He awoke to the peal of sirens. It wasn't completely out of the ordinary, but on this particular morning it filled him with dread. He unfurled his numb hand from the stone and remembered his wish. Remembered Mary Ellen.

             He rushed out of the back door, allowing it to slam roughly behind him eliciting swears from the still sleeping folk inhabited there. He nearly stumbled on the bottom step but caught his feet and resumed his frenzied pace. There were vehicles parked haphazardly around her trailer, angled in all directions. Two ambulances and two squad cars with lights blazing.

            As he approached he saw two E.M.Ts carefully negotiating a gurney from the mouth of the trailer. Something was on it, covered with a white sheet, the top of the sheet stained with seeping blood. His heart jumped in his throat before he realized that it was much too long of a thing to be Mary Ellen. This did little to relax him, however, as another gurney followed the first. Much the same, a long shape covered with a sheet, the sheet soaked with undeterred blood.

           His breath caught in a sickly knot as he sought Mary Ellen. He found her several panicky moments later as she sat on the edge of the seat in the back of one of the cruisers, legs dangling limply beneath her. Her face drawn and pale, her curls seemed to have lost all of their bounce, and her eyes stared ahead blankly. She looked like a dead thing.

           He rushed toward her, but a small, dumpy man in a uniform intercepted him.

            "Hold on there sonny. You ain't s'posed to be here," he said with great authority, his thumbs hooked Barney-like through the loops of his belt.

            "Sir, please. Please, she's my friend. Could I just have- could I just make sure she's ok?" Tommy hadn't noticed the tears running down his face, hadn't noticed that his hand clutched the stone like a talisman in the pocket of the jeans he'd worn the night before or the squeak that entered his voice.

           The officers brown eyes dipped with concern and, though it went against his better judgment, he relaxed his deputy posture and nodded solemnly to allow the distraught boy to pass him. Another younger officer made a move to go to him, but Officer Dumpy waved his hand and the rookie stood down.

             He raced to stand in front of her, kneeling in her line of vision. At first she didn't notice him, but after a few seconds awareness filled her eyes and she focused on him.

             "Tommy?" she asked, as if it would be anyone else. The bruises had faded, but it didn't make them look better. It made them look much worse, tinged with greens that made Tommy's stomach clinch.

               "It's me. It's me, Mary Ellen. Are you ok?" He asked, dreading the answer but wanting to know to badly to ignore.

                "I... I don't remember. They told me to wait, so I am. I just... I just don't know. I'm scared Tommy. They won't let me see them."

                "Who?" He asked with wild eyes, looking for the mystery people they wouldn't let Mary Ellen see.

                "My mom. And Ernie. They said I can't see them anymore. They said they're gonna take me somewhere else." She leaned forward and whispered.

               "Where?" He asked breathlessly. All the fear and worry drain from him, replaced with anger.

                 "They won't say. Somewhere bad, I think. Tommy, I think I did something bad. Real bad. I don't remember nothing." A single tear slipped down her cheek, and she wiped it away as she glanced nervously at the flurry of activity taking place in her front yard.

                   "It'll be ok." Was all he could think of to say. He knew that it wouldn't. Nothing would ever be ok after this. The death of his childhood brewed deep within his gut like a sick virus.

                  "Do you know what happened Tommy? Did I do something bad?" Her eyes locked with his as if she could decipher the truth behind them.

                   He wagered against it for only a moment, before knowing that lying was his only option. "No. You didn't do anything bad." He said softly.

                    Mary Ellen began to cry and, before Tommy could make any headway, the two officers hustled him away. They gently folded Mary Ellen into the police cruiser; the door slammed tightly shut, and they whisked her away clutching a station issue teddy bear.