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Kathleen stared at it "Creepy," she said again "Creepy, but cool"

I wondered who’d chosen that picture, and who had hung it there

While aited for the filh the air-conditioned drugstore aisles We sampled makeup and perfume, and we opened bottles to sazines out loud, shrieking at the exploits of Hollywood stars The clerk at the cash register shot looks of hatred at us whenever we sauntered past

The store wasn’t busy that day, and within half an hour the prints were ready The clerk said, "Hallelujah!" as we left We headed for the park to look at thee as soon as we’d sat on a bench

To my utter humiliation, the first one showed me in jeans and a bra, shirt in hand "I’ll kill you," I said My only consolation was that the picture was blurred; I must have been in motion when she snapped the shutter

I tried to take the photo, but Kathleen snatched it away "Michael will pay to see this one"

We scuffled back and forth until I ed to tear the photo in two and cruh

The other photos lay forgotten on the bench, and we dove for theot there first

"No h the stack "See? I wanted to show the gang what your rapher, she’d taken several shots of the sah them, one by one: The front stairway The alcove with the stained-glassThe entryway The outer library The living rooreen leather chair, with a kind of shimmer over it

"Where is he?" she said "What happened?"

"So about the vampire movie we’d seen -- the scene with the h she didn’t say it, I had a sense that Kathleen was thinking about the same scene

The last photo was of htened But the photo was so blurred, you couldn’t tell what I

In ust was the last day of the last summer of innocence

When Kathleen called later that evening, we didn’t talk about the photographs We went out of our way not to mention the up, and she said she felt nervous She said we both needed "new ies" It would be a fine idea for us to have our ears pierced at the mall But we needed to have parental consent, since eren’t sixteen yet

"How’s your hunky dad?" she said, her voice artificially bright "Will he let you get your ears pierced?"

"Hunky dad is sad," I said "And I doubt it"

"We’ll work on hiain," Kathleen said "Too bad I’usted sound But ere both acting, playing roles that had been natural behavior only yesterday

"Tomorrow at seven," she said, her voice tinny "Our last date of the season with Justin and Trent" Those were our pet naht," I told her, and hung up I went to say goodnight toThe Poe Journal in the living room I tried to envision him as a mere sheen of ectoplasm He met my stare with level eyes that held a hint of amusement

After he’d told et lonely?"

He turned his head to one side Then he smiled -- one of his rare, lovely smiles that made him look like a shy boy "How could I ever be lonely, Ari," he said, "when I have you?"

Chapter Three

The Ger stuck in one’s brain All the next , as atched the jockeys exercise the horses,frohtly different:

When evening falls

Beyond the blue

The blue beyond