Princess & the Player

thirty-nine: in which her mother tries to kill her

Marco's POV: 

A night like that, I wished we were on the bike because we would have made much better time. But it was still parked in a storage facility behind the University with boxes of books, my short board, and my good office chair with the lumbar support. 

There was something slowing traffic both ways and we idled along for 30 minutes, Maggie growing increasingly upset. Both knees were jiggling. 

She was debating whether to tell Jeb she was on her way. There were reasons for and against. I didn't even have to jump in and help because she was talking herself in a circle.

Eventually, it was our turn to pull through the cop stop. 

I rolled down the window as the officer leaned in with the flashlight.

Holy F*ck. This was a roadblock for Eileen. It was a manhunt. 

"Where you going tonight?"

"Kirby."

"Any special reason?" The flashlight scanned the backseat.

"Meeting up with her brother. He needs a ride."

"Miss, you all right tonight?"

"I just want to get to my brother, officer."

"Keep it under the speed limit, you two. Move on."

I slowly pressed down on the accelerator and we moved through the orange cones and picked up speed. The little green sign on the side of the road said "Kirby, 7 miles."

Neither of us said what we were thinking. 

Maggie's phone rang and she hit speaker.

"Maggie," Scottie's voice was somber.

"You're on speaker, JJ."

"Uh, who's there?"

"Just me," I told him. My gut was clenched. This was bad news.

"Maggie, Britty died 15 minutes ago."

"Oh God, NO," she inhaled loudly. "No."

"And Dad...uh...Dad's heart stopped during his surgery. They got it started again."

"He's alive?"

"He's in a medically induced coma."

"What is that?"

"Basically, he's got some swelling in his brain in addition to the tear in the aorta, blood loss and the broken bones. They've used an anesthesia to slow the brain flow. He's on a ventilator to manage his airway. The aorta is repaired."

"So...I don't understand...will he wake up?"

"We'll see, OK? We're hopeful."

He didn't sound hopeful. 

"So...Mom ...killed Britty?" Maggie's voice caught as she formed the words.

"I'm sorry. From what the police have said...it appears she ran over them on purpose. I think she must have been drunk."

After we hung up, Maggie didn't say anything. Just stared out the window, tears running down her face. 

I reached out with my hand and squeezed hers. 

The GPS navigated us to the McDonald's. There were two police cars in the parking lot wth their bubble lights spinning.

"Princess? What do you want to do?"

"I want to go back. I want to go back to the day before I met you. I want to go back to when Mom and Jacob and Jeb and Laurie and me lived in the little house and I had the top bunk and there were glow in the dark stars on the ceiling and...and...and..." she gasped. "My mom killed Britty."