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The place smelled of burnt popcorn and overcooked frankfurters The shopperscarts, so, and their din blended with music blared from overhead speakers

At first I didn’t see Jacey; she wasn’t easy to find in a crowd Then I spotted her leaning against a jewelry counter, taking notes With her long hair in braids and her plaid shirt and denim overalls, she looked like a child, if you didn’t notice the notebook and pen in her hands They made her seem older, somehow

I headed toward her, but before I reached the counter, I looked back, overafter me

She seemed to be in no hurry She s illegal in stores?

I changed course, headed down an aisle past greeting cards and craft supplies The store spread out in all directions, and I didn’t see any place that wasn’t brightly lit and fully exposed The speakers in the ceiling played an instrunized fro was called "Stardust"

The girl with red hair rounded the corner, past racks of yarn and plastic packages of knitting needles She see faster now

I wove between shoppers, turned into the appliance section, accidentally shoved a large wo for a toaster oven

"Hey!" Her voice echoed after ns suspended fro, but I didn’t have time to look up Then I found ainst it, writing in her notebook

"There you are," she said

I grabbed her aro home," I said "Get out of here Don’t talk to anybody Don’t wait forwith me, her pen in one hand, notebook in the other "What are you doing?"

She didn’t weigh

"Remember what happened to ht--people around et killed Get out of here now Don’t look at anyone in the parking lot Just go"

She kept trying to interruptI whirled around The girl with the cigarette stood in front of us, her face without expression She blew srasp and bolted out of the store I held round "What do you ith me?" I said

Beneath her cap of red hair, her eyes never blinked She inhaled deeply and exhaled toward reeter, an oldercarts I called to hiarette lit-end outward It singed the hair on arette reached my skin

The painincoherent Then I turned and wove back through the crowd again, past jewelry, past appliances, past sewing supplies, and into women’s fashions That’s where I decided to turn invisible

I wasn’t wearing my special suit, but when I passed the T-shirts and jeans pinned to a display board, I saw a chance I kicked my backpack beneath the wooden pedestal where the board was mounted, climbed onto it, and stretched out ht Now, instead of three outfits on display, there were four--the last a little grungier than the rest, accessorized by an amulet in the shape of a cat

She walked by the display a few seconds later, looking froarette’s red end outward, ready to strike She passed so close to me that I smelled the lotion she wore: a mixture of pineapple and coconut cream I tried not to inhale, in case it was toxic I looked down at her, wishing I was so back

All-Mart stays open late on Saturdays At ten fifty PM the loudspeaker announced that the store was about to close

For more than two hours I’d held my invisible one to sleep, and the cigarette burn onI’d heard s from the 1970s and ’80s than I can bear to recall; for years afterward, I couldn’t stand to listen to that ineered scents worn by shoppers and store clerks ht-headed, close to nauseous

My eyes felt heavy, and I ht of a dark-haireda cart filled with junk food I could have sworn he was Elvis--the Darling of the Che He passedto himself, and disappeared down another aisle

Earlier I’d wondered if I should spend the night in the place But even if ten cigarette girls and shadow ain, I hoped that no one was ht

Outside, the parking lot gaped, nearly e relief If Sal had grabbed her, I thought, her car would still be there

It would be a long walk back to caht--the ht bea invisible again, but the air was cold enough to persuadethe road’s shoulder, not bothering to look for beige vans Let then ahead for the Okefenokee Swaht

The park was closed, but the fence was easy to scale Tupelo trees glistened silver in the ht, and the shalloater beneath them seemed bottomless I made my way to the docks where we’d launched our canoes

I’d had so out to the island where the cabin was But I felt too tired to go a step farther I wrapped my sweater around n of Old Joe, and I said a silent prayer that somewhere, he ell--that somewhere he was, at least, alive

I wish I could write that the blue h above, it stared down silently, a blank, impervious eye I crossed ht of all the things that ht--snakes, duppies, a rollin calf, Sal Valentine--and I sent out a thought to theet me This is your chance I’, ca with the groans of tree frogs and river frogs, coe I would never understand The carpet of stars overhead held no discernible patterns; try as I ht, I couldn’t find constellations, only stellar clutter