Her First Mistake by Carey Baldwin (books for 10th graders txt) 📕

Mia opened her eyes. “You do?”

“I don’t think we should make a big deal out of it,” Alma said.

“I’m so, so sorry. I know that doesn’t make up for anything, but I am.”

“I appreciate your apology, and I promise I’m not mad. Only, if you don’t mind, in the future if you need something, just ask. I prefer you not go into Celeste’s old room again.”

Mia drew in a sharp breath, realizing they’d been talking circles around each other.

Alma got up and walked to the closet, rummaged around and pulled out Celeste’s favorite red cardigan. “If I’d known you needed a sweater, I would’ve loaned you one of mine, or bought you one of your own.”

Mia’s mind was racing. How did that cardigan get in her closet? Roseanne, the housekeeper, had been here yesterday morning. Maybe she’d put it there by mistake. Mia opened her mouth to protest, and then thought better of it. What if she really had taken the sweater and didn’t remember?

Alma climbed to her feet. “Let’s not speak of it again. Don’t let your breakfast get cold. I’ve got some things to do to get ready for Detective Samuels. I’m fed up with him keeping us in the dark, so I insisted he come by later and give the entire family an update on the investigation. We’re long overdue for an accounting from him. You’ll be here, in case he has any more questions for you?”

“Of course.” Her mind continued to spin. “What can I do to help?”

“Nothing at the moment. Take the morning off.” Alma raised an eyebrow. “Maybe go buy yourself a sweater.”

“I’ll keep my phone on. You’ll let me know when to expect Detective Samuels.”

Alma nodded. “And don’t worry. I found the sweater in your closet yesterday, but I was waiting for you to tell me you borrowed it. I knew you wouldn’t let me down.”

After Alma left the room, Mia went to her mother’s hope chest and sank to her knees. Drained from her conversation with Alma, and longing to feel a connection to her own mother, she opened the lid.

Alma’s trip down memory lane had made Mia intensely aware of the gaping hole in her life.

Aunt Misty had pictures of her mother, of course, and of Mia as a newborn. But the two sisters had become estranged after Granddad died, and Mia had no photos of herself or her mother from that time in the woods. Nothing from that period in her childhood had been memorialized so it was hardly surprising she couldn’t remember much. There was only the one Polaroid she’d found in the chest. It might have been from a special day. A day she might remember if she studied the photo.

She moved the clothes from one side of the chest to another, picked them up, shook them out, one piece at a time, and placed them on the floor, until the chest was empty.

“Where are you?” she muttered aloud in frustration.

Inch by inch, she ran her hand around the inside edges of the chest.

Then she rocked back on her heels and let it sink in.

The old photograph was gone.

Celeste’s cardigan had appeared in her closet out of nowhere.

And she had no idea how either of those things happened… unless… she’d been walking in her sleep again.

She did have the morning free—maybe Dr. Baquero would fit her in.

Thirty-Six

Mia settled back against the couch. “I’m ready, but I need to leave my phone on. I’ll keep it set to vibrate.”

“Under the circumstances, I think we can break the no phone rule, but you need to take a deep breath. You seem agitated,” Dr. Baquero said.

Mia didn’t have a minute. Alma could call at any time and summon her back to the house for the meeting with Samuels, and she didn’t relish facing either of them until she got some answers. “Can hypnosis help me remember something from a dream?”

“Possibly. There’s evidence that if you give yourself a pre-sleep hypnotic suggestion it can help you recall your dreams vividly the next day. Is that something you’d like to try?”

That wasn’t exactly what she had in mind. “What about after? I mean if you don’t remember something that happened while you were sleeping, can you get that information from hypnosis later on?”

“I wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s impossible, but if you weren’t awake at the time of the event, without any pre-sleep suggestion it would be very difficult.” Dr. Baquero leveled her gaze. “What are we talking about, Mia? Have you been walking in your sleep again?”

Mia took that deep breath. “A couple of weeks ago, I woke up dressed, and then I found my old sleeping pills spilled open in a drawer. Later, I threw the pills away, like I should have done three years ago. I thought that would solve the problem.” She wanted to reveal more, to trust her therapist with the whole truth—that she had found a receipt from a doughnut shop that was near Celeste’s house, and it was dated the same night she went missing. Mia’s jaw tensed. In her heart she didn’t believe she would ever hurt Celeste… but what if she was wrong? “I haven’t taken any medication since then, but I think I might have walked in my sleep at least one more time.”

“You woke up dressed again?”

She shook her head. “No. But I found a sweater in my room that I don’t remember putting there, and also something is missing—a photograph.”

“I see.”

“So I’d like to try to remember with hypnosis.”

“Have you thought about asking your aunt? That seems like the most straightforward way to get to the bottom of things. She would know, wouldn’t she, if this has been a frequent thing—before you moved out at least?”

“I’m not sure I can trust her.”

The look on Dr. Baquero’s face confirmed what Mia felt in her heart.

“She’s raised you since you were a little girl, Mia. I don’t know everything that’s happened