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Dashay nearly fell into a kitchen chair "Sweet ht"

I sat next to her Mãe poured us glasses of cold spring water froerator Then she took a chair across from mine We sat and listened to the ocean, felt the breeze from the open , rubbed our eyes I wanted to scream

Instead I broke the silence "We didn’t ask Root what’s in the bottled water I bet she’d know"

Mãe looked confused until Dashay explained her theory "Go fetch the bottle the nice nice ave to you," she said to ive her a saht from home" Mãe stretched her arms behind her and shook the tension out of the on?"

"I don’t know for sure," Dashay said, "but it looks to me as if someone’s out to take control of nature Manipulate it, use it I don’t knohy But I think Bennett is one of the victims"

Then she confessed: the week before, she’d driven to Atlanta again "This ti to his place," she said "I knew that woman would be there So I called him up, told him the Internal Revenue folks needed to meet with him"

Mãe explained it for me "Vaovernment comes after us, takes away our property, may even put us in jail"

"Bennett ca" Dashay sighed "I put on a pretty dress and all, thinking he’d seehe’d been It didn’t work I touched his arm and I looked into his eyes I admitted I’d been the one who called him, not the tax ht through me Finally he said, ‘So I don’t need to ht out of there, back to that woman he met on the plane"

"So you think maybe he drank the water?"

"Of course he drank the water!" Dashay slalass "What else do you do on a plane? Unless you’re sers hand you"

Mãe and I each thought she was being--a little crazy, Mãe thought; soht about the sasa

"Did Bennett have a sasa in his eyes?" Mãe asked

Dashay shook her head, s bounce "When I looked into his eyes, I saw nothing You understand? I couldn’t even hypnotize hi a bottle with his"

"I don’t understand why you even went to see hiht was not norht you ith Burton these days"

Dashay didn’t seem offended "Cecil takes me out to dinner," she said "So, have a bite at this little supper club we go to There’s no hareese and mate for life?" I said

They seemed stunned Then they made weird noises, my mother and her best friend, noises that hter And I was not trying to be funny

Dr Cho ca the door quietly behind her "Glad you’re having fun," she said "Well, I think he’ll be all right Now do you think you can keep hiive hiain in her hardheaded voice, so different from her usual Savannah drawl "We’ll keep watch"

Dr Cho turned tohere?"

"I came home for the weekend"

"But it’s Wednesday"

"I was on a field trip in Savannah," I said "I dropped by to see how things were going"

"That’s fine," she said, "but don’t you have schoolwork to do?"

It was none of her business, really But she was right I had a paper due early the folloeek: an analysis of e’d seen at the caucus I had a working thesis for the paper, and even a tentative title: "Situating Outsiders in Contemporary Culture" The paper I really wanted to write would have a different title: "Eternal Outsiders: Vampires as Outlaws in the Mortal World"

"Yes, I have schoolwork to do" I’d hoped to have a few days on Tybee to lick my wounds--a cliché of which I’o back thanin emotions

Dr Cho nodded briskly "I’ll take you back tomorrow, if you like I have a few calls to make near Hillhouse"

My mother made soft sounds of protest, but Dashay said, "Ari needs to finish things up You wouldn’t want her to flunk out in her first seh the implications of what Root had told us

"Mãe," I said, "what are we going to do?" Then I felt guilty for asking, because she looked so tired

She bent over the table, her hands clasped "Do?"

"About the drugs SoA them sterile"

Dashay said, "Well, we’d better find out who’s distributing the drugs and make them stop"

She kneell as we did how difficult such a task would be

"I can’t coht, Ariella" Mãe pushed back her chair "Raphael needs ain, then we can think about saving the world"

I nodded But the weight of e’d learned sat on , I looked in ondeeply, his eyes closed, ht before I kissed both of theood-bye