When Atticus parks and goes to step out, Aurora stops him. "Wait, isn't this someone's driveway?"
Did she just speak to him outside of Switzerland?
Atticus turns oh-so slowly to face her, like he's afraid he might break some kind of spell.
Eli opens his mouth to answer Ro, but I give him a cutting look, and he takes the hint to shut up and let Atty talk.
"The house has been abandoned since we were kids," Atty explains tentatively, regulating his tone to within an inch of its life. "It's better to keep the vehicle out of sight."
He hesitates another second, like he might say more, but stops himself, exiting the vehicle instead.
Ro follows Eli out his door as Atty opens the one on his side to let Ellie out. She immediately takes off, but she never goes far.
"Stay close, Ellie!" Ro calls after her, and then looks around, lifting a dark brow. "Didn't you say there was a pond?"
She bats a vine from in front of her face, and makes a face when her hand connects with a bit of cobweb.
Eli pushes the vines from her path and guides her toward the road and the guardrail at the end of it.
"It's down here."
He climbs over the metal barrier and reaches for her, but I'm there first, lifting her over with ease. Eli would've killed his hand trying to hold her weight.
She yelps as I set her on the ground and hop the rail with Atticus a step behind me. Ellie launches over behind him like a galloping horse, darting ahead of us all.
We haven't been here in an age, and the trail shows as much. It's almost completely gone, covered over with new growth and fall leaves.
How many times did I sneak away from home to come here? Definitely more times than I can count.
I still remember that first time, though. This wasmyspot. The place where I came to be alone, throw rocks in the water, and sharpen sticks into spears that I imagined skewering my stepdad with.
Missed opportunity, honestly.
As we traipse down the slope of the hill and the pond comes into view, I see Julian already there. He stands in almost the exact spot I first found Eli, at the water's edge, staring out over the lily pads and mossy heads of large rocks around its edges.
Except Eli had been sitting with his knees bent, a sketchpad propped against them as he hunched over it, scribbling with a pencil, trying to capture the pond in charcoal and graphite.
I smile at the memory, and Julian turns, smiling back as he catches sight of us.
That's a good sign.
Ellie barks, careening to a stop just shy of him to approach cautiously, sniffing around him curiously.
"And who's this?" I can't help noticing he sounds a bit hoarse. The rich timbre I remember from my teen years is muted. Faded almost.
Ellie barks again and goes to investigate the rim of the pond for frogs.
Jules laughs.
"You made it," he says, trailing the edge of the water to meet us.
His nurse doesn't follow, hanging back, perched on a worn stone seat far enough away to provide some privacy. Also, a good sign.
The nurse offers Ellie the back of her hand to sniff and makes an instant friend.
Jules looks a bit better than he did a couple weeks ago. There's more color in his face, but he still looks painfully thin. Atticus notices, too. He won't say it, but I know it kills him to see Julian this way.
Which is probably why he doesn't come with us every time. In the years before everything went to shit, it was the Atty and Jules show. They'd spend hours, sometimes entire days togetherin the library, Atticus eager to soak up every drop of knowledge Julian imparted to him about heist planning, reading blueprints, and being ready for every scenario.
