lodging. Get in Zoë’s car, get on 93 South and then look at the map for directions. Take this. Put it on, don’t take it off, no matter what.”
He pulls a suede cord up over his head, wraps it carefully around mine and lets it fall gently on my shoulders. There is a strange pendant hanging on the end of it that I’ve never noticed before. “What is this?” I ask nervously.
“There are journals in the bag that will explain it. Explain everything. You have to go. Now. Out the back door and don't let Jenna see you.”
“Why do we have to go now? Why the rush?”
“They're close to figuring out there’s nothing they can do for Natalie. Her days are numbered. You don’t have a minute to waste. If Jenna sees you, you won't be able to leave for the entire weekend. We were planning a weekend away that we hadn't told you about yet. You can't do this without the colony, Emma. You have to get there before you look for Natalie.”
My mind is running wild. I started this conversation begging my dad to let me help a girl I didn’t know. The conversation is ending with me and Zoë being shoved out the back door of my house and told to head for a mysterious dreamwalker colony. I am cloaked in fear. I didn’t expect everything to happen so quickly. I thought I’d have time to formulate a plan and talk things over with my dad, but he is putting an incredible sense of urgency on everything. “Dad… I…”
He pulls me tightly into a hug. “There’s a phone in the bag. Turn it on at eleven o’clock tonight and I will call you soon after. Your cell phones stay here. They can be tracked. It’s a six-hour drive to Roque Bluffs. If you get tired, stop and find a hotel. Don't try to drive it all tonight. Eleven o’clock; phone on. Be safe. ”
We hand over our phones as he shoves the backpack into my arms. He said he knew this day was coming. He said he knew I would be leaving. He knew Zoë would have to go with me. How will he explain this to her parents? To my mom?
“Don’t let your mother see you.”
“What are you going to tell her? What about Zoë’s parents?”
“I’ll take care of it. Don’t worry about that. Just get on the road, be safe and read the journals. They'll tell you everything you need to know.”
My mom’s key slides into the front door and turns the lock. As the door opens I see Jonah walk through, making his toy airplane fly. I soak in every ounce of him that I can. His dirty blonde hair, the freckles on his cheeks that look just like mine, the constant mud on his shoes that makes my mom completely insane. I don’t know when or even if I will see him again.
My dad pushes us out the back door with one final “go” before my mom enters the house with grocery bags falling out of her arms. He turns away from the door and I can hear him talking to them. His conversation is light and casual, as if nothing out of the ordinary is taking place today.
It’s barely six o’clock on a chilly October evening. I should be sitting down to dinner with my family having mundane conversations about how early it’s getting dark out and how my day at school was. Instead I am headed to Roque Bluffs, Maine on a crusade of unknown sorts to rescue a stranger who I just learned is my long-lost sister. I am carrying a backpack full of secrets. I am wearing a pendant that has significance of unknown magnitude. I am running away from home, from the only family I know to find the family I also belong to. And I am taking my best friend with me.
Zoë grabs my hand and pulls me around the corner of my house. Every emotion in existence floods me as the information I have just been given tumultuously whirls around inside me.
We pause on the side of the house while my mom is still unloading grocery bags and grip each other's arms in silence. My dad walks out and grabs the last grocery bag from the trunk of my mom's car. He glances in our direction with a worried look on his face before heading into the house and closing the door behind him.