These were exactly the kinds of memories Zadie had been hoping to avoid.

As she pulled closer, her headlights illuminated a hooded figure standing in the driveway. The person turned around and waved her arms frantically. She seemed to be mouthing, “Turn it off!”

Zadie turned off the engine and Finn marched up to her window and tapped on the glass. “What are you doing?” she hissed as the window rolled down.

“Me? What are you doing?”

“I told you I was going to do this with or without you. This is what ‘without you’ looks like.”

“Really? Because it kind of looks like trespassing.”

Finn glanced over her shoulder at the house. The windows were dark. “You’ve gotta get out of here. You’re going to blow my cover.”

“So were you just going to stand in this stranger’s driveway all night, waiting for an echo?”

“If necessary.”

“You’re lucky no one has called the police.”

“They don’t get up till six.”

“Wait … how many times have you done this?”

“Uh. Three.”

“You’ve been out here three nights in a row?!”

“Ssshhh!”

“And how many echoes have you had in that time, huh?”

Finn pursed her lips. “Will you just leave already? I can’t concentrate with you here.”

“I’m not leaving until you do.”

“Fine. But stay here.” Finn pushed away from the car and marched back toward the house, glancing over her shoulder to glare at her sister.

“I will,” Zadie muttered, watching Finn sit down in the driveway and pointedly turn so she was no longer facing her. After a moment, her sister reclined so that she was lying flat on her back on the concrete.

“This is insane.” Zadie looked up at the house and into the window of her old bedroom. She used to run to it anytime she heard a car pull into the driveway, ever hopeful that it was some boy who’d come to woo her. She wondered who lived in that room now, and prayed to whatever God would listen that whoever it was didn’t look out the window to see the strange girl splayed out in their driveway.

She looked back at Finn, who as far as she could tell hadn’t moved since she’d lain down. She’s probably asleep, Zadie thought, yawning herself. It was almost two in the morning. Just that knowledge alone made her want to shut her eyes.

Zadie didn’t remember the clock turning three, and yet the neon green digits on her dash read 3:17. I must have dozed off, she thought, blinking heavily. Her eyes darted from the clock to her sister, who was no longer in the driveway but was standing on the front stoop with one hand on the doorknob.