He, Otis Witherspoon, would be the first person ever, in the history of the world, to single-handedly create a successful (model) breeder reactor, and then a fame and fortune would follow. He could skip the college and graduate school part altogether. Head be given a job as a prestigious respected young scientist with enough money and staff to build whatever he wanted to. Women would fall all over him.

This day, the day head be testing the neutron gun, would be a huge step forward for Project Breeder Reactor. The fuel he was using had been hard to obtain and had taken him weeks to procure and harvest.

First was radium. Head sc.r.a.ped the radium paint off the old clocks, stirred in the contents of the tube of paint head found in the stolen clock, and added that to some radium head strained from a chunk of uranium head ordered online at amazon.com. Radium, check. Next, beryllium.

Head called on a science geek friend, Bucky, a recent Sunny Side High School graduate who now worked at the chemistry lab at Tallaha.s.see Community College, to ask for his help. Without asking questions, Bucky smuggled four strips of beryllium from the lab and sold them to Otis for twenty-five dollars each.

At last Otis had the proper fuel for his gun. Eventually he would fire it at some thorium in order to create the reaction, but first he had to test it. Because the neutrons released by the radium and beryllium through the gun would make no noise and have no charge, it would be hard to tell if it was working. Then he remembered a method head read abouta"one used by the Joliot-Curies in 1932. Paraffin, when hit by neutrons, throws off protons, which do emit a charge and could be detected by his Geiger counter.

One afternoon after he left his new job at Arbyas he swung by Walgreens and bought a block of paraffin that was meant to be used in a foot spa. The following morning, he was up by eight oaclock, and soon after his dad left for work, Otis started down to his shed to don his lead ap.r.o.n and test his gun.

It had been nearly a month since head stolen the clock from Grandmaas Attic, and head stopped worrying about the police showing up to arrest him. Head decided that the whole shoplifting thing was just an aberration. Head never stolen before and promised himself he never would again.

Head also just a.s.sumed that head continue toiling alone in his wonderfully odiferous, sweltering shed, but his new friendship with Rusty had squashed this a.s.sumption. Shead started hanging out in his shed, watching him, asking questions, refusing to be deterred by his rudeness. She usually showed up around one p.m.a"she slept until noona"and shead bang on the shed door saying things like aLittle pig, little pig, let me come ina and aMr. Sharkey, white courtesy telephone, pleasea and aWhat da pa.s.sword today? Unguent? Lima bean? Toblerone?a until finally Otis gave up and let her in.

He was totally mystified. Why was this snarky girl paying so much attention to him? Head made overtures toward pretty girls over the yearsa"kind, shy girls who professed to love all animals and therefore should love hima"usually by writing notes or contacting them on Mys.p.a.ce, but these girls always claimed they could only like him as a friend. Rustya"loud, mean, and self-confidenta"was the sort of girl head never even considered. But he found himself remembering things shead said and wanting to tell her things, too. He supposed that meant that he liked her. But did he really want to keep explaining to her what he was doing? Let her in on his secret project?

The morning after head purchased the block of paraffin, she came knocking early in the morning, as if shead known head be up to something special that day. When he opened the shed door, he stopped her from barging in like she usually did. aThereas gonna be high levels of radiation in here.a He gestured at the lead-lined ap.r.o.n hanging from around his neck. aIam testing my gun.a aCool,a she said, pushing past him. She sat down on the stool that Otis usually sat on. Her stiff black hair looked like shead brushed it the wrong way on purpose. aI stayed out all night,a she said. aWant to hear what I did?a aNo,a Otis said.

aI was messing with someone. That old lady. Mrs. Archer, right? Iam going to smoke her out of her den.a aYouare going to set her house on fire?a He was relieved that she didnat want to talk again about s.e.x or drugs, two things Rusty liked to talk about, two things that the very mention of made him feel inadequate.

aYouare so literal minded!a Rusty said. aNo, Iam going to force her to come clean. I mean, like, reveal her true ident.i.ty.a aGood luck with that,a Otis said.

