I give it right back to him until he turns and looks out the window.
Andrew
THAT NIGHT, AFTER WE SET UP CAMP,I start worrying about Jamie. It’s not the first time I’ve thought about him—it’s actually the twelfth, but who’s counting other than me, so let’s round down to ten so it’s less depressing. I don’t know if he’s alive. Or if Fort Caroline immediately detained him and tortured him for information about where I am, no matter how many times he said he’s the one who killed Danny Rosewood’s son, not me.
Maybe they’d use him as an example and execute him.
Amy has just gotten Henri-Two down and turned in for the night. Next to me, the Kid lets out a big yawn. I’m not strict with his bedtime because I know he usually passes out when he needs to. Right after dinner, which we finished a couple of minutes ago.
Across from me, Taylor pokes the fire with a stick. She’s been quiet all day. Probably missing Jamar.
“You want us to go back?” I ask. We haven’t gotten that far away from Faraway yet, so it would be okay if she did. But she looks up at me and shakes her head.
Cara looks over at her. “We could try to find a car. See if there’sone in a garage nearby that the owner isn’t using anymore.”
Great euphemism, Cara.
“Oh, can we do that anyway?” Rocky Horror asks, rubbing at his feet. “I got way too used to being carted around by the Nomads.”
“I’m fine,” Taylor says. “Except yes about the car.”
“Yes, tomorrow we’ll get off the highway and find a car.”
Cara opens her mouth but stops. She looks over my shoulder, her eyes squinting. Then they go wide. “Who’s there?” Her voice is low and anxious.
I spin around and peer into the dark. There’s a noise, but it’s so quiet I can’t tell if it’s my imagination. But then I see movement.
I grab the rifle, holding it up to whoever or whatever is there in the darkness. My mind immediately goes to alligators.
And then, for just a second, I hope it’s Jamie.
“Wait! Don’t shoot, it’s just me!”
But that’s not Jamie’s voice.
Taylor is at my side. “Jamar?”
“Yeah.” He comes a few steps closer. I lower the gun as Taylor runs over to him. She stops short and it almost becomes a replay of (what I assume was) their first kiss. But they both seem to be too nervous to do that again, so instead she knocks the wind out of him with a hug.
“Jesus, don’t sneak up on us like that,” Rocky Horror says.
“What’s going on?” Amy asks, sounding groggy.
“Jamar followed us from Faraway,” I say. Amy grunts and goes back to sleep.
“What about your sister?” Taylor asks.
Jamar winces. “I left her a note. When she gets back with Jamie, he’ll have someone to leave with him.”
Rocky Horror gives me an anxious look that I pass along to Cara. Niki is going to be pissed. And she’s definitely following him.Ifthey come back. But I have to stop thinking like that.
Whenthey come back.
Thirteen times.
Rounded down to ten.
Jamar sits by the fire, very close to Taylor, and eats while we ask him why he left. Obviously he did it for Taylor, but I’m curious to know if he rationalized it to explain to Niki.
