“Oh yeah,” Paulette agreed. She pulled the sun visor down and looked at herself in the mirror. “Fuck, do I really look like that? I’m turning into my first ex-boss.”

“Yes indeed, you look just like—naah.” Miriam thought better of it and rephrased: “Congresswoman Paulette Milan, from Cambridge. You have the floor, ma’am.”

“The first ex-boss is in politics now,” Paulie observed gloomily. “A real dragon.”

“Bitch.”

“You didn’t know her.”

They drove on in amiable silence for the best part of an hour, out into the wilds of Massachusetts. Up the coast, past Salem, out toward Amesbury, off Interstate 95 and on to a four-lane highway, then finally a side road. Miriam had been here before, years ago, with Ben, when things had been going okay. There was a rest area up on a low hill overlooking Browns Point, capped by a powder of trees, gaunt skeletons hazed in red and auburn foliage at this time of year. Miriam pulled up at the side of the road just next to the rest area and parked. “Okay, this is it,” she said. There were butterflies in her stomach again: I’m going to go through with it, she realized to her surprise.

“This?” Paulette looked around, surprised. “But this is nowhere!”

“Yeah, that’s right. Best place to do this.” Miriam opened the glove locker. “Look, I brought my old camcorder. No time for explanations. I’m going to get out of the car, grab my pack, and walk over there. I want you to film me. In ten minutes either I’ll tell you why I asked you to do this and you can call me rude names—or you’ll know to take the car home and come back the day after tomorrow to pick me up. Okay?”

“Miriam, this is nuts—”

She got out in a hurry and collected her pack from the trunk. Then, without waiting to see what Paulette did, she walked over to the middle of the parking lot. Breathing deeply, she hiked the pack up onto her back and fastened the chest strap—then pulled the locket out of the outer pocket where she’d stashed it.

Feeling acutely self-conscious, she flicked it open and turned her back on the parked car. Raised it to her face and stared into the enameled knot painted inside it. This is stupid, a little voice told her. And you’re going to have your work cut out convincing Paulie you don’t need to see a shrink.

Someone was calling her name sharply. She screened it out. Something seemed to move inside the knot—

Hide-and-Seek

Hide-and-Seek

This time it was raining gently.