I pushed my toes against the bald scratch of earth below the merry-go-round and started to spin again. Sage and the others were dark shadows across the Sun Bowl. I could hear the low murmur of their voices, and every few minutes a burst of laughter. I looked up at the sky and felt slightly dizzy. The moon was visible behind a thin mesh of clouds, like stretched cotton. It was more than a half-moon but less than full. More laughter drifted from the others out in the field, sitting in a circle, passing a bong.

I was already tipsy. I’d taken some swigs of gin straight out of a Hellmann’s Mayonnaise jar. Abbey had raided her dad’s liquor cabinet. She said her dad had started to suspect his kids might be helping themselves, so he’d taken to drawing lines with Magic Marker on the Seagram’s bottles where he finished. The kids markered lines under his so he’d be uncertain which line was his and he’d wonder if he had drank more than he thought. But they would never add water to bring the level up to his black line, Abbey said. He might be confused about which line was which, but he knew his drink and would know it was diluted. Even though I was drinking Mr. Quinn’s gin, I thought it was depressing that his kids were still stealing it from him.

I heard Sage call my name, could see movement in the dark across the field as she came toward me, the clink of her bracelets. She sat beside me.

“Wilson went to Pottstown.”

“What?”

“Wilson went to Pottstown last night.”

“To find him?” I had heard of Pottstown, knew it was north of us but couldn’t remember ever being there.

“Yeah. Abbey and some of the others were just talking about it. He went around looking for the boys who’d said they’d go.”

“Are you sure they went?”

“Abbey says she saw Danny Shields with Wilson on Forge Mountain Drive.”

“What did they do to him?”

“I don’t know. Maybe they never went or couldn’t find him.”

“Oh my God. How does he know he’s from there?”

“Beats me, except he knows a lot of strange people.”

“Did you tell them anything?”

“No. Abbey just said they were going to give a pervert a beating. That this guy had kidnapped a girl from the mountain and hurt her.”

“He told them she was kidnapped?”

“She kind of was, Libby. Barbie Man didn’t let her out of the car. She’s a kid. That’s kidnapping. He should be punished. If Ellen hadn’t jumped, what would have happened to her?”

I wasn’t able to even think about that. “I just want this to end.”

“I know.” Sage looked back toward the field. “I’m going over for a few more minutes. You mind?”

I shook my head. “I’m okay.”