“Fine. If we’re not going to talk, then I’m putting on music.” Nora punched the power button on the stereo and the cassette deck whirred to life. Zadie leaned her seat back, closed her eyes, and pretended she was still in her own bed.
Finn didn’t like it when her mom and sister fought, and it had been happening a lot lately. It hadn’t always been this way. Something in the past few months had shifted between them, some cosmic disturbance that forced them to say things to each other that they didn’t really mean, then go hours without speaking. Whenever she asked her mom about it, she would just sigh and say, “Teenagers.” Finn didn’t bother pointing out that she, too, was almost a teenager. Sometimes she worried that the moment she turned thirteen, she and her mom would suddenly start hating each other as well.
The fighting had stopped. For now. Zadie’s eyes were closed, butFinn couldn’t tell if she was asleep or just trying to avoid another argument. Her mom was playing Simon & Garfunkel, which did little to liven the mood. It continued this way for an hour or more until her mom suddenly announced, “I think it’s time for a slushy break! Who wants one?” Whatever had been bothering her mom was apparently old news, because she was smiling now and drumming on the steering wheel.
“I do!” Finn said, relieved at the prospect of getting out of the stale car. “The green kind.”
“One Soylent Green coming up.”
Nora got off the highway at the next exit and pulled into a gas station labeledGO FOR GAS.The lettering on the sign was so faded it looked as if it had been hastily colored in with marker, and a bird had built a nest in the cradle of the secondO.
The door chimed as they walked inside, and the girls made a beeline for the Slushie machine, two plastic chambers filled with roiling icy slurries of Yellow No. 5 and Blue No. 1.
“Aww. No green,” Finn said with an exaggerated pout.
“Yeah, there is. Watch.” Zadie filled half a cup with yellow slush, followed by blue, then snapped on a lid and shook it vigorously. When she was done, she pulled off the lid and handed the cup to Finn.
“You’re a genius.” Finn slurped from the edge of her cup, then looked around for their mom and spotted her chatting with the cashier. Three Pepsis, several sticks of jerky, and a bag of marshmallows sat on the counter between them. The cashier must have noticed how pretty Nora looked in her white tank top, her arms lean and freckled from the hours she spent outside at Sunnyside Dairy. She’d worked there for as long as Finn could remember, working her way up from feeder to manager in only a few short years. There was a large bruise on her right thigh from where a cow had kicked her the week before. Finn thought it looked like a sunflower.
“Where do you think Mom’s taking us?” Zadie asked.
“Dunno. The zoo?”
“The zoo’s only an hour from our house.”
Finn furrowed her brow thoughtfully. “You don’t think she’s taking us to that doll museum again, do you?”
“Ugh. I hope not. That place was creepy.” Zadie stole a glance at Nora. “Don’t you think it’s a little weird, though?”
“What’s weird?”
“Dragging us out here to the middle of nowhere. Not telling us where we’re going?”
Finn hadn’t really given it much thought. Nora often sprung plans on them last minute, so it wasn’t a stretch to think that she would wing a trip like this, too. Her sister was probably worried over nothing. “I dunno. I think it’s fun.”
Zadie exhaled heavily, then held out her hand. “Can I have a sip of that?”
Finn passed her the Slushie. Zadie popped off the cap and straw and took a large gulp, leaving a green mustache on her upper lip that she quickly wiped away. “Thanks,” she said, passing the drink back.
“Zadie! Finn! Come here.” Nora gestured for them to join her at the register. Finn was first to her mom’s side. “Look at this,” Nora said when Zadie had finally caught up. She held out a brochure for something called the Constellation Campground. The picture on the front flap showed a family of four posing in front of a sandstone mesa, blithely smiling at their own good fortune for booking—according to the small print—THE ONLY CAMPGROUND WITH SPECTACULAR VIEWS OF THE RED ROCKS.
“How would you guys like to stay here tonight?” Nora asked.
“Really?” Finn gasped. She loved camping. She loved sleeping outside with the crickets and the owls, eating charred marshmallows, splashing through creeks looking for arrowheads. She even loved bugs and would collect the ones she found in a plastic terrarium her mom had gotten her from the dollar store. Finn would always release them after an hour or two, but she liked being able to see them up close: the bristles on their legs, their stained-glass wings, the iridescent orbs of their eyes.
“Yes, really!” Her mom’s enthusiasm bordered on frantic. Maybe, Zadie had been right. There was a strangeness to her mother in that moment, an undercurrent of panic beneath her toothy smile.
By the expression on Zadie’s face, she’d noticed it, too. “Are you okay, Mom?”
“Of course I’m okay.” Nora laughed mirthlessly. “Don’t you think this place looks like fun?” She shoved the brochure at her elder daughter as if that would somehow convince her.
“Can’t we just go home?”
“No.” The word was cold and sharp, as if it had been chipped from ice. Just as quickly, Nora grinned again. “I guess you don’t want any marshmallows, then.”
There was an uncomfortable pause, after which Zadie said, “But marshmallows are literally the only thing I like about camping.”
“Tell you what…” Nora straightened her shoulders in an attempt to appear composed. “You can have all the marshmallows you want if you at least try to have fun this weekend. And I meanreallytry. Got it?”