“I’ll tell you later,” I said. Beatrice was walking in front of us, clutching her pocketbook and checking her wristwatch. I wanted to slow us down so we didn’t have to wait with Sage, and possibly Wilson, at the bus stop. I needed to think. Why was Sage with Wilson? It was dangerous, and I had to warn her. I knew I should chase after them and tell Wilson about the guy being on the mountain. But I didn’t.

“Beatrice, do you want to get a soda when we get to the ARCO?”

“Will we have time?”

“Yeah.”

We went straight into the gas station, and I gave Beatrice the money to drop into the machine. She got a Coke for herself and Ellen, and we walked to the bus stop about a hundred yards up Route 23. The bus with its black windows was coming toward us, and Sage and a few others waiting stepped forward.

“Sage!” Beatrice ran ahead and hugged her. “Libby’s taking us to the mall.”

“Hello, Miss Beatrix Potter. Are you writing more stories?”

The bus stopped, and the door fanned open.

“You first,” I said to Sage.

Beatrice had her coins ready in her hand. Ellen followed Sage up the steps. I told Beatrice to follow Ellen and do what she did. She dropped her coins in carefully and waited until the driver nodded to her to go ahead and take a seat. She walked down the aisle, past Ellen, and sat in the empty seat next to Sage. I sat next to Ellen and listened as Beatrice told Sage how Ellen was going to design her bike decorations and costume for the parade, how I was getting sneakers and she was going to get Marie a gift for her new apartment. When the bus pulled in at the mall, I told Ellen we’d get off at the first stop, by the Wanamaker’s entrance. I knew Sage would get off at the next one, by J. C. Penney’s. I wanted to tell her, but I didn’t know how.

“Have a great day, Beatrice,” Sage said when we stood to get off. “If you come to my diner, I’ll give you a complimentary ice cream. You too, Ellen.”

A fountain trickled over a plastic waterfall, and spotlights lit the pool below from underneath. At the top of the fake falls, plastic foliage was clumped in bunches to suggest something lush and verdant. Muzak played over invisible speakers, and the air was cool. Lighting in the mall always seemed dimmed, maybe to keep the temperature down, but any time I entered it, I felt as if I had stepped out of the brightest sunlight into shadow, and I had to readjust. Marie said malls were designed to disorient you. That’s why, like casinos, they never had clocks or windows. They wanted you to enter this fake world and lose track of time and reality.