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"I know."

The kid has been going by on a bike for twenty minutes. Same twenty feet. But not a visible bike.

"Where’d they come from?"

Gage sets his coffee down. "They didn't come from anywhere. We’re just able to see them now."

I’ve decided that I already hate today.

"I said I'd tell you tonight." My voice comes out steadier than I have any right to. "I'm going to tell you now."

He turns from the window.

"Lila told me they made up a room for me at Sorrell House."

"I know about the room. Evelyn offered it to you on Friday."

"Lila told me what it's for."

Something moves behind his face and gets shut down fast. "Okay. Tell me."

"She said I should ask to see it and then ask Evelyn to step out into the hall." I make myself finish. "And then try to open the door myself."

Gage is quiet for a second and a half. “Try? That can’t be good.”

Then he picks up his keys.

The gates are open, which they never used to be, and I've stopped finding that comforting.

Gage stops the truck on the gravel and cuts the engine and doesn't reach for his door.

"I'm not going in there."

"I know."

"I’m not being stubborn." He looks at the white face of that house. "If I walk in behind you, she’s going to talk to me. She's used to the men controlling the women."

He's right and I hate that too.

"You said you'd be my hands."

"I will. If you say my name at any time, I’ll come through the front of that house to help you. You don't have to shout. I'll hear you."

I get out. The cold is brisk this morning, the kind that chaps your face.

Halfway up the steps I stop and look back, because I need to, and he's exactly where I left him with his arms crossed and his jaw doing his thing.

Evelyn opens the door before I knock.

"You came."

"I want to see the room."

She doesn't ask which room and leads me down the hall.

Third floor, end of the hall, under the eaves where the ceiling comes down on one side.

It's a lovely room.