And that’s when Cole breaks out of the trees. He’s moving fast. Jogging across the lawn. I know the exact moment he sees the open gate, because he breaks into a run. “Avril!” A beat. “Avril!” He’s a blur moving across the grass.

I hear the back door open. “She’s in here,” Willa shouts. “Cole! She’s fine! She’s in here!”

A second later, Cole pushes his way into the living room, right past his mother. “Val came out and woke me up. She was headed to the bathroom. She said you weren’t in your bed.” Willa is leaning in the doorway, watching him. Watching us. “Avril,” he says. “What happened last night? Why’d you take off like that?”

I’m not ready to tell him anything yet.

My memories are so strange and so jumbled. I need a little time to make sense of it all.

Cole moves to the couch. He kneels in front of me. His hands are on my face. He pulls me toward him. Kisses me. And his kiss is everything it wasn’t last night. It’s hesitant. Tentative. A kiss that asks a question.

A question I don’t have an answer for right now.

“What time is it?” I ask him.

“Almost seven.”

“I need to get ready for class,” I say, and I start to stand up. But Willa steps in from the kitchen.

“Stay,” she says. “You need rest. Both of you.”

Willa has disappeared into the kitchen again, so Cole and I settle down on the couch together. I let him wrap his arms around me. Because what else can I do?

Another video is playing now. Cole and I are tossing toy boats from the top of the cliff. A white-haired girl and a dark-haired boy that I wish I could remember. Then I hear Glory’s voice from behind the camera. “Careful. Not too close. It’s dangerous.”

Willa comes in and turns off the television. She covers us with the blanket and when she leans down to turn off the lamp on the end table, she touches my hair so softly. It’s like a mother’s kiss good night.

I’m almost asleep when I hear footsteps on the stairs but I manage to open my eyes enough to see Brody standing on the landing, looking at Cole and me curled up together on the couch. Fear tickles at me like a flame. But I can’t swim through the exhaustion. It’s too much. And before I know it, I’m sinking again.

“Shhhh,” Willa says. “It’s been a hard night. Let them rest.”

My eyes have drifted shut.

“What’s she doing here?” Brody asks.

Willa’s answer is the last thing I hear before I slip away.

“She came home.”

ACT II: SCENE 9