Atlas whined, as though to say, Move on.

Cady turned the Mountaineer around in the middle of the road and headed out to the Judas Grove, surprised at how little traffic there was at this hour of the day.

She was so deep in thought she almost missed the dirt road that led back into the grove. Years ago there had been no Taco Bell or Pizza Hut on the corner. The Hess gas station and the eight-floor office building on the opposite side of the street were new to her, too.

The dirt road was a series of deep ruts filled with the heavy rain that had fallen the night before. There had never been any ruts when she skimmed down the road on her bike back then. It had been gravel and hard-packed dirt.

The huge NO TRESPASSING signs and the six-foot-high orange mesh fencing brought her up short. This was the grove, wasn’t it? She looked up to see the Judas tree standing sentinel. It was thicker than she remembered, taller, not yet in bloom. She’d always thought it beautiful. Now for some reason, it looked scary and spooky. She felt unnerved as she risked a glance in the rearview mirror. How old the other trees looked. Twenty years of growth had thickened the branches and trunks. They were in full leaf and shaded both ends of the pond.

“This is as far as we can go, Atlas. We have to walk the rest of the way. Stay close, boy.”

Time and the elements had changed the terrain drastically since the last time she’d been there. Waist-high weeds and pampas grass covered the hill and what was once a well-worn path. It looked to Cady’s untrained eye like someone had been there recently. The brush and weeds were broken down, the rocks disturbed. Everywhere she looked she could see the bright red letters of the NO TRESPASSING signs. Where was the mossy carpet they’d played on as children? Now all she could see were the ugly reeds and spiky grass. The clubhouse was gone, one lone board hanging from one of the limbs. She’d always thought of the clubhouse as Pete’s special place. She knew he often slept there, but she’d never told anyone.

Atlas didn’t like the tall weeds, and whimpered at her side. “Easy boy, easy. It’s okay. I used to come here a long time ago. See that limb up there? That’s where Pete, Andy, and Amy used to climb to get to the zip line. I never did. You had to go all the way out on the limb, grab the handle on the zip line, and slide down it. I was afraid to do it because I thought the zip would break and I’d land in the middle of the pond. None of us knew how deep it was. I guess I was afraid I would drown because I really didn’t know how to swim. None of us could swim. Oh, we could dog-paddle on the edge, but that was it.”