“What?”
“The only difference, for those of us who knew what was going on, was that some people had driven by Agloe using a map to navigate, and others drove those roads by heart.”
“No,” Nell said.
“Yes,” Francis replied. “This is why the map is so valuable. Precious beyond measure.”
It was nonsense. A huge hoax.
That was not how maps worked.
She could hardly believe the words even as she said them.
“You’re telling me . . .”
It sounded ridiculous.
“You’re telling me that the reason this map is so special . . . is that if you have a hard copy of this old piece of paper that shows Agloe on it . . .”
Francis nodded.
The party swirled around them, innocent and unconcerned, as he confessed.
“If you have the map, the town will appear to you,” he said. “You can go there.”
Francis
Eve may have told you that your mother and Wally found the map, but she didn’t tell you what happened after, because she wasn’t there that morning. She was still asleep—almost the entire house was. Only Daniel and I were awake. We were the first ones they told.
The night before, Romi, Bear, and I pulled up to the house after dusk had already fallen. By the time we got the car unloaded and dragged our bags in, everyone from the first group was already cooking. Daniel and Wally were on the back deck attempting to work the grill, shouting conversation through the open door while Eve tossed a huge salad and watched the vegetables on the stove and Tam chased you around the coffee table. When you saw us, you screamed with glee, and Bear heaved all his bags onto me to scoop you up for a hug.
“You’re so late!” Eve cried over the rumble of the stove. “We were about to eat without you!”
“We come bearing gifts to make up for it,” Romi said, and held up the case of wine in her arms.
Eve came to retrieve the box immediately, eager, overhelpful, saying how Romi didn’t have to carry that, she could take it, and how kind it was to buy it for us. Romi smiled back, as bemused as ever as to why the longer they knew each other, Eve only seemed to get more shy around her, rather than less. If anything, Eve should have felt freer to come out of her shell with her, Romi often said, since they were so alike.
She didn’t know about the almost kiss. And I pretended I didn’t, either.
“Franny boy!” Daniel called. “Get out here! Does this look medium-rare to you?”
I sprang for the back door and immediately turned their propane down, and then Tam came out, you still in Bear’s arms, and turned it back up, plus more. “None of you know how to grill,” she laughed. “Go get the plates and cutlery ready.”
All of us were in such a jovial mood—still loopy from the party the night before, drained from the long drive, and happy to be all together again, in a new place, with our new project—I remember the energy of that night. The possibility, the excitement. It was like we could all feel that something momentous was about to happen, even then. We just didn’t know what it was.
Eventually, Daniel and Wally wrestled control of the grill back from Tam, determined to prove themselves, and I went inside to help Romi and Eve finish up some side dishes and collect you and Bear. Tam, happy for the break, was sitting at the table already drinking some of the wine and laughing about something when we all came back out onto the deck.
“It was just a dollar!” she was saying.
“We’re supposed to be saving every penny!” Daniel returned, laughing just as hard. “That’s why we’re all the way out here, away from the temptations of the city!”