What would Anna end up as? After sitting here unused for so long. Maybe she just wanted to get rid of Anna, throw Anna into a crowd scene. Maybe she just wanted to clear her head.

The chicken coop was gone. The wheat fields were flashing. Peaches . . . Where was Peaches?

Everything was leaving Anna—but the pull on her skin was fading. She felt almost as solid as ever.

This is a life, she told herself.

But James was a life. And James was gone. And what had he said? “We’ll land where we belong, and we’ll stay there forever.”

“You owe me something good!” she shouted into the circling emptiness.

James was something good.

Was James waiting for her?

There was barely a tug on Anna’s center of gravity.

“I’ve been waiting for so long,” she whispered. “You owe me something good.”

Anna closed her eyes.

She imagined herself letting go. She imagined herself arriving someplace better than the place where she’d always belonged.

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