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When she looked up, Landry’s broas furrowed "That would be a pretty harsh thing to say to a girl who’s grieving the loss of a ed If Landry had a sense of hu, most of the time It was fine They’d known each other forever

"What about … Brooke?"

"Brooks," Eureka said She’d known him forever, too He was a better listener than any of the shrinks Rhoda and Dad wasted their money on

"Is Brooks a he?" The notebook returned and Landry scribbled so "Are the two of you just friends?"

"Why does that matter?" Eureka snapped Once upon an accident she and Brooks had dated--fifth grade But they were kids And she was a wreck about her parents splitting up and--

"Divorce often provokes behavior in children that makes it difficult for them to pursue their own romantic relationships"

"We were ten It didn’t work out because I wanted to go swi when he wanted to ride bikes How did we even start talking about this?"

"You tell me Perhaps you can talk to Brooks about your loss He seeive yourself permission to feel"

Eureka rolled her eyes "Put your shoes back on, Doc" She grabbed her bag and rose frootta run"

Run froh the woods until she was so tired she didn’t ache Maybe even run back to the tea: when Eureka was low, running helped

"I’ll see you next Tuesday?" Landry called But by then the therapist was talking to a closing door

2

OBJECTS IN MOTION

Jogging through the potholed parking lot, Eureka pressed her key chain reda, her car, and slid into the driver’s seat Yelloarblers har by heart The day ar arda was a red Jeep Cherokee, a hand-me-down from Rhoda It was too new and too red to suit Eureka With the s rolled up, you couldn’t hear anything outside, and thisa toda, so at least the Jeep would be good for a laugh It wasn’t nearly as cool as Dad’s powder-blue Lincoln Continental, in which Eureka had learned to drive, but at least it had a killer stereo

She plugged in her phone and cranked up the online school radio station KBEU They played the best songs by the best local and indie bands every weekday after school Last year, Eureka had DJ’d for the station; she’d had a show called Bored on the Bayou on Tuesday afternoons They’d held the slot for her this year, but she hadn’t wanted it anyirl who’d spun old zydeco jams and recent mash-ups was soain

Rolling down all four s and the sunroof, Eureka peeled out of the lot to the tune of "It’s Not Fair" by the Faith Healers, a band formed by some kids from school She had all the lyrics s faster through her sprints and had been the reason she dug up her grandfather’s old guitar She’d taught herself a few chords but hadn’t touched the guitar since the spring She couldn’t iuitar sat gathering dust in the corner of her bedroo of Saint Catherine of Siena, which Eureka had lifted froar’s house after she died No one knehere Sugar got the icon For as long as Eureka could re of the patron saint of protection froranders rapped on the steering wheel Landry didn’t knohat she was talking about Eureka felt things, things like … annoyed that she’d just wasted another hour in another drab therapy roos: Cold fear whenever she drove over even the shortest bridge Debilitating sadness when she lay sleepless in bed A heaviness in her bones whose source she had to trace anew eachwhen her phone’s alarm sounded Sha so absurd had taken her eance on a wave

Inevitably, when she allowed herself to follow her sad s, Eureka ended up at futility Futility annoyed her So she veered away, focused on things she could control--like getting back to ca her

Even Cat didn’t know Eureka ht show up today The 12K used to be Eureka’s best event Her tea into the hypnotic zone of a long run was rejuvenating A sliver of Eureka wanted to race the Manor kids, and a sliver wasother than sleep for ive Landry the satisfaction, but Eureka did feel utterly misunderstood People didn’t knohat to do with a dead hter Their robotic back pats and shoulder squeezes made Eureka squirrelly She couldn’t fathom the insensitivity required to say to someone, "God ht irls at school who’d never acknowledged her before drove by her mailbox after Diana died to drop off a cross-stitched friendship bracelet with little crosses on it At first, when Eureka ran into them in town bare-wristed, she’d avoided their eyes But after she’d tried to kill herself, that wasn’t a probleirls looked away first Pity had its li up when she saw Eureka She’d blow her nose and laugh and say, "I don’t even like my mom, and I’d lose it if I lost her"

Eureka had lost it But because she didn’t fall apart and cry, didn’t lunge into the ar her or cover herself with hand?

She grieved every day, all the time, with every atom of her body

You could find your way out of a foxhole in Siberia, girl Diana’s voice found her as she passed Hebert’s ashed Bait Shack and turned left onto the gravel road lined by tall stalks of sugarcane The land on either side of this three-mile stretch of road between New Iberia and Lafayette was soe live oak trees carving out blue sky, high fields dotted ild periwinkles in the spring, a lone flat-roofed trailer on stilts about a quarter of a mile back from the road Diana used to love this part of the drive to Lafayette She called it "the last gasp of country before civilization"