“Sit back, Penelope,” my dad orders as we wind around a particularly sharp curve. “It’s not safe for you to be leaning forward like that.”
I roll my eyes but do what he says. Watching him and Paris go at it over the last couple of years has proven that my father’s not above pulling the car over and stopping in the middle of nowhere just to make a point. And right now, the only point I want to hear him make is that we’ve finally—finally—arrived.
“Don’t worry.” My mother glances over her shoulder at me. “We’re almost there.”
I find that hard to believe, considering—“What was that?” I ask, a combination of nerves and excitement suddenly thrumming in my stomach.
“What was what?” My dad’s perfectly manicured brown mustache quivers just a little with the words.
“There was a flash of light.” I point to the big red barn we’re passing on the left. “Right over there.”
My parents exchange a look. “It was probably nothing.”
It didn’t feel like nothing. In fact—“There it is again!”
I point directly to it this time—a rainbow-colored sparkle just beyond the barn.
Even Paris raises his head at the urgency in my voice. But by the time the three of them look at where I’m gesturing, the flash of colors is gone. Again.
“It’s probably just the sun bouncing off the barn’s roof,” my mom replies.
“What sun?” I ask, because it’s actually a really dull, really gray-looking day.
Dark, sinister clouds fill the sky, and though I haven’t heard any thunder yet, the promise of rain feels more like a threat as fog rolls in from the top of the mountain. The higher we climb, the more misty and out-of-time things are starting to look.
“You know what your mom means,” my dad answers. “If it’s not from the roof, maybe you’re seeing a glint from the metal on some old tractor or something.”
Once again, if there’s no sun, there’s obviously nothing to glint off metal, either. But I keep my mouth shut, mostly because experience has taught me that it’s not worth arguing with either of my parents when they’re dead set against believing me.
Still, I crane my neck as far to the left as it will go so I can keep watching the barn even after we drive past it.
Sure enough, a few seconds later I see another rainbow-colored spark—this one bigger than the other two put together—but before I can say anything, the road curves to the right. The barn, and the mysterious sparkles, disappear.
And just like that, the fog turns thicker—much thicker—and the sky around us turns the same ominous color as the clouds.
“What happened?” My brother looks up for the first time. “Why’s it so dark at ten a.m.?”
“Just the weather,” my mom trills. “Nothing to worry about.”
This time it’s Paris and me who exchange looks, but then he shrugs and goes back to his game—leaving me with nothing to do but continue staring out the window in hopes of finally catching a glimpse of Anaximander’s.
Thirteen excruciating minutes later, my dad finally pulls the car into a small—and by small, I mean almost nonexistent—shoulder at the curve in the road.
“Wait. Why are we stopping?” I ask as my chest tightens and my palms start to sweat. “Are we finally there?”
2.Thinking Outside the Donut Box
NOT YET,” MY DAD ANSWERSas he opens the driver’s side door. “I just thought you and your brother might like a first-day-of-school treat.”
“A treat?” I glance at my phone. “But we’re supposed to be there by ten thirty. It’s ten thirteen now. I don’t think we have time—”
“We’ve got time,” my mother says as she climbs out. “Besides, this place has the best goodies on the entire East Coast.”
“Thisplace?” Doubt fills me as I try to peer through the thick fog. I can’t see anything but gray—and a small fire burning in a lantern about thirty feet away.
Which isn’t weird at all.
I mean, who needs a flashlight when you can just walk around with a live flame all the time? Sure, you risk settingthe entire forest on fire, but maybe I’m the only one who sees that as a problem…
