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“I suppose I could.” But of course a man who knew where the body was buried would automatically
go to the head of the suspect list, so if he did it, he would have to be very, very careful about the way
he did it.
Abra, the trouble you’re getting me into.
“Sorry,” she whispered.
He put his hand over hers and gave it a gentle squeeze. “Don’t be. That’s one you weren’t supposed
to hear.”
She straightened. “Oh God, here comes Yvonne Stroud. She’s in my class.”
Dan pulled his hand back in a hurry. He saw a plump, brown-haired girl about Abra’s age coming
up the sidewalk. She was wearing a backpack and carrying a looseleaf notebook curled against her
chest. Her eyes were bright and inquisitive.
“She’ll want to know everything about you,” Abra said. “I mean everything. And she talks.”
Uh-oh.
Dan looked at the oncoming girl.
(we’re not interesting)
“Help me, Abra,” he said, and felt her join in. Once they were together, the thought instantly
gained depth and strength.
(WE’RE NOT A BIT INTERESTING)
“That’s good,” Abra said. “A little more. Do it with me. Like singing.”
(YOU HARDLY SEE US WE’RE NOT INTERESTING AND BESIDES YOU HAVE BETTER
THINGS TO DO)
Yvonne Stroud hurried along the walk, flipping one hand to Abra in a vague hello gesture but not
slowing down. She ran up the library steps and disappeared inside.
“I’ll be a monkey’s uncle,” Dan said.
She looked at him seriously. “According to Abra’s theory of relativity, you really could be. Very
similar—” She sent a picture of pants flapping on a clothesline.
( jeans)
Then they were both laughing.
9
Dan made her go over the turntable thing three times, wanting to make sure he was getting it right.
“You never did that, either?” Abra asked. “The far-seeing thing?”
“Astral projection? No. Does it happen to you a lot?”
“Only once or twice.” She considered. “Maybe three times. Once I went into a girl who was
swimming in the river. I was looking at her from the bottom of our backyard. I was nine or ten. I
don’t know why it happened, she wasn’t in trouble or anything, just swimming with her friends. That
one lasted the longest. It went on for at least three minutes. Is astral projection what you call it? Like
outer space?”
“It’s an old term, from séances back a hundred years ago, and probably not a very good one. All it
means is an out-of-body experience.” If you could label anything like that at all. “But—I want to
make sure I’ve got this straight—the swimming girl didn’t go into you?”
Abra shook her head emphatically, making her ponytail fly. “She didn’t even know I was there. The
only time it worked both ways was with that woman. The one who wears the hat. Only I didn’t see the
hat then, because I was inside her.”
Dan used one finger to describe a circle. “You went into her, she went into you.”