9

When he woke up, it was with a realization. If Rose had been right about the date, his mother must have had his letter for at least a few days. Very soon it would be time to run. He rolled over and saw Del sitting on the grass at the far side of the glade, leaning against a tree. 'Good morning,' Tom said.

'Morning. Where did you go last night? I want you to tell me.'

'I just walked around. I got lost for a while.'

'You didn't see my uncle.'

'No. I didn't. I told you.'

Del shifted and rubbed his hand over damp grass. 'I don't suppose anything happened to you last night. I mean… anything like he was telling us about?'

'Did it happen to you? Were you welcomed?'

'No,' Del said. 'I wasn't.'

'I wasn't either,' Tom said. 'It was probably the dullest night of my life.'

'Yeah, me too.' Del beamed back at him. 'But I thought I heard something - really late, it would have been. A big noise, like a billion birds taking off at once.' He looked shyly at Tom. 'So maybe I was welcomed? Maybe that was it?'

'Let's go brush our teeth,' Tom said. 'There'll be food back at the house.'

Tom put on his shirt, which was wrinkled as a relief map. They rolled up their sleeping bags and left them in the glade.

'You look different,' Del said.

'How?'

'Just different. Older, I guess.'

'I didn't get much sleep.'

They were walking through the woods, going beneath big high-crowned trees. In minutes they reached the clearing where the man with the sword had told him that he knew what he was.

'Maybe we'll see Rose today,' Del said.

'Maybe.' Tom walked straight through the clearing toward the barely visible path, no more than a few trampled weeds, which led to the rock shelf.

'Tom, I'm sorry I got so mad at you. I thought you were trying to ruin things - you know. That was nuts. I'm really sorry.'

'It's okay.' Tom pushed aside ferns and went back into deep woods.

After a while Del spoke again. 'You know, I think we've been here a lot longer than it seems. He did that once to me before.'

'Yeah, I think so too.'

'The sun's in a different position. Isn't that neat? It's like he can move the sun.'

'Del, I have a headache.'

'Oh, that's probably why you look different. Look, what did you think of Rose? I know you only met her once, but what did you think? I hope you liked her. I think you did.'

'I liked her,' Tom said. This was unbearable. He thought of a way to stop Del talking about Rose. He turned around on the narrow indistinct path. Now they were within sight of the rock shelf. Spangled pale light fell on them. Del looked up at him, purged of his doubts and friendly as a puppy. 'I want to ask you something,' Tom said.

'About Rose? You can be my bes.t man, if that's what you want.'

'That time you broke your leg. That was the time you were here longer than you thought?' *

'How did you guess that?' Del looked at him in amazement. 'Yes. You're right.'

'Can you remember anything about what happened? When Bud came for you?'

Del's amazement altered to perplexity. 'Well, it's like I

was asleep for a long time or something. Why do you want

to know about that? Sometimes I remember little pieces

of what happened - little things, like you remember

dreams.'

Tom waited.

'Well, like, I remember Bud arguing with Uncle Cole. That's mainly it.'

'Arguing about you?'

'Not really. Bud wanted me to come home right away, I remember that. And Bud won. I did go home with him. But I can remember Uncle Cole sort of taunting him. He said he hoped Bud wasn't waiting to be included in my will. I know that was a terrible thing to say, but he was mad, Tom. That's about it. Except… well, I can remember Bud sitting on one end of the living room and Uncle Cole sitting on the other end. I must have been lying on my side of the couch. They were just staring at each other. It was like they were fighting without words. Then my uncle said, 'All right. Take him, you old woman. But he'll be back. He loves me.' And Bud went upstairs to get my stuff. When he came back down, we all went out to the car, and Bud said, 'We don't want any repeat performances, Mr. Collins.' My uncle didn't say anything.'

''No repeat performances.''

'Right.' With the light falling on him in disks and shafts, Del seemed a part of the forest, camouflaged to blend in as easily as a squirrel. 'But that was silly. I was never going to break my leg again. I guess Bud was being extra careful.'

'Okay,' Tom said. He began to walk toward the rock ledge.

'I sure wonder if we'll see Rose today,' Del said behind him.

You will betray Del: that had already happened. The rest of it, Tom swore, never would.