“You sure have had a change in personality,” I tell her. “Are you trying to change the Townsends’ minds? If I were a spider, I’d spin you a web and write I LOVE LUCY.”

She grunts at me.

“Sheesh. That’s the thanks I get for caring?”

Micah reaches in to pet her, but she swings her head out of reach. “I knew you’d love the hell out of her.”

I smile, but feel sad for her at the same time. “I think it’s too early to feed them all dinner.”

“That’s OK — we can go home and come back later,” Micah says.

“Home?” I ask.

“Your house.”

“Oh. Right.” I love that Micah thinks of my home as his. Only I realize with a jolt that it won’t be any of ours for long.

We help Ivy put Ferdinand back in his pen, then let the horses back out and find our bikes.

“Can we make an obstacle course again?” Ivy asks.

“Sure,” I say. When we cross the street and go up the driveway, we see my dad’s van. I imagine him inside with my mom. Maybe they’re fighting. Or crying.

“I don’t think we should go in,” I say.

“Do you want me to go home?” Micah asks.

“No!” Ivy says. “We need you.”

“You should stay,” I say. “We can still make an obstacle course. We’ll just keep away from Dad’s van.”

Micah and Ivy race to the garage to find some wood scraps and things to make ramps. I dig my shorts out of my backpack and put them on over my still-damp bathing suit. It feels gross, but it’s better than walking around in just my suit, and better than risking going inside and seeing my parents. I sit on the front steps to wait. I don’t hear any sound from behind the screen door. In fact the house seems almost too quiet.

I run my fingers over the fieldstone steps my dad repaired with stones he dug up in our woods. They aren’t chiseled and perfect like the ones at the Townsends’ house. I think they look nicer this way, and more natural. One time, a snake found its way to the lowest step and curled up in the sun. My mom came outside and stepped on it in her bare feet. The snake got scared and slithered through the open doorway. My mom went nuts and started screaming for me and Ivy. The snake slipped into the kitchen and got cornered near the refrigerator. “Don’t take your eyes off it — I’ll be right back!” my mom yelled.

She returned with the vacuum cleaner.

“What are you going to do?” Ivy cried. “Don’t kill it! It’s just an innocent old garter snake.”

“I’m not going to kill it. I’m going to suck it up, and then we’ll let it go outside.”