Someone was shaking his shoulder and Scotty's eyes opened to see Ginger's face close to his.
"What are you doing?" He muttered.
"There's a girl downstairs crying."
Scotty rubbed his eyes and sat up. "Huh?" He scrubbed his hands across his face. "What are you talking about? Did you let some strange person in the house, Ginger?"
"She's not strange," the little girl replied. "She's your friend; that girl that looks like Beady."
Scotty froze. The next second he was on his feet in just warm-up shorts and he hurried down the stairs. Vanessa was standing at the bottom of the stairs and she looked a mess! Her face was wet with her tears and her eyes were swollen as if she had been crying for a long time.
As soon as she saw him she began to cry uncontrollably. She was talking but he couldn't understand what she was saying. He took her by the shoulders and concentrated on her words.
"Vanessa, what happened?"