"Never mind that now. Just tell us about Caroline and Isobel."
"Well, Caroline came over wearing this outfit that was - well, the top was practically transparent. And she just - she said, did I want to dance and it was, like, slow dancing and she - she, like,seduced me. That's the truth. And the next morning she left - just about the time Matt came. That was the day before yesterday. And then I noticed Tami acting - crazy. Nothing I could do would stop her. And then I got a phone call from Isa-chan and - I've never heard her so hysterical. Caroline must have gone straight from my house to her house. Isa-chan said she was going to kill herself. And so I ran over here. I had to get away from Tami anyway because me being there at home just seemed to make it worse."
Bonnie looked at Meredith and knew that they were both thinking the same thing:and somewhere in there, both Caroline and Tami propositioned Matt, too.
"Caroline must have told her everything." Jim gulped. "Isa-chan and I haven't - we were waiting, you know? But all Isa-chan would say to me was that I was going to be sorry. ¡®You'll be sorry; just wait and see,' over and over and over. And, God, Iam sorry."
"Well, now you can stop being sorry and start calling the doctor. Rightnow , Jimmy." Meredith gave him a swat on the behind. "And then you need to call your parents. Don't give me those big brown puppy-dog eyes. You're over eighteen; I don't know what they can do to you for leaving Tami alone all this time."
"But - "
"But me no buts. Imean it, Jimmy."
Then she did what Bonnie knew she would, but was dreading. She approached Isobel again. Isobel's head was down; she was pinching her navel with one hand. In the other, she held a long, shining nail.
Before Meredith could even speak, Isobel said, "So you're in on it, too. I heard the way you called him ¡®Jimmy.' You're all trying to take him away from me. All you bitches are trying to hurt me.Yurusenai! Zettai yurusenai! "
"Isobel! Don't! Can't you see that you're hurtingyourself ?"
"I'm only hurting myself to take away the pain. You're the one who's really doing it, you know. You're pricking me with needles inside."
Bonnie jumped inside her own skin, but not just because Isobel suddenly gave a vicious thrust of the nail. She felt heat sweep up into her cheeks. Her heart began to pound even faster than it was already going.
Trying to keep one eye on Meredith, she pulled her mobile phone out of her back pocket where she'd stashed it after the visit to Caroline's house.
Still with half her attention on Meredith, she went on the Internet and rapidly entered just two search words. Then, as she made a couple of selections from her hits, she realized that she could never absorb all the information in a week, much less a few minutes. But at least she had a start.
Just now, Meredith was backing away from Isobel. She put her mouth close to Bonnie's ear and whispered, "I think we're just antagonizing her. Did you get a good look at her aura?"
Bonnie nodded.
"Then we probably should leave the room, at least."
Bonnie nodded again.
"Were you trying to call Matt and Elena?" Meredith was eyeing the mobile phone.
Bonnie shook her head and turned the phone so Meredith could see her two search words. Meredith stared, then lifted dark eyes to Bonnie's in a kind of horrified recognition.
Salem witches.
Chapter 21
"It actually makes a horrible kind of sense," Meredith said. They were in Isobel's family room, waiting for Dr. Alpert. Meredith was at a beautiful desk made of some black wood ornamented with designs in gilt, working at a computer that had been left on. "The Salem girls accused people of hurting them - witches, of course. They said they were pinching them and ¡®pricking them with pins.'"
"Like Isobel blaming us," Bonnie said, nodding.
"And they had seizures and contorted their bodies into ¡®impossible positions.'"
"Caroline looked as if she were having seizures in Stefan's room," said Bonnie. "And if crawling like a lizard isn't contorting your body into an impossible position...here, I'll try it." She got down on the Saitous' floor and tried to stick her elbows and knees out the way Caroline had. She couldn't do it.
"See?"
"Oh, my God!" It was Jim at the doorway of the kitchen, holding - almost dropping - a tray of food. The smell of miso soup was sharp in the air, and Bonnie wasn't sure if it made her feel hungry or if she was too sick to ever be hungry again.
"It's okay," she told him hastily, standing up. "I was just...trying something out."
Meredith stood up too. "Is that for Isobel?"
"No, it's for Obaasan - I mean Isa-chan's grandma - Grandma Saitou - "
"I told you to call everybody whatever comes out naturally. Obaasan is fine, just like Isa-chan," Meredith said softly and firmly to him.
Jim relaxed a hair. "I tried to get Isa-chan to eat, but she just throws the trays at the wall. She says that she can't eat; that somebody's choking her."
Meredith glanced significantly at Bonnie. Then she turned back to Jim. "Why don't you let me take it? You've been through a lot. Where is she?"
"Upstairs, second door on the left. If - if she says anything weird, just ignore it."
"All right. Stay near Bonnie."
"Oh, no," Bonnie said hastily. "Bonnie is going with." She didn't know if it was for her own protection or Meredith's, but she was going to stick like glue.
Upstairs, Meredith turned the hall light on carefully with her elbow. Then they found the second door on the left, which turned out to have a doll-like old lady in it. She was in the exact center of the room, lying on the exact center of a futon. She sat up and smiled when they came in. The smile turned a wrinkled face almost into the face of a happy child.