Page 96 of Forever is the Sweetest Con
The hot tears sting my sunburned cheeks. Betty takes my hand and coos at me, and I blow long breaths through pursed lips until I feel calm enough to talk. I tell her the basics—how many people, the lack of food and electricity, how we were left for dead by the producers.
“Okay, honey, you just wait here, I’m going to get a police officer in here to talk to you, okay?”
It could be ten minutes or it could be ten hours that pass before the police officer arrives. I’m so mired in panic that I have no sense of time. The police officer is kind. He calls me Little Lady, which I would normally hate, but for some reason, it soothes me. He calls for a search and rescue team immediately, and then he asks me to fill in the details. I name all the campers, and then I tell him about the show, about Tyler and Gabby and the Silver Fox.
He coughs. “What was the man’s name? McFarland, did you say?” I nod. “Short fella? White hair?” I nod again. He leaves the room for a few minutes. I can hear him speaking in a low, serious tone in the hallway. He comes back in, rubbing his hands together.
“Don’t you worry, Little Lady, we’re going to find your friends, okay? We’ve got our best people out there, and they have water and food and medicine, alright? So, don’t you worry for another second.” He gives me a kind smile. “You’re a very brave young woman, you know that?”
I start to cry, wheezing and gulping. He puts his hand on my forearm and makes soothing noises. Betty comes back, a concerned look on her face. She nods for the cop to leave and takes my hand. “Why don’t you call home?” she says. “That’ll make you feel better.”
Oh god, what am I going to tell my mom? That I squandered her only chance to save her home because I somehow thought I was smart enough, savvy enough, capable enough to scam my way to a solution? That none of this would have happened if I hadn’t been so stupid and so selfish?
“Come on, honey, I’m sure there is someone who is very anxious to hear from you.” She gives me an encouraging nod. I know she’s right. I tell her the number and she hands me the phone. I hold my breath as it starts to ring.
“Cleo?” she says. Her voice sounds so small and far away. My response is a choked sob. “Cleo, are you okay? Did you get kicked off the show?”
This makes me cry even harder. “Mom, I’m so sorry,” I sob. “I’m so sorry.”
“It’s okay, honey, you never know how these things are going to go. Was it an audience vote? Or did the other campers vote? I’ve always thought it would be so much worse if it’s your peers voting you off—”
“No, Mom, it wasn’t that.” I take a deep breath. “The whole thing was fake.”
I tell her about Tyler and Gabby’s scheme, how they tricked all of us, and how I should have known better.
“And that’s not even the worst part,” I say, trying to steady my voice. I have to come clean and tell her about the house. It comes out in fits and spurts, but eventually I get the whole story out. I apologize five, ten, one hundred times. But she’s quiet.
“Mom, are you there?” A long pause. “Mom?”
“I’m here,” she says, her voice somehow even smaller. I wait for her to say something, but she doesn’t. And then I hear a little gulp, a small sniffle. She’s crying, too.
“I’m so sorry.”
“Oh honey,” my mom says. “I know it hurts. I know.”
“I thought—” I sniffle. “I thought if I was able to win, then you’d never have to know. And I feel so stupid, for all of it.”
“It’s not your fault, Cleo. Those people betrayed your trust.”
“It’s my fault for trusting them.”
She sighs. “You can’t go through life not trusting anyone. That’s no way to live. You’ve got to let people in, otherwise what’s it even all about?”
I nod, wiping my nose with the back of my hand. “I’m so sorry, Mom.”
“It’s okay. I was thinking it might be time for a change, anyway.”
“What do you mean?”
“I hear LA’s nice.”
“Wait, what?”
“Well, you were going to go there, anyway, weren’t you? And if I don’t have the house to keep me here, then maybe I could go, too. A fresh start.”
The tears slip, hot and fat, down my cheeks. “Really?”
“That is, if you don’t mind your old mom cramping your style.”
