Page 109 of Life and Death
“You have to go.”
“I thought you couldn’t read my mind.”
She smiled. “It’s getting clearer.”
A sudden excitement flared in her eyes. “Can I show you something?”
“Anything.”
She grinned. “How about a faster way back to the truck?”
I looked at her warily.
“Don’t you want to see howItravel in the forest?” she pressed. “I promise it’s safe.”
“Will you . . . turn into a bat?”
She burst into laughter. “Like I haven’t heardthatone before!”
“Right, I’m sure you get that all the time.”
She was on her feet in another invisibly fast motion. She offered me her hand, and I jumped up next to her. She whirled around and looked back at me over her shoulder.
“Climb on my back.”
I blinked. “Huh?”
“Don’t be a coward, Beau, I promise this won’t hurt.”
She stood there waiting with her back toward me, totally serious.
“Edythe, I don’t . . . I mean,how?”
She spun back to me, one eyebrow raised. “Surely you’re familiar with the concept of a piggyback ride?”
I shrugged. “Sure, but . . .”
“What’s the problem, then?”
“Well . . . you’re sosmall.”
She blew out an exasperated breath, then vanished. This time I felt the wind from her passage. A second later, she was back with a boulder in one hand.
An actual boulder. One that she must have ripped out of the ground, because the bottom half was covered in clinging dirt and spidery roots. It would be as high as her waist if she set it down. She tilted her head to one side.
“That’s not what I meant. I’m not saying you’re notstrongenough—”
She flipped the boulder lightly over her shoulder, and it sailed well past the edge of the forest and then crashed down to earth with the sound of shattering wood and stone.
“Obviously,” I went on. “But I . . . How would I fit?” I looked at my too-long legs and then back to her delicate frame.
She turned her back to me again. “Trust me.”
Feeling like the stupidest, most awkward person in all of history, I hesitantly put my arms around her neck.
“Come on,” she said impatiently. She reached back with one hand and grabbed my leg, yanking my knee up past her hip.
“Whoa!”
