“Can we go to the hobby shop first?” he asked while Una searched for a parking spot at the library.
“Yes, but you can’t eat your candy necklace until you’re back in the car.”
“Okay.”
On the sidewalk, Justin took Una’s hand and skipped all the way to the hobby store. He stopped in front of the display window and pointed at a group of typewriters. “Jilly wants that for her birthday. She wants the blue one, so she can write real stories. Mom says it’s too expensive, but Jilly’s going to buy it with her own money.”
Una admired the display, but she was really looking at Jill’s reflection in the glass. “I bet your sister will be a famous writer one day. All of her books will be in the library.”
Jill’s vacant gaze skimmed over the sky-blue typewriter. Una could tell that it couldn’t hold the girl’s interest today. Not when she was so numb inside.
The bell over the door tinkled merrily as Justin entered the shop and made a beeline for the candy display.
“Can you pick out something for J.J.?” Una asked him.
“This.” Justin handed her a package of Chuckles.
Jill pointed at a package of wax-shaped bottles filled with colorful liquid. “Nik-L-Nips are his favorite.”
Una swapped the candy. “What about you?”
Jill selected a piece of plastic shaped like a bullet. “Candy lipstick. You get two for a quarter.”
She chose two pink lipsticks and then wandered to the back to look at a shelf of horse figurines in boxes. Justin sidled up next to her and touched the box featuring a young boy riding a black horse. “What does that say?”
“It’s the Black Stallion and Alec, the boy who was on the deserted island with him.”
Justin shrank back. “I don’t like that movie.”
“I know, but I do. There’s a fire and their ship sinks. But they save each other. Otherwise, they would’ve drowned.”
A shadow darkened Jill’s face and she moved away from the horses to the activity book section. Instead of following her, Justin crossed the store to gawk at a display of car model kits.
When he sat down on the floor to study a silver Camaro kit, Una approached Jill. She put an arm around the girl and squeezed. “I don’t know what happened yesterday, but you’re strong and brave. You’re going to be okay.”
Keeping her eyes on a spinner rack of Invisible Ink books, Jill whispered, “Charles was behind us. His boat, I mean. He was behind us, and he was screaming.”
“His mother thinks something scared him.”
Jill slowly turned the spinner. The plastic-wrapped books winked as they glided past. “I was in the car with him on the way home. He stared out the window and whispered to himself the whole time. Our instructor was talking to her boyfriend, so she didn’t hear him, but I did.” She swallowed hard. “He kept saying what he saw in the water. He said there were eels. And something else...”
She shook her head, unable to finish.
“You’ll feel better if it isn’t stuck inside you.”
Jill gripped the rack until her knuckles turned white. “He saw a finger, floating in the water.”
Una’s tongue felt like a piece of leather. She knew she couldtell Jill not to worry. She could say that Charles was mistaken. That his eyes had tricked him. It was foggy and the water was choppy, so he’d seen something that wasn’t there.
But Una couldn’t lie to this shaken girl.
Not when she believed Charles Bernstein.
He saw eels.
He saw a finger.
“Do you believe him?” Una asked Jill.
