Page 44 of Come Find Me
“That’s kind of a long bike ride.”
She shrugs. “I do it every couple of nights.”
“Wait, when do you sleep?”
“Naps, Nolan. Give them a shot. I’m big on the after-school nap before Joe gets home for dinner. At this point, I think I have him convinced it’s just a normal part of female adolescence.”
“You know, I can just drive you instead.”
She twists in the seat, not responding.
I repeat the offer, only this time I make it a statement instead of an offer, so she will just accept it already. “Stop biking. I’ll drive you over there tonight to get your things. And then whenever you need a ride. At least until we figure this out. Okay?”
“Are you going to try the nap?” she asks, and I think that means she’s agreed.
She asked me if I believed the universe could talk to us, and the truth is, I do think it’s something. The fact that we both received the signal and it linked us together; the fact that she came to my house and recognized a photo. All of it means this was not chance, but purpose.
I think it’s this: The signal isn’t the message. It’s the sign. A clue, from my brother maybe, trapped somewhere beyond this world, telling me where to go. And right now, it’s telling me to follow Kennedy Jones on her mission, and somewhere along the way, it’s going to lead me to the next sign, or the next, and we willfind him.
Now.
Wait, no.
Now. For real.
Okay, my texts to Nolan are not the most eloquent. Not that his are any better.
Here,he wrote five minutes ago.
I mean, at the corner,he amended in the next text.
I’d just spent the last five minutes making sure Joe was really sleeping, and not just staring at the ceiling in the dark. Joe didn’t come home until after dinner, when I was crashing—a nap in preparation for tonight. When he knocked on my bedroom door—to apologize for being late,got caught up,etc, etc—I tried my best to look like I hadn’t just been sleeping.
I must’ve failed, because he frowned and asked if I was feeling okay.
I’ve been watching the clock since then. Joe didn’t go to bed until just after midnight, when the house was dark and quiet. I gave him twenty extra minutes.
When I opened his bedroom door to check on him, he didn’t move.
It was time.
Without my bike, the routine feels off. I’m more on-edge than usual, sneaking out in the middle of the night. Once I’m outside, I make a dash for the corner of the street, where Nolan said he’d be waiting.
The overhead light inside his car turns on as I pull open the passenger door, and he squints. “Hey,” he says.
“Geez, find the creepiest spot on the street, why don’t you.”
He rolls his eyes, and it looks like he just woke up. Like he’s only half focused, and it turns him softer at the edges. “Better than having someone call the cops on me because some beat-up car is parked under a streetlight outside their house.”
“Okay, okay,” I say as he drives off.
“Hey,” he says, nudging me in the shoulder with one hand while he drives. “Breathe, Kennedy.”
I smile at him, at the slow grin that forms as his eyes adjust to the dark again.
—
The street is quiet at night, winding through forest and farmland, no sidewalk on either edge. “I can’t believe you bike this in the dark,” Nolan mumbles.
