He placed the boots next to the other pair. “My mom was afraid you’d need them. She tried to go to your house to give them to you, but there’s no way to get in the gate.”
Only Mama and Aunt Sondra knew the numbers to make the gate open from the outside.
“What did your mom say when you came home without your shoes?” he asked.
“I told her I lost them when I took them off by the stream.” And that had helped her explain why she’d come home late that night. She’d said she was looking for her boots.
“She wasn’t mad?”
“No.”
“My mom said those are expensive hiking boots.”
Raven didn’t know what that meant. Mama ordered things and they came to the gate in boxes.
Jackie looked around. “Where’s Baby?”
“I don’t know.”
Raven felt his nervousness. He’d never been like that with her.
“I’m sorry I ran away,” she said.
“It’s okay.”
“Is your mother mad at me?”
“No. Not at all.” He picked up a stone and looked at it. “She’s more like worried.”
“Why?”
He looked up from the stone. “About you. And your mom and everything.”
Her mom and everything. What did he mean? Had his mother figured out that Raven was the daughter of an earth spirit? The boys never acted like they knew, but maybe a grown-up could see something Raven should have hidden.
“My mom didn’t understand why you don’t want her to meet your mom.”
“My mom doesn’t like to meet people.”
“Why not?”
She had no answer. Not one she could tell him.
“Reece’s dad is dead, and his mom drinks a lot. That’s why he kind of lives at our house.”
Raven didn’t know what drinks a lot meant.
“My mom would understand if something like that is happening with your mom,” he said.
Ms. Taft wouldn’t understand anything about Mama. They almost lived in different worlds.
He held out the stone in his hand. “The white lines on this look like an R. For Raven.”
She took the rock. It did have an R on it. She handed it back to him, but he said, “Keep it.”
The stone was surely a message from earth spirits. But Raven didn’t know what they were saying. She slid the rock into her shorts pocket.
“So . . . my mom wants me to ask you to come over,” he said.
“She knows you came here?”
“Not exactly here,” he said. “She said to invite you over if I see you again. I’ve been looking for you to tell you.”
She felt like two very different birds were inside her. One was happy about going to Jackie’s house, swooping around, making her stomach feel funny. The other felt like her heart had dived down into brambles to hide from a predator. Raven was afraid Ms. Taft would try to see Mama again. If Mama found out she’d been keeping Jackie a secret from her, she might close her eyes and never open them.
As if he knew her thoughts, he said, “My mom said she doesn’t have to talk to your mom. She just wants to know you’re okay.”
“I am okay.”
“I know. But come over and let my mom see. She’s worried about you.”
Raven didn’t like Ms. Taft being worried about her. Mama was right about the outsiders. They didn’t understand anything. They ignored what was important and made trouble about things that didn’t matter.
“Okay,” she said.
“You’ll come to my house?”
“Yes.” She would go there and show Ms. Taft she was not a person to worry about. She was Daughter of Raven. Her father was a powerful earth spirit. Her mother walked in a spirit world few knew how to enter. Even if they knew, they would be too scared to go there.
She put on the wet boots and left the pair Jackie had brought on pebbles near the Wolfsbane. When they started walking in the creek, Baby swooped down and landed on her shoulder.
“There you are. Where have you been?”
Jackie petted his finger on Baby’s back, and she asked for food. Raven gave him a peanut to feed her, and she flew away.
“Reece is over,” Jackie said. “He’s been asking about you, too.”
“Why?”
“He likes you.”
“Why?”
He shot a smile at her as they walked. “I don’t know. Everyone likes you. My mom says you have a powerful presence. I’m not sure what that means, but she likes you.”
Raven didn’t know what Ms. Taft meant, either, but the word powerful worried her. Possibly Ms. Taft saw some of her spirit side. Raven would have to make sure she acted like a regular girl around her. Maybe she should show her how many school lessons she knew.
They splashed through deeper water in silence. When they got to the alder trees, Raven asked, “Why did you say Reece’s mother drinks a lot? What does she drink?”
“She’s an alcoholic, Reece said.”
“What’s that?”
“A person who drinks too much beer and whiskey and things like that. She takes drugs, too.”
The only drugs Raven knew of were the white pills Mama gave her for fevers. “Why does that make Reece have to stay at your house?”
“Because his mom is wasted a lot of the time. She doesn’t take good care of him.”
“Wasted?”
“Drunk. High. Haven’t you ever seen people like that?”
“No.”
He was quiet for a little while. “I guess my mom doesn’t need to worry about your mom being like that.”
Raven didn’t understand any of what he was saying, but she wouldn’t ask more. Jackie’s house came into view. She had to act like a regular girl who knew all the things other children knew.
8
Huck threw a short pass to Raven. She caught the foam football and ran for the end zone. She was near the line, but when Reece leaped and tagged her, he lost his balance and fell on top of her. Chris had been close behind, and he fell on Reece and Raven. It hurt a little, but she liked feeling the weight of them. And their earth and sweat smell. And them asking if she was okay, and laughing, and saying how tough she was.
Ms. Taft jogged over from her garden. “Are you all right,
