Page 84 of Every Almost

"It's going to get scary," Helen continued, her voice steady but her eyes bright. "I won't lie to you about that. The world is not kind to people who are honest about who they are. Not yet." She squeezed their hands. "And Katie," she said, turning her attention to the younger Wickett daughter. "You surprise me more and more every day, my girl." Katie's eyes were bright, but her smile reminded them all that this was a good moment, not a sad one. "Standing by Charlie like that, defying Ed and Diane, all in one swift move?" Helen actually whistled, causing both girls to laugh. "That took true strength, boss." Helen winked at Katie, and Charlie watched as the nickname settled over Katie like warmth in the middle of winter. Frank's name for Katie had stuck since the first day they'd arrived on the driveway, and tohear Helen keeping it up, she knew it meant the world to Katie. To both of them.

"The important thing is, you have each other. And you have me. And I am always a phone call away. You hear me?" Both girls nodded their understanding. "Always."

Charlie heard the echo. The same words she'd said to Katie in the driveway the night she left for Caltech.I'm a phone call away, Kit-Kat. Always.Helen didn't even know she was uttering the same words that brought Katie comfort all those years ago. It laid before them as the first step to their new lives together. And Helen was there in the foundation.

That night, both girls slept at Helen's. Charlie took the sofa. Katie took the guest room.

Sometime after midnight,Charlie woke up gasping, the blankets twisted around her legs and her heart pounding in her teeth.

The nightmares had come back.

She pressed the couch pillow over her face and waited for the shaking to stop, the way she'd done when she was a child, the way she'd done before California took them away. She thought she was alone.

Then she felt the sofa dip, and a blanket pulled over her. Then Katie's back pressed against her chest, and a small hand pulled Charlie's arm around her like a seatbelt.

And Charliebreathed.

? PASADENA, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES ?

Charlie and Katie went to California together as planned. They drove Charlie's Plymouth across the country with the windows down and Katie's mixtapes in the deck. Katie picked the order, and Charlie let her, which was a first.

But it would not be the last.

Charlie also used the trip to reintroduce Katie toRumours, officially, and Katie was back in fan mode by the end of the trip. Charlie reveled in the fact that, this time, driving to California, Katie was in the passenger seat instead of the rearview mirror as a shrinking reflection.

They stopped at a diner somewhere in the Texas panhandle because Katie declared she would "cease to function as a human being" if she didn't get pancakes in the next fifteen minutes. Charlie pointed out that it was two in the afternoon, to which Katie replied that pancakes don't run on a schedule. Charlie couldn't argue with that straightforward logic.

While they waited for their food, Katie got up to use the restroom and came back with an armful of pamphlets she'd grabbed from the wire rack by the door. She dropped them on the table between the ketchup and the napkin dispenser with a heavier than expectedthunk.

"What are those?" Charlie stared at the amass of papers piled surprisingly high on their table.

"These," Katie said, spreading them across the table like a deck of cards, "are our options."

"Options for...?"

Katie smiled brightly and nodded towards the pile. Charlie followed her gaze. She picked up one of the pamphlets and began to read. "'Cadillac Ranch: Ten Cadillacs Buried Nose-First in the Texas Dirt.' The 'World's Largest Belt Buckle: FoundOUTSIDE of Texas.'" She looked up at her sister. "Kit, why would I want to see?—"

"Nope." Katie held up her hand. "You don't get to choose. That's not how this works."

"I haven't a clue what you're trying to tell me. How what works exactly?"

Katie covered her eyes with one hand. She raised her other hand above the table and began spinning it in slow circles, like a lasso winding up. Charlie watched with growing suspicion.

"The rules of road trips," Katie announced, eyes still covered, hand still spinning, "depend entirely on fate."

"Fate?"

Katie's hand slammed down on the table. The silverware jumped. A trucker at the counter looked over.

Katie lifted her hand and peered at the pamphlet underneath. Her eyes went wide. She flipped it around to show Charlie.

"THE THING?" it read, in enormous letters, with a question mark that looked personally offended. Below it: "Mystery of the Desert! Exit 322, Willcox, Arizona."

"No," Charlie said.

"Yes."

"Kit, that is literally over a hundred miles out of our way to see something that won't even tell you what it is."