Rusty flared her nostrils at him. She wore a black tank top with rips in it, which showed her black bra, and a short black-and-blue-plaid kiltish skirt and black high-top Converse sneakers.

aDonat you want to know why she needs to be smoked out?a aSheas a spy,a Otis said. aI caught her snooping around my shed.a aNope. Sheas a serial killer.a Rusty sat there, waiting for him to ask how she knew that, but he didnat want to hear it.

aIs there a reason you wear black all the time?a Otis asked her. aIf some day you wore something green, or pink, what do you think would happen?a aCanat risk it, Biscuit.a She rubbed her thin little hands together. aSo, Igor, what are we doing today?a Otis sighed and slipped on his rubber gloves. aLike I said. Iam testing my neutron gun,a he said. aI told you itas not safe in here. I donat have any more ap.r.o.ns.a aLike that ap.r.o.n is any protection.a She waved away his ap.r.o.n with a flick of her wrist.

Otis started to explain to her about the lead in the ap.r.o.n, but she interrupted him.

aWho gives a s.h.i.t anyway,a she said. aWeare all gonna die.a She smiled at him with her cracked pink lips, her pale face free of makeup. She had some dark stuff in the tear duct of one eye.

He said, aI love you.a She snorted. aYeah, well, you donat know me, right? Just ask my dad how unlovable I am.a Otis didnat want to get into a conversation about moms and dads, so he extracted a paper face mask from the carton and slipped it on. He offered one to Rusty, but she shook her head.

aIave got my protection here,a she added, shaking the tan leather medicine bag hanging around her neck.

aDo you ever take that thing off?a aNever. Only when Iam in the shower.a Otis asked her what was in the bag, and she said it was a secret.

aWhatever.a aOkay. Iall tell you. Thereas some clippings from Royceas toenails and one of Angelas barrettes. Theyare the only two people I love in the world, right? And a little magnet with Buckwheat on it I stole from Grandmaas Attic. I love my grandma, too. Thereas one of her chewed up sucker sticks.a She kept talking, sitting there on Otisas stool, so he tried to tune her out and focus on his task. He slipped on his face mask, then transferred the radium powder to a piece of aluminum foil and balled it upa"hard to do with rubber gloves ona"then did the same thing to the beryllium powder. It was hard to keep his mind on his task, because he kept picturing Rusty, not wearing her medicine bag or anything else, in the shower. He often thought about her when he was in the shower, which had lately made the whole shower business seem totally worthwhile. Why had he told her he loved her? She hadnat said it back, but she hadnat seemed surprised. He poked the b.a.l.l.s of aluminum foil into the cavity of his gun and quickly wrapped the gun up with duct tape.

All the while, Rusty kept yakking. aThat stuff reeks. Royce ran away.a Royce the zombie boyfriend, last seen wearing an FBI sweatshirt.

aWhere did he go?a His voice was m.u.f.fled by the paper mask.

Rusty shrugged. aThatas what they keep asking me. His mom, his stepdad, the cops. Have you heard from him? Did he ever talk about wanting to go anywhere? They donat get it. We never talked about anything, right? We just smoked weed and laughed. Do you get high?a Otis told her he didnat and then explained that marijuana was illegal, killed brain cells, caused auto accidents, and was a gateway drug. He had tried pot once, one day behind the gym at middle school. Some cool guys offered him some. It made him feel like he was losing his mind. Why would people seek out that feeling?

aThereas other ways to get high,a Rusty pointed out. aI bet some of the stuff you got here would work.a She reached over and grabbed a vial of radium flakes.

aPut that down!a aJust kidding. G.o.d! Hey. Did you know that your little sisteras been going to our church? Your older sister went, too. How come you donat?a aIam busy.a Otis positioned his duct-taped gun on the table and set the large block of paraffin in front of it. aScoot back. Thereas a radioactive neutron stream going out of this baby.a He couldnat see it, of course, but he imagined it until he almost saw it, a ray of sparkling, dancing particles shooting out.

