Touching the Surface (23 page)

Her breathing slowed and she lifted her head. Her delicate hand slid into the messenger bag strung sideways across her chest. Resting on the palm of her hand was an origami crane. The paper was a wild pattern of blue and black. It made me think of Trevor.

She walked toward me, hand extended with her peace offering floating on her palm. “I don’t love Trevor.” She blinked rapidly. “What I mean to say is that I do love him, but I’m not
in love
with him.”

“Oh.”

I extended my palm until my fingertips touched hers.

“I needed him. I was drawn to him.” She grasped the fragile crane between her thumb and pointer finger. “There’s a weird connection between us. It’s not the same as the one you have with him, but there’s something that drew us together. It was irresistible, considering that I was so lonely without you.” She slid the crane onto my palm and dropped her hand. I was the one left holding everything.

“You didn’t have to be lonely or without me.” I cradled the delicate folds of paper, feeling tired of flying in the same old circles with her over and over again.

“I know. I mean—I know that now.”

My heart skipped several beats. I couldn’t speak for fear that I might’ve heard her wrong.

“I love you, Elliot. You’re my very best friend EVER.”

A strangled cry escaped from deep inside me and I crossed the space between us, hugging her tightly to me. “I love you, too. I’ve missed you so much.” That was all I could get out before I crumpled into sobs. We both stayed that way for a while, drenched in tears and sunny raindrops. Above us, the light broke through the clouds, giving the moisture a golden glow. It was a sun shower.

Julia grasped my face between her hands. “I have a million
things to tell you, a zillion things to explain and to make right, but—”

Suddenly there was a hideous crunching noise. It sounded like metal in head-to-head combat with something unforgiving. Then, as if the horrific noise was sucked up into a vacuum, everything was silent.

“What was that?” Something jittery scampered down my spine.

“Yes, what was that?” I’d forgotten that Mel was standing next to us.

“I’m afraid that was Trevor.” Julia shivered in my arms.

“Can you take me to him?”

“Yes.”

She scampered over to the ledge and pointed to the other side of the lake. Directly across from us was a waterfall that hadn’t been there before. The spill off the top of the ridge was furious and slapping violently against islands of boulders jutting out of the water below. I searched every which way, seeking Trevor, but there was nothing to indicate his presence except the eerie feeling that the waterfall was his creation.

“Where is he?” I asked, never breaking my line of sight with the precipitous drop and the water below. What was that gash of red on the rocks? Ice flooded my veins.

“Is that blood?” I pointed my finger in the direction of the goliath boulders that were the farthest from the shore. “Someone answer me! Is that blood on the rocks?”

“It couldn’t be,” Mel said, sounding shaky.

“It isn’t,” Julia said. “It’s paint. He was driving a red truck when I saw him. He was acting crazy. I’d finished my last Delve and found my path and I wanted to find you guys before I left but he was—”

“You finished your Delves? You’re leaving? Without me? No, this can’t be. You figured things out, but you’re not leaving without me. Right? Of course you’re going to wait for us. He’s driving Sally? Although, it makes sense, he loved that truck. But why is there red paint on the rocks?” My stomach was churning and my mind was flipping back and forth between a zillion thoughts at once.

“Argh! I quit. I can’t do this anymore.” I plopped down right where I’d been standing. I hugged my knees to my chest. I wanted to be smaller, so that maybe I could have smaller problems: I wanted to disappear. “I hate this.” I dropped my forehead onto my knees.

“You’re not a turtle.” Mel rubbed my shell.

“I may put in for it—you know, in my next life,” I grumped at her.

“I highly doubt you could go that long without speaking.”
Mel sounded like she found me entertaining. I hated to be amusing. A little snort snuck out like a traitor.

“Elliot?” Julia’s face was awash with emotions. Before I could pinpoint what the primary one might be, there was a sucking sound coming from below the falls. The water on the surface of the lake churned and bubbled. Trevor’s truck flew backward out of the water, the front end uncrumpling his grumpy bul

31

deeper
understanding

I took off at a sprint. I didn’t care that there were rocks below, that the drop would be messy and I didn’t have a vehicle to take the brunt of the landing. I was not going to be left behind. The edge of the cliff was in my sights when my feet left the ground. There was a sharp pain and my whole scalp felt as if it was being peeled off of my head. Instead of seeing the water of the lake below, I saw bright blue sky filled with fluffy white clouds. Just as suddenly as I’d taken flight, I’d landed on my back, pulled back down against the hard ground right where I’d been standing. The air was forced from my lungs and all I could do was wheeze. Julia leaned over me, blocking out the sky above.

“Sorry.” She held out her hand. It looked as if a good portion
of my ponytail was still stuck to her sweaty palm. “I didn’t mean to hurt you. It’s just that you shouldn’t jump. Sometimes you’ve got to let other people figure out stuff on their own.”

I groaned and rolled over.

“Besides if you hurt that much from this landing, then it wouldn’t have been pretty down there, even if you healed yourself quickly.” Her head started bopping like a bobblehead doll. I pushed up to my knees and jumped to my feet, feeling better already.

“Oh, for God’s sake, will you stop that crazy nodding? You convinced me.” I straightened my crooked ponytail. “You couldn’t have grabbed my shirt instead?” I gave it a little pull for emphasis. She frowned but didn’t say anything. “So, when did you turn into Hercules, by the way?”

“Oh.” Julia blushed. “I think it was the adrenaline. I was worried about you.”

