Created •
"Why the interest in us?"
"I cannot tell you at this time."
"Are you crazy?" Katie said.
"Are you going to retrieve your sister?" he countered.
She looked hard at him.
"Or not." he slowly added.
"Or maybe I go home like nothing happened." she asserted.
"Aren't you working on your math homework?
"Hmm." she nodded. "Yes I am, if I am still alive after Oba-chan finds out.
He smiled.
"Both ways: we run or we stay," said Katie, "we are big time screwed."
And she began shaking her head as if to measure the phrase and its echo in her mind.
"Susan is not going to return here with me. The moment she sees me, she'll
run home. And so will I." Katie said, "Maybe."
"And you're allowed." he smiled, "no maybe about it."
"Yes she will," Katie kept going, "Susan will run... What? What did you say?"
He was silent.
And she grabbed the flap and lifted and took off out the door.
She followed her way back up the hill as best she could,
dodging fingers of moonlight.
"It's better I find her and not the other way around." she said out loud to herself.
It'll give me a slight edge in this upcoming battle of the O'Brien twins."
And with that precaution
she fairly ran
up the hill
nearly reaching the ridge and the trail
that headed back eastward, toward her bedroom window.
She felt movement in the bamboo stalks
several meters down and east from where she stopped now,
trying to breathe, if not more lightly, then at least a bit more quietly.
"Susan!" Katie whispered loudly.
Katie watched the movement stop.
"Susan, stop it! No. I mean, Susan, don't stop it. Get over here quick!"
Katie saw no movement, heard no sound.
"Oh, this is dumb. Susan! Get over here!"
"Here I am," Susan whispered excitedly, loudly
and from a direction that pointed a good 60 degrees north
of the movement of bamboo Katie just saw.
"Susan! Stop! Katie said. "Don't move!
There is someone else here!
I mean, right there,
a few meters down the hill from you!"
And both girls now saw vigorous movement coming from the same area.
"Susan-Katie, Katie-Susan."
"Ohmygod, it's Oba-chan," the girls said in concert.
And each of them froze suddenly in her tracks.
(end of Chapter 8)
(Chapter 9 coming Sunday, July 23, 2006, 11:00 pm Mexico City Time.)
Return to Chapter Map.
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