Rusty scooted the stool back a few inches. aI hate going to church,a she said, abut I have to go. Mom makes me. Mrs. Archer, the serial killer, was the one who brought your sister to church and introduced her to my dad. It was like she fixed them up. Really creepy, right? Your sisteras a preppy b.i.t.c.h, but I feel sorry for her getting mixed up with my dad. Itas all that witchwomanas doing. I hate her guts. One day I saw her digging up her yard on one side of her house, and then the next thing I know thereas a bunch of plastic flowers stuck in there. Who would do that? She probably buried something underneath them. Probably body parts. I bet sheas killing people, right? She tried to give me a donut once. I suspected poison so I dropped it. Whyad she move here, anyway? And why across from us? We need to figure out what sheas really up to. Maybe if we devil her enough, sheall go away, right? Last night I snuck around her house and made scratching sounds on all her windows. Her dog barked and barked. I hid whenever she turned on the outdoor lights.a aStop talking now,a Otis said. He turned and picked up his Geiger counter from the shelf behind him.

Finally Rusty was quiet, watching him intently.

He switched on his machine and held it over the block of wax. The clicking started up immediately. Clickclickclickclick. .2 mrems! aIt works!a Otis said, a wave of deep satisfaction rushing through him. He was going to do it. He was! Head show everyone!

aWow,a Rusty said, like maybe she finally believed he knew what he was up to.

Although he hated to do it, he switched off the Geiger counter, laid it down, and began ripping the tape off his gun. aI need to get some thorium to shoot the gun at. I donat know where to get it.a aIall help you,a she said. aThis is so cool. Iall help you.a aWhy?a Otis looked into her eyes, which were pale blue.

She was the first to blink and look away. aIall help you,a she repeated, aif you help me. Help me smoke out Mrs. Archer. Is it a deal?a Otis was stuffing the aluminum b.a.l.l.s back into the medicine vialsa"old Lexapro bottles that had Avaas name on them. Ava who got everything, including happy medicine. He pulled off his gloves and the paper mask. aItas a deal,a he told Rusty, who jumped up and kissed him on the lips.

Her lips were dry and rough but softer and sweeter than anything head ever felt in his life, and the combination of the successful firing of his neutron gun and his first kiss made that day his best ever.

Otis approached his granddad when he was sitting in his little den upstairs, after supper, watching Antiques Roadshow, the sound on the TV up so loud that the windows rattled. As soon as he saw Otis, Granddad picked up the remote and snapped off the TV.

Otis sat down on the couch.

aGood evening there, son,a Granddad said, and Otis smiled. He loved it when Granddad called him son. aWhat do you know?a aThere should be a game show called that,a Otis said, then repeated in a deep showy voice, aWhat do you know?a aGood to see you, son,a Granddad said. aHowas Burger King?a aThat was three jobs ago. Iam at Arbyas now.a aOh, right.a Wilson paused and gazed out the big square window into the front yard. aIave got to get out there and mulch those flower beds. Iall do it tomorrow.a This was something his grandfather had taken to saying every time Otis came into the den to see him. Granddad hadnat been going out to work in the yard, like he used to. Otis was dying to ask him about obtaining thorium for his gun, but it was really bugging him that Granddad kept repeating the thing about working in the yard over and over again. He asked Granddad why he didnat go out and work in the yard right then.

aThat horrible woman will show up and hara.s.s me. Iave told your mother I donat want her in here reading to me anymore. Every time I go out in the yard, there she is. I know her from somewhere, I just canat remember where.a aYou know her acause she shows up here all the time,a Otis said. It was scary how much his grandfatheras memory was slipping. Otis didnat know what to do. Should he correct his grandfather, the way his mother was always doing? He felt bad for his grandfather when his mother got angry at him for something he couldnat help. Shead say, aYouave already asked me that one hundred times, Dad!a The same way she got angry at Otis when he forgot to put gas in his Pontiac or got fired from another job.

