After the End

He sits there looking dumbfounded. “What? Where?”

I extend my hand. He looks at it warily—like it’s an inanimate object. Like it’s one of those mystery boxes Kenai loves to make: you never know if it holds a piece of blueberry cake or a coil-spring snake that will smack you in the face.

The boy doesn’t take my hand. Instead, he follows me out of the library into the parking lot. It’s still raining. I pull up my hood and let the rain drizzle down my jacket, while Miles huddles beneath the building’s overhang.

“Which one’s yours?” I ask.

“The Beamer.” Miles points to a silvery-blue car that looks brand-new, and then wraps his arms back around himself. It isn’t very cold, but his shirt is too light for the weather. Doesn’t come prepared, I think, continuing the mental assessment I had begun the moment I saw him.

I walk to his car and stand next to the passenger side. “What are you doing?” Miles calls.

“Waiting for you,” I respond. “And getting wet.”

He gives me an incredulous look. When I don’t move, he leaves his dry spot and jogs through the rain toward me, pressing something on his keys as he runs. I hear the locks click and I open the door, slide in, and stash my backpack in the rear seat. Miles bundles into the car and turns to gape at me. “What are you doing?” he repeats.

“I could ask you the same thing,” I respond. “You were looking for me. And now you’ve found me. I’ll tell you what I’m doing if you tell me what you already know about me.”

His jaw snaps shut and his eyes grow wide. Green eyes. I can tell now. They’re the dark blue-green-black of a Denali lake at dusk. The thing about lake water is it’s opaque. You never know what’s hidden underneath.

“What I know about you? Nothing!” he says.

I stay silent, crossing my arms as I wait. He sees that I won’t talk until he does.

“Seriously,” he claims. “All I know is that some people are looking for you. And the locals think you’re crazy because you go around asking people’s names.” He pauses, looking sorry that he said that last part. Understandable. It’s not the kind of thing you would want to mention when sitting in an enclosed space with said crazy person.

Tactless, I add to my list, and ask, “Do you?”

“Do I what?” he asks, looking cornered.

“Think I’m crazy?”

“Um, I would have to say . . . at this moment . . . yes,” he admits.

I chew my lip and look out the window at the parking lot. No question about it—I’m sure Miles is the one Frankie foresaw.

I look back at him and raise my eyebrows impatiently.

“What?” he asks, looking defensive.

“Let’s go,” I say.

“Go where?”

“To find my clan.”

His features flip through a series of comical expressions: incomprehension, doubt, surprise, and finally exasperation.

“Where . . . where do we have to go to find your . . . clan?”

I lean forward to peer at the point where the sun hides under the rain clouds to get my bearing. “It looked kind of desertlike. Kind of Wild West. It’s in that direction,” I say, pointing southeast.

“Whoa,” he says, holding his hands up in a defensive gesture. “Listen here. I don’t have any clue what you’re talking about. And I haven’t said I’m taking you anywhere. Much less to the Wild West.”

“Then tell me why you were following me.” I look at him.

He stares back at me as long as he can before shifting his gaze away. I just sit and watch him, waiting for him to come around. Finally he sighs and says, “Okay, I’ll give you a lift. But I was headed south, actually. To California. We’ve got a lot of Wild West there. You could ride there with me and then go look for your clan. But I’ll need to make a stop and pick up some . . . stuff first. Clothes. You know.”

“What’s in the suitcase behind the seat?” I ask.

“Um . . . clothes,” Miles says, fidgeting. “Yeah, I forgot about that. But I could take you to your hotel if you need to get . . . supplies.” He rearranges his face into a helpful smile and then lifts his eyebrows in a way that I think is meant to charm me.

Nome would be eating this up, I think. She had actually gone through the EB and ranked the photos of every scientist, politician—anything male—from one to ten, based on “charisma,” as she called it. I can never think of John F. Ke

But I feel only amusement watching Miles. I have a goal, and he is the one who will help me. My interest ends there. “I don’t need to go back to the guesthouse,” I say. “I’ve been here seven days and paid up front for the week. Plus, I have everything I need in my pack. Let’s go.”

“So you have money?”

“Some.”

“Well, then, why didn’t you rent a car and drive yourself?” he asks curiously.

“I don’t know how to drive.”

He raises a skeptical eyebrow. “You could take a bus.”

“You’re supposed to take me. And California’s due south. I’m going southeast.”

Miles clenches his jaw in frustration. He digs his fingers into his temples and squeezes his eyes shut. And then, opening them again, he glares at me. Doesn’t like to take orders, I think, noting that tidbit on my checklist, and then add, Is used to getting what he wants.

“Why in the world would you trust me to take you anywhere?” he asks. “I could be dangerous. I could be psycho. You don’t know me from Adam.”

I turn to him. “Actually, I don’t trust you. Frankie told me not to, but he also said I had to be honest with you.”

“Who the hell is Frankie?” A note of hysteria creeps into Miles’s voice.

“Frankie is the guy who sits and drinks beer on the corner of Pike and Pine. People call him Crazy Frankie.”

“You take advice from an insane alcoholic?” Miles’s face is dead serious now.

Be completely honest, I hear the voice in my head. I exhale and brace myself. “He was my oracle,” I respond. “And he told me to go with you. Therefore, whether or not you are dangerous or psycho—which I don’t think you are—”

“Thanks,” Miles interjects drily.

“—you are driving me.”

“How does this Crazy Frankie even know who I am?”

“He doesn’t,” I respond. “He told me to go with the person whose name will take me far.”

Miles stares at me, all semblance of coolness gone. He looks scared.

“You are psychotic,” Miles says, eyes wide. Tearing his gaze from mine, he sits for an entire minute staring straight ahead at the parking lot. He needs you as much as you need him, Frankie had said. I wait.

Finally, shaking his head in despair, Miles turns the key in the ignition. “Okay. I’ll take you at least part of the way on your crazy road trip.” He reaches for something on the dashboard. “But first I have to make a call.”

I get to the contraption first. “Is this your cellular phone?” I ask.

“Yeah,” he says.

Clasping it in my hand, I close my eyes and contact the Yara. I’ve been waiting for a week for this to happen. I’m ready. A little spark flies out the side of the phone, and its screen goes dead.

“What the—” Miles yells.

“Frankie also told me not to let you use your phone,” I reply. “Now let’s go.”

20

MILES

MY BRAIN HURTS. I AM SO FAR OUT OF MY COMFORT zone that I might as well be in the Amazon, swimming with piranhas. This girl somehow just broke my phone and now she’s telling me to drive her to Mount Rainier. And I’m actually arguing with her over directions, like we’re some geriatric married couple.

“You pointed south a minute ago. The mountain is due east,” I say, stopping the car at the edge of the parking lot. “You have no idea where you’re going, do you?”

She wraps her arms around her chest and says defiantly, “Actually, I pointed southeast. Our destination is in that direction.”