There's Something Wrong With My Daughter's New Kidney
"Abby… you’re getting a kidney."
My daughter, laying in her dialysis bed, widened her eyes and immediately burst into relieved tears.
I held her, careful to conceal the other shoe, what she couldn’t know yet.
Her sister was dead.
A sixteen year old on bedrest is in no place to know that her older sister had died on life support after an accident at summer camp. That her sister had been her donor. So I told no one. I postponed Marisa's funeral and I held it together.
But Abby had always been a better daughter. I was secretly glad it was her who was still with me.
One day I found Abby eating the popcorn flavored ice cream from a nearby shop.
"That's Marisa's favorite. How did you even get that?”
“Fernanda dropped by cuz I said I was craving it. Marisa’s gonna say she told me so, whenever the camp lets us text. Can Fernanda come back later?”
"Sure, honey."
I noticed something: Abby and her friend usually listened to current radio hits in Abby’s room, but this time they played that loud, chaotic black parade song Marisa used to love so much.
Weeks further into her recovery, I was nervous about letting Abby go out, but Fernanda promised she'd look out for her. Abby came downstairs wearing one of Marisa’s little “emo” skirts, one I’d battled Marisa over and lost. I made a note to question it later.
But that became back burner when they returned. Abby had a nose ring.
"Abby!" I yelled. "You're immunocompromised! You can't do that! And why would you want something so ugly?"
“It's fake," Abby deadpanned. She unclipped it.
"Oh." My heart was still racing.
"But that was pretty rude." She rolled her eyes.
In those eyes, I saw pure Marisa.
I washed dishes and ruminated. Why, since the transplant, had Abby started wearing Marisa’s clothes? Why had she adopted her favorite ice cream? Her music? Her… attitude problem?
The air in the room grew colder when I heard that song playing from Abby's room.
I banged on her door. "Abby, turn down this annoying music!"
She ignored me.
I’d anticipated this, and used the knife I’d just cleaned to pick the lock.
I burst in. In the bed, she and Fernanda gasped, pulling their half-clothed bodies apart.
I stood in shock. How could Marisa and Abby have both turned out… wrong like this?
I flew at Abby.
Fernanda dove to intercept, knocking me over, wresting the knife while Abby screamed.
Fernanda’s parents came and got both girls. Everything came out then, about Marisa. They said that if I wanted Abby back, we could let the police resolve it. So I’ve stayed away.
On the phone, Abby said she forgives me. That she knows everything happened because of the pain of Marisa's death. I didn’t tell her I have a plan. Tonight I'm going to Fernanda’s house, I’m going to find Abby, and I’m going to free her from that cursed kidney.