aWhy do you keep getting fired?a shead ask Otis. aDonat you do what they tell you to do? Donat you follow the rules? How hard can that be?a How could he explain it to his mother? Yes, there were rules at his jobs, or, what they called procedures, and he tried to follow them, but other people kept s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g things up. As soon as his shift started, the other employees began yelling at him, each one telling him to do a different thing now and to hurry up, and there was so much noise and so many hot things and loud people that it was hard to focus and he made mistakes, and pretty soon he would make too many of those mistakes. Also, he was too honest. At McDonaldas, when one of the managers, Mitch.e.l.l, a skinny African American man who wore big square gla.s.ses, was reprimanding Otis for causing a big grease spill and asked him, in a nice voice, aDo you think you can give me one hundred percent effort from now on?a Otis, instead of saying yes right away, as he later realized he was expected to do, thought about it. He thought about the job and how boring and demeaning it was, especially compared to what head be doing when he was a famous scientist. aNo,a he told Mitch.e.l.l. aI can give you sixty percent.a Mitch.e.l.l shook his head and sighed, but then to Otisas surprise, Mitch.e.l.l began to giggle, helplessly, and Otis laughed, too. When he left Mitch.e.l.las office he a.s.sumed everything was okay, but as soon as he came into work the next day he was fired by an unsmiling Mitch.e.l.l.

Wilson was staring out the window at the front yard, the way Parson Brown did when she wanted to go out but wasnat yet making a fuss about it.

aMy friend Rusty says that Mrs. Archer is evil,a Otis offered, pleased to drop the phrase amy frienda into the conversation.

Wilson gave the hollow-sounding guffaw head taken to emitting so often that even Otis noticed it. aWell, she sure is angry about something,a Wilson said. aShe thinks Iam responsible for all the unhappiness in the world. She never lets up. aDo you know what you did, Dr. Spriggs?a Over and over. I donat know what the h.e.l.l sheas talking about.a aThat ladyas bonkers,a Otis said. aShe murders people and buries their body parts. Weare going to do something about Mrs. Archer, Granddad. Donat worry. Weall stop her from bugging you. Okay?a Wilson turned and looked at Otis as if surprised to see him sitting there. aStop who?a he said.

aMrs. Archer.a aOh, yeah.a He nodded, but it seemed like head already forgotten who Mrs. Archer was. Pretty soon head forget who Otis was! aIave got to get out there and mulch those beds,a Granddad said again.

aGranddad. I need some thorium for my breeder reactor. Any ideas?a Otis had, a few months ago, given up the pretense that the breeder reactor was hypothetical, after head figured out that his grandfather didnat remember what theyad talked about from one conversation to the next.

aI believe,a said his grandfather, athat propane lanterns, the kind you get at camping stores, would be a good place to start. Course, youad have to get a whole lot of them.a Propane lanterns. Check.

aLetas play checkers,a Otis suggested to his granddad, who agreed, seeming glad for the diversion. Granddad was always up for a rousing game of checkers.

Otis and Rusty went looking for propane lanterns in Otisas Pontiaca"the car Rusty referred to as his serial killer car. At Walmart, Sears, and Target, the propane lanterns were pretty much the same price, and all expensivea"from thirty to eighty dollars. And they didnat really need the whole lantern. At Sears they bought two, but all they wanted were the mantles that came with the lantern. Most lanterns came with two, and Otis wasnat sure how many head need. At Target they discovered boxes of replacement mantles, two to a box, but they were fifteen bucks a box.

After a whispered discussion, they decided to steal them.

Rusty went a few aisles away, where the fancy granola and gourmet food was, and he could hear her pretend to collapse, knocking some jars off the shelf. When he heard that Rusty was being fussed over by a couple of old lady customers and the lurking pimple-faced store clerk, Otis slipped six boxes of mantles into a battered canvas messenger bag adorned with a hammer and sickle, which used to belong to Royce.

In order to pay Rusty back, Otis had to agree to make some night raids on Mrs. Archer. Rusty instructed him to dress all in black and paint his face and hands with some black kiddie face paint she gave him.

At midnight one night he met Rusty in front of the old ladyas house. Then they ran around and around her house, swinging their propane lanterns and chanting aOdobee dumba laweea over and over again. All this, including the chant, was Rustyas idea.

aWhy are we doing this?a Otis asked Rusty at one point.

aWeare driving her mad.a Inside Mrs. Archeras house, lights went on and Buster began barking.

aI bet sheas mad, all right.a aNot that kind of mad. This kind of mad!a Rusty held the lantern up to her face and swung it in time to her chant, a hideous, leering grimace on her black-painted face, and Otis laughed so hard he nearly peed his pants. Which was okay, because it meant they had to extinguish their lanterns and call it a night.

