The Admissions by Meg Mitchell Moore
December
The phone.
Nora was trying not to worry. But she’d been a mother for nearly eighteen years now. She was going to worry.
It was a beautiful early-winter day in the Bay Area, which meant that it was sixty-five degrees and sunny, or would be until the fog rolled in later in the afternoon. No need for so much as a mitten. Christmas was nine days away.
She was reaching for her cell when the home phone rang.
Nobody ever called the home number. She’d threatened to have it disconnected so many times that it was now a standing joke in the Hawthorne family. Because she never had time to do anything she threatened to do, until now.
Mrs. Hawthorne?
Yes. Her hand shaking as she cradled the receiver.
A man’s voice, unfamiliar.
Nora hadn’t thought her heart could climb any farther up her throat than it had in recent weeks. But it could, it turned out, it could.
When Nora and her sister, Marianne, were young, growing up in Narragansett, Rhode Island, they used to play a game. One of them would say to the other: A genie grants you three wishes. What would you wish for?
They would say things like: I wish all the appliances in the house would turn to chocolate. Or: I wish I could have the gift of flight for twenty-four hours. Or: I wish we had pizza for dinner every night for three weeks. When they got older, they might say: I wish Jennifer Johnson would get a really bad perm that lasted for the rest of the school year. Or: I wish my breasts would grow (Nora) or stop growing (Marianne).
Mrs. Hawthorne?
Yes.
My name is Sergeant Stephen Campbell, California State Highway Patrol.
Stephen. Such an ordinary name, Nora would think later, for such an extraordinary phone call.
Three wishes, Genie, rapid-fire.
One. Say what you have to say, quickly.
Two. Tell me it’s going to be okay.
Three. Let me go back to the beginning and start over.
Mrs. Hawthorne. I’m in the security office at the Golden Gate Bridge.
The what?
Do you know how to get here, Mrs. Hawthorne?
She couldn’t say another thing. The room was whirling. She sat down on one of the kitchen stools.
Listen carefully, please. I’m going to tell you how to get here, and I want you to come right away. Do you understand me? We’re on the south side of the bridge. From where you are you have to cross the bridge to get to us.
She swallowed, tried to breathe. She watched a hand that didn’t seem like hers grasp at the edge of the counter. She watched the fingers try and fail to grip the edge. There was a sharp sound all around her, a high-pitched noise three octaves beyond glass breaking.
Mrs. Hawthorne?
Mmmmmmph. The only sound she could manage.
Later Nora would figure that it all started with her job. If she hadn’t been a working mother. If the situation with the Watkins home hadn’t happened, and then the horror show at the Millers’ house. If she’d been more available, more aware. If she’d been better. If if if.
Contents
Cover
Also by Meg Mitchell Moore
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter 1: Angela
Chapter 2: Nora
Chapter 3: Gabe
Chapter 4: Cecily
Chapter 5: Nora
Chapter 6: Angela
Chapter 7: Nora
Chapter 8: Gabe
Chapter 9: Nora
Chapter 10: Angela
Chapter 11: Cecily
Chapter 12: Nora
Chapter 13: Gabe
Chapter 14: Angela
Chapter 15: Nora
Chapter 16: Cecily
Chapter 17: Angela
Chapter 18: Arthur
Chapter 19: Nora
Chapter 20: Gabe
Chapter 21: Nora
Chapter 22: Cecily
Chapter 23: Nora
Chapter 24: Angela
Chapter 25: Nora
Chapter 26: Nora
Chapter 27: Gabe
Chapter 28: Nora
Chapter 29: Angela
Chapter 30: Gabe
Chapter 31: Nora
Chapter 32: Angela
Chapter 33: Gabe
Chapter 34: Nora
Chapter 35: Angela
Chapter 36: Nora
Chapter 37: Gabe
Chapter 38: Melvin
Chapter 39: Nora
Chapter 40: Arthur
Chapter 41
Chapter 42: Angela
Chapter 43: Gabe
Chapter 44: Nora
Chapter 45: Gabe
Chapter 46: Angela
Chapter 47: Cecily
Chapter 48: Gabe
Chapter 49: Nora
Chapter 50: Gabe
Chapter 51: Nora
Chapter 52: Cecily
Chapter 53: Nora
Chapter 54: Gabe
Chapter 55: Angela
Chapter 56: Gabe
Chapter 57: Nora
Chapter 58: Angela
Chapter 59: Marianne
Chapter 60: Nora
Chapter 61: Melvin
Chapter 62: Nora
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
About the Author