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Thursdays were usually the most quiet at camp, with more free rec time than any day other than the weekends. Which was good for Evie, because weekends were filled with chores and prep for the counsellors, but Thursdays were relatively free.
She liked to go into the woods. It was a habit she'd had her entire life, even delving so far behind her house one afternoon that her sister had to go find her. Maybe, if she went far enough into these ones, she'd find Shirley this time.
She could hear twigs crackling. Not animals, too precise, too close together. She ventured more into the trees, the woods wrapping itself around her in a way she hadn't felt in months. Her sneakers, a pristine white, sought out every fallen leaf and every pebble to kick along the way.
It had been like this the last time. After the funeral - Shirley's funeral - she had gone outside. The universe seemed to sense her melancholy; the sky was dark and overcast, and she could feel the cold seeping into her bones. She was wearing a dress, not rare but uncommon, especially during that phase of her life. Shirley never wore dresses, she was the cool unshaken older sister who dyed her hair and wore DMs and protested outside Ohio State.
Her dress was wrinkled, torn on one side near her knee. Evie was far too long to be acting like this, she felt like a little girl. One of her socks was pulled up to her knees, the other rolled down to her ankles. Her laces were untied. She tripped and fell, and then she laid there. Sixteen years old, grieving for the first time in her life and feeling like her entire life had stopped in place.
This time it was different, the sun beat down on her, and she could feel sweat trickle down her back. Another broken stick, another pound of her heart against her ribcage, feeling like everything was simply going too fast. She was beginning to think she was hearing things when she saw her.
Not her sister. Cindy's. Ziggy Berman's cheeks were tinged pink, partly from the heat of the day, mostly from lingering anger at being yelled at by her sister.
She seemed to have spotted Evie before Evie spotted her, and she didn't say anything. As far as invites from Ziggy were going to go, Evie probably wouldn't do much better. So she sat.
She sat for nearly an hour before either of them spoke up. She didn't expect Ziggy to be the first one to open her mouth. "You wanna do something?"
Jolene. Dolly Parton. That was her favourite song. She and Evie used to spend hours in the garage listening to it. Shirley dragged her record player from her room, the first nice thing she'd done for Evie in what felt like years. Shirley liked it for reasons that were only becoming apparent to Evie now, and Evie. Well, she liked it because it reminded her of her sister.