The next step, Rusty decided, was to sneak into Mrs. Archeras house while she was at church with Rustyas family. Rusty was certain that Mrs. Archer had given her mother a key to her house but had no way of knowing which key it was, so she swiped her motheras entire key chain early Sunday morning and even pretended to look for the keys with her father, acting just as puzzled as her parents about what couldave happened to them. She told Otis all about this grand act of deception while they were fumbling at Mrs. Archeras front door, trying key after key in her lock, the dumb dog Buster barking his fool head off.

Finally they found it and let themselves in.

It was a disappointingly bland house. Buster followed them around, wagging his tail. They opened her cupboards and helped themselves to some Layas sour cream and onion potato chips and Entenmannas powdered donuts, leaving crumbs on the counter. They leafed through her Time magazines and Tallaha.s.see Democrats stacked up beside the coffee table.

In her bedroom they rifled through her old lady underwear and jewelry. Rusty helped herself to a pair of rhinestone clip earrings. There was a big bed with a pink bedspread and it looked soft and inviting. Otis lay down and folded his arms behind his head. The bedspread felt slippery beneath his calves. The pillow under his head was down filled and the pillow slip had pink roses on it. It smelled like old lady perfume. How kinky. He was lying on an old ladyas bed.

aLook!a Rusty said, pointing.

On the bedside table sat an old-fashioned framed photograph of a little girl in a winter coat and fur hat, her hands stuffed into a fur m.u.f.f, and she was laughing. Snow was falling all around the girl, but she was laughing. What was so funny? aIs that her?a Otis said. aMrs. Archer, you think? When she was little?a aItas evidence,a Rusty said, and s.n.a.t.c.hed up the photograph. aProbably some little girl she killed. One of her victims, right? The police will want to see this.a For some reason, her saying this ridiculous thing made him want to kiss her. aCome here,a he told her, and opened his arms.

Clutching the picture, she dropped down hard on the bed beside him and rolled over next to him. Rusty. Rustifer. Beatrice. She smelled like herbal something, like shead just taken a shower. He wrapped his arm around her neck and brought her down close and they lay side by side and kissed, and kissed, and kept kissing, her showing him how to do it. It was pretty nice, very nice, but not nice enough. After a few more kisses he rolled over and pulled her underneath him. Oh, yeah. This was nicer. Much nicer.

aWhat the h.e.l.l? What are you doing?a She struggled underneath him. He couldnat tell if she was joking or not.

aWhat do you think Iam doing?a He tried to kiss her again, but she struggled again and he let her go.

She slipped out from underneath him and sat on the edge of the bed, her back to him. Her shoulder blades, under her thin T-shirt, looked like a childas. aI need to collect more evidence,a she said.

aYouare taking this game a little too far,a Otis said. aThis is a game, right?a aIam serious, jerk!a Suddenly, with a grunt, Rusty hurled the picture across the room and it smashed against the wall. aThis is not a game!a She whirled and lunged at him, pinning him to the bed, pulling his hair, scratching at his face, slapping and punching at him in the same random way Suzi used to attack him when she was little. Rusty didnat feel much bigger than Suzi had then.

Otis shoved her off him and scooted off the bed. She rose to attack him again, but he pushed her back on Mrs. Archeras bed, maybe a little too hard. His cheek stung where shead scratched it. aYou need to see a psychiatrist.a aIam not seeing any more shrinks! You have no idea what my life is like. How dare you!a What was she talking about?

He ran out of the house, leaving Rusty screaming after him, calling him names. He walked home in the suffocating heat, wondering how head gotten mixed up with such a maladjusted individual. He touched his cheek where shead scratched it and his finger came away b.l.o.o.d.y. To think head told her he loved her!

He did love her.

But science was calling him. Science was reliable. Science was his true love.

Part Five.

AUGUST 2006.

