a deadly storm, an unsolved disappearance, and a small town brimming with secrecy;
an outcast girl, a boy who only knows how to hide, and the world against them;
what could go wrong?
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"Have a seat, Nathaniel."
Boo's heart jumps nervously in her chest as she hears Martha speak-her eyebrows shoot up as a reflex and she looks to Harry. He has a strange look on his face, somewhere between nostalgia and concentration. Maybe he misses Martha as much as Boo does.
It's been so long since she heard Martha's voice. It's comforting and concerning all in the same breath.
"Why are you here?" Martha speaks again and Boo is blown away by how uncharacteristically angry she sounds. Her words are cold and unreceptive, but then again Boo is always made to feel that way by any interaction she has with Nathaniel. "Can't you let an old woman be?"
"We need to talk, Martha," Nathaniel says patronizingly.
"I'm done talking," Martha sneers. "I've got an unemployed daughter and a granddaughter to support, and nothing to say to you." Her voice is weary and Boo's fists clench in agitation at hearing the distress in her grandmother's voice.
Nathaniel ignores this. "And yet here you are, entertaining this conversation. What have you heard recently?"
A pause. "You think I go sticking my nose into other people's business like you two?"
Boo could've laughed at the irony of Martha's snide comment if she hadn't picked up on what she actually said.
Two? Who's the second visitor?
Harry seems to hear this also, judging by his strained expression. His eyes are down and glued to the table with his chin resting on his fists as he listens intently.
"You mean to tell me you spend every day in this damn house with your head in your ass?" Nathaniel crows arrogantly. "It's all over the news, Martha. They'll be digging up the body any day now, I'm sure of it."
Another pause. Boo can picture Martha standing by the window with her hands clasped behind her back and her lips set in a firm line as she mulls over Nathaniel's words. It's a look Boo's witnessed a thousand times-her grandmother caught in deep reflection.
"You had to expect this was a possibility," Martha finally says.
"You can't be serious!" Nathaniel seethes. "The whole point of burying him was to keep him buried! And now they want to dig her up."
Boo reaches out and pauses the tape before anything else can be said.
"Did you hear that?" she whispers. There's an icy edge in the room that wasn't there moments before, like the cold in Boo's heart has seeped through her skin into the surrounding air. Harry's gaze flits to her and he nods.
Boo feels her throat tighten nervously. "Nathaniel said 'bury him' but that 'she' was going to be dug up."
"They're talking about two different bodies," he says quietly.
