“Gretchen’s gonna freak,” Angus noted.
“Yeah,” Will agreed.
“You wanna tell her?” Angus asked hopefully.
The knot in Will’s stomach tightened at the thought of facing Gretchen with news like that. “No, I really don’t,” he admitted.
“But you will,” Angus said.
“Do I have a choice?”
“You’re a good man,” Angus told him.
“Not really.”
Angus sighed. “Okay. I mean, maybe he’s okay. It’s not like anyone really knows what happened, right?”
“Oh, hey-and guess who’s in rehab?” Angus tipped back in his chair, stretching his long legs under the table.
“Is this person a celebrity?”
“Just a local one. Kirk Worstler.”
“Seriously? Where’d they get the money?”
“Word is Adelaide finally called the grandparents. They’ve got him locked up in some fancy place in Hampton Bays.” Angus stood up and helped himself to some fresh coffee.
“Listen, speaking of Kirk, it seems that he left a gift in Gretchen’s room.” Will explained about the painting.
“Oh, shit. Okay, I’ll call Uncle Barry. He’ll get it taken care of.” Angus shook his head. “That poor kid. I’ll bet the Miller won’t even press charges.”
“Thanks, man. I owe you.”
Angus held out his fist for a pound. “We gotta stick together.”
“Sure.”
“Sure? Just-you know, ‘sure’? Man, how about some enthusiasm?”
Will managed a smile. “We gotta stick together,” he said.
When Johnny came to the door, he told Will that Gretchen was upstairs in her room and said Will should head on up. Will took the steps slowly, dreading the moment when he would have to deliver the news. But when he pushed her door open gently, he saw that the room was empty. The normal chaos was unusually tidy-the bed was made and the large painting was spread out over it. Will stared down at the image of the fierce bird-women on the rocks in the distance. Their expression made his heart splutter, starting and stopping in frantic motion. He completely understood why it gave Gretchen the creeps. He wondered what Kirk had been thinking when he left it for her. He was glad the kid was finally in rehab. For Kirk’s own safety-and everyone else’s.
A movement caught Will’s eye, and he looked out of Gretchen’s window. There was the green bluff, and beyond it, the blue-gray sea. A figure in green stood at the edge of the bluff, long blond hair sweeping down her back. Gretchen was looking out to sea like a sailor’s wife, waiting for her husband’s safe return.
Will hurried down the stairs and out the door. His legs ached as he climbed the bluff. A lonely seagull cried overhead. Finally Gretchen came into view, and Will slowed as he got near her. He didn’t want to frighten her.
Gretchen didn’t turn around. “Jason’s dead,” she said. Her voice was heavy, and it was weary.
“How did you-?”
“Do you think that there’s anything to what Kirk was saying?” Gretchen asked. She gazed out at the distant horizon, a faraway look on her face. “About angels?”
“I don’t know,” Will admitted.
“I wonder what it’s like.”
“What?”
“Being dead.”
Will shrugged. “It’s like being asleep.”
“Sleep without dreams.” A gentle breeze lifted a lock of her hair. She had added colorful strands to the blond. With the blue and green streaks, she looked like a storybook mermaid.
“Yeah.”
“How do you know?” Gretchen asked.
“I don’t. It’s just what I think.”
“I don’t think that’s what it’s like,” Gretchen said. She seemed on the verge of saying something else, as if the words were like bits of mist assembling into clouds in her mind. There was a long beat of silence as Will waited for her to go on. “Sometimes I think I can hear them,” she said at last.
“Dead people?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know.”
Will studied her profile, noticing the dark circles under her eyes, how pale her skin seemed beneath the light kiss of sun across her nose. He’d always thought of her as walking sunshine, but now the light within her seemed dim. Very dim. “Have you been sleeping?” he asked her.
She laughed, and the sound was brittle on the wind. “Stupid,” she muttered.
“What?”
“Forget it.”
“No, wait-what did I say? What was stupid?”
“Not you, me,” Gretchen snapped. “I should have known.”
“Known what?”
“Known that if I told you the truth, you’d think I was nuts.” Gretchen narrowed her eyes at him.
“I don’t think you’re nuts,” Will told her. He reached out and pressed her hand. Her skin was soft beneath his own.
She looked down at their intertwined fingers. Her hair hung over her face, half obscuring it.
“I’m just afraid,” Will said.
Gretchen’s eyes met his. It was strange to see that gaze, at once so familiar and so unfamiliar. There were flecks of green in those blue eyes. It was as if you could see the whole world in Gretchen’s irises. Will wondered if he’d ever noticed that before.
He didn’t remember.
She placed her cheek against his chest, as if she was listening to the beat of his heart. Will placed an awkward arm around her shoulder, wondering what to say, what to do. “I’m afraid, too,” Gretchen told him.
“Jason might be okay. Just because they haven’t found a body-”
“They never found Tim’s body.”
Will was rocked with the truth of this. He was speechless.
Gretchen pulled back to look up into his face. “I-I’m sorry,” she sputtered. “I don’t know what’s wrong with-”
“No-” He held up his hand. “It’s true. Sometimes, I think part of me is still waiting for him to come back.”
“We could wait forever.”
“I know.”
They stood there like that for a while, both staring out over the water, flat as a blank page. “It’s so strange,” Gretchen said after a moment. “I was sleepwalking again last night. Here. At the edge of the water. Do you think that means something?”
“Out here? I thought Johnny was locking you in.”
“I must have climbed down the maple tree,” Gretchen said.
“So what are you going to do? Nail the window shut?” Will was kidding, but Gretchen didn’t laugh.
She shook her head. “I don’t know.”
“Gretchen,” Will said slowly, “who told you about Jason?”
“Asia did.”
“She did? She called?”
“She came by.”
“Is she still here?”
Gretchen’s eyes filled with tears, which mystified Will. “I-I’m sorry,” he stammered. “I just need to ask