Buffas house was so different from Suzias house. In Buffas house the furniture all looked and smelled new, and in the living room everything was blue and white, in the kitchen red and white, in little Angelas room pink and white. Everything matched! Buffas house had soft wall-to-wall carpet in all the rooms, even the bathroom; and the bathroom sinks didnat have dried toothpaste globs and lone hairs in them and old eye shadow and blush containers spilling over on the counters. At Buffas house there were dried flower arrangements in every room and a bowl of fresh fruit on the dining room table. There were family photos everywherea"of his family, not their dead relatives. Huge framed photos, taken outdoors, the kind where everyone in the family wears a white shirt. In all the pictures Buff looked so handsome, an older brother of Orlando Bloom. Paulaas blond hair hung down in perfectly straight curtains. Rustyas wavy reddish brown hair was pulled back in a ponytail. Baby Angel had no hair. Except for Angel, they looked like an orthodontistas advertis.e.m.e.nt.

The whole setupa"the family and the housea"made Suzi angry because she knew that the reason they looked so perfect and that their house looked so perfect was because they didnat have two teenagers with Aspergeras throwing fits and h.o.a.rding things and a stinky old granddad (she loved him, though!) and a dad who never came home and a mom who slopped around looking hideous and making nasty remarks and claiming to be too tired to do anything but hide in her room and read. If she lived in a house that looked like Buffas house, shead bring friends home with her all the time. As it was now, she was always embarra.s.sed when Mykaila and Sierra and Sienna came over, and she ended up apologizing over and over until they told her to shut the h.e.l.l up.

Of course, Suzi knew that everything wasnat as dandy at Buffas house as it seemed. For one thing, Rusty had become a total reject misfit who wouldnat even babysit her own little sister, or maybe couldnat be trusted to babysit her. And there was something way wrong with a married man, a minister for G.o.das sake, who was obsessed with Ava.

Suzi might have found Buffas obsession with Ava to be hilarious and only hilarious if not for two things: 1. Why Ava? What was so great about her? And 2. the fact that Ava wouldnat have any part of Buff. Ava hadnat been back to church since that one time, and after the Wakulla Springs trip shead refused to go to youth group. She didnat have an appreciative bone in her body. She was waiting for Elvis to rise up from his tomb and marry her. Did she not realize how cool Buff was? A hot minister! How cool was that? Maybe Buff would divorce his wife and marry Ava! Although n.o.body in their right mind, once they realized how annoying Ava was, would want anything to do with her. Of course, Ava was gorgeous to look at, prettier than Suzi, even, if you just looked at her.

Suzi could probably get Buff in big trouble if she told people about his obsession with Ava, and maybe she would, but shead tell when she was good and ready. Her mother would spaz and shead never let Suzi go back to that church again if she knew. Suzi couldnat bear the thought of that. She liked going to Genesis, shead accepted Christ as her personal savior and planned to start reading the Bible, very soon. Her knee was healing, mostly because of her physical therapy, but surely all the church membersa"and Buff!a"praying for her had helped.

When she closed her eyes at night she imagined Buff, like in his sermon, standing in that big green field, holding out his arms, and her running toward him. He would envelop her in a hug, but it wasnat the loving fatherly kind, it was the other kind; and when he kissed her it was like Orlando Bloom kissing Keira Knightley in Pirates of the Caribbean, not like Davis s...o...b..ring on her at the skating rink. Shead broken up with Davis by texting him, which she knew was tacky, but she didnat care. Shead moved on, in her mind anyway, to bigger and better things. Buff just needed more exposure to her and head catch on to what he was missing. Her. Not Ava.

But Paula had called their house last night and asked Ava to babysit. What a joke! Ava, babysit? She couldnat even take care of herself. It was disappointing that Buff had told Paula to call the Witherspoon house and ask for Ava, not Suzi. Her mom had answered the phone and tried to get Ava to talk to Paula, but Ava said no, she wouldnat, and left the room. So her mother, fl.u.s.tered yet again by Avaas rude behavior, just stood there holding the phone like a mutant.

aGive me the phone,a Suzi told her mother. Then she got on the phone and told Paula that Ava couldnat babysit but that she could, even though shead never technically babysat before, and thatas how it happened that on Friday night, instead of hobbling through the mall with her buds, she was at Buffas house, playing Nancy Drew. Buff wasnat there, which was a b.u.mmer, but she could at least nose around and collect information about him. Just how far would he go in his ability to surprise her? He was a married minister obsessed with Ava. What other quirks lay below his shiny surface?

