LOT'S MOUNTAIN

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX: White Shirts and Underwear

I don't have a car and I know better than to try to sneak out in Tim's truck or Diane's car, so I can't do anything until tomorrow, until I see Jamie again. So I get some sleep.

I don't have any weird dreams, well, no weirder than usual and nothing about wolves.

In the morning, Diane tells Tim that I'll find my own ride home after school, and he doesn't give her shit about it. He gets ready to make me practice, but Diane stops him and takes me to school a little early. She doesn't talk that much on the drive but does swing by a fast food place and get me breakfast. That's pretty cool.

For the good of the town, when I get to school I ask Mindy about her dreams. And, yeah, I regret it. Again. No wolves.

At lunch me and Jamie are the only ones at our table. Mark didn't come to school today. The rest of our friends are wearing white shirts, even Cheryl. Part way through lunch, Mindy walks right over to us (in true Mindy fashion, which involves a few skips and swishing her hair back and forth) and sits down near me. Her football player friends follow and do the same (well, except for the skipping and swishing). I can definitely say that this is the first time that I've ever sat with football players. I'm telling you, it's like the beginning of a joke, so ... stop me if you've heard this one ... a weirdo, a pretty girl, some jocks, and a Mindy are all sitting at a lunch table ...

Jamie and me talk a little, but not much and definitely not about what's going on. I fill her in on going to the red house I saw last night, and she's willing to come with me. Mindy doesn't care what we're talking about. She's going on about some movie that's coming out soon.

I have to tell ya, yeah, I'm not a huge Mindy fan, but sitting there with ten people feels a helluva lot better than just having Jamie and me against the world. Even if these guys don't know what's happening, they're not wearing white shirts.

But it does feel more like two sides now. That's how a lot of wars start, right? You get two sides and then other people throw in. We are trying to make a third side, but it's not going all that good right now.

The few teachers that aren't white shirts hide in the teacher's lounge. School hasn't been canceled yet. I'm guessing they're giving the last ones, the ones not white shirts, a place to be. Either that or they still want to cling onto the pipe dream that everything's normal.

Then I frown. Jamie's been real quiet, only saying a few things here and there.

"You saw another one, didn't you?" I can tell by the look on her face that I'm right, that she had another vision about someone dying. Mindy, however, doesn't know what I'm talking about. Thinking I'm talking about a movie, she keeps right on chatting away with her friends. Since everybody else is listening to Mindy, Jamie and me keep going with our conversation.

She reaches over to where I'm sitting next to her to touch me. Her hand squeezes my arm and then slips away. Something about that, feeling her hand pull away from me, makes me sick to my stomach.

Dammit. All of this shit is going down between Stone and Glass, and she still has to see that dying junk? Why does this still have to happen to her? If I could take that away I could. Could I? Could I reach forward and lose that for her? But what would it do? Then I think about the Mourner and Preta.

... a hunger ...

When they lost their connection to Belle Lake, something pretty bad took its place. Would that happen to Jamie if we ever found a way to take her visions away? I saw what happened to Esther when the Glass Man took some of her power away.

"We'll find the Huntsman," I say, sounding like a broken record.

Jamie waits a few minutes and then asks, "If he is a killer, what will he do when we find him?"