I took a deep breath. I looked back at Katie, who was sitting in the back seat, leaning forward, waiting to hear my answer. “It was more than a little bit of me. I was overjoyed to have her to myself most days.”
“That’s sick,” Rebecca said. “We waited for you to let us in, to tell us it was okay to come see her, but you never did. Instead, you shut us out. We lost our friend.”
“I lost my friend, too.”
“Yeah, but we lost our friend months before she died because of you. So, if you want to know why I hate you, that’s the reason. Happy now?”
I shook my head. “No. I don’t know if I’ll ever be happy again, honestly.”
“Good. Maybe that’s what you deserve.”
Chapter 40
There was silence the rest of the car ride back to my house. When Rebecca finally dropped me off in the driveway, she barely rolled to a stop so I could get out before she sped off without saying goodbye. Her words had thrown me for a loop. I had always considered myself the hero in the story of Katie’s death, but now I knew somebody, a group of people even, who considered me the villain.
“Don’t worry about her,” Katie said, floating over to me as I sat down on the ground. “She doesn’t know anything.”
“She’s right, though,” I said. “I could have done a whole lot more to get them involved in the end of your life. I could have arranged field trips to the hospital, but instead, I was so concerned with keeping you to myself that I forgot everything else.”
“Hey,” Katie said, sitting down with me. “She made it all about her, but it wasn’t all about her. It was about me. I mean, I know that seems kind of lame to say, but I was the sick one, not her and not you, and I wanted you by my side more than anyone else.”
I wrapped my arms around my knees. “Maybe she was right. I was just the one to get the dumb luck to live across from you and not have anything to do.”
She shook her head. “No. You stopped your life for me. Nobody else did that. They kept on going but you were there for me. Never forget that.”
I smiled. “I wish I could kiss you now.”
“I wish that, too.”
I pushed myself up off the ground and walked inside. I barely shut the door before Joanne ran over and hugged me. “Oh, thank god you’re home. Have you seen Samantha?”
I shook my head. “No. Not since school.”
“Her mother just called again. She’s run off again. Principal Foster said he saw you getting on the bus with her after school.”
I set my bookbag down on the counter. “All right, I do know where she is, and I can get her back, if you trust me.”
Joanne held me at arm’s length and gave me a sharp look. “Trust you? What have you done to earn my trust lately? The last time we talked, you told me my dead daughter was hanging around you. How do you think that made me feel, Anna?” She turned away from me and walked into the living room, pulling her hair tight against her scalp.
“I know you think I’ve gone crazy. Everybody thinks I’ve gone crazy, but if you want to get Samantha back, you need to trust me.”
“I don’t care about Samantha,” Joanne said, shaking her head. “I care about you, Banana. What’s happening to you?”
I looked her dead in the eyes. “I’m growing up, and when you grow up, there are things you have to do, whether you like them or not. My mom taught me that.”
Joanne nodded. “That’s true. I never thought I would bury my child, but I had to do that, whether I liked it or not.”
I walked over to her. “I’m not going crazy, Joanne, and I’m not going anywhere, but you need to trust me. If you can’t trust me, then what do we have?”
She studied me for a moment. “You can get her back?”
“If you give me your car, then yes.”
Joanne thought for a moment. Then, she reached into her purse and handed me the keys. “Did you use my car the other night? When I got into it, I swear there was less gas than before.”
“Do you really want to know the answer to that question?”
She shook her head. “I guess not.”
“Tell Mom not to worry. I’ll be home soon.”
I ran out of the house and into Joanne’s car. I pulled off my backpack and opened the jar that contained the green locator light.
“Okay, I don’t know how this works, but I’m just going to trust it’s going to work.”
“It’s going to work,” Katie said. “I’m sure of it. Magic hasn’t let us down yet.”
“Really? Cuz I think all it’s done so far is let us down.”
The green light hovered into the air, and then it flew in front of us, onto the street. I pulled out of the driveway and put the car into drive. As I did, the locator light flew in front of the car. When we reached the intersection, it flew to the left and sat in the middle of the intersection. I thought a car would see it and crash, but one drove right through the intersection without stopping.
“I guess only witches can see it,” Katie said.
I looked back at the hole in the universe over our street, then over to Katie. “Yeah, there’s a lot of that going around.”
I turned left and followed the locator down the street. I drove for an hour before I found myself in Cerritos. I never really came here, except when Mom and I wanted Asian noodles or pad Thai. The locator beacon led us down the main
