There was nothing like readingthatto make Miri feel like even more of an outcast than she already was. She and her sister eventually came to understand each other now that they were adults, but, oof. Miri could have done without the almost two decades of that voice in the back of her head.
So did shetrulywant to know what was in Dr. Quinn’s bag? Did she really need confirmation that all this talk about bad guys and spies was really the ramblings of a concussed fool?
Unless…unless Dr. Quinn had something to hide.
Miri scurried between the seats to retrieve his bag, reaching under the bench and giving it a quick yank. But it didn’t budge.
Crap.
It was stuck on something.
She crawled under the seat, stretching her arm around the strap of his pack. Tugging. Pulling. Grunting as she wrenched it in her hands.
“What are you doing?” Rafa said from behind her, causing her to startle.
“Nothing,” she said as she quickly let go of the bag and lifted her head, hitting it underneath the seat. “Ouch!”
But now she couldn’t move. Dammit. She was stuck on something.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“No…I…I’m stuck,” she said, twisting her arm around atop her head and trying to wriggle herself free. “My hair…ow.”
What a disaster.
“Here, stop moving,” he said, inching into the van beside her. “Let me help you.”
“It’s okay, I can get it,” she yowled.
“You’re making it worse.”
His body snaked beside hers. There was barely enough room for Miri on her own. With Rafa in the mix, they were like a couple of sardines in a tin can. If the twisting of Miri’s hair weren’t causing extreme pain, she might have actually enjoyed this.
He finally made his way under the seat face-to-face with her. “I see what it is. Your hair is caught around this metal thing. Hold still and I can probably get it,” he said, lifting his hands into her hair.
She pulled her bottom lip into her mouth, scrunching her face to keep from yelping.
“What were you doing under here?” he asked as his fingers plucked at pieces of her hair. “And don’t say nothing,” he quickly followed up, flashing her a gentle but telling smile.
“I was…I was trying to get Dr. Quinn’s bag.”
Rafa wrinkled his brow, then tipped his head to check for Dr. Quinn’s belongings before turning back to her. “What’s in there?” he asked, continuing to work on her hair.
Miri opened her mouth to reply, when Rafa pulled on a piece of hair too tightly and she hissed. “Sorry,” he said. “I’ve almost got it, though.”
For a moment, Miri debated not answering Rafa’s question. But clearly she’d been snooping. There was no hiding it.
“I was checking to see if Dr. Quinn had any clues,” she said.
Rafa stopped for a moment, eyeing her curiously, before continuing again. “Clues about what? About the location of the Moon City?”
Miri shrugged, at least as best she could. “I don’t know. Bad guys, I guess? Now that I’m saying it out loud, though, I realize how ridiculous that sounds.”
“It’s no more ridiculous than thinking you saw a warthog in the Amazon,” he said, giving her a wink. “There, I think I got it.”
Miri lowered her head and rubbed the spot where she’d been stuck, still tender from the pulling. “Thanks,” she said.
“No problem. Does it hurt?”
