“Well, for me,” Gabby chimes in, “I wouldn’t kill anything or anyone because that has serious karmic implications. All life is to be respected. Marriage is an outdated, patriarchal institution that continues to oppress women. And dating is what lower-vibrational beings do when they don’t know how to adjust their own internal frequency. When I’m ready for a partner, I’ll change the channel on my spiritual radio and my partner will appear. Voilà.”

Earnell shakes his head and says, “I cantable, to borrow Echo’s nonword. Why are you like this? Who made you this way?”

“Earnell,” I interject. “You brought a Freddy Krueger voodoo doll with blond hair in case the whites tried to kidnap us. Why are you this way?”

“Shhh,” Earnell says. “On’tday elltay ethay othersay ymay ecretsay.”

“This nigga is really out here speaking pig Latin,” Daniel scolds playfully.

Earnell gasps in shock. “Daniel! You use the N-word?! I thought you were allergic to anything Black,” he comments.

“Nigga, I’m from Detroit,” Daniel chuckles. “We play spades too. I’m just fiscally conservative and a big believer in individual determinism. We create our own destiny and can’t keep blaming white people for slavery that happened four hundred years ago as the reason we aren’t advancing. At some point, we have to look in the mirror.”

“Wait,” Elizabeth interjects, “you think white people are trying to hold you back? I’m just trying to graduate from college. And you thought we were going to kidnap you? Who? Connor and me? Actually, New Hampshire’s woods are super safe, except for the ticks. And you call yourselves the N-word? I thought that was offensive. I’m so confused.”

Earnell wraps his arm playfully around Elizabeth’s shoulders to Daniel’s dismay. “Don’t worry, kid, we’ll teach you the ways of the Africanay Americanay people. By the end, you too will be playing spades.”

The final clue is tucked beneath a medium-sized rock right next to the river. I see it first and excitedly rip the envelope open. “It looks like a haiku,” I say before reading:

The Keepers of Form

Have Come to Guide You Forward

To Answer the Call