Page 57 of Suncatcher

“Since you started lying to me.”

Pearl huffed. “Yeah. Right. Whatever.”

“I mean it. It’s dangerous.” Sheriff Oak stood.

“I’m nearly thirty years old, Ma.”

“Then act like it.”

Anger simmered in Pearl. She’d had too much of an amazing night for this. She still wore the sensation of Driz pressed all over her. “Where d’you think I was? Where were you nearly every night this week? Don’t make rules you wanna break.”

“This is still my house, my rules,” Sheriff Oak said, her voice hard and tinged with that stubbornness that Pearl knew meant she wouldn’t hear reason with just words.

“Fine.” Pearl yanked open the door and strode back out into the night.

“Pearl!”

Pearl didn’t look back, instead scuffing her way a few doors down and around the back, climbing up Molly’s rear porch.

Buster snored loudly in his overstuffed bed. Pearl sank down beside him, moving one large paw so she could settle her head, using it as a pillow. His tail thumped a few times, and then he started snoring again. The covered porch shielded them from the wind. It wasn’t the first time Pearl had slept here, and she doubted it’d be the last.

The porch steps creaked beneath one regular boot and one wood, and she hastily shut her eyes. Her mother moved past and sank down in Molly’s rocking chair.

They were both silent for a while, as Pearl ignored her and Sheriff Oak rocked.

“Come home, Pea,” her mother finally said. “Please.”

“I don’t owe you an explanation of my every move.”

“No, you don’t.”

Pearl sat up and glared at her mother. “So you’ll drop it?”

Sheriff Oak’s jaw ticked. “For now.”

It was as much as Pearl was going to get.

17

A Double Reflection

Driz sat on the lip of the ravine, idly bouncing the rubber ball beside her, waiting for Pearl.

Last night had been unreal. Driz still couldn’t think about it without her wings twitching. How Pearl had touched her. Driz thought she might break into pieces just at the memory of being beneath her hands.

The night darkened, and Driz remained alone. But Pearl had said maybe, and so Driz would wait all night. Just in case.

She bounced the ball higher.

When she saw a tall woman in a long coat striding through the scrubby tumbleweeds toward the bluffs, Driz excitedly stood, ready to glide down to meet her.

Driz froze. It wasn’t Pearl.

She scrambled back, flattening herself against the rim of the ravine in the shadow of a large rock, peering curiously over the edge.

The woman was the same one Driz had seen the first night, coming out of Pearl’s home with the uneven footsteps. She must be Pearl’s mother, Oak.

Why was she here? Had Pearl told her to come? Was Pearl in danger? Did she need help?