“I think we made it,” she whispered.

The floorboards groaned in the hallway. A little shiver of light spread underneath our door. I held my breath. But the lantern passed, and we were alone again in the darkness. We didn’t dare speak a word.

I lay awake that night thinking of Grandma bashing her head into that grave. Thinking of the boy I’d seen in the Hummingbird Grove, wondering if that was his grave, and who he even was.

Thinking of Cass, eyes burning, watching me at the window.

Chapter 24

We woke up early, at sunrise, just like we were supposed to. Grandma had a simple breakfast set up for us, fruit with yogurt and honey and buttered toast. She wore a blue bandanna wrapped around her head where she had bashed it into the grave the night before. She seemed distracted, wandering around the kitchen, muttering to herself.

“Grandma?” I said. “You okay?”

“Fine, fine, Lee,” she said. “Just have a headache is all.”

“Does that mean we get the day off?” said Murphy.

Grandma laughed. “Not on your life. Murphy, you and I are going to clean one of the toolsheds out back by the woods. Been years since I been in there. Too many black widows and all that—like to get my hand bit off. But I figure between the two of us, we can do some damage.”

“Great,” said Murphy. “Exactly what I wanted to do today.”

“I can help,” I said.

Grandma shook her head. “You’ve got your own duties, Lee, and you must attend to them. Murphy and I can manage quite well by ourselves, can’t we, honey?”

“Sure,” said Murphy. “Why fucking not?”

Grandma glared at Murphy.

“I know, I know,” said Murphy. “Language.”

“You know what the best cure for a bad attitude is?” said Grandma. “Work. Come with me. The sky is threatening rain, and daylight is precious.”

I started in the garden, planting and pruning and weeding and watering and all the other crap you do in a garden. To be honest, I was really starting to enjoy it. I liked plunging my hands into the soil, getting all dirty with the earthworms. It felt good, bees buzzing around me, birdsong in the air. It was a hell of a lot better than anything else I’d done so far in my life.

Because Grandma was so busy that day, I would have to do my Hummingbird Grove meditations myself. That was fine with me. I wanted to see what would come to me on my own, without Grandma sitting there.