Page 76 of Wayfarers

Back in the van, I watched as Sylvie’s phone lights up. “Hey.”

“What’s up?”

“A news thingie just popped up on your screen.”

“And?”

“Hang on, I’m reading it—okay, so apparently, there is gonna be this amazing eclipse in a couple of days.”

“Just as was foretold,” Sylvie says in a portentous voice.

“Yeah, we didn’t waste our money. Your money.”

“Or she just reads the weather report. I guess I can’t hate a girl for doing her research.”

He’s scrolling. “It looks like the sun is going to completely cover the moon.”

“Take a second and think about what you just said.”

“Oh. I mean vice versa.” We crack up.

“Yeah, it’d be a real issue for us probably if the sun got between the Earth and the moon.”

“SPF 60 would not cut it that day. Anyway, if we wanna do what Miss Mara said, there’s a map of the best places in the country to see the full eclipse.” I hand Sylvie back her phone.

She looks at it. “Oh wow. Some of the sweet spots are on the way to North Carolina.”

“That’s what I was thinking.”

“You ever seen a full eclipse?”

“A few years back. It was awesome. Though now I’m realizing that I was maybe cheated, since I’ve learned they usually come with a strange prophet.”

“You’re saying that, like, a dude in robes didn’t come sweeping out of the dark to change your life?” Sylvie laughs. “I’ve never seen one.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, my mom and I were on vacation in Maine during the last one, which was nowhere close to the best place to see it. Some of my friends traveled to see it and they said how cool it was. I was way jealous.”

“We should go to one of the good places to see it.”

“Miss Mara made it mandatory almost,” Sylvie says.

“When I said it was ‘awesome,’ that’s an understatement.”

“I’m dead serious. It’s on our way down south. In fact . . .”

“What?”

“We could cut over to Wisconsin and then down,” she says. “How big a rush are you in to get to your grandma’s?”

Sylvie

Knox says, “Depends. I’m not sure how much I trust the Twin Sisters of Doom, but they for sure have me thinking about my mamaw, and if she’s doing okay. If she needs me.”

“I mean, I can take us straight there. To her house in North Carolina. There is literally no need for me to keep pulling over for every roadside attraction.”

He gets quiet. “I don’t know,” he says, finally. “Because the other side of it is, con artists only have power over you if you let yourself believe them. Like, am I so desperate for a purpose that I’ll buy whatever bull this pair of feuding fortune tellers is selling me?”