“Gotta go.” Ollie beat a hasty retreat down the aisle of the bus and halted next to Brian.
“Move,” she said.
Mike Campbell and Phil Greenblatt peered interestedly over the seat in front. Brian looked like he was trying extra hard to be cool. “What if I don’t want to?Ollie-pop.”
That dumb nickname. Her ears burned. “Not my problem,” Ollie retorted. “It’s not my fault you’re wider than you are tall.”
Mike and Phil laughed. Brian, to Ollie’s surprise, suddenly slid over. Was it her imagination or was he looking embarrassed too? “All yours,” he said.
Ollie sat down, keeping a suspicious eye on Brian. First he got her out of detention, and now he was... A thought struck her. “Did yousaveme a seat?” she asked.
“What?” said Brian. He was definitely red about the ears. “No.”
She eyed him. He turned studiously to look out the window.
Ollie stared, and then shrugged. Let boys be a mystery for another day; there was the mystery of her book in front of her. Ollie opened upSmall Spaces.
“Jon,” I said. “What are you going to do?”
“Go with him,” said Jonathan, his voice thick with despair. “I promised. In exchange for Caleb. I have to go. Or—or he’ll take Caleb instead. We made a bargain, you see. But it might not be for long.” He tried to sound reassuring, but I don’t think even he believed it. “Until the mist becomes rain.”
“What does that mean?”
“I don’t know. But—Beth, he kept his side of thebargain. Caleb died the night I told him you and I were engaged.”
I trembled. “No—no, he didn’t. Jon, you’re not thinking properly. Of course he didn’t die. He came home. He came home three nights later.”
“Yes,” said Jon. “Because the smiling man and I made a bargain. I think he knew he was getting the better end of the deal and that is why he smiled. Caleb died thirty years ago, and now I have to go into the mist.”
“What are you reading, Ollie?” asked Brian.
Ollie looked up. Was Brian trying to be niceagain? People’s parents did sometimes tell their kids to be nice tothat girlbecause you know what happened to thepoor thing. The thought put a nasty edge in her voice when she answered, “Are you blind? A book.”
“Ah,” said Brian. He angled his head to get a look at the book’s cover. “What book? I’ve never seen it before. Did you get it from the library?”
How would you know what’s in the library,Ollie thought. “It’s calledSmall Spaces,” she said, biting off each word. She lifted the cover to show him. “Which you could read for yourself. If you could read.” Usually one nasty remark was enough to put people off being nice.
There was a small silence. “Well, I only learned reeling and writhing,” Brian said conversationally to the top of herhead. “Andthenthe different branches of arithmetic—ambition, distraction, uglification, and derision.”
What?Ollie knew where she’d heard that sentence before. She could feel her mouth sagging open in a way that she didn’t think people did in real life.
“Mystery, ancient and modern,” Brian went on, leaning back in his seat, looking smug. “With seaography, then drawling—but, whoops, they forgot reading. Sorry to bug you.”
And with that he leaned forward to join the conversation between Mike and Phil: “Yeah, when he took that third shot, and faked the goalie left—”
You might get to know characters in books, Ollie thought, but getting to know a human was an entirely different thing. She tried to keep reading but couldn’t. Her mom’s voice was lodged in her brain too deeply to be forgettable.You were rude, Olivia,said her mother’s voice.You judged him and he didn’t deserve it.
Ollie told herself she didn’t care.
Yes she did.
She shut her book, a finger holding the page.
“It’s about a girl named Beth,” she said to Brian. “She lives on an old farm called Smoke Hollow. Sort of like Misty Valley.” Then Ollie couldn’t resist asking, “Have you memorizedAlice in Wonderland?”
“Not really. Bits,” said Brian, looking cautious. As thoughhe were admitting to something too weird for a hockey star. “I just liked the words in that part. I can tell you most of ‘Jabberwocky’ if you like, for all the good it will do you.”
He stopped talking. Ollie had stopped listening. She was looking past him, out through the curtains of rain. Who was that? A little boy in a brown coat, standing just at the edge of the cornfield. But his face was still and colorless. “Who is that?” Ollie said, pointing.
