Beyond the Reflection’s Edge (23 page)

“Dr. Gordon seemed to be a good guy,” Daryl continued, “so when he emailed me about Nathan’s parents and said he could help find the killer, I decided to keep a lookout and tell him if Nathan showed up at our school. I heard he did the same for a lot of kids at other schools.” Flashing a grin, she winked at Nathan. “I guess I got lucky.”

Nathan plopped back against the headrest. “I need a witness protection program. If they broadcast my address on the news, only a couple more people will know where I live.”

“Want some music?” Kelly asked, reaching for the radio. “It’ll help you relax.”

“And risk hearing another moaning call from a different world? Not really. My head’s about to explode.”

Watching her side mirror, Kelly merged onto the interstate. “Then settle back and chill. We have about five hours to go.”

He closed his eyes. “What about your dad? You gonna call him?”

“Later. I’ll just tell him we’re out on a date. Hell get a kick out of that.”

He opened one eye. “Really?”

“Well…” Kelly let a smile break through. “He likes you.”

“Yeah,” Daryl piped up. “And after Kelly decided to give up guys because of her mom —”

“Daryl!” Kelly tightened her grip on the wheel. “Hush!”

“What’s the big deal? Everyone knows about your parents. Anyway Steven decided, with parents like that, she’d be kind of loose, too, so one night she had to put him in his place.”

Kelly’s cheeks turned bright red. “Daryl, cut it out!”

“Why? I’m complimenting you. He deserved that kick in the groin.”

“Daryl! If you don’t stop it, I’ll —”

“So she said she wouldn’t ever date anyone again unless the perfect gentleman came along, and that worried her dad. I guess he thought she’d turn butch or something, but since she just called you a perfect gentleman, everyone will be happy.”

Kelly lowered her head and growled. “You won’t be happy when I kick you out of the car and make you walk home.”

“You can’t. I know all your secrets.” Daryl closed her eyes and yawned. “Wake me when we get to Illinois. I like to blow kisses at state welcome signs.”

Kelly gripped the wheel with stiffened fingers, her biceps flexed and her gaze fixed straight ahead.

Nathan pulled his lips in. No way was he going to breathe a word right now. If Kelly got any hotter, steam would spew out her ears.

After a few minutes, a light snore sounded from the back-seat. Kelly let out a long sigh and relaxed her grip. With a glistening tear in her eye, she spoke softly. “I guess I don’t have anything left to hide, do I?”

He replied with a light shrug. “I didn’t hear anything so terrible.”

“Daryl made it sound a lot better than it was.” As she turned toward him, the tear meandered down her cheek. “I’m not the kind of girl you’d be interested in.”

“Don’t you mean…” Leaning toward her, he lowered his voice. “… you
weren’t
that kind of girl?”

She wiped the tear, but a new one streamed from her other eye. “Does it make any difference? What’s done is done.”

“Yeah. It makes a difference.” He rubbed his finger along the seatbelt strap, swallowing to keep his voice from quaking. “It makes a big difference, at least to me.”

Her lips formed a trembling smile. “Why should it make a difference?”

“Like you said. What’s done is done.” He raised his shoulders in another casual shrug. “I love you for who you are now.”

Kelly’s eyes slowly narrowed, and a hint of anger spiced her voice. “Don’t use that word on me.”

He drew his head back. “What are you talking about? What word?”

“I’ve heard it too many times. My mom used it. My dad used it. Steven used it. And none of them ever meant it. They just
used
it.”

“You mean
love?”

She rubbed a new tear away from each eye. “You can’t possibly love me yet. Don’t say it unless you really mean it!”

“Okay sorry.” He folded his arms over his chest and slid closer to the window. Who would’ve thought he could get into trouble by using
that
word? He
did
love his new sister, so didn’t it make sense to let her know?

Her lips trembled again, but she said nothing. As new tears streamed, she kept her eyes focused ahead.

Nathan let out a quiet sigh. Kelly didn’t need to hear the word; she needed to see love acted out. He popped open the glove box. “You got any tissue in here?”

“In my purse.”

He fished out a pack of tissues and handed her one. “Want me to drive a while?”

Wiping her eyes, she nodded again. “Thank you. We need gas anyway.”

Nathan turned and yanked on the cuff of Daryl’s jeans. “Wake up, O keeper of the dimensional secrets. It’s time to dock the Millennium Falcon.”

