Текст книги "The Watcher"

Автор книги: Lisa Voisin

сообщить о нарушении

Текущая страница: 2 (всего у книги 17 страниц)

Michael’s shoulders stiffened and he inclined his head like he was listening. Even though we had just met, there was something oddly familiar about him doing that, and not from the day before, either. It tugged at my memory like a headache. Had I seen him somewhere else too?

He stood abruptly. “Excuse me,” he said.

“Where are you going?” Jesse asked. “We’ve got another half hour.”

“I have to be somewhere,” he said. He picked up his tray and left.

Once he was gone, Fiona leaned across the table. “That’s the new guy, isn’t it?” she asked. “He’s really hot!”

“Hey,” Dean said. “Should I be jealous?”

Fiona giggled, stroking his arm. “Of course not.”

“How do you know him, Jess?” Heather asked.

“I used to go to Sealth too, remember?”

Heather fed Jesse a french fry. “So, dish. What’s he like?”

“Decent. He parties a lot, doesn’t take himself too seriously, used to ride a Triumph Daytona.”

That last point made Jesse’s face light up but left us girls unimpressed.

“It’s a motorcycle,” he explained.

“I heard something about an accident,” I said. In spite of myself, I was curious, remembering what Elaine had been gossiping about.

“Yeah, last year.” Jesse leaned across the table and checked to make sure we were listening before he continued. “Really bad, too. Totaled his bike.”

“I heard that his heart stopped beating, but they revived him,” Fiona added, twisting a lock of her hair and smiling at Dean. “He spent almost three weeks in a coma.”

“Who told you that?” I asked her.

“Overheard Jen in the bathroom,” she said. “Her cousin goes to Sealth. It’s big news there.”

“He’s lucky to be alive,” Heather said. She directed her next comment at Jesse. “I don’t know how you can ride that bike of yours.”

“Do you want to hear this or not?” he asked her, frowning.

“I know, I know,” Heather muttered, scrunching her napkin into a ball. The fact that Jesse rode a motorcycle was a constant worry for her. It was the only thing they argued about.

“He got in that accident on the night of Brad Morelli’s party,” Jesse continued. “Remember that night? Huge storm—roads were terrible. Apparently, a tree fell over right in front of him.” He reached for Heather’s hand, and she let him hold it. “I’d never ride on a night like that, not after a party.”

“A tree fell over? Doesn’t that sound—I don’t know,” I said, not sure why the details of Michael’s accident bothered me so much. “I mean, don’t you think there’s something odd about him? Why is he here? Why didn’t he stay at Sealth?”

I wanted to tell Heather that he was the guy from the mall but something held me back. I didn’t want to have to explain it with everyone there, especially when it was probably a coincidence. The mall and the park weren’t that far apart. He has the right to go shopping like everyone else.

Heather’s eyes widened, and a deep voice behind me said, “We moved.”

I practically jumped as I spun around. There was no doubt Michael had heard me. It was as if the gods had all conspired for me to say or do the wrong thing around this guy. I wasn’t even the gossiping type. What had come over me?

“Oh, hey, Mike,” Jesse said, his face opening into an easy smile. If he was nervous about being caught, he covered well. “Speak of the devil.”

Michael gave him a nod and motioned to where he’d been sitting. “Forgot my keys.”

“Oh.” Jesse grabbed them off the seat and tossed them at Michael. “Here.”

Michael caught them in mid-air. “Thanks,” he said to Jesse, then turned to me. The muscles of his jaw pulsed beneath his skin. “You don’t know anything about me.”

My face heated like I’d been running a marathon. It was all I could do not to cry, but I refused to let my feelings show. Being called out was embarrassing enough. Tears would only cause a scene.

“What was that all about?” Heather asked after he left.

Jesse shrugged. “Never seen him act that way before.”

She turned to me. “Just forget about him, Mia.”

Forget about him? If only I could

Chapter Four

The trailhead didn’t seem like much at first—nothing to be frightened of, anyway. Its wooden sign had long since become overgrown by blackberry bushes, obscuring the name, and two giant cedars shrouded a wooden staircase that snaked its way up the hill. At the top of the stairs, the trail opened onto a wide dirt path shaded from the morning sun by a canopy of trees. Their roots, gnarled and knobby, gripped the earth like talons.

