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passed. “When you’re feeling better, maybe tomorrow or the next day, come down to the station or call us and we’ll come to you. All right?”
    “Sure.” She couldn’t stay at the store. Not now. The scent of the blood mingled with the ice cream made a bitter taste bubble up in her throat. Not trusting her voice, she sent Amanda a text message.
    An hour later, Amanda pulled up in her new corvette, a trade-up from her station wagon, and rolled down the passenger window. “I’m so sorry, honey. Get in.”
    Lily climbed in and flopped against the seat. Her entire body weighed a ton. Tears kept drenching her cheeks, and she couldn’t stop the stream. The police finished their collecting their evidence, and everyone whispering and giving her sorrowful glances made her want to run. Race so hard that she fought time and rewrite what happened. If only she’d stayed. If only she’d just told her mom that the freezer would keep.
    This was all her fault.
    She’d had the dream and ignored it. What would it have cost her to have just stayed another hour or two?
    “Hey, do you want me to pull over?” Amanda asked at a red light. “You look like you might hurl or something.”
    “Already done that once today.”
    Her friend frowned. “When was the last time you ate?”
    “Does coffee with some weird herb count?” She tried to make her voice light, but it came out scratchy. Truly, she just wanted to curl into a ball and sleep until this was all over. Pretend for a little while longer that her mom was okay and everything was fine.
    “Uh, no. You need to eat, Lil.”
    “I don’t think I can stomach anything.” Not now, not ever.

Chapter Seven
     
    Lily stayed in Amanda’s loft, not leaving the sanctuary of the guest bedroom except when Amanda dragged her out and demanded she eat something. Then it was a bite here and there. Days of crying, watching TV and sleeping. Memories of her mom popped up at odd times. Like when she flipped through a magazine, not really looking at the pictures, and saw a woman with a little girl running through the park with a kite. The image reminded her of when she and her mom had taken a day off one spring morning to fly a kite. Lily had run and run until her legs hurt. She and her mom had had the best time that day. Bawling, Lily covered her face with her hands. What was she going to do now?
    Despite Lily’s protests, Amanda took Lily to a restaurant downtown. It was way out of Lily’s price range, but not Amanda’s. The restaurant didn’t have the price of the food on the menu.
    “I’m just going to have water.” Lily set her menu aside.
    “No, you will not,” Amanda snapped. “You will at least have their famous chicken soup, or I’ll disown you as a friend. Now, you want that with a coke or water?”
    “Ginger ale.” Her mom would tell her to enjoy herself. But she was dead. Someone had murdered her, and Lily’s throat choked up. Lily knew it in her gut like she knew she had ten toes. Like she knew that the dream was a warning. Someone killed my mom.
    She’d never see her again. Talk with her, and tell her bad jokes. If her mom were alive, Lily would bring back leftovers from this place and tell her mom about all the women wearing fur coats and jewelry. She’d bring her back a fancy dessert too. Tears welled in her eyes.
    Amanda frowned, sympathy reflecting in her dark eyes. “It’ll be okay. One meal at a time. Then one day. I still remember when my grandparents died, the pain gets numb eventually.”
    “I think I’m going to throw up.”
    “Hey, no getting sick here, okay?” Amanda whispered harshly. “They just let me back in after catching the tablecloth on fire when I was nine.”
    “Wait… what?” She’d never heard this story before.
    Amanda winced. “Yeah, well I didn’t know the lanterns on the table were real. I thought it was just a flickering lightbulb. So I turned it over, it burned me. I screamed and threw the thing down on the table. It caught