“Go away, Boomer. I don’t want to talk to you. I don’t want to talk to any of you. I hate what you did. What you all did.”

“I’ve been sitting in the corner watching you. I want you to listen to me. You don’t know it all, Cady. There’s more that you don’t know, not that you can’t remember, just that you don’t know. I’m going to tell you. I want you to listen to me. When I’m finished, I’ll leave, and I’ll never bother you again. Is it a deal?”

He would never bother her again. She already felt her loss. Her eyes filled again as she waited.

“Pete and I didn’t know this until the other day when Andy told us. Andy said Amy deliberately threw the rocks at you. She threw them to hurt you, Cady. She’s the one who killed Jeff. The rock was aimed at you, but you jerked away, and it hit Jeff in the temple with such force it killed him. I saw his brains, Cady. The rock was aimed at you. Andy said Amy hated you. Andy carried that secret with him all these years. I think he managed to suppress it for a time, but it was still there. I guess you know he’s a basket case. When he told Amy he couldn’t take it anymore, and was going to go to you and tell you the truth, Amy went ballistic. She just kept saying she was going to keep on lying. She didn’t want her husband to know, but I didn’t want to get involved with that. We were all going to go to you to tell you the truth. Actually, we did go to the house, but they said you weren’t there. I know now you were here.

“They thought you were dead that day, Cady. That’s why they ran. They were afraid they would be blamed. Amy never said a word then or later about throwing the rock that killed Jeff. It’s almost impossible for me to believe a ten-year-old like Amy would harm someone so cold-bloodedly and be able to cover up and lie about what she did.

“I waited till they left that day, and I went and pulled you to the edge of the pond. I knew you were alive.”

“You told me you were going for help, and you told me not to cry,” Cady said. “You squeezed my hand.”

“You really do remember,” Boomer said in awe.

“You also said you were just checking the line. I remember you yelling to Jeff not to get on the zip line. I know the others thought I was dead after I fell. I heard them. I don’t know why I couldn’t talk.”

“Was it because of what Jeff said to you?”

Cady’s head bobbed up and down. “It was just an instant, and I’m thinking now, that was the worst thing he could possibly have said to me. I guess that’s why I blocked it out. The rest of my memory just went with it. Did you know?”