As my eyes adjusted to the dim light of the forest, I followed my friends, winding and zig-zagging along a trail that narrowed as the forest thickened. While my friends moved with ease, loose rocks nestled between the roots easily threw me off balance. I had to concentrate on my footing, using their steps as a guide.

Shade loomed everywhere and the threat of shadows lurked behind every tree, but Heather and Fiona didn’t seem to notice.

“Did you manage to change your appointment, Fi?” Heather asked. “So we can run the booth at the team and club fair?”

“No,” Fiona said. “There’s no getting out of it.”

“What’s that?” I said, checking the bushes around us for movement, for sounds.

“It’s new,” Heather said. “All the clubs and sports teams have booths.” She pulled her hair back into an elastic band. “It’s to let everyone know what’s available, kind of a job fair. Fiona and I were going to work it together, but she can’t make it.”

“Wish I could,” Fiona said. “I hate going to the dentist.”

The air cooled and a strange tickle ran down my spine.

“Did it just get colder?” I asked.

“The sea air’s damp. It can seem cold,” Heather said. “Or did you forget that in Denver?”

A shudder crawled along my skin. Droplets of sweat chilled on my brow. What was going on?

“Can you help out with the booth, Mia?” Heather said. “Hand out flyers?”

Looking around, I checked for moving branches in case a wind had brought the cold air, but the trees were perfectly still.

“Mia?”

“Uhh…yeah,” I said. I hadn’t answered her question. “Sure. I’ll help.”

Fiona’s long legs carried her steps ahead of us. She slowed down to let Heather pass, so she could talk to me. “Did you meet any interesting guys in Denver?”

“What?”

“Guys. In Denver,” she repeated slowly, as though I were dense. Her fair skin, also unaffected by the chill, glowed pink with exertion. Was I imagining things?

I stifled a shiver. “Nope. No guys.” Maybe it was nothing.

“That’s too bad.”

Fiona made it sound tragic. Did she think I was pathetic or something? I tried to shrug it off, digging my hands in my pockets to warm them. “I was with Bill a lot,” I said. Bill, my brother, was in his third year at Berkeley. He had come back to work for Dad over the summer, and if it weren’t for him my summer would have completely sucked.

“How ’bout his friends?” Fiona grinned at me suggestively.

“Eww. No. Not computer geeks.” I grimaced.

“You’re never gonna get a boyfriend with that attitude,” said Fiona. “You gotta be open to it.”

I wanted to retaliate and say Does being open mean I have to throw myself at guys the way you do? But I held my tongue. It wasn’t worth fighting over. Besides, after my encounter with Michael in the cafeteria last week, he wouldn’t even look at me. So much for being “open.” It was pointless.

As we continued along the path, the chill subsided. Fiona steered the conversation to the topic of Dean. I resigned myself to listen, all the while staying alert to any more strange sensations. There were none. I must have been freaking out over nothing.

***

The Peak, as they called it, had an unobstructed view of Puget Sound that was worth the climb. Below us, the mid-day sun glinted off the water surrounded by giant evergreens lining the cove. Dozens of boats cruised the harbor and a cool breeze blew in from the ocean, but it was nowhere near the same chill as before.

The hike back was mostly downhill, and the steep declines challenged my balance and coordination. The less experienced one of the group—half-sliding, half-hiking—I soon lagged behind my friends, who chatted happily, not noticing I’d slowed down.

The trickling sounds of the creek grew louder as we approached. The bridge was closed and cordoned off with yellow tape, but ten feet away spanning the creek was an old moss-covered fallen log, its soft bark crumbled with decay. Fiona and Heather practically skipped across it to the other side. I slowed down.

“Hey, guys. Wait up!” I called as they rounded the corner, but they didn’t look back.

Icy prickles spread along my skin like frost forming on glass. I can do this, I thought, until I saw the eight-foot drop to the shallow streambed below. How had Heather and Fiona gotten across so easily? Knowing that thinking about it would only make it worse, I focused on the log, placing one foot carefully in front of the other.

I was halfway across when a crashing of branches rustled the trees in front of me. From behind me came a growl. That dog again—two of them! My back tensed and I almost lost my balance. I had just righted myself when a smoky black canine with glowing red eyes came charging out of the bushes right at me.

I turned on my heel to get back to the other side. But the log shifted and sent me flying. With a scream, I plummeted, landing first on my ankle, then on my tailbone.

