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Show Woodworth/28 in my whole life for daring me to cut all the hair off Megan's favorite doll. I woke up later, and the phone was ringing. It was ringing and ringing, and I saw on my clock radio that it was almost midnight, and I thought whoever it was would just give up, realizing that they had a wrong number. Or that Mummie or Dad would get up and answer the phone, and tell whoever it was that the whole house was asleep. But it kept ringing and ringing, and that's when I remembered. And that's when I cried. The phone was right there where I had left it after talking to Rachael. I could have moved it, plugged it into the jack in my room, but I hadn't. And then I remembered that they had said that they would let it/ring until I answered. So i answered it. I don't remember getting out of bed, or leaving my room. But I remember seeing the shape of the bureau outlined in the dark. It was too dark to see where I had been picking at it. I answered the phone, and it was Mom. She wasn't crying, but her voice had changed, was coming from some place far away, behind oceans of static. She said, "Meg?" and I said, "No. It's Marty," and then she said it. She said, "Jake has died." Not "Jake is dead," but "Jake has died." "Daddy is on his way home now to pick you and Meg up, and bring you back here." I didn't understand her. I didn't know why we had to go there, because I could only think of going to where you were. I thought it would be a hospital, or something. I didn't know why you had died. "Ok?" she said. "Will you get Meg up?" Then, "No, no. Don't wake Meg. Wait until your father gets home, and he will tell her." How could I say it? How could I say, "What did he die of? How |