Rob glanced at Kait in surprise. What's wrong?
I don't know. She's just—does she seem okay to you?
She seems great to me, Lewis interrupted. Jeez, what a babe. And I'm freezing out here.
Kaitlyn still wasn't sure. Anna?
Anna had been walking around the back of the Pontiac, but had stopped at Kaitlyn's first message. Now she said gently, You're probably still shaken up, Kait. I think she's fine—and besides, we can all fit in this car!
"Yes, we can, can't we?" Gabriel said aloud, not seeming to mind the girl's inquisitive glance. Kaitlyn wondered how they must appear to the girl—all five of them standing frozen and silent—and then Gabriel suddenly coming out with this strange rhetorical question.
All right, let's do it, Kait said hastily. She was embarrassed, and she didn't want to argue anymore. But as Rob opened the door, she asked Gabriel, What did you mean?
Nothing. It's just an interesting coincidence that we jit, that's all.
Anna and Lewis got in the front with the girl. Kaitlyn slid in the back seat after Rob, and Gabriel followed her. The white vinyl seats creaked under their weight.
"My name's Lydia," the girl said in that same careless voice. "Where are you going?"
They introduced themselves—or rather Lewis introduced them—and Anna said, "We're trying to get to Suquamish, near Poulsbo—but that's pretty far away. Where were you headed?"
Lydia shrugged. "I wasn't headed anywhere, really. I took the day off school to drive around."
"Oh, do you go to North Mason High? I have a cousin there."
Anna's question was perfectly innocent, but Lydia seemed affronted. "It's a private school," she said briefly. Then she said, "Are you getting enough heat back there? If I turn it too high, the windows steam up."
"It feels great," Rob said. He was holding Kaitlyn's hands in his own, rubbing them. And he was right, being in a warm dry car was wonderful. Kaitlyn's brain felt almost stupefied at the sudden luxury.
She was aware, though, that Lydia was watching them keenly, casting glances at Lewis and Anna beside her, then looking up into the rearview mirror to examine the three in the back. Although Lewis seemed to enjoy the scrutiny it made Kait uncomfortable, particularly when Lydia began frowning and chewing her lip in a speculative way.
"So what were you doing back there?" Lydia asked finally, very casually. "You're awfully wet."
"Oh. We were…" Lewis fumbled for words.
"We went for a hike," Gabriel said evenly. "We got caught in the rain."
"Looks more like you got caught in a flood."
"We found a creek," Gabriel said before Lewis could answer.
"So you guys are from around here?"
"From Suquamish," Anna said—and for her, at least, that was the truth.
"You take long hikes," Lydia said, looking in the rearview mirror again. Kait noticed that she had exactly three freckles on her small nose.
Somehow Lydia's skepticism had calmed Kait's own suspicions. It wasn't really furtiveness lurking in those gray-green eyes, she decided. It was more defensiveness, as if Lydia had been beaten up by life a great deal. Kaitlyn felt sympathetic.
They were driving inland, now, through stands of evergreen trees with tall bare trunks. To Kaitlyn, they looked like hundreds of soldiers standing at attention.
Lydia shook back her hair and tilted her chin up. "I hate going to private school," she said suddenly. "My parents make me."
Kaitlyn, relaxing in the warmth of the car, tried to think of something to say to that. But Lewis was already sympathizing. "That's too bad."
"It's so strict—and boring. Nothing exciting ever happens."
"I know. I went to private school once," Lewis said. Lydia changed the subject abruptly.
"Do you always take duffel bags when you go hiking?"
"Yes," Gabriel said. He seemed to be able to handle Lydia best. "We use them like backpacks," he said, seeming amused.
"Isn't that a little awkward?"
Gabriel didn't answer. Lewis just smiled engagingly.
There was another minute or so of fidgeting from Lydia, and then she burst out, "You're running away, aren't you? You don't really live around here at all. You're hitchhiking across the country or something—aren't you?"
Don't tell her anything, Gabriel thought to Lewis, just as Lydia said, "You don't have to tell me. I don't care. But I wish I could have an adventure sometime. I'm so tired of private riding clubs and country clubs and Key Clubs and the Assistance League." She was silent for a moment and then added, "I'll drive you to Suquamish if you'll tell me the way. I don't care how far it is."
Kaitlyn didn't know what to make of the girl. She was a strange, excitable creature—that was certain. And she felt left out, an outsider looking in on the five of them.
Kaitlyn remembered how that felt—being outside. Back in Ohio she had been outside everything. She'd been too different; her blue-ringed eyes had been too strange, her psychic drawings had been too spooky. No one at her old high school had wanted to consort with the local witch.
But she still wasn't sure about Lydia—and she didn't like the way Lydia pushed so hard to get in.
Don't tell her anything, she advised Lewis, echoing Gabriel's opinion. After a moment Lewis lifted his shoulders in acquiescence.
"We'd be grateful if you'd take us to Suquamish," Rob said gently, and then they all shut up and listened to the radio.
"Turn here," Anna said. "It's just down this street—there, that house with the Oldsmobile in front of it."
It was twilight, but Kaitlyn could see that the house was the same red-brown color as Anna's cedar basket. It must be made of cedar, she realized. The spruce and alder trees around it were becoming mere towering shapes as dark fell.
"We're here," Anna said softly.
A house, Kaitlyn thought. A real house with parents in it, adults who would help take care of them. For the moment it was all Kait wanted. She stretched her stiff, clammy legs and watched Gabriel reach for the door handle.
Lydia blurted, "I guess you weren't running away. I didn't know you really had somewhere to go. Sorry."