Twisted Fate

I shrugged. “Sure,” I said. “Do you skate?” He had the tall, lanky, hair-in-your-eyes look that kinda said skater, so it was a reasonable question.

“Nah,” he said. “I’m afraid I’ll break my neck.”

I laughed and then skated over to him, stepped off the board. “Here,” I said. “Give it a try. You’ll be fine.”

He smiled nervously and put his foot on the board. And when I looked up into his face, his eyes looked really fu

“My sister can do some good driveway tricks too,” I said.

He raised his eyebrows. “Oh yeah?”

“Yeah, you should ask her about it sometime.”

Ally sat on the low wall near the house and just watched us. She gave me a fu

Sometimes she could get that kind of look our father had where he would just stare blankly and then ask what kind of boats you’d sailed. Graham didn’t look like he could keep himself upright on a skateboard, so I doubted he had any sea legs. And things like sea legs were pretty important to Ally, who still sailed with our dad quite a bit.

“So, um. How do I do it?” Graham asked.

“Skate!” I said.

He looked a little confused and then put his foot on the board and pushed along the pavement. The driveway sloped down and curved into the woods. By the time he had reached the end of the slope he had fallen off. He lay there on his back dramatically while I trudged down the driveway. Then I stood over him with my hands on my hips. He was gazing up into the sky with a weird look on his face, a half smile, his eyes drifting from left to right as they followed a cloud.

I looked back at Ally, who was gri

I said “All right, captain head case, point taken. You ca

I shrugged and hopped back on the board and skated around his body, then up the driveway and retrieved his camera from where he left it, handed it to him. But I get you, I thought. Behind those dilated eyes is a great big secret.

I rode my blue vintage Schwi

I thought about college applications while I rode. I hoped admissions at Emerson would appreciate how hard I’d been working, hoped it reflected in the transcripts I’d be sending. I knew that my recommendations would be good but worried about my grades in English and science, worried that my essay might be a little boring. I started working on it over the summer even though it wasn’t due for several months. I’d even shown it to Sydney—who had actually had some good suggestions and helped a lot. Guess Syd couldn’t wait for me to get out of the house, wanted to make sure she got me into school and away.

I think Syd and I were like two sides of the same coin. She wouldn’t work at anything that didn’t interest her but she had some kind of crazy memory for information. I would work at everything as hard as I could but things slipped my mind all the time. It was hard to keep hold of facts. I liked practical things better and I felt like there was always enough going on to keep me busy. I was like that since we were little. I often felt like Sydney did things and I just watched her do them and made sure she didn’t get hurt. For example she’d never wear a helmet if she was riding a bike. She almost never wore one when she was skating.

That might seem brave, but another word for it is reckless—or maybe even stupid. I liked to have fun too, but I didn’t think the fun came from the possibility that you might get hurt. If Daddy said to put on a life jacket when we were on the boat and it was stormy, I put on a life jacket. I wore a helmet when I rode my bike. Syd thought things like that made me scared or wimpy, but I enjoyed what I did.

I loved biking away on the hills or along the ocean and being alone and away from everyone, feeling free and smelling the salt air and thinking about nothing. I really did think about nothing. I’m not embarrassed to say it. It was a gift. Most people can’t stop thinking about who they are or what they’ll do or what people think about them but I could. I could stop thinking about upsetting things and think about nothing. I could accept the world just as it is and live in it just fine. When life gives you blueberries, bake blueberry muffins!

I always thought one day, maybe when we’re older we’d become better friends and see how what we thought were opposite qualities actually complemented each other. Just like Mom’s and Dad’s.

The leaves were just begi

When I arrived at Pine Grove, I locked my bike out front and then went in to say hi to Gi

The sofa in the lobby was also an antique and Gi

I looked out the windows at the beautiful ocean. It was always so quiet and peaceful there. I was lucky to get paid to sit in that pretty room. Work was usually fun and laid-back. A few guests checking in, a phone reservation or two. But that evening, there must have been something wrong with the telephone co

Because a few times every hour I would get a call and no one would be on the other line.

I would answer. I would say, “Hello, hello?” And there would be nothing but silence and then a cold quiet click.

I responded to the call in the late afternoon. Shocked to hear it on the sca