This look was one that Rae had been working on for a while, eager to perfect it so it would be available when the time came to put it to use. Unlike most of Rae’s other looks, she had not learned this one from her mother but from girls in movies and on soaps and sitcoms. It was the look a girl gave in response to something wonderful that a boy had said moments before he kissed her. He would say, “You’re beautiful,” or “You’re amazing,” or “I think I love you.” And the girl would look soft and big-eyed and a little mysterious, like she had a secret, as she whispered, “Thank you,” and tipped her chin up in preparation to be kissed. Of all the looks Rae needed to learn, this was the one that mattered most.

Rae said “Thank you” to the armoire, looking deeply into the knobs at eye level. “Thank you,” she whispered and dipped to the lampshade. Then to herself, in the mirror. “Thank you,” she breathed to the blinds, then to the TV. “Thank you.” Rae circled around and around the room, practicing that whisper, practicing that mysterious smile, practicing how to receive love.

All of Alex and Kimmy’s sneaking-out plans were in place. Alex had snagged the flashlight from John’s tackle box this morning, and Kimmy had snuck into Rae’s room earlier this evening, before the walk, to take the binoculars.

After their parents had tucked them in and gone to their own bedrooms for the night, Kimmy bolted upright, pulled the binoculars from beneath her pillow, and put them around her neck. “Are you ready?” she said. “I still feel like doing it, even after the deer and stuff. Do you? Are you ready?”

Unfortunately, though, Alex’s stomach cramp had returned moments earlier. It was worse than it had been before, and she moved from her bed to the floor, where she could writhe more freely. She moaned softly.

Kimmy sat next to Alex on the floor in the dark room. “Do you want me to get your mom?” she said.

Alex shook her head. “It was almost this bad this afternoon, but then it got better. I think if I just wait a minute it’ll go away.”

Kimmy said, “We don’t have to sneak out tonight, not when you’re feeling so bad.”

Alex said, “We’ll see. Just . . .” She turned onto her side and curled her knees to her chest like a pill bug and groaned.

Kimmy was distressed. She touched Alex’s forehead with the back of her hand, as she had seen her own mother do when she and Rae were ill. She brushed her fingers across Alex’s arm in an attempt to soothe her. Alex moaned louder.

Kimmy said, “What should I do?”

Alex bolted upright and said, “Oh, crap.”

“What?” Kimmy said, lurching upward herself, involuntarily mimicking Alex’s every move.

Alex said, “Kimmy, close your eyes for a minute.”

“What?”

“Just close your eyes. I’ll tell you when you can open.”