She didn’t say anything more, so after a moment I turned back around, stared at the step below me. “Well, it was like that for me. But then Sam died. And it was like . . . we didn’t know how to be us anymore, without him. Like we were a table that lost a leg, and now the whole thing was tilted. And I guess that’s not really a table, is it? It’s never relaxing or easy, anymore.”

I paused and waited for Jasper to say something in reply. It felt like I’d been talking for too long. But when I turned to look at her again, Jasper was just staring at me hard, and looking sad, like she might cry. I didn’t want that. I didn’t want things to be sad and hard here. I hadn’t meant to do this, to change the way things felt in this magical place. I wanted it to be all pickles and root beer. That was the whole point of helping.

“Anyway!” I said as cheerfully as I could. “I only really meant to say how nice this is, to sit on a porch, like I used to do at home. It’s such a regular thing to do. And I haven’t done it in so long. Isn’t that funny?”

Jasper shook her head. She was still wearing her serious face. She took a slow sip of her drink and said, “Hey, I know I probably don’t need to say this. But I’m going to anyway, just in case.”

“What?” I asked.

“You can’t tell anyone,” she said. “About me, or this place. Nobody at all.”

“Oh, I know,” I said. “Anyway, I wouldn’t want to. I like it like this. Just us. A secret.”

Jasper nodded. “Right, okay,” she said. “But it’s more than that. This isn’t a game. We aren’t playing Narnia or Hogwarts. This is my real life. It would be bad for a lot of people if anyone found me here.”

“What kind of bad?” I asked. “How bad?”

Jasper shook her head. “Don’t worry, nobody would die or anything. Just—I’m supposed to be living with my sister, and she doesn’t care that I left. She’s got her own kids to take care of. And—other problems. But if anyone found out I wasn’t at her place, and that she hadn’t reported me missing, she’d get into big trouble.”

I didn’t know what trouble she meant, really. In fact, I had a hard time wrapping my head around it. I couldn’t fathom how her sister could possibly let her run off. Or why she was living with her sister in the first place. But Jasper’s voice was so serious, and I knew what she needed me to say.

“Sure.” I nodded. “I get it.”

“Good,” said Jasper. “Thank you.”