Jodie Picoult - My Sister's Keeper

"But why'd you take her on? This isn't your usual case."

"How would you know what my usual case is?"

It is said lightly, a joke, but Julia goes mute, and there's my answer: all these years, she's been following my career.

Sort of like I've been following hers.

I clear my throat, uncomfortable, and point to her face. "You've got sauce… over there."

She lifts her napkin and wipes the side of her mouth, but misses completely. "Did I get it off?" she asks.

Leaning forward with my own napkin, I clean the small spot—but then I don't move away. My hand rests on her cheek. Our eyes lock, and in that instance, we are young again and learning the shape of each other.

"Campbell," Julia says, "don't do this to me."

"Do what?"

"Push me off the same cliff twice."

When the cell phone in my coat pocket rings, we both jump. Julia inadvertently knocks over her glass of Chianti while I answer. "No, calm down. Calm down. Where are you? Okay, I'm on my way." Julia stops mopping the table as I hang up. "I have to go."

"Is everything all right?"

"That was Anna," I say. "She's at the Upper Darby Police Station."

On the way back to Providence, I tried to come up with at least one awful death per mile for my parents. Bludgeoning, scalping. Skinning alive and sprinkling with salt. Pickling in gin, although I don't know whether that would be considered torture or simply Nirvana.

It was possible they saw me sneaking into the guest room, bringing Julia down the servants' stairs to the rear door of the house. It is possible they could make out our silhouettes as we stripped off our clothes and waded into the Bay. Maybe they watched her legs wrap around me, watched me lay her down on a bed made of sweatshirts and flannel.

Their excuse, given the next morning over eggs Benedict, was an invitation to a party at the Club that night — black-tie, family only. An invitation that, of course, didn't include Julia.

It was so hot out by the time we pulled up to her house that some enterprising boy had pried open the fire hydrant, and kids bounced like popcorn through the stream. "Julia, I never should have dragged you home to meet my parents."

"There's a lot of stuff you shouldn't do," she admitted. "And most of it involves me."

"I'll call you before graduation," I said, as she kissed me and got out of the jeep.

But I didn't call. And I didn't meet up with her at graduation. And she thinks she knows why, but she doesn't.

The curious thing about Rhode Island is that it has absolutely no feng shui. By this I mean that there's a Little Compton, but no Big Compton. There's an Upper Darby but no Lower Darby. There are all sorts of places denned in terms of something else that doesn't actually exist.

Julia follows me in her own car. Judge and I must break a land-speed record, because it seems less than five minutes have passed since the phone call and the moment we walk into the station to find Anna hysterical beside the desk sergeant. She flies toward me, frantic. "You've got to help," she cries. "Jesse got arrested."

"What?" I stare at Anna, who tore me away from a very good meal, not to mention a conversation I really would rather have followed to its conclusion. "Why is this my problem?"

"Because I need you to get him out," Anna explains slowly, as if I am a moron. "You're a lawyer."

"I'm not his lawyer."

"But can't you be?"

"Why don't you call your mother," I suggest. "I hear she's taking new clients."

Julia whacks me on the arm. "Shut up." She turns to Anna.

"What happened?"

"Jesse stole a car and he got nailed."

"Give me more details," I say, already regretting this. "It was a Humvee, I think. A big, yellow one." There's one big yellow Humvee in this entire state, and it belongs to Judge Newbell. A headache begins between my eyes. "Your brother stole a judge's car, and you want me to get him out?" Anna blinks at me. "Well, yeah,"

Jesus. "Let me go talk to the officer." Leaving Anna in Julia's care, I walk to the desk sergeant, who—I swear it—is already laughing at me. "I'm representing Jesse Fitzgerald," I sigh. "Sorry to hear that."

"It was Judge Newbell's, wasn't it?" The officer smiles. "Yup."

I take a deep breath. "The kid doesn't have a record.”

“That's because he just turned eighteen. He's got a juvy record a mile long."

"Look," I say. "His family's going through a lot right now. One sister's dying; the other one is suing her parents. Can you cut me a break here?"

The officer looks over at Anna. "I'll talk to the AG for you, but you'd better plead the kid, because I'm quite sure Judge Newbell doesn't want to come testify."

After a little more negotiation I walk back toward Anna, who leaps up the minute she sees me. "Did you fix it?"

"Yeah. But I'm never doing this again, and I'm not done with you." I stalk toward the rear of the station, where the holding cells are.

Jesse Fitzgerald lies on his back on the metal bunk, one arm thrown over his eyes. For a moment I stand outside his cell. "You know, you are the best argument I've ever seen for natural selection."

He sits up. "Who the hell are you?"

"Your fairy godmother. You dumb little shit—do you realize you stole a judge's Humvee?"

"Well, how was I supposed to know whose car it was?"

"Maybe because of the judicial vanity plate that says ALLRISE?"

I say. "I'm a lawyer. Your sister asked me to represent you. Against my better judgment, I've agreed."

"No kidding? So can you get me out?"

"They're going to let you go on PR bail. You need to give them your license and agree to live at home, which you already do, so that shouldn't be a problem."

Jesse considers this. "Do I have to give them my car?"

"No."

You can actually see the gears churning. A kid like Jesse couldn't care less about a piece of paper that permits him to drive, just so long as he has wheels. "That's cool, then," he says.

I motion to an officer waiting nearby, who unlocks the cell so that Jesse can leave. We walk side by side to the waiting area. He is as tall as I am, but unfinished around the edges. His face lights up as we turn the corner, and for a moment I think he is capable of redemption, that maybe he feels enough for Anna to be an ally for her.

But he ignores his sister, and instead approaches Julia. "Hey," he says. "Were you worried about me?"

I want, in that moment, to lock him back up. After I kill him.

"Get away," Julia sighs. "Come on, Anna. Let's go find something to eat."

Jesse looks up. "Excellent. I'm starving."

"Not you," I say. "We're going to court."

On the day I graduated from Wheeler, the locusts came. They arrived like a thick summer storm, tangling in the branches of trees and thudding hard on the ground. The meteorologists had a field day, trying to explain the phenomenon. They mentioned biblical plagues and El Nino and our prolonged drought. They recommended umbrellas, broad-brimmed hats, staying indoors. The graduation ceremony, however, was held outside under a large white canvas tent. As the salutatorian spoke, his message was punctuated by the suicide leap of bugs. Locusts rolled off the sloped roof, falling into the laps of spectators.

I hadn't wanted to come, but my parents forced me to go. Julia found me while I was putting on my cap. She wrapped her arms around my waist. She tried to kiss me. "Hey," she said. "Which side of the earth did you drop off?"

I remember thinking that in our white gowns, we looked like ghosts. I pushed her away from me. "Don't. Okay P Just don't."

In every graduation photo my parents took, I was smiling as if this new world were a place I actually wanted to live in, while all around me insects fell, big as fists.