I don't relax until the flashes of lightning grow farther apart, turning from a fireworks show to an occasional weak flare. The storms are dying, no longer fed by the heat of the day. The freeway clunks under us, normal and sane. Semi trucks grow farther apart. We're on a stretch to nowhere, rolling ahead into darkness.
Tommy's clock reads 11:38 a.m. We’ve been going for an hour now.
My parents must have no idea I’m gone. My phone's stayed silent. They usually go to bed at ten, and we left around ten thirty.
"Which direction are we going?" I ask. My eyelids droop and I want to give in with exhaustion. It's a giant sloth trying to drag me down into the pit of sleep.
"South. But now that the storms are gone, we can actually head the right way. I didn’t want to drive through them." He punctuates his sentence with a yawn. "Once we get to Nebraska, I'll need your help. It'll probably be morning by time we get there."
"No problem," I say. "If I'd stayed home, it would have happened again." I shove away all thoughts of how another transformation would have turned out in Williams Town. I can't think about it. I need to sleep. It's the only way I can stay sane.
Tommy mutters something. It floats away somewhere in my thoughts and the space behind my closed eyelids.
Sleep comes and goes. My muddled dreams move along the highway. Once, I open my eyes to the lights of a gas station somewhere and we're parked by one of pumps. Tommy eyes the growing price on the screen as gas hisses into the tank. He's got a plastic bag tucked under his arm, bulging with energy drinks.
He’s planning on driving all night. Wow.
It’s the most amazing thing he’s ever done for me. More amazing than the time he carried all my books for me that time my locker got jammed in the eighth grade, and the school wouldn’t fix it for a week. More amazing than the time he brought me a bucket of bullfrogs he caught when we were nine, because he loved the fact that I was the only girl he knew who wouldn’t scream.
I close my eyes, watching those frogs hop out of the bucket and go all over the garage floor. I smile as my mother comes in and starts freaking out, too scared to come down the stairs. We wind up having to catch all the frogs and take them to Uncle Cassius’s house to let go in his pond.
When I open my eyes again we're parked at what looks like a rest area and the sky's on fire with the new day. I sit up to find Tommy leaned over the steering wheel, an empty can of Monster dangling in his hand. He lets out a low, windy snore. Even the eight tablespoons of sugar couldn't save him from sleep forever.
A semi pulls off the freeway, which clunks and hisses with life.
I have no idea where we are.
Plus I really need to use the bathroom. There should be a map in the rest area building I can look at when I’m done.
I leave Tommy sleeping in the car, go use the facility, pop a candy bar out of the vending machine, and head for the map when my phone rings.
My stomach coils like a snake ready to defend itself. I pull it out. My phone’s down to two bars of battery life. Crap. I left my charger back home when I had to rush out.
But all thoughts of that fly away.
It’s Uncle Cassius's number.
I answer before I can think about it. "Uncle Cassius? I tried calling you last night."
He coughs on the other end of the phone and silence drags out for seconds. "Allie, where are you? Your parents just called asking if you'd come over to my house last night."
Great. I'm not sure how to answer this question. "Um…I don't know." I really don’t. I turn in a circle, trying to find the map again. There’s one on the far wall, but--
"You don't know?" He laughs. It's a nervous sound. "A..Allie, what…"
The glass doors open and a family squeezes through, complete with kids with their legs crossed. On top of that, a tour bus is pulling up to the back of the building. I have to be careful.
"I'm with Tommy," I supply. "He offered to take me out on a trip. A real one. Now that I'm ungrounded and all after what happened at the open house yesterday, well, I just have to get away for a while. I'm sorry I didn't tell my parents. I'm not running away or anything. We're at a rest stop now and Tommy's just taking a power nap before we get back on the road.” It’s the truth. Part of it, anyway. I need to tell him the rest.
The doors open, and a crowd of kids in camp shirts pour in. I step out the opposite door and outside.
Silence again. A car passes Uncle Cassius on the other side of the line, judging from the hiss. He's standing outside. "You must have left late last night."
"Why do you sound so funny?"
He sniffs. "Allergies, I suppose. I'm a bit stuffy. I'm glad that you're okay." It's a question, not a statement.
I lift my voice from the basement. "Trust me, I'm fine. Like I said, Tommy's with me. He's an awesome friend." I emphasize friend. I’ve got to tell Uncle Cassius the whole story, and now. But now that I’m on the phone with him, I don’t know how to start.
Uncle Cassius coughs. "Okay. I'll let your parents know." He sounds tired, defeated almost. "Just expect them to call you in a frenzy. I’ll see you soon."
"Thanks. A lot." I swallow. “Do you remember, on the trip—“
“Cassius. Who are you talking to?”
It’s Mom somewhere on his end.
I suck in a breath and end the call. I can’t talk about this when my Mom’s with him. My stomach curls. What’s the truth going to do to her? She’s already worried about me. Dad, too.
Just to make sure he doesn’t call back, I turn my phone off. I’ve got one bar left on it. I have to conserve it, anyway.
"Allie."
I turn.
Tommy stands by the flowers, holding the door open with one hand. He steps to the side to let an older couple past him. "I didn't know where you went. I thought that, you know--"
"Well, I was in the car for who knows how long. I kind of had to go." I shrug, thinking of Uncle Cassius trying to call me back. "Well, I'm going to be dead because my parents aren't going to like the fact that I'm driving across the country with a guy friend."
Tommy nods. "My parents, too. We'll deal with that later."
"Agreed." At least we’ll both be in huge trouble together. It’s a thought that cheers me up a little. "Where are we?"
"Middle of Iowa. I think. We’d be in Nebraska already if we hadn’t had to run from that storm and if I hadn’t had to nap in the parking lot.”
"No wonder you sucked down energy drinks all night."
"Had to."
We're dodging the important thing here. "I just talked to my uncle."
"What did he say?"
"Asking where I am. All that. He’s with my mom. I couldn’t talk to him long.”
"I hear you," Tommy says. "Look, we should go. I just turned on the radio. They're saying more storms for the Midwest this afternoon."
"What is it with all this?" I whirl around, kicking at the rug on the floor. “What am I? A storm magnet, too?”
"It's early summer. That happens."
“Good point." I run back to the car. "Let's go. I want to find that barn before I have a repeat of last night."