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It wasn’t the same, she told herself Those tears had been torrential, shed as her parents broke up This sudden urge to cry over a banged-up Jeep had already retreated inside her, as if it had never surfaced

Fast-ray Eureka glanced at the earcane bordering the road and the open green glade beyond the crop; everything was still, waiting She was shivery, unsteady, the way she got after she’d run a long trail on a hot day without water

"What just happened?" Shethat had passed since she’d encountered him

"Maybe some kind of eclipse," he said

Eureka turned her head so that her right ear was closer to hi aid she’d been fitted for after the accident She never wore it, had stuffed its case soave her a headache She’d gotten used to turning her head subtly; most people didn’t notice But this boy seeood ear

"Seems like it’s over now" His pale skin shone in the peculiar darkness It was only four o’clock, but the sky was as dim as in the hour before sunrise

She pointed to her eye, then to his eye, destiny of her tear "Why did you …?"

She didn’t kno to ask this question; it was that bizarre She stared at him, his nice dark jeans, the kind of pressed white shirt you didn’t see on bayou boys His brown oxford shoes were polished He didn’t look like he was froain, people said that to Eureka all the time, and she was a born-and-bred New Iberian

She studied his face, the shape of his nose, the way his pupils widened under her scrutiny For a h Eureka were seeing him underwater It occurred to her that if she were asked to describe the boy toht not remember his face She rubbed her eyes Stupid tears

When she looked at hiain, his features were focused, sharp Nice features Nothing wrong with them Still … the tear She didn’t do that What had come over her?

"My nah a h he hadn’t just done the strangest, sexiest thing anyone had ever done

"Eureka" She shook his hand Was her palet a name like that?"

People around here assumed Eureka was named for the tiny town in far north Louisiana They probably thought her parents snuck up there one suht when they got low on gas She’d never told anyone but Brooks and Cat the real story It was hard to convince people that things happened outside of what they knew

The truth hen Eureka’s teenaged ied out of Louisiana quick She drove west in theall of her parents’ strict rules, and ended up in a hippie co-op near Lake Shasta, California, which Dad still referred to as "the vortex"

But I ca and still in love with Dad I always cohth birthday, Diana took her out there They’d spent a few days with hercloudy unfiltered apple cider Then, when both of the landlocked--which happened fast with Cajuns--they drove out to the coast and ate oysters that were briny and cold, with bits of ice clinging to their shells, just like the ones bayou kids were raised on On their way hohway to the city of Eureka, pointing out the roadside clinic where Eureka had been born, eight years earlier, on leap day

But Eureka didn’t talk about Diana with just anyone, because rasp the co to defend Diana was painful So Eureka kept it all inside, walled herself off from worlds and people like this boy "Ander’s not a name you hear every day"

His eyes dropped and they listened to a train heading west "Family name"

"Who are your people?" She knew she sounded like all the other Cajuns who thought the sun rose and set on their bayou Eureka didn’t think that, never had, but there was so about this kid that arcane Part of Eureka found that exciting Another part--the part that wanted her car repaired--was uneasy

Car wheels on the gravel road behind them made Eureka turn her head When she saw the rusty tow truck jerk to a stop behind her, she groaned Through the bug-splattered windshield, she could barely see the driver, but all of New Iberia recognized Cory Statutory’s truck

Not everyone called hied thirteen to fifty-five, al eyes or hands When he wasn’t towing cars or hitting on underage or , tossing beer cans, absorbing the s of his sunburnt skin He wasn’t old but he looked ancient, which made his advances even creepier

"Y’all need a tow?" He leaned an elbow out theof his cloud-gray truck A wad of chewing tobacco sat lodged in his cheek