Chapter Three

I found Maria at the table where the three of us used to sit at lunch. Her lunch tray was pushed to the side and she nibbled on a slice of apple as she read her book. She had probably spent her lunches exactly like this for the past month and a half. Surely no one had been brave enough to talk to her at lunch. Even if they had, I could see Maria’s reaction"the glazed eyes, reluctantly pulled out of her other world, the better world inside of whatever book she was reading, everything within her screaming, “I’m fine, go away, I’m fine, don’t trouble yourself.” She would be grateful that they had showed concern for her but wouldn’t have it in her to stay in a conversation. She couldn’t be helped by a stranger. Only I could help her, I realized, and I felt a pang of guilt again. But I was hurting too; I needed help as much as she did.

I hesitated for a second a few feet from Maria’s table, and then walked forward, set my lunch tray on the table, and sat down across from her. She looked up from her book, and her eyes were still somewhere else, but then they changed as she recognized me. She closed her book and pushed it to the side, and I knew that for the first time in a month and a half, she was fully in reality.

“Sorry,” I said.

She smiled a little. It was a weak smile. “You have nothing to be sorry for,” she said. We both knew she was lying, but I also knew that she had probably already forgiven me. Maybe that was what she meant.

“Is this your typical day here?” I asked.

“Yes,” she said. Then she frowned. “Wait, what do you mean?”

She couldn’t remember the days. If I was asking about what happened at school, she couldn’t answer. I was right.

“For you,” I said.

Her expression relaxed and she nodded. “Yes, it’s typical. Other than you coming.” She smiled again, not as weakly this time, just a little nervous. “What have you been doing these days?”

“Oh, you know. Just wandering around.” I attempted my own smile. I was pretty sure it probably looked just as nervous as hers.

Her expression changed suddenly and she leaned over the table, serious now. “Why were you talking to Brianna?” she asked.

For half a second I was taken off-guard. I hadn’t expected her to notice us, but of course she had. With the way I’d left Maria, it made sense that she’d want to see where I’d gone.

“Just because,” I said.

“No one talks to Brianna just because,” Maria said. She was right. Even Brianna’s friends had ulterior motives for being around her.

“Well, I did,” I said.

Maria didn’t seem convinced. She looked at me for a few seconds; then she dipped her eyes to the table and back up at me. “Be careful.”

“I will,” I said, but I didn’t really mean it. I had already decided I would do whatever it took to bring Marcus back, and I didn’t really care what happened to me. But someday, I knew, Maria would be grateful for what I was doing now.

 

“Are you ready?”

I looked up from my locker, startled. Brianna leaned against the locker next to mine, between me and the wall. How had I not noticed her before she spoke?

“Yeah,” I said. I shut my locker. “Where are we going?”

She started walking, and I fell into step beside her. She walked fast. She didn’t reply.

“Where are we going?” I repeated.

She smiled at me. “You’ll see.”

We walked out of the school, through the parking lot, and to her car. For some reason I hadn’t imagined that she would drive. She unlocked the car and in that second I saw Maria walking out of the school, on her way to her bus. Our eyes met across the parking lot, and then Brianna opened my door from the inside and I got inside the car.

The drive was short and quiet, and when Brianna parked the car, we were on a store-lined street a few blocks from our city’s downtown. She got out of the car and I followed her into a shop with a large, dark blue sign over the door that said, “PSYCHIC” with stars and a crescent moon in the upper left-hand corner. I had been here before, searching for my answer. I’d asked the “psychic” and she’d given me some nonsense that wouldn’t get me anywhere. But when Brianna went into the shop she just nodded to the psychic and kept walking to the back of the shop, beyond a curtain and then another curtain and then up a flight of stairs. I followed her to the top of the stairs and we stood before a wooden door. Brianna paused before knocking. After another short pause, she opened the door. We went inside.

A woman rose from a plush red couch at the end of the dimly-lit attic room. She, the couch, a desk, a couple of lamps, and the curtains over the windows seemed to be the only things in this room. The woman walked toward us and there was something in her smile that I didn’t trust. I looked at Brianna but I don’t know why I did; she was smiling almost the same smile back at that lady, the smile she always had.

“Brianna,” said the woman, but she was looking at me. “Who is this?” She stopped in front of us. She was about my height, maybe a little taller, and probably between 30 and 40 years old. Her black hair fell to her waist; her brown eyes were a few shades darker than her skin. She looked like a gypsy from a movie. She wore a loose-fitting red shirt, a long, red skirt, and three gold bracelets on her left hand.

“This is Cade,” said Brianna, matching the woman’s tone. “He’s from my school. He came to me asking for some help.”

“Did he?” It didn’t really sound like a question. “Have a seat, Cade.” To my surprise, she sat down on the ground, right where she was. Brianna and I did the same.

“My name is Rena,” she said. “What is it you need help with?”

I could already hear her turning me down, laughing at me as she told me my request was impossible. Brianna hadn’t sent me away, but I could tell that whatever was going on here, Rena was Brianna’s superior somehow. Brianna might have overestimated Rena’s knowledge. I realized suddenly how ridiculous my own request was. Did I really think there was a way to bring someone back from the dead?

But I was here, so I might as well ask.

“I want to bring my friend back from the dead,” I said.

Rena’s eyes widened slightly and she leaned backward, looking at me. “Do you?” She sounded surprised. But she wasn’t going to turn me away. Was this happening?

“I do,” I answered, trying to hide my own disbelief.

Rena looked at Brianna. Rena wasn’t smiling now, but Brianna looked pleased, and she didn’t stop looking pleased when Rena looked at her. Then Rena looked at me and a slow, wide smile spread across her face.

“Well,” she said. She stood up, and Brianna and I did the same. “This will be fun.”