“Telly. I told her what happened. That’s all. Listen to me.”

“No, I’m not listening to nothing.”

“I’m sorry, Telly.” She grabbed him. “I’m sorry. Please. I wasn’t thinking. I’m not thinking straight. Please, Telly. I’m not.”

“I got to go, Glow. I can’t, I can’t even look at your face right now.”

Telly kissed my forehead and said “I love you, Bids,” and then he walked away.

“You can’t leave,” she called out. “I won’t let you!”

But he started his truck.

Then she screamed, “She didn’t believe me. I told her the truth and that bitch didn’t even believe what I said!”

When Telly was driving away I ran around to the side of the house. Chicken was there in the shade. Sniffing and pawing at Gloria’s pile of stones on top of the dead bird because she forgot to feed him again. I took the good-luck ball of metal out of my pocket and threw the tiny thing into the pile. Carl lied. Something terrible had happened even though I didn’t lose it.

Then I put my face in Chicken’s warm fur. Rowan was gone. My brother was gone. I pushed my face into his ribs and I cried and cried. Where was Rowan now? Where was his laugh? And all his ideas and his secrets? What about his skin? The map of islands never got finished. But maybe those white patches weren’t islands at all. Maybe he was gone because all his white spots got huge and turned him into a ghost. A beautiful speckly dead ghost.

ROWAN

I roll onto my side, knees bent to my chest. Pull my hands inside the sweater Carl gave me to wear. He made me shoes too. That fit my feet perfectly. He cares. He cared?

Carl?

I need to go home now. Everyone is waiting for me. Expecting me.

“He’s a most wonderful boy. He’s such a good big brother.”

Gloria said that. She misses me.

Don’t you remember?

Behind my back, the creek is trickling. A sharp stink of pine needles and turpentine stings my nostrils. Makes me retch.

Are you there?

Can you hear me?

I put my hands on the ground. On the wall of the bridge? Everything is shifting. Am I lying down? Leaning against the bridge? There is nothing to hold. Which way is up?

Carl?

Listen to me. Please.

My head pounds.

Maisy was sad. You saw her too, didn’t you? That’s my sister. That’s Little Fawn.

Telly was holding her hand.

And Gloria was crying. She was crying on TV.

Carl?

Even in the blackness, I know I am alone. I pull the sweater over my bent knees.

Listen! Listen to me!

I want to go home!

No one answers.

I lie still. I am sliding.

MAISY