Sarah Allen - The Girl Who Chased the Moon

She knew what he was doing, being about as subtle as an eight-foot-tall man. He didn’t want her associating with Win. She understood why. At the same time, she wondered if she could change this, if the reason she came here, in the whole scheme of things, was to make this right. Like her mother said, Don’t wait for the world to change . She’d been thinking a lot lately about clues her mother might have given her over the years, either on purpose or unconsciously, about her time here, about lessons she’d learned. Who she’d become, Emily was beginning understand, was her penance. She’d hurt people when she was young. She’d saved them when she got older. But for all the good she’d done, she’d never thought it was enough. Her mother had never been satisfied.

After Grandpa Vance ate, he got up and threw the food wrappers away. Then he went back to the laundry room to check the dryer.

She couldn’t stand it any longer. She had to know. When he came back out, she slid out of her seat in the breakfast nook and asked, “Why do you do that? Check the dryer so often?”

He laughed and gave her a sly look. “I was wondering when you’d ask,” he said. He walked to the refrigerator and took out two green bottles of 7UP . He handed one to Emily. “I was a little uptight when Lily and I first married. I’d lived alone for quite a while before she moved in. Without realizing I was doing it, I would follow her around when she would do housework, to make sure it was done the way I’d always done it. The thing that bothered Lily the most was my checking the dryer after her to see if she’d left any clothes behind.” He shook his head at the memory. “Because I’m so tall, I can’t see that low into the dryer, so I just reach down and feel. One day, after she’d walked out with a basket of laundry, I went in and stuck my hand in the dryer… and felt something cold and slimy. She’d set a frog from the backyard in the dryer for me to find! I jerked my hand out so fast that I fell down. Then out jumps the frog. I watched him hop from the room, past Lily’s shoes. She was standing in the doorway, laughing. Well, I learned my lesson. Over the years, she’d tell me to go check the dryer as a joke, and I’d always find a small gift from her.” Her twisted the top off his bottle and took a drink. “After she died, I just kept checking. I don’t know why. It’s not like I ever find anything. But it makes me think of her. And when I get worried or anxious about something, I go check, just in case she wants to tell me something.”

“I think that’s sweet, Grandpa Vance,” Emily said. “I wish I’d known her.”

“I do, too. She would have liked you.”

They said good night at the staircase, and Vance went back into his room. Emily made it halfway up the staircase before she stopped. She hesitated, then walked back down and went to the laundry room.

She studied the dryer for a moment, even going so far as to lean over it to see what was behind it. Before she knew what she was doing, her hand went to the handle and she quickly opened the door, jumping back as if something inside might fly out at her.

She cautiously peered in. Nothing was there.

She almost laughed at herself as she walked out. What had possessed her to do that?

What sign was she looking for?

HOURS LATER Emily slowly opened her eyes, not sure what had awakened her. She took a deep breath. When she exhaled, in her sleep-addled mind, the air came out as blue as smoke. She stared at the ceiling and it gradually came to her. Something was wrong. The room was normally brighter than this.

When she’d gone to sleep, light from the moon was shining in through the open balcony doors, sending rays as pale as cream into the room. She turned her head on the pillow to see that the balcony doors she’d left open were now closed, and the curtains had been drawn over them.

Her heart suddenly gave a single hard thud of surprise and her scalp tightened, which felt like every hair was on end. Someone had been in her room . She reached under her pillow and turned off her MP3 player, then she slowly sat up on her elbows.

She knew it was him. His presence felt different, different from anyone she’d ever known. She could feel the lingering warmth of him still in the air.

She pulled the earbuds out of her ears and got up and went quickly to the light switch. When she flicked it on, the chandelier bathed the room in cobwebby light.

But no one was there.

From across the room, she saw a piece of paper peeking out from the curtains. The twin doors had been shut with a note tucked between them. She hurried over and pulled the note out.

I’m sorry I had to leave the festival. I didn’t want to. Will you spend the day with me? Meet me on the boardwalk at Piney Woods Lake this morning .

– Win .

Emily immediately swung open the doors and stepped out on the balcony, looking around.

“Win?”

Nothing. The only sounds were the katydids and the papery rustling of leaves in the wind.

Her heart was still thumping, heavy and fast, but not so much from fear now as an incredible sense of anticipation. It had been a long time since she’d felt anything like this. It had been months since she’d looked forward to anything-food, birthdays, weekends. He made her remember how it felt.

The edge of her nightgown was fluttering against her legs, and the air around her was charged with energy. She didn’t want to move. She didn’t want to let go of this feeling.

A few minutes later, she heard an engine turn over. The lights of Julia’s truck, parked at the curb in front of her house, suddenly sprang to life. Emily watched the truck pull away and drive down the street.

She guessed she wasn’t the only one who wasn’t going to sleep that night.

W hen Sawyer opened the door to his townhouse, he was irritated, as anyone would be if they were forced out of bed at dark-thirty by the incessant ringing of a doorbell. The neighborhood had better be on fire.

The door flew open and hit the wall as he flicked on the porch light.

Julia took her hand away from the doorbell, and the grating shriek inside his house immediately stopped.

He blinked a few times. “Julia?” he asked, just to be sure.

“I need to talk to you.”

“Now?” He wasn’t at his best.

She rolled her eyes. “Yes, now.”

He took a good long look at her. She hadn’t changed clothes. She was wearing the same faded jeans and embroidered white peasant blouse she’d been wearing at the festival. He should have stayed there with her, but he’d been angry. She thought he only wanted a piece of her, that he would accept a fling. While he’d certainly had his share of flings, most of which he’d greatly enjoyed, he wanted to be nobler than that with Julia. And she wouldn’t let him . “Are you drunk?” he asked.

“No, I am not drunk. I’m mad.”

“Oh, good, because for a moment there I thought it was going to be something unusual.” He stepped back. “Come in.” It was an automatic gesture. He didn’t think anything of it until she walked past him into his darkened living room. That’s when it hit him. She was in his house. Exactly where he wanted her to be. And he had no idea what to do next.

The only light came from his kitchen, where he kept the hood light over his oven on at night. She looked around, nodding slightly to herself, as if his space was exactly what she expected it to be, like there was a fine, crisp scent of privilege here that she didn’t like.