The night is lacy around me. In the east the brighter stars are starting to poke through the inky blue. There are three in a row that I’ve always thought were Orion’s belt. I’m not sure if someone told me that or if I made it up. It reminds me of the Underground Railroad and all the escaped slaves making their way north, the way I’m going now. They read the stars like a map. I wouldn’t have been able to do that. I would have been lost, and then discovered, tracked down, and dragged back to be made an example of. There’s one star that’s really big and bright; it’s either Venus or the International Space Station.

Clouds are passing fast. Smaller ones meet and blob together. Their shadows play across the water as it creeps out forever to the east. One cloud is so fat and wet and swollen it looks like it’s about to puke. It slinks and flops over the moon with odd wispy tendrils dangling under it like a jellyfish.

Going up to the Relic is a bit like walking into Lolly’s bedroom. I shouldn’t be here. I should wait for Rose outside. If I try to go in without her, I might just get thrown out right away.

But then I’m just standing there at the bottom of the stairs staring up with my sad waif eyes. Helen and Nancy walk by and wave, but they keep looking back at me. I turn to walk up the wheelchair ramp, except my first step on it makes loads of noise, not that anyone’s listening, but it makes me feel self-conscious, so I take the stairs and pause again at the door. Maybe Rose is waiting for me inside. I mean, she did say to meet her at sunset, so I’m late, and why would she just be standing outside somewhere in the dark with the bugs biting when she could have gone inside? There’s a big brass thing in the center of the double doors shaped like a steering wheel—a boat one, not a car one. I’m not sure what to do with it. It doesn’t seem like I should turn it. And then I notice Lyall looking at me through the window. He raises his pencil-sharp eyebrows, and after maintaining a longish and pretty brutal stare he mouths pull. So the steering wheel thing is actually two decorative handles that part in the middle. Great; I’m the champion of the flawless first impression.