He didn’t hear the story of Marley’s death.

He lived it.

I knew this, but I’d let myself rework my truth into something that looked nicer for the general public. The reality was, Nick Cline did what Marley asked of him. Just as I did every minute of every day that followed.

We had been two magnets pulled apart by something bigger. All it took was being in the same room again to remember the power between us when united. As children, the Albany kids—aside from Ruby—hated that Nick never voted against me when it came to choosing something to do. That we seemed to understand each other without words.

Together, we’d always been unstoppable.

We started to run, fast and recklessly. Cadence belonged to only us. We grabbed on to it the same way we grabbed hands. For the first time in years, I let myself scream. I decided I could be sixteen and tear the fabric of the night with the power in my lungs. My hysteria could dance out all the way to the open desert framing our town.

High on it all, sprinting so fast the ground seemed to disintegrate, Nick yelled, “Let’s go somewhere,” ready to run until we didn’t recognize a single thing around us. Our feet lifted from the ground, taking us up into the sky as we stepped from cloud to cloud, enveloped by the magnificence of unfiltered starlight. “There’s nothing beneath us,” he said.

“Nothing,” I echoed.

At that, Marley’s bony feet kicked into my heels. I screeched to a startling halt, gravity hurling me back to reality. As frustrating as it should’ve been, I felt nothing but sweet relief. She was back. She was watching. She still cared about what I did. To keep ahead of her nipping steps, my hand broke from Nick’s.

Marley chased me toward the cluster of sister houses we’d always known as home. I knew better than to try to run away. I could never leave her adventures behind.

“Follow me,” I called out to Nick. Right as my lungs began to burn, our pace evolved into a cautious trot. Then a secretive tiptoe. Three houses from my own, down the driveway, past the locked gate, Marley urged me over her fence and into her backyard.

The aboveground pool in the backyard didn’t exist anymore, remembered instead by a sad circle of brown grass traced into the lawn. Without it, the yard somehow looked smaller. Only a measly red shed to keep it from complete despair.

“What are we doing?” Nick whispered.

Inch by inch, I pulled on Mr. Bricket’s unlocked sliding door.

Nick grabbed my shoulder. “Ollie, hold on.”