Sitting in the open hatch of Zadie’s station wagon, Finn stared down at the map in her lap. There were dozens of dots on the U.S. portion alone. There was no way they could visit all of them. They would have to narrow it down somehow.
Finn reached into her bag and pulled out the egg-size rock Estrella had painted for their mother. Luna had pried it from the Cairn and given it to her in hopes that it would help with their search. Finn couldn’t prove it was her mother’s—although she hadfloated the idea of dusting it for prints—but she knew it in her gut. Nora’s memory lived somewhere inside Finn. She had felt it. Luna had seen it.
Finn felt the heft of the rock in her palm. It was smooth as a river stone and cool as the water that had shaped it. She felt silly for having thought it might be warm to the touch, as if the volcano itself were somewhere inside, its smoke venting through the tiny pores in the rock’s surface.
Smoke.She looked back at the map. Only the orange and red dots were active volcanoes. “Do dormant volcanoes steam? Or only active ones?” she asked aloud.
“I dunno.” Zadie grunted as she heaved her suitcase into the hatch. The car bounced under its weight. “Could you scoot over?”
Finn moved a foot to her left so Zadie could shove her suitcase the rest of the way inside. “I mean, that makes sense, right? It would vent steam only if there was actual volcanic activity going on down there.”
“I guess. Why? Are you planning on pushing me in?”
Finn grinned. “Oh, did I not tell you about the human sacrifice portion of the trip? My bad.”
“Here.” Zadie shoved the tent bag at her sister. “You can finish loading. I need to save my strength for Mount Doom.”
As Finn tossed the tent into the car, she felt her phone buzzing in her pocket. It was Kathy. She owed her a call (she’d been too busy yesterday and had asked for a rain check), but now was not a good time.I’ll call her back later,Finn thought, and shoved the phone back into her pocket.
As Finn loaded the rest of their camping gear into the car, Zadie lay on the picnic table, staring up at the fast-moving clouds and trying to will away the seasick feeling that she’d had ever since she’d smelled Finn’s oatmeal breakfast. It wasn’t all the pregnancy’s fault, however. She was also dreading another day of aimlessdriving. Even though Luna had been psychic, it didn’t mean that her premonitions held the weight Finn thought they did. Just because Nora had glimpsed a volcano once didn’t mean she was still there, despite what Tonya had told them. So far the next leg of their journey was looking just as speculative as the first.
Zadie heard footsteps. When she sat up, she saw Nic’s spindly limbs bounding down the path that led to their campsite.If she held her arms above her head, she’d look like a saguaro,Zadie thought, amused.
“Good morning, ladies!” she sang as she approached.
“Morning,” Zadie replied, climbing down from the table. “Here to see us off?”
“Yep. I couldn’t let you guys leave without saying goodbye… and giving you these.” She handed Finn and Zadie a plastic tube each, the kind they had seen in Ursula’s study. “Ursula wanted you to have them. She wanted to give them to you in person, but you know…” Nic waved dismissively at the sun.
Zadie looked over her sister’s shoulder as Finn opened her tube and pulled out several pieces of sheet music. In Ursula’s handwriting, it was titledDenebola in F minor.
“The Tail of the Lion!” Finn gasped. “I can really keep this?”
Nic nodded. Her eyes were bright. “It’s your star now.”
Zadie opened hers and read the title aloud: “Porrima in A major.”
“From your star sign, Virgo,” Nic explained. “Ursula wanted me to tell you it’s a binary star, two stars that orbit around each other. She said the first few bars sound just like a lullaby.”
Zadie’s hand instinctively drifted toward her stomach. The Ladybug lifted the two halves of its shell to reveal a pair of gauzy wings. It had outgrown its ladybug body, Zadie realized. Or maybe, it had never been a ladybug at all. Maybe it had always been a star.
Zadie placed the music carefully back in its tube and cleared her throat. “Thank you,” she said sincerely.
After they had said their goodbyes, the girls climbed into the station wagon and snapped their seat belts. Zadie slid on her sunglasses and glanced at herself in the mirror before flipping up the sunshade. “Ready?” she said.
“Ready.” Finn wrapped her fingers around the rock in her hand, closed her eyes, and waited. As they pulled out of the campground and onto the highway, it hit her:
How long had she been walking?
Finn/Nora wasn’t sure.
The buzzards knew. They had been watching her.
Her mouth was dry, tacky.
Eyes hurt from squinting in the unrelenting sunlight.
Suddenly her chest burned. Like a cigarette had been snuffed out on her heart.