Icy cold water soaked my clothes as a white, searing pain shot up my leg. Gasping, I scanned the steep wall of rock and dirt for any signs of danger, expecting to be overrun with snarling, horrible dogs. What were they doing here?

Grabbing a rock from the riverbed, I waited. Listening.

Nothing.

I was alone. My friends hadn’t even noticed I was gone. How long before they came back for me? My ankle throbbed painfully, even in the cold water. I didn’t want to move it but had to. How else would I get out on my own?

I was bracing myself to get up when a tall dark-haired figure approached. As he descended the embankment with giant, graceful strides, I couldn’t believe who it was.

“Are you okay?” Michael asked.

Part of me wondered what he was doing there, on this obscure hiking trail across town, or why he was helping when he’d ignored me at school. But another part, the part that was probably in shock, considered it perfectly normal, as if I’d seen him here every day.

“Something black…” I muttered, in case he saw whatever came at me. I didn’t want to bring up the dog again. What if I’d imagined it?

“Did you hit your head?” he asked, crouching before me.

Of course he didn’t see it, Mia. Black things don’t just come at you. He thinks you’re delusional.

I blinked and shook my head. He seemed to be talking to me through a long dark tunnel. Everything—even the pain—was dim and distant. “My ankle took most of it.”

He knelt in the water, facing me, and said, “I’m going to check it, okay?”

I nodded blankly at the water soaking his jeans. He must be cold. I could no longer feel it myself. I knew on some level that something was wrong in my body, but the messaging was numbed somehow. All I felt was static, like my circuits had overloaded.

Holding my heel, he untied my shoelace and removed my boot. I bit my tongue to avoid crying out. It tasted metallic. When he touched my ankle, pain exploded up my leg.

“Oww!”

“Sorry.” He frowned. “I really do have to check it.”

“I know.”

I braced myself for pain, but his touch was light, gentle, as though he were examining a wounded bird.

“I’m going to check your spine,” he said. The tunnel sensation gone, I could sense how close he was, smell the mint on his breath. “Okay?”

“Okay.”

He leaned toward me and reached around my back to gently feel my bones. As he touched me, he searched my face for any sign of pain, and the tenderness in his eyes made me warm all over.

A few moments later he helped me to my feet, offering me his arm for balance. I gripped it so hard my knuckles turned white, and I could feel the cords of muscles beneath his shirt. But I could stand as long as I put no pressure on my foot. The pain was fierce, and my balance so terrible I teetered on the rocks.

“You’ll never make it up to the trail on your own,” he said. “It’s steep.”

Well, that much was obvious. What was he going to do? Leave me there?

He stepped in closer, and I had that feeling again, like I recognized him from somewhere. It wasn’t from that morning in the park either. I wracked my brain, trying to place him. Had we been to the same party? Hung out in the same café? Perhaps I’d seen his picture somewhere.

“Trust me, okay? I won’t hurt you,” he said, and his voice sounded strange, almost musical, a chord rather than a single note.

Before I could reply, he placed one of my arms around his shoulders, scooped an arm under my legs, and picked me up as though I were weightless. As he carried me up the steep hill, he didn’t seem to notice how close we were, his face inches from mine—too close and yet not close enough.

Not knowing where to look, I gazed over his shoulder and noticed a strange light flickering behind him. Tinged with blue, it flashed and rippled in a flowing motion. What the heck was it? Was I in shock?

When I looked back at Michael’s face, it was alight, as though a beam of sunlight bathed both of us, especially him, in a warm golden hue. Like that day I saw him in the mall, only more brilliant. I gasped.

“Pain?” he asked.

I nodded, not wanting to admit I was hallucinating. He’d think I was crazy. Again.

A warm tingle filled me all the way to my toes. It made me feel open and exposed, as though a million eyes were watching me. Something inside told me to relax, and when I did, it eased not only my fright from earlier but all the pain I didn’t know I had, as if all of my struggles had been seen: the difficulties our family had through the divorce, the strange distance between Dad and me, even my awkwardness around Michael.

My chest tightened and, as I exhaled, the tension released. Everything became warm and floaty and I felt completely accepted and at peace. An image of a lush garden on a hot sunny day flashed in my mind, as vivid as the inside of a dream. It surrounded a primitive house made of mud-brick and plaster. Inside was an open fire pit with a hole in the roof for smoke to escape. The bed, made of straw, was draped in furs. In the corner stood a simple loom, strung with hundreds of cream-colored threads that formed a half-woven cloth. This place, these things, seemed so familiar, as though I was the person who had been working this loom, and I wasn’t alone. Someone else had been there with me.