Blinking her eyes, Daryl yawned. “You know, you shouldn’t talk about movies so much. It gets kind of annoying after a while.”

After stopping at a convenience store, filling up with gas, and grabbing some snacks, Nathan set his Dr Pepper bottle in the cup holder and started the car. “Everyone ready?”

“I’m ready,” Daryl called from the backseat. She pulled a Hershey’s Kiss from her bag of candy and unwrapped the foil. “Anyone want a Kiss?”

Kelly smirked. “Not from you.” As she leaned against a pillow she had squished between her head and the window, she closed her eyes and pushed Nathan’s leg with her sock-covered toe. “Ask him. Guys always want a kiss.”

He reached back. “Sure. I’ll have one.” After popping it in his mouth, he found a classical station on the radio and kept the volume low, hoping it wouldn’t activate the mirror in the back. During a soothing Chopin sonata, Daryl fell asleep, again snoring quietly while Kelly eased into a restless nap. Her eyelids twitched from time to time, and her brow furrowed. Once, she even let out a low groan and whispered something imperceptible.

Nathan squeezed the steering wheel. Bad dreams. But it would be such a shame to wake her up. With her lips slightly pursed, her eyes closed, and her hands spread softly on her lap, she looked more like a child than a young woman. Still, she had
probably experienced far more pain than any child should have to suffer.

Thinking back on her recent tirade, Nathan shook his head. It was tragic. She didn’t know the true meaning of love. She couldn’t even stand hearing the word. Yet, she needed love. She deserved to
be
loved. Oh, so desperately.

Edging his hand toward her, he watched her out of the corner of his eye. He slid his hand under hers and held it, barely touching her skin. Her fingers twitched and returned the light grasp, and a gentle smile spread across her face. He caressed her knuckles with his thumb. Maybe now her bad dreams had finally ended.

A cell phone rang. Nathan jerked back his hand and scanned the seats. “Where did I put it?”

Kelly sat upright, her eyes blinking. Daryl’s heavy breathing ended with a snort.

The chime sounded again, leading Kelly to the floorboard. “Right here.” She picked it up and laid it in Nathan’s palm.

Opening the flap with one hand, he raised it to his ear. “Hello?”

“Nathan, are you almost here?”

“Hi, Clara. We’ve got about three hours to go. Why?”

“Tell Kelly to floor it. I need you to —”

Silence.

“Clara?” Nathan looked at the phone’s screen. The call had dropped.

Kelly leaned toward him, her brow lowering. “What’s wrong?”

He closed the phone. “It sounds like Clara’s in trouble.”

As the speedometer pushed past eighty, Kelly set a hand on the dashboard. “This isn’t a back road, Nathan. If a state trooper clocks you, it’ll take a lot longer than three hours to get there.”

“Good point.” Easing up on the accelerator, he glanced at the mirror again. “Someone’s following us. As soon as I took off, he did, too, and now he’s slowing down again.”

Kelly swung around and stared out the back. “Could it be Dr. Gordon?”

“Looks like his Town Car. I saw it at the school.”

She swiveled back and tightened her seatbelt. “Then floor it. Now we
want
a cop to catch us.”

Daryl flopped back in her seat. “All right!” she said, slapping her thighs. “It’s adventure time!”

When the digits read ninety-one, Nathan reached toward the back. “Can you find my mirror? It’s in my backpack.”

Daryl pushed his hand away. “Keep your eyes on the road. I’ll get it.” After jerking it out, she held it on her lap. “What do you want me to do with it?”

“Just look into it. Use it like a rearview mirror and tell me what you see.”

She held the mirror in front of her face. “Ew! I’m a mess!”

As the speedometer passed one hundred, the engine whined and rattled loudly. Nathan turned up the radio and glanced at
her through his own rearview mirror. “Watch the road. Not your face.”

“I can do both.” Daryl pushed her hair back and primped her curly red bangs. “Nothing yet.”

Kelly looked at the speedometer, her grip on her armrest tensing along with her voice. “I can’t believe you’re going this fast.”

“Once in Israel, Clara and I did a hundred and ten on motor-cycles, running from six guys with Uzis in the back of a pickup. She told me, ‘When a life’s in danger, there is no speed limit.’”

Nathan weaved around cars, alternately braking and accelerating again as he changed lanes. After a few minutes, Daryl called out, her voice calm. “What am I supposed to be looking for?”

