“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Zadie was wide awake now. As quietly as she could, she opened her car door and padded across the lawn. “Finn!” she hissed and grabbed her sister’s arm. “What are you doing?”

Just then the porch lights blinked on. “Shit! Finn, come on. We gotta go.” But Finn couldn’t hear her, and by the far-off look in her eyes, it was clear she didn’t see her, either. Zadie could hear noises coming from inside the house. She didn’t have time to wait until Finn came out of the echo on her own, and she didn’t have the strength to drag her back to the car, so she did the only thing she could think of in the moment: shove her sister up against the brick wall of the house and flatten herself next to her. Finn let out a small gasp as the impact woke her from her trance, so Zadie clamped her hand over her sister’s mouth to silence her.

The front door swung toward their hiding spot and a beam of light stretched over the lawn. Zadie held her breath as she waited for whoever was behind the door to step into the light and discover them lurking in the shadows. Several throat-tightening seconds passed. Then the door closed and the porch light clicked off, plunging the sisters back into darkness.

Zadie hazarded a step in the direction of the car when Finn whispered, “She didn’t have a choice.”

“What?”

“Mom. She didn’t want to leave, but she had to. I just saw it.”

Zadie nervously glanced back at the front door. “Can we talk about this later?”

“I watched her walk out the door and get in her car. I watched her drive away. She was sad. Really sad.” Even in the dark, Zadie could see tears collecting in her sister’s eyes. “I never really believed she left on purpose, but now I’m sure of it.”

Zadie didn’t think Finn’s echo proved anything. Did she believe her mom was sad about abandoning her kids? Yes. Only a complete monster wouldn’t be in that situation. But she still left, and Zadie had no interest in revisiting the issue. Not now. Not while they were trespassing on private property.

“You can tell me more about it in the car. Come on.” Finn let Zadie lead her away from the house and into the station wagon. “Where’d you park?” Zadie asked, not seeing any other cars parked on the street.

“On Brushwood. I didn’t want to draw attention from the neighbors.”

Zadie nodded and put the car into drive. As they pulled up behind Kathy’s maroon SUV, Finn said, “There’s something else. Remember that compass Mom used to hang around her rearview mirror?”

“Yeah.”

“In my echo it was pointing west.”

“Okay…” Zadie had expected more to the story. “Is that it?”