No one knew that better than me, though.
THE TREES
It’s two days before Emmy and Oliver’s third birthday.
They’re planning a party. Well, they’re not planning it, their moms are, but it doesn’t matter because it’s going to be so much fun and they’re having their party together. At first, Emmy didn’t like that idea because she thought it meant they would have to share presents, but then Oliver pointed out that the birthday cake would be bigger if it was for both of them, so that helped. Oliver is smart like that.
And right now, at the park, while their moms are sitting in the shade and talking about party plans, Emmy can’t see Oliver anywhere. He’s not on the swings or the slide, and he’s certainly not sitting next to her in the sand, making a sand castle that always seems to slide out of her bucket and into a heap on the ground. It never looks like a castle the way it does at the beach. Emmy likes the beach a lot better than the park.
She stands up and looks at their moms, who are so busy talking that they don’t see her quizzical expression, wondering where Oliver is. She looks past them toward the street, but she knows Oliver isn’t there. They’re not allowed to cross the street by themselves, not yet. Emmy can’t wait to do a lot of things when she’s older, especially crossing the street without holding a grown-up’s hand. She can’t wait to do things by herself.
She turns and looks toward the trees. That’s always been a scary part of the park, where the ground gets damp and smells like dirt and darkness. She never goes over there, but she sees the sun splash across Oliver’s hair, lighting him just for a second, and she hurries over to him.
“What are you doing?” she calls when she’s close enough.
“I saw a frog!” Oliver cries, pointing toward one of the trees. Emmy has never seen a real live frog before. She wonders if they’re slimy. They look slimy.
“C’mon!” Oliver says, scampering forward. “He can be our pet!”
Emmy looks back over her shoulder. Their moms feel so far away and it’s kind of scary. She almost wishes they would see her and Oliver and call them back, pull them back into the familiar orbit of snacks and parks and sand castles that always crumble. But then Oliver disappears behind a tree and Emmy turns back around. The sun ghosts across her hair, warming her for a minute, and she does what she’s always done before.
She follows Oliver into the dark.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Sunday was “Family Day” for Oliver, and my parents needed my help cleaning out the garage, which meant no time to sneak away for surfing that day. And then, true to form, I had to do all the homework I had left until the last minute while my mom walked into my room every fifteen minutes explaining, “If you’d just do a little bit every day, Emmy, then it wouldn’t build up so much. You can’t keep leaving things until the last minute.”
After the fourth time this happened, I finally set down my pen. “Mom. Every time you come in here, you interrupt me and keep me from doing the homework that you want me to do! Is that really a good idea?”
“Well, I’m just saying,” she said. “What are you going to do when you go to college in a couple of years?”
I knew she didn’t mean anything by it, but her comment bit me in exactly the wrong way. “You know, some high school seniors like to go to college right after graduating. They even move away and live in dorms! Can you believe it?”
“We’ve talked about this, Emmy,” my mom said.
“You talked about it,” I muttered. I knew that the idea of me moving out had nothing to do with me and everything to do with my mom.
“What was that?” she asked.
“Nothing.” I smiled at her. “I love you. Best mom ever!”
She just raised an eyebrow at me, but finally left me alone. “Bed at ten thirty!” she yelled as she went downstairs.
I waited for Oliver’s light to come on in his bedroom, but it never did. I texted with Caro for a while, who mostly told me about how terrible Heather was and how she hoped that she would smother to death in a pile of laundry, then I went to bed. Oliver’s room stayed dark.
It was nearly impossible to see him at school the next day, since he was a junior and I was a senior and we didn’t share any classes together. “Hey,” Caro said, bumping into me in the hallway. “So can I move in with you? Because I might murder my sister.”
“Remember? If you’re patient, she’ll just suffocate in a pile of laundry,” I said.
“I don’t have that kind of time,” Caro said, “because I am losing my mind. Seriously. I need my own room.”
“You really want to sleep in my mom’s office?” I said, raising an eyebrow at her. “Think carefully before answering. My mom will have your entire life planned out on an Excel spreadsheet if you do that.”
Caro’s eyes glazed over with happiness. “That sounds like heaven,” she sighed happily. “Tell me more about spreadsheets and organization and cleanliness!”
I was about to answer her when I saw Oliver walking down the hall. It looked like he was heading in a straight line toward me, his eyes never looking away from my face, and I grinned despite my effort to stay cool, to look cool.
“Oh God, you are a mess,” Caro whispered.
“Shut up, I know.”
“Hey,” Oliver said when he was close enough. “Hi, Caro.”