Page 27 of Without a Clue

“Call somebody!” My words tumble out between raspy breaths. “Come quick! Something’s wrong! Something terrible . . . has happened to . . . to . . . Hugh!”

And then when I’ve officially given over the words, I feel an immense pressure on my chest, and tears overcome me.

For a moment there is stunned silence, and through the blur of tears I see Jackie look to Gordon, Crystal to Ricky, Neena at Nash, and Nash, looking incredibly piqued, clenching his fists and breaking off to stare back out the window.

Neena shifts her gaze to Gordon.

And with now not one but two women pressing their gazes hard on him, he unsteadily stands.

“Oh! How awful!” he cries out in a pained voice, dropping the king chess piece in his hand. “I’ll find someone . . . right now!”

He races out the door and shuts it behind him.

I turn to the others.

“We can’t stand here. Let’s go!”

I rub the tears from my vision.

“C’mon!” I yell again, and this time several people jump up.

Getting them to move is like one of those frustrating dreams, though.

One of those dreams where you are being chased and need to run but your legs are Gumby’s and moving like they’re stuck in quicksand. No matter how hard your heart is racing, you can’t get them to work.

It takes an eternity to get them just to stand.

“Let’s go!” I’m flailing my arms, trying desperately to get the group to move faster.

But they are molasses, slowly getting up, gathering things.

Nash doesn’t even move.

“Are you all serious?” I scream. “FINE!”

I turn in my panic and violent frustration and rip open the door, making to rush back to Hugh myself, to face him and see what can possibly be done, when I feel a strong grip on my wrist.

I turn to see Ricky gripping me by the shoulder, and in my stunned surprise, I feel my feet being dragged with him back inside the room.

The door clicks shut behind him.

He gruffly turns me around.

Everybody has shifted their position to face Neena, who stands up from the couch now in her beacon of purple. She smiles nervously at me.

Her fingers are steepled together. “Okey dokey,” she says in her singsong voice. “We tried but we can’t do this. Somebody call Hugh and tell him it’s off.”

Crystal pops her phone from her pocket and strides to the corner of the room.

“What?” I say. My gaze is moving madly from face to face around the room.

Neena walks to me.

“I’m so sorry, honey,” she says, putting a hand on my shoulder. “You must have had such a fright. In my defense, I told him this was a terrible idea.”

“A . . . what?” I say.

“I told you all,” Nash growls lowly. He looks so guilty and defeated he barely makes eye contact with me before breaking away.