She breathed in. “Arpège? That’s a blast from the past,” she said, “and are those diamonds in your ears?”
“What? Oh.” I reached up and took off the rhinestone earrings, which really didn’t go with anything. “No. They’re not real.”
“You weren’t at your dad’s,” she said. But it wasn’t like she was accusing me.
“No,” I said. “I was nowhere near him.”
“He’s not that easy to get near,” she said with a small shrug. A coffee smell drifted out of our kitchen. Yes, she’d been up awhile.
“Where were you an hour ago?” she said.
An hour ago?
Then I knew, to the very minute. That was when I was turning back from the lily pond, to . . . the hedge.
“Why?” I said.
“I was in bed,” my mom said. “I hadn’t slept, but an hour ago I knew I’d get you back.”
“How?”
She turned up her hands. “I’m your mother. Are you going to tell me about it?”
“Yes,” I said, “when I’m an old woman and you’re a really old woman.”
“I can wait.” She smiled a small smile. “We’ve got the time.”
Then—right then, in my pocket—my phone rang. It rang and rang. I let it.
About the Author
Described by The Washington Post as “America’s best living author for young adults,” Richard Peck is the first children’s book writer ever to have been awarded a National Humanities Medal. His extensive list of honors includes the Newbery Medal (for A Year Down Yonder), a Newbery Honor (for A Long Way from Chicago), the Edgar Award (for Are You in the House Alone?), the Scott O’Dell Award (for The River Between Us), the Christopher Medal (for The Teacher’s Funeral), and the Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement in young adult literature. He has twice been a finalist for the National Book Award. Mr. Peck lives in New York City.
ALSO BY RICHARD PECK
NOVELS FOR YOUNG ADULTS
Amanda/Miranda
Are You in the House Alone?
Bel-Air Bambi and the Mall Rats
Blossom Culp and the Sleep of Death
Close Enough to Touch
Don’t Look and It Won’t Hurt
The Dreadful Future of Blossom Culp
Dreamland Lake
Fair Weather
Father Figure
The Ghost Belonged to Me
Ghosts I Have Been
The Great Interactive Dream Machine
Here Lies the Librarian
A Long Way from Chicago
Lost in Cyberspace
On the Wings of Heroes
Princess Ashley
Remembering the Good Times
Representing Super Doll
The River Between Us
A Season of Gifts
Secrets of the Shopping Mall
Strays Like Us
The Teacher’s Funeral
Those Summer Girls I Never Met
Through a Brief Darkness
Unfinished Portrait of Jessica
Voices After Midnight
A Year Down Yonder
NOVELS FOR ADULTS
Amanda/Miranda
London Holiday
New York Time
This Family of Women
SHORT STORIES
Past Perfect, Present Tense
PICTURE BOOK
Monster Night at Grandma’s House
NONFICTION
Anonymously Yours
Invitations to the World