And she was entertaining Angel, whom it was so easy to love. As requested, Suzi fed Angel some gluten-free noodles and meatless, sugar-free tomato sauce. And steamed carrots and broccoli all cut up. Naturally, Angel turned up her nose at the entire dinner. Suzi tasted it and pretended to love it, just to get Angel to eat more of it, but it tasted like c.r.a.p. Cardboard c.r.a.p. Angel ate enough, with a lot of coaxing, to earn a yogurt pop for dessert. Since she wasnat playing soccer right now, Suzi really had to watch what she ate. But tonight was special, so Suzi had one, too.

While they sat at the kitchen table and chewed and sucked on their yogurt pops, Suzi listened for sounds coming from Rustyas room, but heard nothing.

Paula had rolled her eyes when she mentioned that Rusty was holed up in her room, grounded all weekend. Suzi wanted to ask what for, but you couldnat ask that sort of thing. You need to ground her until sheas twenty-one, she wanted to say, but she couldnat say that either.

Paula and Buff had gone for a Parentsa Date Night with some other church couples, all smiles and seeming eager to be off on their own. Buff was as friendly to Suzi as usual, giving her a hug, smelling like richling cologne. Theyad be back by ten thirty, Paula promised. She wore a low-cut shirt, revealing the top of her round balloon b.r.e.a.s.t.s. Implants! A ministeras wife! Suzi was pleased to notice that Paula had a rather large behind, even though she exercised nonstop and seemed to eat only cardboard.

After dinner she and Angel played store (Angelas idea) and then school (Suzias idea) and then Angel said she wanted to watch Veggie-Tales. Suzi got her into bed around seven thirty, read her a couple of wholesome childrenas books, the best one called When Jesus Comes to My House about Jesus dropping in on a little boy for a play date and the two of them building with blocks and having a snack together. Finally Suzi turned out Angelas light, feeling competent as all get-out.

All this time, Rusty had not made a peep in her room and hadnat come out once to see what was going on. There was a light on in her rooma"Suzi could see it under the doora"but no sound at all. Maybe shead snuck out and was causing trouble with her friends. Or, scratch that, she didnat have any friends. Suzi stood outside her door, listening as hard as she could, hearing nothing. If Rusty wasnat in there, Suzi would go in and nose around, see what she could dig up. She knocked.

aYeah.a She was in there.

aHi, itas me, Suzi, the babysitter.a She liked calling herself this.

aOtisas sister?a aRight.a Suzi had never been referred to as Otisas sister before in her life. How would Rusty know Otis?

aNeed something?a aIam just bored.a aSorry, the booze is locked up,a Rusty said. There was a rustling, then a creaking sound, and the door popped open a few inches. Rusty, with her hair pulled back in a ponytail and no makeup on, looked almost normal, except for the nose ring. She wore pink pjas with elephants on them. aWhy, if it isnat the preppy, popular Miss Witherspoon.a Suzi made vague noises of protest, her face flushing. On the surface, being called popular was great. But the way Rusty said it, popular sounded like something worse than shallow and foolish, which it was, but how was it Suzias fault that other people liked her? aJust wanted to see if you were really in here,a Suzi said.

aTa-da!a Rusty said.

Suzi looked over Rustyas shoulder but didnat see anything interesting in Rustyas rooma"no cigarettes, booze, illegal drugs, nasty books. The room was neat and clean, without even any pictures on the walls. No computer, no electronics visible.

aCome in, I guess, if you want,a Rusty said. She stood back from the door.

Suzi hobbled into the room and Rusty quickly shut the door behind her.

aSporting injury?a Rusty asked her.

Suzi told her how it happened, and surprisingly enough, Rusty actually listened as if she were interested.