“Yeah,” she says.
I get the sense that she’s going to change the subject, so I ask a question to stay on topic.
“What was it like?” I ask, cringing for making her relive it.
There’s another pause, when I wonder if I’ve pushed too hard. But then…
“Loud,” she says. “It happened really quickly, but I remember it like I was in slow motion. I had this CD case on the seat next to me, and I remember watching it float around the car like there was no gravity or something. My water spilled all over me. I hit my head, but I didn’t feel any pain. Then the car landed upside down. I was still strapped in, so I was just hanging there. Bleeding.”
“That must have been so insanely terrifying,” I say honestly. “I mean, to be out there all by yourself, thinking you’re going to die.”
“Except that I wasn’t by myself,” Nora says. “I saw the truck driver before I passed out. He was the Good Samaritan. He walked in front of my headlights, and then crouched down next to my window. It was open because all the glass was broken.”
“And he pulled you out?”
“Yes,” Nora says. “But not right away. At first he checked on me. Then he called someone.”
“Nine-one-one?”
“I guess, but it sounded more like a normal conversation. Maybe he was asking a friend what to do. I’m sure he didn’t know whether he should move me or not.”
“I’m sure,” I echo, wanting to shake her for being so clueless. “What did he look like?” I ask, channeling Mason and Cassie.
“Uh…” Nora says, warily. “Just normal,” she says, and I don’t press it. In fact, I don’t say anything at all. “Anyway, then he came back over and said, ‘Help is coming,’ and I passed out a couple seconds after that.”
It hits me again that Nora doesn’t know she died.
“Wow,” I say, because it seems safe.
Nora’s quiet, except I can hear her inhale and exhale like she’s breathing through the trauma. Finally, she laughs a little.
“What’s funny?” I ask.
“It’s just weird what you remember.”
“Like what?”
“Like the guy,” Nora says. “It’s mean, because he saved me and all, but he reminded me a little of Daffy Duck.”
“Huh?” I ask. “He looked like a duck?”
“No,” Nora clarifies. “He reminded me of him. It was his voice. He had a lisp. It wasn’t as pronounced as Daffy’s, but…”
Nora keeps talking about cartoon characters, but I don’t hear her. I’m lost in thought, time-traveling back to when we first came to Omaha and I visited the aquarium. I remember the unsettling stranger who talked to me and then disappeared.
The otherwise nondescript stranger with a lisp.
Even though lisps are incredibly common, I feel it in my bones that this is more than a coincidence. But why would the same agent who was there to Revive Nora—who possibly caused her death—be at the aquarium? And why would an agent be so covert while speaking with me? We’re one big network, all working together. Everyone knows one another. Everyone except…
The hairs on my arms stand up; a shiver dances down my spine.
“Are you there, Daisy?” Nora asks.
“Sorry,” I say. “I’ve got to go.”
I end the call before she says goodbye, and then I sit in shock.