I studied her face. Took my time, really trying to read her. “You love me. You really love me, don’t you?”

She radiated light as if she’d eaten the sun and now glowed from within. “Yes!”

She shined brighter, if that was even possible.

“But you’re going to leave without me?”

“Yes.” Everything about her was peaceful. She must have felt the shift in me and known that the anger and hurt were
gone. Those emotions had flown off the cliff without me when she’d yanked me back.

“You’re going right now?”

She reached her hand out, palm facing me. I did the same, my thumb interlocking with hers, our two hands creating the shape of a bird. We both wiggled our fingers, flapping our wings. It had been our secret handshake back when we were twins. When we felt like two halves of the same whole.

“Tell everyone I said good-bye, especially your boyfriend.” She winked.

“He’s not my—”

“We’ll discuss that at a later date.” She squeezed my hand.

“You don’t know that for sure.”

“But I believe it.” Julia’s thumb slowly unwound from mine. “I left you something in our room.” She turned, blew Mel a kiss, and then she was gone to the Basin. Before I could digest what it all meant, Trevor’s truck landed back on the top of the rock with a thud that gave Sally’s shocks a heavy workout.

My heart raced as the engine revve to be your Passengerear the hibI d once more. What was he doing? Was he going over again? Suddenly the truck shifted gears and flew backward all the way to the tree line. Then it circled around twice and headed straight for us.

Everything dropped away. All I could see was Trevor.

He was grinning all the way up to his baby blues. It took
me a minute to realize that Oliver was bouncing along in the seat next to him, giving a whoop every time Trevor hit a bump. From the expression on Trevor’s face, I would’ve bet anything that he was hitting every gully he could find, just to hear Oliver’s laughter and know he was the cause of it. Finally, something had changed for the better.

Right in front of me, Trevor threw it into park and jumped out. He was different. I couldn’t put a finger on it at first but then I realized he appeared lighter. He had on a deep green T-shirt instead of his usual black one, and it was missing his typical commentary. He also wore a pair of jeans and brown leather boots. Before I could tease him about his new look, he strode toward me and crushed me to his chest. He rested his knuckle under my chin, tilting my face to his.

He leaned in close and whispered, “We need to talk, but we only have a minute.

32

hell
and
back

“You did what?” I asked, glaring at Trevor from across the truck. He looked amused and I noticed his shirt.
BY THE TIME YOU’VE READ THIS, YOU’VE ALREADY READ THIS.
I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from smiling. Then I leaned back against the tire well, using Oliver’s arm as a pillow.

“Well, after I stalked off and left you on
thin ice
”—he shrugged—“I was half crazed.”

“H—” I’d started to say “Half?” when I saw Mel shake her head. My jaw reluctantly banged shut.

“As I was saying, I was not in my right mind. I’d picked a fight with you. I was trying to push you away before you were taken from me. When I came up out of the middle of the lake, with my memory intact and you in my arms, it was heaven.
Then I realized the implications of what I’d done. That I might lose you. It was worse than never having you at all. I just had to get out of there. I’m sorry for hurting you.”

“I didn’t help either,” I whispered, wishing he were sitting next to me. “I was stupidly wrapped up in my own absolution. I was overjoyed that I hadn’t jumped on purpose. It was so thoughtless of me.” Oliver grabbed my hand and gave it a squeeze. I was waiting for Mel to chastise me for interrupting again, but she just listened.

“Well, I got about halfway up the mountain, on the other side of the lake, and I got really mad at you. You wouldn’t have liked the things that were running across my shirt.” Trevor swallowed another lau}it had changed my mindgh. “Anyway, long story longer—I was mad at you because I wasn’t a hiker.”

“You were mad at me for what?” I was flabbergasted. “You hiked with me all the time in our last life and you certainly hiked with me here at the Obmil.”

“And I enjoyed it, but it’s
your
thing. Remember that first time we left Oliver’s grave and went up the mountain together?”

I nodded. It was hard to believe I’d ever forgotten.

“You said that we were going to the place where you went to think. The climb cleared your head. Do you remember what I told you I liked to do?”

“You drive,” I said.

“Well, I was so upset and angry to start with, that I didn’t know what to do with myself. I became focused on wanting to drive
my
truck. Then I got even angrier when I realized that I’d never seen a single vehicle here at the Obmil. I was murderous as I thought of everyone hoofing it all over the place. That’s when I decided to quit.”

“Quit what?” I asked, unable to stay quiet either.

“Quit hiking,” Trevor said. “I decided that if I wasn’t moving on to something better, then I was going to drive to hell in the truck of my dreams with the radio blaring.” He reached his arm over the side and gave Sally’s fender a good rub with the sleeve of his shirt.

“I focused everything I had on visualizing my red truck. I was at the frog pond sitting in the little gazebo, concentrating like crazy, when the tree line opened up. Out of nowhere, a packed dirt road and my truck emerged. I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised, but I’d never created anything at the Obmil that didn’t seem organic to the place. Everyone creates weather and helps to create the buildings. We all create other little characteristics that make the place feel right for us. This seemed different, like it was a sign that I really was on my way to—”

He broke off when he saw the hurt in my face.

“So then what? You drove to hell? And you decided to take Oliver along for the ride. You left without saying good-bye to me.” I would have murdered him if he weren’t already dead. I thought I was done yelling at him, but I got a second wind. “What if you hadn’t come back?” I said, feeling the loss of him all over again.