“I wanted to get you a going-away present that day, but Mom said she was short on funds that week.”

Cady beamed her pleasure. “Really, Andy. I didn’t think you liked me.”

“Oh, I liked you all right. I hope you get your memory back, Cady. I really do. I gotta run.”

“Andy, were you and the others there that day?”

Andy towered above her. He looked down at her with miserable eyes. “Please don’t ask me that, Cady.”

“I already did, Andy.”

“I’ll see you next week, Cady.”

“Okay, Andy. Next week it is.”

15

With nothing but time on her hands, Cady climbed back into the Mountaineer and drove around town. Driving up and down the residential streets, she realized an hour later, was just an excuse to stave off the yearnings she felt to go to the pond. Knowing full well she could get another ticket for trespassing and possibly get carted off to jail didn’t faze her at all as she made a U-turn in the middle of a residential street, drove to the end of town, and down the dirt road that would take her to the pond and the Judas tree that stood brooding at the top of the hill.

She parked the car and walked around to the passenger side to let Atlas out. He growled as he leaped to solid ground but didn’t leave her side. Her heart thumped against her rib cage when she looked around. It looked almost the way it had the last time she was there as a child. Only that time Pete, Andy, and Amy were at the bottom of the hill waiting for her.

Whoa!

The last time she was there! The last time she was there was that fateful day. Not the day she got a ticket for trespassing. She squeezed her eyes shut. She’d skidded on the gravel, almost falling off her bike when she arrived at the top of the hill. She’d literally slid down the embankment on her rear end. That day.

She was wearing a yellow shirt. Amy was wearing pink shorts and a striped top. Andy had jeans on with holes in the knees, and Pete had a paper sack in his hand.

Cady leaned back against the Mountaineer, her legs like jelly. Another memory. Would she have remembered if she hadn’t come here? Was it the conversation she’d had with her mother that triggered something? Or was it Andy’s response to her pointed question? Atlas whined as he dropped to the ground at her feet.

Cady kicked off her heels, leaving them behind as she scrambled down the embankment. Maybe she needed to look upward to where the zip line had been. Maybe she needed to look up at the Judas tree. Suddenly, she felt icy cold, yet she knew the temperature was in the low seventies.

Her voice shaky, her legs still rubbery, she called to Atlas to stay at her side. She looked up at the old tree that had once held Pete’s tree house. If she took off her tight skirt, she could climb the tree and perch in the crook of the old branches. Did she want to do that? If she did, maybe she could get a new perspective on what happened that day. Maybe sitting in the tree would help her to remember what happened next.