“So, like, a dog and its owner switch bodies?”
“No. Two dogs switch bodies.”
Zadie and Finn shared a baffled look. “Do the dogs talk?” Finn asked.
Joel laughed as if the question were inherently absurd. “No. They’re dogs.”
Unable to contain herself anymore, Zadie cut in. “How are you supposed to know they’ve switched bodies if they don’t talk?”
“What do you mean?”
“If they both look like dogs and act like dogs, how do you know which one’s which?”
Finn watched Joel grapple with the hole Zadie had poked in his plot. “They act different.” he said defensively. “When you see the movie, you’ll get it.”
“Okay. Sorry,” Zadie said, amusement curling the edges of her voice like ribbon.
Now it was Finn’s turn to give Zadie a withering stare.What?Zadie mouthed in response.
“What’s this for?” Joel had spread theVolcanic Parks Map of North Americaopen on his lap.
“Here, I’ll show you.” Finn unbuckled her seat belt and clumsily climbed into the back seat, accidentally kicking Zadie in the arm as she went. When she had settled, she pulled the painted rock Luna had given her out of her pants pocket and handed it to Joel.“Thisis where we’re going.”
Joel looked down at the trinket with a baffled expression. “I don’t follow.”
“I have it on good authority that the volcano in this painting is where our mom went when she disappeared.”
“Which one do you think it is?”
“Well, we think it’s an active volcano, so that eliminates all of these.” Finn gestured to the gray dots on the map. “And see how the volcano in the painting is steaming? I looked it up and that can be a sign that an eruption is imminent. If it was steaming when our mom saw it, that means we’re most likely looking for a volcano that erupted recently.”
Joel’s eyes widened. “There was that eruption on the news a few years ago. Where was it again?”
Finn pointed to an orange dot on the northwest quadrant of Washington State. “Mount Ire.”
“Yeah! Mount Ire. Man, that shit was scary.”
“Well, get ready,” Finn said as she folded up the map, “’cause that’s where we’re going next.”
They wouldn’t make it to Mount Ire by nightfall. It was summer. The days were long, but not long enough. They would have to make camp somewhere in the old-growth forests of northern Oregon, a land where trees dramatically outnumbered people. While Zadie appreciated the oxygen they provided, she did not appreciate the cover they gave to a host of creatures that might want to eat her. Snakes and scorpions seemed like windup toys compared to the cougars and bears that roamed the wilderness of the Pacific Northwest. Even the vegetarians—elk, bighorn sheep, moose—had menacing horns protruding from their skulls. What were those horns for if not to gore her to death? Zadie knew she was spiraling down, but just because she knew it was happening didn’t mean she could stop it.
It took her several seconds to realize her marshmallow had ignited into a ball of flame. Finn leaned in and with a quick puff of air extinguished it, leaving behind a blistered black lump of sugar on the end of Zadie’s stick. Zadie barely glanced at the marshmallow before her gaze was dragged back to the dark wood beyond the ring of firelight.
“You’re freaking out, aren’t you?” Finn said.
“No,” she said, defensive. “Why would I?” Zadie couldn’t see the moon. Where was it? When she looked up, all she could see were dark spires of ponderosa pine looming over her.They must have the moon—an irrational thought that made perfect sense in the moment.
“Are you gonna eat that?” Joel said, pointing to the cremated marshmallow on the end of her stick. Zadie shook her head and handed it to him. “I like ’em crispy,” he said and ripped the charred remains from the stick with his teeth.
Finn draped an arm around her sister’s shoulder. “It’s okay to be scared. I mean… these woodsarehaunted.”
Zadie elbowed her sister in the ribs. “Ow!” Finn recoiled, clutching her side, and laughed. “Sorry, I forgot you were scared of ghosts.”
“I’m not,” she lied. At twenty-three, Zadie still hadn’t gotten over her irrational fear of the paranormal.I have Mom to thank for that,she thought bitterly, remembering the time Nora had recorded spooky noises on her cassette player and left it playing under her bed.
“The woods are definitely haunted,” Joel said, sucking marshmallow out from behind his teeth. “I saw a ghost out here once.”
“Joel, cut it out.”