Page 63 of Life and Death
“Um, probably not,” I admitted.
She laughed once, and then the waiter showed up.
“How are you do—” he started to ask.
She cut him off. “We’re finished, thank you very much, that ought to cover it, no change, thanks.”
She was already out of her seat.
I fumbled for my wallet. “Um, let me—you didn’t even get anything—”
“My treat, Beau.”
“But—”
“Try not to get caught up in antiquated gender roles.”
She walked away, and I rushed to follow, leaving the stunned waiter behind me with what looked like a hundred-dollar bill on the table in front of him.
I passed her, hurrying again to get the door, ignoring what she’d said about antiquated roles. I knew she was faster than I could probably imagine, but the half-filled room of watching people forced her to act like she was one of them. She gave me a strange look when I held the door open—like she was kind of touched by the gesture, but also annoyed by it at the same time. I decided to overlook the annoyed part, and I scrambled past her to hold the car door, too. It opened easily—she’d never locked it. Her expression was more amused than anything at this point, so I took that as a good sign.
I almost ran to the passenger side of the car, trailing my hand across the hood as I moved. I had the nerve-wracking feeling that she was regretting telling me so much, and she might just drive off without me and disappear into the night. Once I was inside, she looked pointedly at my seat belt until I put it on again. I wondered for a second if she was some kind of safety-first absolutist—until I noticed that she hadn’t bothered with hers, and we were racing off into the light traffic without a hint of caution on her part.
“Now,” she said with a grim smile, “it’s your turn.”
9. THEORY
“CAN—CANIASK JUST ONE MORE?” ISTUTTERED QUICKLY AS SHEAccelerated much too fast down the quiet street.
I was in no hurry to answer her question.
She shook her head. “We had a deal.”
“It’s not really a question,” I argued. “Just a clarification of something you said before.”
She rolled her eyes. “Make it quick.”
“Well . . . you said you knew I hadn’t gone into the bookstore, and that I had gone south. I was just wondering how you knew that.”
She thought about it for a moment, deliberating again.
“I thought we were past all these evasions,” I said.
She gave me a kind ofyou asked for itlook. “Fine, then. I followed your scent.”
I didn’t have a response to that. I stared out the window, trying to process it.
“Your turn, Beau.”
“But you didn’t answer my other question.”
“Oh, comeon.”
“I’m serious. You didn’t tell me how it works—the mind-reading thing. Can you read anybody’s mind, anywhere? How do you do it? Can the rest of your family do the same thing?”
It was easier to talk about this in the dark car. The streetlights were behind us already, and in the low gleam from the dashboard, all the crazy stuff seemed just a little more possible.
It seemed like she felt the same sense of non-reality, like normality was on hold for as long as we were in this space together. Her voice was casual as she answered.
