to come up with a plan. I’d managed to talk briefly with Dustin after homeroom, and I hoped he’d have some ideas when we met for lunch.
We usually hung out in the computer lab, and since Grammy wouldn’t know how to find us, I met her as she left my fourth-period class. I called “Amber!” She hesitated, then turned toward me, the look of relief spreading across her face almost comical. Obviously I wasn’t the only one having a bad day, so I gently took her hand and led her into the computer lab.
“I thought I was wild when I was a teen, but compared to the spitting, swearing, and talking-back to teachers going on here, I was a saint.” She sank down on a hard plastic chair beside me.
“Saints are overrated,” I teased, glad not to dwell on my problems. “I’d rather hear more about your drag racing.”
“Not even going to go there. I am still your grandmother.”
“How long did you smoke? And just how many guys did you date?”
“Now you’re just being rude.” She gave me a disapproving look, then opened the sack lunch I knew Mom had made. Mom took pride in the stay-at-home motherhood thing and put together great lunches, with thick sandwiches, chips, fruit, and homemade cookies for dessert.
“So are you having a tough time at school?” I asked Grammy as I bit into a hoagie sandwich I’d gotten from a vending machine.
“Everything is so high-tech now,” she said, gesturing around the room to some kids challenging a teacher to an online role-playing battle. Not far away a few girls sat together, not talking, just holding cell phone and texting.
“It’s just what it is.” I shrugged.
“Definitely not what I expected.” She sipped her mango-peach juice, then added, “Your mother isn’t what I expected, either. I’ve seen a whole new side to my daughter, and although I don’t always approve of her methods, Theresa is an amazing mother.”
“I could have told you that.”
“And you did — only I wasn’t listening. I wish it wasn’t too late to tell her.”
I hated the finality in her tone. It touched a nerve and anger surged through me. It was never too late for anything important. I wanted to believe in justice and dreams and happy-ever-afters. As long as you kept trying, there was always hope.
Maybe I couldn’t win with Gabe, but I could help Grammy with Mom. A thought struck me, and for the first time that day, I smiled.
When I told Grammy what I had in mind, she gave me a big hug and said it was a great idea. As thanks, she offered me one of Mom’s homemade cookies, and as I took a bite, my heart melted like warmed chocolate. I already missed Mom, Dad, my little sisters, my cat …
If only I could stay.
The door to the computer lab burst open and for a nervous moment I expected to be dragged away by Gabe. But it was just Jessica Bradley, looking exotically gorgeous in an oriental-print dress and silky red jacket, but also angry, with pinched lips and her hands on her hips.
Oops. I’d forgotten her “Basket Club” meeting. I braced myself for attitude about missing the meeting. Only she walked past me, and gave it all to Grammy-As-Me.
Grammy sputtered in confusion, glancing over at me for help, but I just shrugged when Jessica insisted that “Amber” come back with her to the cafeteria. I tried to argue, but Dustin cut in and urged them to go. “Alyce and I have a project to finish,” he added, with a meaningful look for me. I got the hint and played along.
Once Jessica and Grammy were gone, Dustin scooted his chair over. “I checked out that address and number you gave me for Angelica, but the house she lived in was torn down when they put in Gossamer Estates.”
“Jessica’s neighborhood.” I’d been to Jessica’s mansion home a few times and was awed by the beautiful garden and luxurious decor. It was the kind of home I dreamed of living in when I had my big career … if that ever happened.
“So I tried finding Angelica’s relatives … and I’m waiting to hear from a grandson. He could call anytime. He should know which cemetery his grandmother is in, which will tell us where Alyce’s lost sister is buried.”
“Then Alyce and her mother can accept their loss and move on — and I can, too.”
“You are
Imagining Dustin — who had techno-geek pasty skin and zero muscle-tone — taking Gabe on, I almost laughed. But I actually came closer to crying. He was so sweet … and after tonight I may never see him again.
“Gabe was here — at school,” I admitted in a low voice, glancing around the computer room anxiously, as if expecting Gabe to materialize from a computer monitor. “I didn’t want to freak you out before, but he was waiting for me by Alyce’s homeroom.”
“Damn!” Dustin balled his hand into a fist. “We’ve got to find a way to beat him.”
“You can’t beat someone who plays with Earthbounders in a game where he’s made all the rules,” I said miserably. “Sure, I can report him to the DDT, but they’re not powerful enough to catch him and Eli could end up dead.”
“We’ll figure out something. I know! I’ll go with you tonight and hide nearby. We can drug him and lock him up until he has to change bodies again.”
“He won’t have to change again for a month. But he could steal your body any time just for kicks. He can’t take Alyce’s body from me, but if he touches me with both hands he can drain my energy until I forget to breathe. There’s no way to stop him.”
“You sound like you’re giving up.”
“I don’t want to … but I’m scared.” Saying these words made it seem more real, as if a toxic breeze had swept into the computer lab and was slowly poisoning me.
“We have fifteen more minutes before lunch ends,” Dustin said, glancing at the large clock on the wall. “Tell me everything you know about Dark Lifers. The more information we have, the better the chance of finding a solution. We’ll come up with a plan and take down that Dark Loser.”
I wanted to believe him and clung to the small rope of hope he was offering. So I did what he asked, telling him everything I knew about Dark Lifers.
A few minutes before the warning bell, his cell phone rang. He snatched it fast, glancing at the text message and then swearing.
“Bad news?” I asked, biting my lower lip.
“Worse. No news at all.” Dustin shook his head. “Angelica’s grandson lost touch with that side of his family after a nasty divorce. He doesn’t know where his grandmother is buried — only that it’s somewhere in California.”
“That tells us a whole lot of nothing. How can we hope to find a grave in a few hours when Alyce has been searching for months with no luck? She hasn’t left us much more than a drawing of an angel with huge wings.”
As I said the word “angel,” a picture sprang into my mind of a crumbling stone angel, and I felt the sting of nettles. Excitedly, I pulled out the purple notebook, flipping to the page with the drawing. The stairs, the unusually large angel wings, and the location … it all added up.
I knew where the lost baby was buried.
22
A few weeks ago, I’d been driving to a party given by the glamorous Jessica Bradley and I’d taken a wrong turn — a turn that marked the beginning of the weird string of events that led me into three different bodies. But at the time, all I’d cared about was getting to that party, positive it would raise my status at school and lead to influential new friends. When I’d gotten lost on a dead-end road at a cemetery, it had seemed like the end of my world. Then bad went to worse and I landed on my butt inside the locked cemetery gates in a prickly bush of nettles. When I picked myself up, itching and miserable, I’d climbed up a granite stairway to a crumbling but still-
