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Allie must have communed with a dozen patients before she felt so exhausted by it, and filled with their gratitude, that she had to stop

It was getting dark as they left the hospital, and as her s they did today, she couldn't help but reel from the sheer awe of it Since the first day she discovered she could skinjack, she had lived in fear of the idea--she had treated it like a nasty little secret, to be used only when absolutely necessary It kept her fro the possibilities!

"Do you realize e could do?" she told Milos "Solve the world's greatest cri peace to the , we could actually change the world!"

Milos found this very a with fleshies, and here you want to change the world!"

"I didn't say I wanted to, just that we could"

Then his gaze changed He was no longer laughing Now he looked a bit be at Allie was like looking at a wonder The gaze made her feel aard and she had to look away

"Perhaps I am too small-minded," Milos said "This has always been e I will try to think ht he was just hue the world

Only much later would her oords come back to haunt her In her book You Don't Know Jack, Allie the Outlawobservations:

"Unlike other Afterlights, we have an unfailing et ere What's more ihts than we are different--and we must help nonjackers to see this We straddle torlds--Everlost and the world of the living If ish to be respected and not feared, we ood ambassadors to both"

Chapter 12 Of Monsters and Mullets

There was no question that Nashville slowed the opportunities Mikey was the only one annoyed by ho ht you wanted to find your family," he re--a couple of days won't make a difference"

She could have told hi ti--but she knew Mikey would ask her a million questions she had no answers to Like what it ned to Everlost for her "natural life," as if the universe knehen she would have died if she hadn't been in the accident How can a date be assigned to so that will never happen?

An exploration of Nashville had turned up a sizeable vapor of Afterlights in an old burned-out factory that had crossed over They were friendly but guarded, not trusting of outsiders--least of all a foreigner like Milos The Nashville Afterlights h, and were happy to listen to all their stories of faraway places--and to them, every place was far away

"So you've all been into the Everwild?" their leader asked--a kid who had blue hair for no reason anyone could fathom

"Where I come from, this is the Everwild," Allie told hi a joke

One kid didn't laugh, though A bone-thin, sad-eyed kid as so hunched the other kids just called hi about anywhere--'cept of course for the Sky Witch"

Both Allie and Mikey shifted unco Neither of thehtower

"But the real wild places are to the west," said Igor, and the other kids reement Then he whispered, "Have you felt the wind?"

"What wind?" asked Mikey

"We don't feel wind in Everlost," Allie pointed out

"You'll feel this wind," said Igor "If you're goin' to Meh"

Allie looked to Milos, but he just shrugged "This is as far west as I've ever been"

"Great," grumbled Mikey "Another problem"

"It's not a problem," said Allie "It's just wind"

But the looks on the Nashville kids' faces said otherwise

While Moose and Squirrel bargained with the Nashville Afterlights, hoping to provide various skinjacking services, Milos invited Allie for another lesson

"Enough talk of winds and worries," Milos said "Tonight we have fun"

"If it's an evening of fun, then we should invite Mikey," she said, estion--a little jab to remind him that their lessons were serious business

Milos shrugged "Of course, of course," he said, sounding a little like Squirrel, "but even if Mikey could skinjack, somehow I do not think he is one to appreciate countryto read the mildly mischievous look on Milos's face "What does country ?"

But Milos only s the Nashville Afterlights, but he was nowhere to be found

"Lasht ti the factory by hi htly Mikey was very good at taking care of hiht, Milos took Allie to Nashville's Grand Ole Opry, where Travis Dix was in concert There was some country music that Allie loved, and some that she hated--but whether you were a fan of country music or not, everybody loved Travis Dix Allie's only problem with it was that this felt like a date, and that made her uncomfortable Alive, she had always been too busy with sports, student government, and the yearbook to date Besides, the boys she liked were always out of reach, and the ones who did give her attention always lacked a certain so--such as common sense, or deodorant

She always assumed there would come a time for her to make boys a prioritybut death had put a damper on that Well, she hadn't dated in life, and she wasn't about to start now She had Mikey as an afterlife coh for her