But as quickly as the images came, they were gone, and I didn’t have a clue what they meant.

Chapter Five

My friends were waiting for me at the crest of the trail, their mouths agape as Michael set me down on a nearby log.

Heather rushed over and threw her arms around my neck. “Oh my God, Mia. Are you okay? We turned around and you were gone.”

Michael stepped back to let her get closer, but his tall frame hovered as though he could lend me his strength by proximity.

She turned to him almost accusingly. “Where did you come from?”

He cleared his throat. “I—”

Gushing, Fiona cut him off. “Michael, that was so awesome! Carrying her up that hill. It was crazy-steep. Your feet barely touched the ground.”

“It was nothing,” he scoffed, and I could feel his attention on me again. “How is it?”

How’s what? I thought, blinking at him, still marveling at what I’d seen. Had I just remembered a dream? It seemed so familiar, so real.

Heather touched my shoulder, but asked Michael, “How’s what?”

He focused on me. “Your ankle?”

I checked it. I could point my toe now without cringing. “It’s okay. Much better.”

“What happened?” Heather asked. “Can you walk?”

“Sure.” I stood, but when I took a step, pain burned the length of my leg. I flinched before I could stop myself and nearly fell over.

Michael grabbed my elbow to steady me. “Maybe you shouldn’t walk yet.”

“It’s not nearly as bad as I thought,” I said, sitting back down.

“Uh huh,” he said. “That’s probably shock.”

An indescribable emotion welled inside me, catching in my throat. I felt frail and drawn, like something made out of tissue paper. Fighting a strange urge to cry, I swallowed hard and took deep breaths.

“I’m such a klutz,” I said to Heather and Fiona. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to—”

“Shh!” Sitting beside me, Heather put an arm around my shoulder. “Don’t even think that way, Mia.”

Michael spoke to Heather and Fiona this time. “We should get her to the hospital so she can get checked out.”

“I’ll be fine,” I said.

“We can help you get back,” Heather said, standing. “You can lean on me. We’ll make it back okay.”

I tried another step on my own. It hurt but seemed easier than the last one. Heather, who was closest to my height, encouraged me to lean on her and we took slow, careful steps down the dusty trail together, with Fiona leading the way. It was slow going. We had to stop often so I could rest. Michael took up the rear, but when we stopped he was so preoccupied with the forest that he hardly spoke.

On our third stop, Heather sat beside me on an old stump. “We’re almost halfway,” she said, trying to encourage me. “We’re making good time.”

Finding a patch of sunlight, Fiona lunged into a yoga stretch that showed off her long, elegant limbs. Tossing her hair, she grinned up at Michael and my stomach hitched. She could be such a flirt.

To my relief, he didn’t notice her. His attention was on the golf-ball-sized rock he was rolling beneath his foot.

A chill ran through me again, and I got the feeling that someone, or something, was staring at me. One of the bushes around us seemed darker than normal, shadowy, and I thought I saw a glimmer of red. A jolt of fear seized my chest. If one of those dogs came after me, I’d never be able to outrun it. I could barely walk.

Heather followed my gaze, but obviously didn’t see anything. “You okay? You’ve gone really pale.”

“I thought…” I began, but when Michael glanced at me, I stopped. I didn’t want to bring up the shadowy dog again, not when he and I were starting to get along. “It’s nothing.”

Beside me, he kicked the rock into the bush and it landed with a satisfying crash of branches and leaves. When I looked back at the bushes, the darkness was gone.

I stared at him, amazed, wondering if he’d seen it too. He had been in the woods that morning when I was chased. Maybe he’d seen that dog after all.

He cocked an eyebrow at me. “What?”

“Nothing,” I said, chickening out.

Slouching, he shoved his hands into his pockets. “This isn’t working.”

“What isn’t?”

He tilted his chin to look up at me through his long, dark lashes and there was something so intense, so intimate, about his gaze that my breath froze in my chest. “If you keep walking on that foot, you’ll hurt it more.”

“She’s not walking. She’s hobbling,” said Heather, drawing her arm across her brow. Helping me was making her sweat. “We’re taking it nice and slow.”

