“I’ll see you inside, if you ever get over yourself,” Anastasia said. She started walking towards the house, and although she didn’t want to look back, she couldn’t help it. London had walked farther out into the lake, and with the moon in her hair and the water around her feet she looked – well, she looked like she was the main character of the story, instead of just the sidekick. Anastasia watched her for another minute, but she didn’t turn around, no matter how much Anastasia wanted her to.

Now, she thinks about that night and wants to vomit. She almost took her shoes off. In the sand. What was she even thinking? As if she could ever be the kind of person who would even stand barefoot next to a lake. Her father always says that dignity is the most important trait a leader can possess because if you don’t have dignity, how can you expect people to respect you? If you lose respect, you lose everything. And for a moment of freedom at the edge of a lake? Her skin might as well turn to stone.

Anastasia leans back in her lounger and pulls her sunglasses down over her eyes. Keep moving forward, she thinks. It’s the only thing you can do.

TWENTY-NINE

When Kate wakes up, it is light outside and her body feels tight and cramped, as though she has slept for a long time. She is in a hotel room. She checks the clock: 1:04 p.m. She knows she is supposed to be watching the clock but she can’t remember why she is supposed to be watching the clock, or why she is in a hotel room, or even what city she is in. In the bathroom, she washes her face with the hotel soap and brushes her teeth with a tube of toothpaste and a toothbrush that she recognizes as her own, though she doesn’t understand how they could have possibly gotten here. Then she fumbles around for the key card to the hotel room door and heads down to the lobby. She’s not sure what she is looking for, but she’s sure that she is here with someone important and that person is not supposed to be gone.

In the lobby, Kate begins to remember little snippets from the previous day. The girl. Yes, she is here with the girl. Sleep has always been the worst eraser, it’s like the sleeping has wiped away everything that happened before the sleeping. There was a drive, the girl, something about a sandwich. A deer. The girl is searching for someone. The girl is her granddaughter. Her name is on the tip of Kate’s tongue. They are in Duluth. They are staying at a hotel. Kate parked the Volvo somewhere. The girl is her granddaughter.