Darling - K. Ancrum Page 0,84

Ominotago’s mother; she looked Wendy over with suspicion, but her expression melted into something much softer as she laid eyes on Tinkerbelle and realized who Wendy must be.

Minsu’s parents were sitting in near silence as an officer explained the situation, which Minsu translated into Korean. They were dressed extremely fancy, in spite of the late hour. Wendy remembered how Minsu had said his father wouldn’t care why he was arrested and would be angry anyway. But Minsu’s father was looking between his son and the officer in confused wonder at what his son had helped achieve. Minsu’s mother’s hands were clasped tightly between her husband’s. Minsu looked nervous, but Wendy was sure that everything would probably be all right.

Wendy didn’t see her own parents, so she went to go sit in one of the empty plastic chairs by the front door.

Nibs, who was also by himself, came and sat next to her. He nudged her shoulder with his and nodded at Curly and at Ominotago’s father, who was standing by him.

“That’s Curly’s family, too, right?” Wendy asked.

Nibs nodded firmly. “They’re giving him another chance, and they said they’ll let me stay with them, too. I can tell they’re wary, but he’s not going to mess his chance up. Not again, not after this.”

“What did he do the first time?”

Nibs shook his head. “If you want to know, you have to ask him. He’s not proud of it, and it’s not my story to tell.”

Wendy began to apologize for prying, but was startled by a yell from the doorway.

“WENDY!” Mrs. Darling shrieked.

Wendy looked up, startled.

Mr. and Mrs. Darling were coming out of the back of the precinct, from the opposite direction Wendy and Tinkerbelle had come from. Wendy had only a moment to wonder why they were that deep into the building when Mrs. Darling sprinted across the room and slammed into her. She crushed Wendy in her arms in hysteria, dragging Wendy to the ground as she scream-cried. Mr. Darling jogged up behind her and knelt down on the floor so he could get his arms around the both of them.

Mrs. Darling clawed at the back of Wendy’s dress, nearly incoherent. Wendy closed her eyes and buried her face in her mom’s sweater, inhaling her familiar mom scent, and the noise of the precinct and the screaming and crying faded away.

She knew she was in trouble, and it was the big kind, but that hardly seemed to matter. Wendy held on to her mom and thought about how Mrs. Darling really didn’t need CrossFit because she was crushing the air clean out of Wendy’s lungs. She hoped that when her mom let go, she would still feel this ache, and know that she was home and she was loved. Wendy had never wanted to go home more in her life. She was so, so tired.

“You’re grounded for thousands of years,” Mrs. Darling sobbed.

“I know.”

“You’re never leaving the house again!”

Wendy’s eyes smarted and she nodded, just holding her mom and dad closer. “Yeah, okay…”

It was getting louder outside of the hug she was in, but Wendy didn’t want to pull back to see what was going on. She stayed nearby, until the noise was much closer and starting to slap at her back.

“Wendy! Wendy!”

“Young lady, if you don’t back off—” Mrs. Darling started, but Wendy knew the voice she’d heard. She wrenched her head around to find Eleanor and two tired, angry people who had to be Eleanor’s parents. Eleanor was still in her pajamas, but her parents were fully dressed and looking down at the Darling family like they were sure Wendy was a bad influence.

“This is bad timing, but I’m Eleanor, and I called the police,” Eleanor said proudly. “As I’m sure you’ve been told, I’m a fan of safety and good decisions. Nice to finally meet you all at four o’clock in the morning in the middle of a police station.”

“You’re very rude,” Mr. Darling said.

“Noted. Now, I’ve had a very long and anxious night; can I get this hug I’ve been wanting for a couple of years?”

Mrs. Darling recovered the quickest. She let go of Wendy and shook hands with Eleanor’s parents. “Mrs. and Mr. Darling, nice to meet you. Sorry about this; we were really hoping to meet you both under much better circumstances.”

While their parents began introducing themselves, Wendy let Eleanor’s spindly arms rock her from side to side. She was taller than Wendy had thought she’d be—no one can ever really imagine that correctly