Light as a Feather, Silent as the Grave

Chapter 21

As I fell into a deep sleep nestled against Trey in the lobby of the bank, I couldn't tell if he was attempting to engage me in a conversation or was simply talking aloud to work through his mother's angle on our situation. I was baffled by Mrs. Emory's behavior, too—if she'd had any knowledge of the Simmons family and the evil they'd unleashed on our town, I found out difficult to understand why she had suffered through Trey's trial in Ortonville back in November in silence. Or why she'd so calmly allowed Judge Roberts to sentence Trey to the Northern Reserve School until his eighteenth birthday. There had to have been a reason why she thought it would have been safer for him to be sent far away from our town and the Simmons family for her to have allowed it... what kind of mother would keep quiet while her son was unfairly punished if she could have prevented it?

Perhaps she believed that Trey would have been better off far away from Weeping Willow. The much more troubling alternative, which darkened the brief dreams I had during the three hours of fitful sleep that I got at the bank, was that Trey's mother had some other reason for stepping aside and allowing the Simmons' to banish him from our town. A reason that had nothing at all to do with what was best for Trey, and everything to do with what was best for... someone else.

When I woke up, searing morning sun glared against the glass of the bank window. It was early; the street outside was still empty. Unlike when I'd stirred awake on the train and didn't know where I was for few a seconds, I was fully aware of my surroundings the instant I opened my eyes. My head rested against Trey's chest and I heard him breathing deeply; not quite snoring, but close. We were lucky that we hadn't been awakened by a bank manager arriving to open the bank at an ambitiously early hour. I had to think hard for a second to figure out what day of the week it was; Mom had dropped me off at the airport on Monday, we'd escaped from Esther on Tuesday, we'd walked all night and now it was Wednesday.

I leaned forward and yawned. Through the locked interior doors of the bank, I could see a clock on the wall inside over the tellers' desk which gave the time as 8:24 A.M. The decal letters on the front door of the bank indicated that it would open at nine. Nap time was over. I unzipped my purse to pull out my contact lens case, grateful that I'd been smart enough to take my lenses out before I fell asleep.

"I think I probably should call my mom," Trey said as he stretched, which made half of the sentence that he uttered come out at a booming volume. He wiped his eyes with the backs of his hands. "If we can think of a way to call her without her being able to find out where we are, that is. She's never tried to stop the police from throwing me back into Northern Reserve, and I doubt she'd try now."

Before we could put any serious thought into how we might go about calling Mrs. Emory, our more urgent need was finding a place where we could use a bathroom and buy some food.

"Man, I don't remember the last time I brushed my teeth," Trey complained. "I'm starting to feel like a cave man. Apologies if I, like, melt off a few layers of your skin with my breath."

We already knew what we'd find if we headed west on Main Street, since we'd come that way last night. So we decided to venture east, figuring that there had to be a public library or a grocery store or something around here, somewhere. As it turned out, we didn't have to walk far before we came across a sparkling Sonic diner with a drive-thru, an unexpected but welcome sight. 

I volunteered to order food after we both cleaned ourselves up since police weren't looking for me. In the ladies' bathroom, I did my best to wash myself off, since I had no idea when I'd next have an opportunity to take a long, hot shower. My hair was already limp and greasy, although as I gauged its grossness in the mirror, I had to wonder how I really looked underneath the spell Esther had cast on me. As I washed my face with hand soap at the sink, it kind of felt like I was playing with a Barbie doll whenever I looked at my reflection.