Page 94 of Keepsake
“Excuse me, sir,” said a female voice. “Do you have any bananas?” I looked up to see a pretty girl standing across the table from us, a hand up to shield her eyes from the afternoon glare.
“Bananas?” I asked. Now there was a ridiculous request. I was trying to decide how to politely explain that bananas don’t grow in Vermont when she dropped the hand that was shielding her face.
And my heart seized at the sight of a familiar face, and that too-long hair all the girls were required to have at The Compound.
Chastity.
Speechless, I took in her pale skin and clear blue eyes. Her face had filled out some, becoming more womanly than it had been at sixteen.
Holy…
“Zachariah.” She laughed. “You should see the look on your face! I’m sorry to take you by surprise. It was all my idea.”
“God.” I stumbled around the end of the table towards her, trying to find words. “What happened? How did you get here?”
“Same way you did, I think.” She held up a thumb, making the universal sign for a hitchhiker.
“No you did not,” I said, unable to take my eyes off her. “That’s dangerous.”
Chastity rolled her eyes. “I took a bus first. But when I ran out of money, I did some hitchhiking. I Googled your name before I left and found Isaac and Leah. Your name must be in the website’s metadata.”
“I…I don’t even know what that means,” I stammered.
Her eyes widened, and she laughed again.
“God,” I said again. A nineteen-year-old girl who’d never left the Compound couldn’t possibly hitchhike across the country. She would never have evenmetan outsider before she stepped off the property. The idea of her all alone like that made me feel lightheaded. I curled my hand around one of the tent posts as a way of grounding myself. It was as if my brain and body couldn’t keep up with everything I was seeing and hearing. I didn’t know whether to shout or cry. I’d worried about her so many times. And now here she stood.
“Zach, you just took the Lord’s name in vain. Twice.”
“Sorry,” I said quickly.
“I’mjoking. I didn’t want to live with their rules anymore. That’s why I left. It’s a long story but…” She gave me another huge smile. “You lookgreat, Zach. Seriously. I can’t stop staring at you.”
“You…look amazing. I’m amazed to see you here.” I tried to smile. My heart was splintering in the strangest way.
She grabbed my free hand. “I’ll tell you all about it later. But right now Isaac is waving you down. Look.”
I turned to see Isaac beckoning from his place down the long row of stalls.
When I glanced at Lark, she was staring at Chastity the way someone looks at a ghost. But then she seemed to snap out of it. “Go,” she said without meeting my gaze. “Here comes Griff, anyway.”
So I let Chastity lead me by the hand over to where Isaac and Leah were setting up their stall as fast as possible. “Zach, come grab these crates with me?” Isaac called.
“Sure.” I dropped Chastity’s hand and followed him. My head was still spinning.
But when we got to the truck, Isaac only leaned against the tailgate and handed me a bottle of water. “Drink that. You look like you’re about to pass out.” I tipped the bottle into my very dry mouth with a shaky hand. “Steady, kid,” Isaac said. “This changes her life, but it doesn’t have to change yours.”
I looked down at him in surprise. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that I know you. And right now you’re tearing up your life plan, trying to figure out how to help the girl you think you once harmed.” Isaac hoisted a crate filled with honey jars off the truck and handed it to me.
“She’s nineteen and she hitchhiked here,” I whispered.
“Yep. And she did a fine job of it.” Isaac grabbed another crate for himself. “I need you to take a deep breath. We’re all going to take care of Chastity and figure out what she needs. But don’t freak out, okay?” He hitched the crate up against his chest and trotted towards the booth.
I followed him, still in shock. I’d always wondered who Chastity had been forced to marry and how bad it had been.
It must have been pretty damn bad for her to run away.
