At the Quiet Edge(34)

“You okay?” Josephine’s voice was a squeak of alarm.

Everett rolled his eyes up toward the road, and for one moment he was utterly confused at the distance. Through the binoculars, it had felt as if the cop were looking right at him, had turned on the lights just so he could hit the gas and rocket through the meadow toward their tree. But of course, the car was far away, and in the moment of Everett’s slip, it had made a U-turn and was now just a speck racing away from them toward the highway.

“I’m okay,” he croaked, but his knees shook so hard he had to rest for a long minute before climbing down just as slowly as Josephine had.

For one soul-freezing moment Everett had thought the cop was coming for him. Because Everett was a thief and a burglar just like his dad.

He ducked his head as they walked so she wouldn’t see the tears in his eyes.





CHAPTER 11


Everett’s scream echoed through the dark apartment and snapped Lily from restless sleep into immediate, rigid terror. “Ev,” she rasped, her body jerking upright in a tangle of sweaty sheets. She pulled in a wheezing gasp, praying his cry had been only a part of her vague nightmare. It wasn’t real, it couldn’t be real.

But then it came again. “Mommy!”

Lily leapt up, stumbling on the bedding as she pushed off into a run toward her open door. He hadn’t called her Mommy in years, and hadn’t had one of his nightmares since at least fourth grade.

What if it wasn’t a nightmare at all? What if it was Jones, come to claim his son?

“Ev!” she yelled as she flew through the hallway and launched herself into his door, banging it open. “Everett?”

A cold swipe of air whipped past her as she snapped on the light. Everett sat up, back pressed to the white rails of his headboard, blanket clutched high against his face. Only his eyes were visible, locked tight on his window.

“I saw someone,” he croaked.

She rushed toward the window, registering that it was open to the night, the blinds rocking in the breeze as her joints went stiff with terror. “Someone opened the window. Get in the hallway. I’ll call 911.”

“I opened it.”

“What?”

“I left it open.”

She reached up and pulled the window down until it closed with a crack. After she locked it, she spun and switched off his light again so she could peer outside.

Moonlight shone weakly in, though the glow burned brighter the longer she stared and let her eyes adjust. “What did you see?”

“A man, standing there.”

Her heart felt split in two at that. “A man? Inside?”

“No. Outside.”

The light suddenly shifted, shadows writhing across the floor. Lily jumped with a yelp that made Everett whimper in response, but she shook her head and moved closer to the glass. “It’s just clouds,” she explained, angling her face to catch a glimpse of the moon. “Are you sure it was a man? What did he look like?”

“I woke up and something was blocking the light and then moved away.”

Lily deflated with relief as she watched their tattered patio umbrella flap in the wind. “I think it was only a shadow, sweetie. A cloud or that old umbrella. It’s really blowing out there. Have you been having bad dreams again?”

He shook his head, eyes still locked on the window. But then he looked at her and shrugged. “A few, not many.”

“Were you having a nightmare tonight?”

Another shrug, which was a definite confirmation in tween language.

His nightmares had started the same night the police raided their house, looking for his dad. He’d had them every night for the first week; then they’d died down a bit. But when they’d been forced to leave their home, his bad dreams had returned with a vengeance for a whole year. Monsters coming to get him, monsters taking his dad, monsters coming for his mom too. Slowly, slowly, Everett had left them behind, stopped screaming for his father’s help, and eventually they’d gone altogether.

Or maybe he’d just become too embarrassed to tell her.

She kissed his head. “I’m going to go turn on the porch light. I’ll be one second. Are you okay?”

He nodded, but he still clutched his covers like a scared boy.

Lily circled out to the hallway and around to the sliding door near the kitchen to hit the light switch. The patio sprang into view, revealing a square of cement stalked only by the stray cat, who hunched in a corner, glaring right at her.

“Everett, I think it was that cat!” she called.

“It wasn’t!” he responded as she hurried back to his room.

“The cat’s sitting right outside.”

“It wasn’t the cat!” he snapped.

“Fine, but you only saw a shadow. Right?”

He looked a little calmer now, irritation with her distracting him from his bad dream.

She lowered his blinds tightly. “Better?”

He waited a moment before nodding, and she paused, feeling awful for him and not quite comforted herself. He wasn’t a little boy anymore, but he was still a boy and he was still her baby. “Want to bring your blankets to my bed?”

His second of hesitation revealed exactly how spooked he was, but he finally shook his head.

“We can make you a place on the floor.”