Fiona stepped in a little closer. “I can take a shift,” she said.

“It would be better if I carried you,” Michael interjected.

Fiona’s jaw dropped, unable to contain her surprise. Was he serious? He seemed genuine enough—sincere, like he was living some code of chivalry, the kind you read about in medieval history. I remembered the feel of his hand on my back, his arm under my legs, and my heart sped up. When he first carried me, it was so intimate, so peaceful, it awakened a craving in me that I didn’t even know I had. I would have given anything to feel that way again, and that’s what made it seem wrong somehow, illicit even.

Heather grinned at me, as though she could sense what I was feeling.

“Thanks, but I think I can handle it,” I said.

Fiona wore a stunned expression. Obviously she would have accepted his offer.

Michael rolled another rock beneath his foot. “No need to be stubborn. You’ll only make it harder on yourself.”

I raised my chin defiantly. “Stubborn? I’m not—”

“Yeah, okay.” He laughed under his breath.

So maybe I was a bit stubborn, but what was so wrong with that?

There was a noise in the forest behind us. We both looked. Then he turned back to me. “Why don’t I piggy-back you?” he said. The smile he gave me could have melted gold.

If it were anyone else, I might have said piggy-back rides were for kids, but really it was a good suggestion. It wasn’t nearly as intimate, and it gave me the option to hold on, some semblance of control, instead of the helplessness of being carried. But when he crouched down so I could get on his back, the heat and closeness of his body permeated the dampness of my clothes. I stopped.

“Everything okay?” he asked.

“Uh-huh.” Biting my lip, I eased onto his back. His hands held my bare legs like they would sear me. The sides of his waist were warm and solid against my thighs, and that illicit feeling came back. Trying to focus, I clung to him with my remaining strength.

He shifted, readjusting his grip. “Relax. I got you.”

“I am relaxed,” I squeaked.

“Then why are your knuckles turning white?”

I could hear the smile in his voice. Could he tell how I felt?

“Oh, sorry!” I willed the fists clutching his black T-shirt to loosen until I felt the tautness of his muscles under my fingers and the steady beat of his heart. Which was better, I guess, but also worse.

Being the one with the cargo—meaning me—on his back, Michael set a quick pace that Heather and Fiona could barely match. Fiona talked about an upcoming horror movie she was excited about. Heather was against it. I could hear the exertion in their voices as they climbed up and down hills. In contrast, Michael was silent and his breathing even, as though carrying me was hardly any difficulty at all.

Soon we were back at Fiona’s old Honda Civic, parked in the shade of a huge maple, and Michael lowered me onto the car’s hood. The cold metal pulled the skin on my legs into goose bumps, and I was suddenly aware of how warm I’d been pressed against him. Then, holding my hips, he gently guided me down to my feet. Our eyes locked–there was such light in his –and the air grew warm between us. In that moment, nothing else existed: just that light in his eyes and the touch of his hands on my hips. If I were more experienced with guys, I might have known how to flirt with him. But I didn’t. All I could do was hold my breath and lean in ever so slightly, willing him to come closer.

It didn’t work. Letting out his own breath, Michael dropped his hands and swept his gaze to my feet.

“How’s your ankle?” He took half a step back.

My foot was swelling inside my boot, but the pain was completely manageable. I put weight on it and didn’t cringe. Not having to walk back must have helped. “It’s good. Thank you—for everything.”

“You don’t have to—”

“Michael, that was awesome of you!” Fiona cut in, still a little short of breath from the hike.

Oblivious to the moment we’d just had, she praised and thanked Michael a few times, and then reassured him that she and Heather would take me to the hospital to get checked. I thanked him again too, but only once. Fiona’s profuse attention made me uncomfortable for all three of us.

Once we were inside the car and Michael was well out of earshot, Fiona gushed, “Oh my God, he’s so hot—celestial hot. You’re so lucky!” She sighed for emphasis, putting the car into drive. “He didn’t even break a sweat when he carried you. And did you see that body? Like an Olympic swimmer.”

Heather made a face. “Fiona, Mia had a serious fall and may have broken her foot. That’s hardly lucky.”

Fiona backpedaled. “Of course not lucky to have fallen…but lucky he was there.”

“It was nice of him to stay,” Heather said, studying me for a reaction.

