“Shut up,” she snapped. “If I’m going to ruin clothes on this little errand, I’ll ruin yours instead of mine.”
I grinned. “Did you have fun going through my bag? I haven’t unpacked it yet. In order to get to those pants, you had to touch my underwear.”
“I didnottouch your underwear.”
“You did. You so did.”
“Can we just get this over with, please?” Dodie dropped the boots forcefully to the floor, making a satisfying clatter, and shoved herfeet, clad in wool socks, into them. “Ben isn’t back there. We both know he isn’t.”
“He isn’t,” I agreed. “But I want to know whatisback there.”
“We’ve never wanted to know before. Because finding out entails walking through the muddy woods like a couple of lunatics.”
I shrugged. “We’re not kids anymore, Dodie. We came here for answers. We won’t get them if we don’t look. And I want to get out of this house.”
My little sister stopped arguing, because I knew that she agreed. The house was oppressive, and it wasn’t just because of the Miss Havisham decor, the dust cloths, and the curtains drawn over the old windows. It was the gloom of every minute of our miserable childhoods winding its way around our necks and down our throats, pulsing behind our eyes. Just making breakfast in this kitchen, like I’d done so many times alone as a kid, brought back bad memories.
Dodie laced her boots, grabbed a banana from the kitchen counter, and followed me to the back door, making sure I could hear her loud, dramatic sigh.
We started across the lawn behind the house, heading for the bank of trees that were losing their leaves in balding splotches. The air was heavy and damp, and my boots were already wet in the grass. I took a deep breath, filling my lungs. It was Fell air, but it was still fresh, familiar. It carried the scent of rot and faraway gasoline. The aroma of my hometown.
Just behind my shoulder, Dodie took a bite of banana and spoke through a mouthful because she knew that would drive me crazy. “How did you get the phone hooked up?” she asked.
I gritted my teeth at the sound of her chewing. “I asked the phone company to do it.”
“So fast, though,” she said with deceptive calm. When Dodie bothered to notice things, she really noticed them. “Does one of yourex-girlfriends work there? Did you seduce her and break her heart? What did you promise her, Vail?”
She was, as usual, skating close to the truth. I’m not a good person. If I’d had to sleep with the woman at the phone company to get what I wanted, I would have. I’d never feel bad about it, even for a second. At least she’d get a bit of excitement for her end of the deal.
“I never promise women anything,” I said, which was the truest thing I’d ever spoken in my life.
Dodie laughed.
“What do you care about the phone anyway?” I asked her. “You don’t have anyone to call.”
“Just my agency,” Dodie agreed, tossing her banana peel into the bushes. “It’s for the best that they can’t reach me now. They’re furious that I canceled on the shampoo people at the last minute. I’m not in their good graces.”
We walked for a few minutes in silence, stepping through the thick underbrush and dodging low branches. My body started to wake up, the old athlete in me stretching and roaring, ready for activity. I never missed my old diving career, but my body liked to move, as if I was born to swing something heavy, like a hammer or a sword. “I should have been born a medieval knight,” I said as we made our way forward.
“You would have made a good one,” Dodie agreed, as if this was a normal thing to say. “How is the UFO business?”
“Full of liars. Though, to be fair, some people are legitimately crazy, which spices things up a bit.”
Dodie laughed again, the sound ringing in the damp air. “You’ve just described New York City.”
I grunted. “So you plan to go back to the modeling thing?”When this is over,I didn’t add. Whateverthiswas.
“For now. Until I decide to buy a yacht, put on a caftan, and sailto Greece, where I will find a man as beautiful as a statue to wait on me hand and foot before giving me nightly ecstasy.”
“That’s an image I didn’t need in my head.” The trees had closed behind us and the house was no longer visible. We weren’t far from civilization, but if you turned in a circle, all you’d see was trees. I paused, feeling the light sweat on my skin under my layers, thinking about which way to go.
Dodie stood by my shoulder, hunched into her cardigan, looking vaguely miserable. “How did you sleep last night?” she asked me.
I looked at her more closely. She wasn’t just grumpy, she was tired. I should have noticed sooner. “Fine, I think,” I said slowly. “I don’t really remember. Didn’t you sleep?”
“Of course I did,” she said, a little too quickly.
“No, you didn’t.”
