“Barely.” I shivered. “At one point, I lost it. I mean really lost it. Bawled like a baby.”
Sometimes I thought there was something wrong with me because I rarely cried. I didn’t even cry at my granddaddy’s funeral, even though we were close and I missed him terribly. When I thought tears should fall, they didn’t. But I’d cried here, when I realized I was totally alone. And I hadn’t cried since.
Natalie was staring at me. “Honey, I lost it the minute I woke up. And for the next few weeks, I kept freaking about stupid stuff, like all the school I was missing, and how behind I would be when I got back. Then I realized I’d be lucky if I got back.” She shook her head. “Don’t feel bad about losing it. Nil has a way of getting to everyone, sooner or later.”
I wasn’t exactly sure what she meant.
“So you and Thad, huh?” Natalie grinned, a wicked Em grin. “I like it.”
“Me too.” I couldn’t help smiling. “You know what’s crazy? I didn’t even know his last name until tonight.”
“What is it?”
“What?”
“Thad’s last name,” Natalie said. “What is it?”
“Blake,” I answered, surprised.
“Kevin’s is Radford. Mine’s Bourdean. Natalie Bourdean.”
“Charley Crowder.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Charley Crowder.” She chuckled, but under the laugh, she sounded exhausted.
“I’m glad you’re back, but I’m not, ya know?” I said.
“Yeah.” Her voice was small. “I know.”
“How many gates did y’all see? Jason said one flashed near the rain forest, but too far away to catch.”
“So far away I didn’t see it, but Jason swears it was there. It doesn’t matter.” She sighed. “I didn’t catch it.”
“It just means that gate wasn’t yours. You’ll catch one, Natalie. You’ll make it.”
“I hope you’re right.”
Me too, I thought, but I said, “Did you see any others?”
“One, the first day, near the hills. A bird flew into it, and it collapsed.”
“Any inbound?”
“Nope.”
I nodded, taking mental notes.
“Natalie, the big carving, the one by the Arches. Thad calls it the Man in the Maze. He said there’s an identical one across the island, only that one has a woman instead of a man.”
“There is.”
“So what do they mean?”
“Who knows?” Natalie yawned. “Maybe someone had a lot of time on their hands.”
“But the carvings are so precise, they must be here for a reason,” I insisted. “Maybe someone was trying to leave us a clue. Maybe Nil is the maze, and the carvings tell us how to escape.”
Natalie looked thoughtful. “It’s a nice thought, but I don’t see how.”
