Her phone buzzed on her nightstand. It was a text from Kathy in all caps: CALL ME. Oops, Finn thought. She’d meant to call the night before, but she’d been distracted. Inhabiting your missing mother’s body will do that to you. As quietly as she could, Finn slipped from beneath the covers and out the front door, gently pulling it closed behind her.

Finn padded barefoot down the concrete walkway until she reached the entrance to the pool. The water glittered with help from the fledgling sun, the deck empty save for an abandoned towel draped over one of the chair backs. Finn sat on the edge of the pool by the walk-in stairs and plunged her feet into the shallows.

She dialed Kathy, but after several rings it went to voice mail—her foster mom had a bad habit of leaving her phone on silent. “Heeeyyy, it’s me,” Finn began. “Sorry, I didn’t call last night. Zadie and I went karaokeing and it was loud so…” She searched for something else she could tell Kathy without giving away her location. “I’m at the pool right now. I swam over a mile yesterday. Zadie just spent the whole time reading. That’s kind of her thing.

“Anyway … uh, we were thinking about extending the trip by a few more days, so I wanted to see if that would be cool with you. Just give me a call back and let me know. Say hi to Steve and Milly for me. Love you. Bye!”

Finn hung up the phone and looked down at her feet. Beneath the water, her toes danced like tiny fish nibbling on the concrete. For a brief, disorienting moment, she couldn’t remember who the toes belonged to.

“Finn,” she said finally. That was her name. The toes belonged to her.

She swiped at the water, scattering her feet into a hundred identical ripples.

Zadie didn’t hear Finn come in, but she did hear the gentle patter of the shower running. At first she thought it was rain; then she remembered where she was. It wouldn’t be long before they left the desert. Another day’s car ride and they would be in volcano country, the Pacific Northwest. It rained there, Zadie had heard. A lot.