Keeping his focus ahead, he reached back. “Give it to me!” He jerked it forward and propped it on the dashboard.

“I’ll hold it for you,” Kelly said, reaching to secure it.

Constantly glancing around — from the road ahead, to the normal rearview, to his father’s mirror — he continued his mad dash, banking left, then right, then back again. A memory flashed. This was his nightmare! How could that be?

The Lincoln closed in, following in his wake like a skier behind a boat, matching swerve after swerve.

“Kick it, Nathan!” Daryl shouted. “You have the smaller car. Take it somewhere he can’t follow!”

Up ahead, a conversion van and a gasoline tanker drove side by side, blocking the way. Nathan pressed the brake and cut the wheel hard to the right. Now riding the shoulder, he floored it again. As the driver’s side mirror barely brushed by the tanker’s running board, two of the Camry’s tires rumbled on the grass, shaking the three passengers.

“Nathan!” Kelly thrust out her finger. “A bridge!”

He jerked to the left, missing the bridge abutment but clip-ping the tanker’s front fender with the Camry’s rear. With a
loud squeal, the driver slammed on his brakes, swinging the trailer wildly. It slapped the conversion van into the median and then swung back toward the Lincoln, which had squeezed between the trailer and the side of the bridge.

The Lincoln zoomed forward. As the trailer fishtailed, it spanked the Lincoln in the rear, sending it lurching ahead.

The tanker tipped to its side and skidded, sending up a shower of sparks as metal scraped metal.

“Oh, my God!” Daryl shouted. “It’s going to blow!”

Keeping one hand on Nathan’s mirror, Kelly hunkered low in her seat. “Tell me when it’s over!”

Clenching the wheel, Nathan floored the pedal again.

“Did it explode?” Kelly asked, peeking over the seat.

“No. It might have been empty.” He eyed the mirrors. Now the car’s rearview mirror showed a jackknifed tanker on its side, a van slipping through the grass in the median, and a black Lincoln closing in, while his father’s mirror reflected a deserted country road winding through a tree-spotted meadow. “I need a light! What do we have?”

Daryl searched around her seat. “Where’s your camera?”

“In the trunk!”

Kelly pointed at the keys in the ignition. “There’s a little flashlight on the ring, but it’s not very bright.”

“You got anything bigger?”

“My father sometimes keeps…” She reached under her seat and withdrew a foot-long camper’s flashlight. “Here it is.”

“I got the mirror,” he said, grabbing its edge. “Get ready to turn it on.”

“Here he comes!” Daryl bounced on her knees, staring out the back. “Think he’ll push us off the road?”

Nathan shook his head. “Or worse. He might have a gun. I’d keep my head down if I were you.”

“Gotcha.” Daryl ducked low. “Avoid lead poisoning.”

Kelly held the flashlight close to the reflection. “Let me know when you’re ready.”

He checked the image again — still just a country road. “One second. I want to see if something happens.”

The Lincoln cut into the left lane and gave the Camry a little shove on its left rear fender, jostling everyone inside. Nathan grimaced. Exactly like the dream. But he woke up at this point. What would happen next?

Kelly grabbed her armrest. “Can’t you go faster?”

“It’s floored!” Nathan shot back. “I can’t compete with that eight-cylinder road hog!”

Kelly waved the light. “What are you waiting for?”

“Go ahead and flash it!”

She aimed her flashlight at the mirror and pressed the button. As soon as it blinked on, the light surrounding the car dimmed.

“That’s weird,” Daryl said, rising from her crouch. “I don’t see him anymore.”

Kelly squinted out the side window. Rolling pastures whisked by some dotted with trees. “I don’t even see the high-way. Where are we?”

“Perfect.” Nathan slowed the car to a normal speed. The engine’s whine lowered, but the rattle continued. “Exactly what I hoped for.”

After putting the flashlight away she took the mirror and set it on her lap. “Was this road in the reflection?”

“Yep. But I wasn’t thinking about it at all. It’s like the mirror chose the place.”

Sporting a wide grin, Daryl leaned forward between the front seats. “You gotta love it. We cause a highway pileup, vanish in a puff of smoke, and reappear in the middle of nowhere.”

“This isn’t a movie,” Kelly said. “Those people might have been hurt.”

“She’s right about one thing. We’re in the middle of nowhere.” Nathan searched the side of the road. “Do you see any signs?”

“There!” Kelly said, pointing. “That intersection up ahead has a sign.”