“What are you thinking?”
The girl’s voice startled him.
“Yeah, you,” she said with a laugh. “Something I said got you thinking. I’m just not sure about what.”
“Nothing.”
“No. Tell me. I’m genuinely curious.”
He pulled a leaf from a bush and fiddled with it while he talked. “I was thinking how nothing could ever help me understand people. Especially adults.”
“Hmm. I see. What about your friends?”
“I don’t really have any.”
“What do you do when you’re not in school?” she asked.
“Mostly write a bunch of commands in a programming language to make a computer perform specific functions.”
“Oh. Wow. You do need to observe the world outside of programming languages and critical thinking.”
Trevor perked up a bit, since she actually seemed to know what he was talking about. “It’s also about logic and focus,” he told her.
She closed her notebook, pointed, and said, “See that hawk over there?”
He stared in the direction she pointed to.
“It’s near the bluff, high on the ledge.”
Trevor nodded. “I see it now.”
“Hawk is a general term, since there are two hundred and seventy species. They catch, kill, and eat a wide variety of animals to survive. They are strong, powerful birds. Their sense of hearing is incredible, and I’m sure you know they can see way better than humans.”
The hawk took off, flapping its wings rapidly and using that momentum to glide smoothly and gracefully through the air.
“Jane,” he said.
“What did you say?” the girl asked.
“Jane. My mom’s new boss. She’s the hawk. Graceful and yet predatory. She probably uses her power to exploit others.”
“That’s good. Jane is the hawk.”
“And pigeons,” he went on. “Everyone else is a pigeon.”
“Pigeons are actually very useful and smart. For thousands of years, they carried messages during war. They have a weird sort of ‘map sense’ in their heads, and a compass, which is why they know how to get home.”
He appreciated her passion. He liked this girl. “Dodoes, then,” Trevor said. “Most of the people I know are giant dodoes.”
She laughed. “If you’re searching for a dumb bird, we’ll have to go with the kakapo. When they see a predator, they freeze instead of fly away.”
He smiled.
She snickered.
Tank ran to another tree and started barking again. Trevor clapped. “Come on, Tank. It’s just a squirrel.”
“You live around here?” she asked, this time lifting her head and looking at him with big green eyes.
“No. Visiting my grandparents. They live in one of the houses on the lake. It looks like a log cabin.”
“Really? I love that haunted house.”
Chills raced up his arms. He’d slept at his grandparents’ house many times. “It’s not haunted.”
“My mom has lived in Whispering Pines all her life, and she told me that on a dare, she and her friend spent the night in the house.” She laughed. “Mom said they didn’t last an hour before strange breezes, flickering lights, and eerie footsteps freaked them out. They ran as fast as they could. Mom can’t even talk about it without getting goose bumps. She won’t even hike this way. Instead, she stays on the trails that go to the top of that mountain.” She pointed.
Tank had given up on the squirrel and was sniffing around again. “But you’re not afraid?” Trevor asked the girl.
“Nah. I don’t believe in ghosts. I’m not afraid of much.”
Trevor wished he could say the same.
“So how long are you here for?” she asked.
“Just the day.” He gestured up the hill toward the trail. “I should go.”
She stood and brushed herself off. “Great. I’ll walk you home and maybe get a peek inside the haunted house.”
“Um—” When she stood, Trevor noticed she was an inch or two taller than he was. Her dirty-blonde hair was pulled back into a ponytail. She was cute, and he felt suddenly tongue-tied.
She walked right up to him and stuck out her hand. “My name is Gillian.”
“Trevor,” he said, wishing his hand wasn’t so sweaty as he reached out and took her hand in his.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Nora sat on the back deck with Mom and Dad and gave them the rundown on what was going on with Hailey and Trevor and work. Anyone afraid of heights might not enjoy sitting on what felt like the top of the world surrounded by tall trees and a wide expanse of calm blue water. But Nora loved it. Sitting here now, she was reminded of how much she enjoyed being at the lake house. There was a chill in the air, and she zipped up the front of her sweater, put her face to the sun, and inhaled the fresh, crisp air. When Mom went inside to grab a blanket for Dad, Nora asked him what he’d been up to.
His eyebrows suddenly drew together, making his forehead wrinkle. “It’s time for me to go to work. I don’t want to be late.”
Before he could get up from the old wooden chair he’d made with his own hands, Mom appeared.
“Calm down,” Mom told Dad. “You have the week off, remember?”
There was a bewildered expression on his face when he peered up at Mom. “Are you sure?”
“Positive. It’s on the calendar.”
He chuckled, relaxing again as Mom settled the blanket around his legs, tucking it under his knees.
“I’ll get you some hot tea,” Mom told him. “Does that sound good?”
Dad nodded, his gaze straight ahead, seemingly on the shimmering water.
Nora followed Mom into the kitchen. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Tell you what?”
“That Dad has gotten so much worse in the months since his diagnosis. He thinks he’s late for work?” Nora gestured toward the deck. “He doesn’t know he’s been retired for more than a decade?”
Mom took the kettle to the sink and filled it with water. Once she had the kettle on the stove and the burner was turned on, she fixed her gaze on Nora and said, “He’s fine. He forgets little tidbits here and there, but it doesn’t happen often. Why would I worry you every time he’s forgetful?”
“Because then I could have talked to the kids, readied them for what might happen. He forgot Trevor’s name the last time you were at the house with your grandchildren. He called him Lucas.”
Mom’s face paled.
It worried Nora that her parents never talked about the accident. Surely it wasn’t healthy for them to keep what happened tamped down inside themselves. After the collision, Nora had nightmares every night for years. Since then, she had talked to more than one therapist who helped her work through some of her anxiety, but when she suggested her parents do the same, they both said it was all in the past and there was nothing to be done now. “Do you ever think about Lucas?”
“Of course I do. We both do, but there’s nothing we can do to bring him back.”
Mom’s hands began to shake. Nora didn’t want to upset her, so she let it go. “Has Dad been to the doctor since he was diagnosed with mild dementia?”