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"Did she leave you anything when she died?"

"Money"

"What aboutstuff?" Didn’t want to be too obvious

"Only the es," she said "And some clothes"

And the pendant I left with Noah, thatabout "No letters or anything? Notebooks?"

Another head shake as she stared at the road ahead of us "No"

"What about pictures?"

"She hated pictures," my mother said softly "She never let me take any The one in the hall is the only one I have"

"Of her on her wedding day," I said, an idea dawning

"Yes"

"When she randfather"

A pause "Yes"

"Did he really die in a car accident?"

My mom inhaled sharply "Yes"

"When?"

"When I was little," she said

"Did you have any aunts or uncles?"

"It was just ine what that would be like Lonely was the word that ca how little I knew about uilty for having never really thought of her as anything but Mom I wanted to know randers who happen to live in the same house," Noah had said about his faht now, I didn’t want her to be

But when I opened my mouth to ask her another question, she cutday, Mara Can we talk about this stuff another ti the subject "What did you think of Noah’s stepmother?"

"They’resad," was all she said, and left it at that

I was i mood The obscenely heavy New Theories in Genetics crushed rew nauseous It would have to wait, but that was okay

Everything felt okay, oddly enough Yes, Katie was rude Yes, the necklace thing eird But Noah and I kissed

We kissed

He wouldn’t spend the night, but I’d see him tomorrow after Horizons And then it would be the weekend, and we could spend it looking for answers together