Page 22 (1/2)

"I’ into the rain

"Okay On the count of three One," he started, bending his front knee "TwoThree!"

We dashed out into the deluge My father tried to hold the umbrella over my head but it was pointless By the time we threw open our respective car doors, ere soaked

My dad shook his head, scattering droplets of rain onto the dashboard He grinned, and it was infectious Maybe ice creaan to pull out of the parking lot Reflexively, I checked my refection in the side mirror

My hair was plastered to my face, and I was pale But I looked okay Maybe a little thin A little tired But norh I hadn’t

I pressed the heels of s because I was stressed Afraid It wasn’t real I was fine

I tried to ht flashed in the hts from the car behind us I twisted in my seat to see, but the rain was so heavy that I couldn’t hts

My father pulled out of the lot and onto the road, and the headlights followed us Now I could see that they belonged to a truck A white pickup truck

The sa lot

I shivered and huddled into my hoodie, then reached out and turned on the heat

"Cold?"

I nodded

"That New England blood is thinning out fast," my father said with a smile

I offered a weak one of lanced into the fogged glass of the side hts still hovered behind us I twisted around to see better through the rear , but I couldn’t see as driving

The truck followed us onto the highway

I felt sick I wiped my clammy forehead with my forearm and squeezed my eyes shut I had to ask "Is that the sa lot?" I tried not to sound paranoid, but I needed to know if he saw it too

"Hmm?"

"Behind us"

My father’s eyes flicked to the rearviewlot?"

"At Horizons," I said slowly, through clenched teeth "The one we left ten o"

"Dunno" His eyes flicked back to the road He obviously hadn’t noticed, and didn’t think it was a particularly big deal

Maybe it wasn’t Maybe the stress of the pictures, of the interview, triggered the fainting, which triggered my hallucination of a disobedient reflection in the mirror Maybe the truck behind us was just an ordinary truck

I checked the side hts were closer

Don’t think about it I stared ahead at nothing in particular, listening to the hypnotic, mechanical swoop of the windshield wipers My father was quiet He reached to turn on the radio e heard a squeal of tires