Abbey paused and looked at all of us sitting by the fire. “See, Sage, that’s why on your stretch of road the electricity is always going out. The spirits are lost and are interfering with everything.” On that side of the mountain people said that there was some kind of electrical field that caused lightning to hit repeatedly. Sage’s family always had candles ready in the summer for when the lights went out. “And Tony, where you live, almost every family has someone who’s a little sick in the head.” Abbey didn’t try to say it in a polite way, and she didn’t hold back. I thought maybe she was going too far, because it was true. On the De Martinos’ road there were only about seven houses, and around the same number of psychiatric cases. One of Tony’s brothers was damaged forever from a heroin overdose, but people said he’d heard voices before he ever started taking drugs, it was why he took them in the first place. Tony just nodded at Abbey, like he was agreeing with her.

I shivered. Please don’t let her say anything about us, about our road.

“Did you hear that?” Tony De Martino stood up, alert, looking toward the woods where they’d built the blockade. There was a growl and a crashing sound in the thicket. Both Sage and I screamed without knowing what we were screaming at. Everyone around the fire stood up.

“Shhh,” Tony said.

“What is it?” someone whispered.

“The cops?”

We stayed silent. The singing at the other fire near us stopped, and they stood, too, and stared at us looking into the dark woods. I saw the flicker of lights blinking through the trees. I was about to turn and run—some already had. There was a light weaving through the woods toward us.

“Fuck, you scared me,” said Tony as Wilson appeared pushing the Yamaha through the understory. He had on the suede leather-fringe jacket and black jeans and boots. “Why didn’t you just come up the trail, man?”

“It’s blocked,” said Wilson.

“Yeah, to keep out cars. You could’ve just gone around it on the bike. Not sneaking up on us like this.”

There was a group of people who’d come forward. Jack was with them.

“Your boyfriend checking up on you, Libby?”

I looked at Abbey. She meant Wilson. Why would she say something like that in front of everyone? Why would she say something like that at all? “What’s that supposed to mean?”

I hated Wilson all over again. That his name was even associated with me. I hated that she’d said it in front of Jack. Had Sage said something to Abbey about Wilson hanging around?

“I’m just messing,” Abbey said.