Grinning, he stands, stretching his arm over his head. “But who knows?”

After he leaves, we fall quiet again but for the click-click of Kamal’s puzzle. Carlos is fingering his backpack. He hasn’t even put his belongings down in the bunk that was assigned to him. I’m calculating, checking Navigator. Six more hours to Plattsburgh.

“What do you think?” I ask.

I can feel his answer.

Morning mist drifts up from the asphalt yard. The clothes hung over the fence have all been brought in. The corridors are dead quiet. We sneak from our bunks, don’t take breakfast. Kamal grumbles, but we managed to fit him into the back seat, still in his pajamas. I figure I’ve got a few hours before Jayne will notice that I turned off my phone. We’re on the highway, headed west.

Rochester.

Syracuse.

Utica.

Then we’re plunged into forest, shimmering lakes lined with spears of blue-green spruce. How is it that they can’t find room for us? There’s so much space here. We’re nearing midday and we stop to eat sandwiches at a picnic bench in a rest area.

“Should we check our phones?” Carlos asks.

I stare down at mine. If I turn it on, they can trace where we are. There will be angry messages. We tricked them. Again.

“No.”

“You sure?”

I nod.

He doesn’t push it. We eat in silence, except to call out the car licenses we see. “Nebraska!” Kamal shouts.

“Wyoming,” Carlos points out, as if to top him.

“Whoever gets Alaska wins the prize,” I say.

“What’s that?” Carlos asks. The only thing I want, the only thing we all want, we can’t have. “A Reese’s cup,” I say. Lame.

Once we reach Plattsburgh, we stop and stretch our legs. It’s right on the shimmering expanse of Lake Champlain, and I sense that Kamal, who is staring through the window, is remembering our time on the Cape. So we get ourselves ice cream and then walk for a little while, me and Carlos holding hands, Kamal skipping ahead, as if we’re just anyone taking a vacation. We stop at a bench, while Kamal squats at the lake’s edge, absorbed in digging a hole with a stick.

“You don’t have to be so overprotective of Kamal,” Carlos says. “He’s stronger than you think.”

I nod. “He grew up a lot these last weeks.”

Carlos gets up and walks to the water’s edge. I join him. He picks up a flat rock and slants it on the water. Only one bounce. I try too, swiveling my wrist, and I get one jump.

“Make a wish,” Carlos says. He drops another stone in my palm.

“You first,” I tease.

“Nope.”

I take a breath, then hurl the stone, not caring if it skips. “That you’ll come back for me.”