In the daylight, the camp square looked a lot more cheerful than it had the night before. In lieu of the black lights were multicolored strands of Christmas lights trimming the makeshift shelters that had been painted in vibrant shades of turquoise and burnt orange. Zadie had been correct in assuming no one lived in them. One was currently being used as a taco stand, another appeared to be some sort of arts and crafts studio complete with a potter’s wheel, and another was a desert greenhouse whose windows were made from recycled glass bottles. It appeared nothing went to waste in this little community. Not even broken pots and dishes, the shards of which had become part of a circuitous mosaic walking path that seemed less concerned with getting from one end to the other than it did about meandering from one neighbor to the next. When you finally made it to the end, however, you arrived at a bonfire area next to an abandoned boxcar that had been converted into a performance stage. There was even a playground nearby constructed entirely out of tires, where a small group of children were playing the lava floor game.

A mother bent down to tie her child’s shoe. A young man taught a slightly younger woman to play guitar. Neighbors waved to one another from hammocks and petted each other’s dogs and read quietly in the shade of a desert willow. Finn was right. This was no cult. It was a neighborhood like any other—friendlier than most, even. It just so happened that its residents were all … gifted? special? Zadie hated those terms, but she couldn’t think of a better one. It made her feel self-conscious, being surrounded by people who accepted who they were when she was so reticent to do so herself.

Someone sat down next to Zadie. It was Tonya, the human thermometer. She smiled warmly. “Is this your first time meeting other sixes?”

“Sixes?”

“People with sixth senses.”

A little on the nose, she thought. “Uhh … yeah.”

“Are you also…?”

“Me?” Zadie’s voice cracked slightly. “No. I’m boring.” She scanned the faces of the people milling around the square. “How’d you end up here?”

Tonya smiled brightly. “I came here on vacation and never left, but I’m unusual. Most of the others have a different story.”

“And what’s that?”

“They were driving by on their way somewhere else and this place just sort of sucked them in. Like a black hole.” The woman laughed. She had a gap between her front two teeth, a tiny courtyard.

“So, is everyone here a … six?”

Tonya shook her head. “No. Some folks are like you. Everyone is welcome here.”

Zadie thought she saw Tonya glance over at Earworm, who looked both ways before picking food off a paper plate that had been abandoned on a neighboring picnic table.

“So you can really tell exactly what temperature it is?”