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“Locke.”
I turn. Rachel is halfway across the yard, carrying coffee in one hand and a bottle of water in the other. Her hair is loose, and she is wearing the blue shirt she wears for work.
“You’re getting adventurous.”
I know adventurous. Shannon taught me that one after I opened every cabinet in the workshop.
“I am standing.”
“At the end of the driveway.”
“Yes.”
She hands me the water. I take it and look past her toward the road. A car passes between the trees, too fast for me to see the person inside. The sound reaches me before it appears and remains after it is gone.
“Where does it go?”
Rachel follows my gaze. “If you turn left, that road goes into the town of Hollis Springs, here in the state of Missouri. After that, anywhere, I guess.”
Shannon showed me maps of this world called Earth. I understand countries and states. I know town from pictures. Buildings close together. Stores. Roads filled with cars. People gathered in numbers I have never seen. “How many people?”
“A few thousand.”
That is more people than I can picture. The road looks too small to hold them.
Rachel takes a drink of coffee. “Why do you want to know?”
“I want to see it.”
The cup stops halfway to her mouth. “Town?”
“Yes.”
She keeps looking at me. I understand enough to know she’s surprised.
“Can I go?”
Rachel does not answer immediately. I have learned that silence can be an answer while a person is still deciding how to say it.
“It isn’t that simple,” she says.
“Why?”
Her eyes narrow slightly. “You really like that word.”
“It gets answers.”
“Unfortunately, yes.”
She walks toward the screened porch, and I go with her. Two days ago, I would have followed because Rachel moved. Today I follow because I still want the answer.
We sit in the two chairs near the little table. Rachel sets her coffee beside her and lets her gaze drift toward the woods before she speaks.
“The people in town don’t know about you. Six of us know. Shannon, Laura, Blair, Janet, me, and you of course.”
She rubs her thumb along the side of her mug. “The part I don’t know is what happens when everybody else finds out. Some people will be fascinated. Some will be scared. Some will look at you for ten seconds and decide they understand everything about you.”
“Like Blair?”
