“Are you ready?” she said. I nodded so hard my head hurt. She could have asked me to sign my name in our intermingled blood and I’d have agreed.

I took her outstretched hands in mine and together we read the words she had painstakingly written out on a small piece of white card, our voices solemn and tremulous. Then she held the card above the flame of the candle and we watched as it blackened and curled and crumbled into a small pile of gray ash.

“And now we bury this in the garden,” she said.

I nodded again and she scooped the ash into the palm of her left hand and closed her fingers around it. I followed her out of the room and down the stairs, then out the back door and across the yellowing lawn, tucked so closely behind her that our shadows almost merged. And I knew that it would always be like this, that I would always follow her. Wherever she went. Whatever she did.

1

THEN

THURSDAY, JULY 19, 2007

There are two reasons to celebrate today. First, it’s not raining. It’s been raining for weeks and though Mum says that rain is God’s blessing and we should be grateful for every single drop, even she’s getting fed up with it now. I heard her tell Dad yesterday that God’s blessed us quite enough lately, thank you very much.

The second reason to celebrate is that it’s the first day of the summer holidays, which means six long weeks of NO SCHOOL.

I open my bedroom window and sniff the air. Alice and I have just got to go on “The Walk.” It’s our favorite route and one we’ve done so many times we know each and every landmark: the kissing gate, the gap in the hedge, the little stream with the rickety footbridge, the field with the scarecrow that looks like a dead man on a stick, the line of poplars, the six stiles, and finally, the railway line, where we always wait till we hear the tracks sing, and count the seconds till the train hurtles by.

That’s the best bit, in my opinion. I think it’s Alice’s best bit, too, although we’ve never admitted that. We tell each other that it’s our favorite walk because if we don’t dawdle and we don’t rush, it takes us two hours from my front door and back again. Just the right amount of time to discuss everything that needs to be discussed before our legs start to ache and our stomachs to grumble. But deep down, I think we both know that it’s our favorite walk because of the railway line and the thrill of the open crossing.