Anima's Ghost: The Summer Before (Song Line Echoes, book 2)

Chapter 15: Getting Away

Since we have Leylina, Spyro and I are alone in the truck on the drive out of Fall River. It seems strange, leaving it behind already, even if it's just temporarily. I'll come back, soon, but by then it might all be different. By then, Jared will have spread his poison through the town.

"It's your birthday?" I finally ask him.

"What? Oh, uh..." he glances at me and his hand twists around the steering wheel. "No, not until September. It's the week after we go back to school."

"Oh." The word comes out quieter than I mean it to. Now I know, he didn't bother telling me because all of this will be over by then, one way or another.

"When's your birthday?"

"December 28th."

"Right between Christmas and New Years. So did your parents do the double celebration thing or the lumping them together thing?"

I try to remember, but now that I think abut it I can't remember a time my birthday was ever really celebrated. No presents because Christmas had just happened, no cake because we still had cookies from Christmas, and meals by then were always Christmas leftovers. "Neither, I guess," I finally tell Spyro. "My birthday never really happened."

"That's just wrong," Spyro shakes his head. I don't tell them that there are probably a lot of things about my life that he would consider wrong. And he isn't wrong by thinking that way. But it's all I've ever known, and I'm just so used to it all by now that it shouldn't really bother me. But still, somehow, it does.

"If there's a cabin, why did we need so much stuff?" I ask Spyro as we turn onto a dirt road and start weaving between the trees.

"It's the Gatsby vacation cabin. We're parking the vehicles there, but it's not actually in the triangle, so staying there would defeat the purpose of this trip to begin with," Spyro explains. It would only defeat part of the purpose for me, but I don't tell him that.

Borden's in the lead, and he pulls his motorcycle off to the side and gets off. Rune stops the car without finding a real parking spot, and Spyro stops behind him, like they're both waiting for something.

"Huh," Spyro says thoughtfully, glancing back at Leylina. "Has Leylina ever been around ATVs?"

"ATVs?" I blink, looking at Spyro, almost thinking I didn't hear him right.

"Four wheelers," he clarifies, even though I knew what he was talking about.

I nod a little bit, "Yeah, why?"

Spyro doesn't answer though. He just nods ahead of us, and I look forward again to see Gatsby and Borden pushing four-wheelers out of the garage to make room for the truck, the car and Borden's motorcycle.

There are three of them, and they're the only thing I've seen belonging to the Gatsbys that doesn't look shiny and new. The seats are clean, but the tires are caked in a layer of mud, and there are splatters of mud on the sides. And going further up than the mud, they're covered in a thin layer of dirt. Dirt, not dust.

These are used. Maybe often. Ridden through the woods at messy speeds. It's not a horse, but it's another piece of the life I used to have. How is that possible?

"You look like you just got a late birthday present," Spyro almost laughs. Once the four-wheelers are out of the way, Rune pulls forward to park his car in the garage, and Spyro pulls forward to park next to Rune's car.

The four-wheelers have racks on the back that Borden secures the camping backpacks to with bungee cords, while Rune pulls out a map and looks at it closely and Spyro pulls out his new camera to capture the preparations. "The swamp is about ten miles from here. Shouldn't take us long to get there," Rune says.

"Trees providing," Gatsby says. He seems to have forgotten entirely about Edelweiss, lingering in the background of everything. He paces with his usual excited and restless energy that he always has when he's this close to a ghost chase or finding an answer.

"You going to make me do all the work?" Borden snaps irritably at Spyro.

"I'm the cameraman!" Spyro points out. "Hey, this thing is water proof, isn't it?" he asks, turning his camera on Gatsby.

"Do you think me an amateur?" Gatsby asks in an overly-haughty voice, making Spyro laugh and Borden snort. Spyro sets the camera on the cabin's porch railing, positioning it carefully so that it catches as much of what's going on as possible. I try to ignore the fact that I'm being recorded too and go over to get my polaroid camera. I take a picture of Rune going over the map, and Edelweiss standing in the background, and I try to take one of Gatsby but he's pacing too much and I'm not sure if it'll turn out. Spyro catches me trying to take a picture of him and crosses his eyes and sticks out his tongue just as I press the shutter button, making me laugh. Borden catches me too, and holds up his hand to block the lens just in time.

"I'm not letting that thing kill me," Borden says shortly, effectively confusing me. I look to Spyro for an explanation.

"There's a movie about a polaroid camera possessed by the pissed off father of its first owner who kills anyone whose picture's taken by the camera," Spyro explains.

"There is a difference between horror movies and paranormal legends, sport!" Gatsby points out. "Now," he grins, "Are we ready yet?"

Rune folds up his map and tucks it away in an outside pocket of his backpack, "I am."

Borden moves his motorcycle into the garage and the pulls the garage door closed, locking all the vehicles inside, "Ready."

Spyro secures hooks the last bungee cord across the last backpacks, then goes to get his camera, grinning, "Let's do this."

"How fast can dogs run?" Gatsby asks, getting onto one of the four-wheelers.

"15-20 miles an hour," Rune says. Borden gets on the second four-wheeler.

"Not Leylina," I shake my head, and Spyro gets on the third four-wheeler while Rune gets on the second one behind Borden's. "She's a herd dog, she can run up to 30 miles an hour."

"Are you serious?" Gatsby looks at me, surprised. Spyro motions for me to get on behind him, so I do.

"Country girl," he grins at Gatsby.

"Apparently," Gatsby shakes his head in disbelief. "Come on, Edelweiss, we don't have all day!" Edelweiss hurries over, getting on the four-wheeler behind Gatsby.

"You better hope it's not too muddy out there," Spyro says over his shoulder to me as all three of the boys start the four-wheelers engines. He hands me his camera, and I notice that it's still recording.

I don't tell him that I'm secretly hoping that it ismuddy. That I miss getting muddy. But I can't help but smile when I tell him, "Ican handle a little mud."