“I don’t have a two.” An image of Maisy’s face burst into my head then. I could see her leaning over that robin with its broken neck, asking me if we should say a prayer. I told her no one was listening. That it wouldn’t make any difference. And the memory of that was like a knife to my stomach. I clasped my hands together. “Please,” I whispered through sobs. “Please somebody be listening.”

“I’m not going to ask you again Rowan Theodore Janes 17 Pinchkiss Circle.”

I saw the light click out at the Russells’. Darkness two down. I stood up. The boat was rocking back and forth. “I’m your friend, Carl. We’re friends. I don’t want to hurt you. You can go back to the bridge, okay? I’ll walk with you. Tonight. That’s your home. That’s Girl’s home. I’ll leave. I promise, I promise, I promise. Let me leave.”

Carl stood up, too. The boat tilted, and I grabbed for the sides. Water sloshed over the lip. Girl barked, and her claws stabbed my bare foot.

“I can’t! I can’t! I have to. I won’t let him! I won’t! Won’t take me. Won’t take me. Won’t take me. Won’t take me. Won’t take me.”

“Carl?”

He screamed, “I don’t know who Carl is!”

He lifted the oar. More water sloshed in. I raised my arms. Grabbed around my head. The oar whirred through the air.

A shock of white went through me. Girl barked and barked. My body bent, shoulder smashing the edge of the boat. I struck the surface. Black water wrapped around me. Exploring every crevice. Bubbles exploded from my mouth. I couldn’t see. Gulping, gasping, metal on my tongue. I fought. Kicked. Thrashed.

Moonlight above, the shape of Carl peering down at me. His mouth wide open, his head getting smaller and smaller. Girl beside him. Her muzzle snapping the air.

Shhh.

I drifted downward, heavier than I’d ever been before.

Are you there?

Turtle?

I was alone.

Are you listening?

Silence.

I was invisible.

Help me!

MAISY

I ran back to bed and hid under the sheet. Gloria came up the stairs and opened my door, and I knew she was going to hear my woodpecker heart tak-takking like crazy.

“What? You’re still awake?” she said, but she didn’t sound mad.

“Not tired.”

She came over and took a blanket off the bottom of my bed and pushed it tight around me.

“There,” she said. “You’re like a hot dog in a bun.”

“But not a corn dog,” I said.

“Never. Corn dogs can’t breathe.”

I laughed.

“Try to think boring things, Bids. Tell yourself a story to knock you out.”

“Can you tell me one?”

“Not now. I want to take a bath. Telly promised he’d be back before I know it.”