The ground was muddy from melted snow; it stuck to the soles of Kate’s boots. The air was humid, the sky was gray, and the trees were naked. Kate laughed as she tore through the sparse woods behind Grandma Lewis’s house. Lily cackled as she tried to keep up, glancing back at Greyson howling threats as he chased them with a stick in his fourteen-year-old fingers.
“I’ll get you for that, Lily Baker!” he shrieked, kicking up mud with his rainboots. He tried clawing clumps of dirt out of his hair where Lily had lobbed a handful.
Kate reached Grandma Lewis’s porch stairs first. The tea kettle whistled loudly from the kitchen inside as she raced up and flung the door open.
“Grandma, shut off the kettle!” she complained.
It wasn’t until Lily slammed into Kate’s back that Kate realized she had frozen in place. Somewhere in the vast space, Kate heard echoes of Lily start to shout something. She felt Lily try to grab her, but Kate was gripping the doorframe too hard. Lily took Greyson instead, tearing him away from the house.
“Kate!” Lily’s voice sounded like it was under water. “Kate!”
Kate didn’t respond. She stared into the living room at the man holding a blade toward Grandma Lewis. A mask covered the lower half of his face, and a ruby necklace peeked from the gloves he wore. It was a necklace Kate’s late grandfather gave to Grandma Lewis on their fiftieth anniversary. He’d passed away the following week.
The thief stared back at Kate standing in the doorway.
“Katherine!” Grandma Lewis shouted. “Run!”
The thief bolted first. He shoved through the house, kicking over the rocking chair, and disappearing into the back cellar.
Kate’s wobbly legs broke into a sprint. Her mind blanked as her body moved through motions.
The back door squeaked on its hinges as the thief escaped. Kate’s shaking hands tore the keys off the hooks and fiddled with the lock of the gun locker in the cellar. Her hands were around the cool barrel of her grandfather’s hunting gun before she knew what she was doing, and she sprinted out the back door into the forest.
Her mind spun: She would drag him to the police. She would not let him get away with threatening an old woman. She would—
Kate turned right, then left. She spun all the way around, looked up at the sky, then over at the neighbour’s house hardly visible through the woods.
Her boots slowed in the mud.
Empty trees and leafless shrubs greeted Kate coldly. Her heart was pounding, her chest was heaving, her eyes were wet. There was every kind of plant and leaf and tree and dirt and bug within grabbing distance. But there was no masked thief with a ruby necklace in his grip.
“It’s just a necklace,” Grandma Lewis said later that night after the police left.
“It’s not about the necklace!” Kate shouted. “It’s about a stranger coming into your house and doing that to you! I’ll never be able to look at that living room the same way again!” Kate stomped over and picked up her grandfather’s gun. “You’re going to keep this by the door from now on, and every time a stranger shows up, you’re going to have it in your hand. Do you understand, Grandma?”
Her grandmother only sighed.
Kate and Lily sat at the kitchen table long after Grandma Lewis went to bed that night.
“What are we going to do about this?” Kate laid forward, her hot cheek resting on the cool tabletop and her newly dyed wine-red hair splaying.
“We should become cops,” Lily said, glancing out the window in the direction the police car had driven off. She’d been mesmerized by the pair of officers the moment they’d shown up with their lights on. She’d asked them all kinds of questions about the bad guys they stopped. “Maybe we can protect her that way. I think I want to go to police college.”
“I can’t be a cop. I’d have to go back to using my real name, and everyone I meet would pity me and avoid me like before once they realize I’m the girl from the news. I can’t go through that again.”
“Then I’ll take care of you both,” Lily said, leaning back against her chair and folding her arms. “This family has taken care of me all these years. We’re graduating in a few months, and I have good grades now thanks to you. I think I can pass the police tests if I study hard.”
Rather than answering, Kate slid her hand over the table toward her friend. Lily half-smiled and linked her pinky finger with Kate’s. They stayed like that in silence for a long time, listening to the nighttime breeze against the window.
They both fell asleep with their cheeks pressed against the table.
