marie could not take it any longer. “It was something that just happened, Anna, not something that you or your mom did. It’s completely natural; there was nothing you could have—”
    “I hate nature,” Savannah snapped. She said it so quietly and maliciously that it made Marie release her hands and bring them back into her own lap. Savannah stood up, her expression more irritated than before. “Why does nature have to take away my mother, huh? Why does nature have to be so selfish?”  Turning around, she kicked the side of her dresser, punched her closet door, and slammed on her desk … none of which she appeared to have hurt herself on.
    Then she began screaming, almost growling, and huffing about. Her fury spread throughout the room in a matter of seconds and left her friend horrified as she still sat on the bed behind her. But Savannah kept going. Her arms and fist were whirlwinds, her legs and feet almost making dents in her walls. Miscellaneous items were picked up and thrown clear across the room, shattering all over the carpet. Posters were ripped off of the walls they hung upon. And books had been taken from their shelves and hurled onto the floor beneath them.
    And just as fast as her tantrum had come, she stopped, and fell down to the floor. Her screams of rage silenced into noiseless cries. Her furious arms that had made some obvious damages to her room were now wrapped around her slender body, holding herself up above the ground.
    She was trembling and terrified.
    Marie came over to where Savannah was huddled, hesitating to make sure that it was safe. She lightly placed a hand on her back, hoping to soothe her.
    “I’m sorry,” came a soft murmur. The sudden comment made Marie draw her hand back from her friend. “I don’t know what came over me. I didn’t mean to lash out like that.” Marie did not say a word, still a little shaken up over the abrupt explosion. “I’m sorry,” Savannah said again.
    Her friend nodded and knelt down next to her. “I know that you’re upset. I would be too if I found out what you did today. It’s definitely not what any of us expected. But in the future, you have to remember that you can’t just live your life thinking that