I schooled my expression to a neutral one so she wouldn’t notice my rush of excitement from thinking about him. With my luck, she’d analyze my feelings, try to set me up on a date, and I’d embarrassed myself around this guy enough already, thanks. Whatever I felt would be best kept secret for now. “Yeah, it was nice, I guess.”

“You guess?” Fiona turned her head to look at me in the back seat. Then remembering she was driving, she turned back to the road. “The way he carried you was so romantic. If he’d carried me like that—”

Heather began to laugh. “I think we have a pretty good picture of what you’d do, Fiona.”

I laughed too, grateful for Heather’s injection of humor. The strange sensations and pain coursing through my body after the fall were overwhelming enough, not to mention all the strong feelings I’d had around Michael, or the strange things I’d seen. I didn’t need to add Fiona’s fantasies about him to the mix.

***

Luckily for us, the Emergency Room wasn’t too busy. Heather walked me in while Fiona went foraging for something to eat.

The nurse at the administration desk paged my mom and asked me to take a seat in the waiting area. Mom came down a few minutes later wearing the lilac-colored nurse’s uniform we’d picked out together last spring. It brought out her green eyes and softened the gray streak in her hair. After greeting Heather, she drilled me about the accident. Between her crazy hospital schedule and my starting the school year, I hadn’t had much time to spend with her since I’d returned from Denver. I had to admit, getting injured was a strange way to do it.

I told her about the log bridge and that some noise had startled me, for lack of a better explanation. I didn’t want to talk about the likelihood of seeing the same dog again, not with Heather present. If it were real, surely someone else would have seen it.

“Eight feet,” she said coolly. She was never one for big emotional scenes, not when it came to injuries. “It could have been a lot worse. How did you get back?”

Mom was far too smart sometimes.

This was where Heather chimed in. “A boy from school came by. He knew some first aid and helped us get Mia out.”

Mom squinted at me suspiciously. “Were there boys on this hike?”

“No, Mom.” It was silly to have to apologize for a boy helping us out. Mom could be so overprotective.

“It’s a popular trail,” Heather added.

Fiona joined us, carrying a large box of pizza in one hand and the slice she was eating in the other. She greeted my mom and plunked herself into the empty seat beside us.

“Hi, Fiona. Heather and Mia were just telling me about the accident.”

I tensed. This was not a time for Fiona to talk about the glorious attributes of Michael Fontaine—or his swimmer’s body. I didn’t need my mom prying about him, or worse trying to play matchmaker.

Fortunately, all she said was, “Yeah, it was really scary.”

The topic of Michael didn’t come up again. Instead, Mom shared a pizza slice with us and asked about our first week of school. I settled in with my pizza, hungrier than I expected, and let my mind wander.

Behind the administration desk, the paramedics rolled in a girl on a stretcher with tubes in her arms. A poppy-red blood stain pooled through the blanket on her chest. Doctors and triage nurses swarmed her, and the previously quiet ER erupted like an upturned anthill. As they wheeled the patient behind a room divider for privacy, I noticed a tall figure standing in the doorway bathed in a soft golden light. Michael. What was he doing here?

I raised a hand to wave at him as a nurse in surgical scrubs walked by, but by the time she passed, he was gone. Why didn’t he stay? Staring at the empty doorway, I wondered if my eyes had deceived me. I wished I could get up and follow him, to find out if he was real, but with my ankle not working right, he’d be a block away by the time I hobbled to the door.

A few moments later, Heather and Fiona left and I was led into a semi-private examination room with pale yellow curtains for walls. After checking me for injuries and applying a tensor bandage, the doctor said I had a mild sprain and recommended ice, over-the-counter painkillers, and rest.

Mom drove me home and set me up on the couch with a cold pack and some movies before she went back to finish her shift. I couldn’t focus on them. My mind kept wandering back to that house I’d imagined. Thinking I might have seen it in a book somewhere, I hobbled to my room and rifled through my books on ancient civilizations.

Sitting on my bed, I scanned for pictures and descriptions to see if anything jogged my memory. As I worked through ancient Greece, my mind played over the morning’s events. Had I been imagining the dreamlike images, the strange flashing lights, the shadows in the bushes? None of these things made any sense, no matter how much I wanted them to. Perhaps I had a concussion.

But the doctor had checked me for any head injuries. I was, by all accounts, perfectly fine.