Freeks(10)

“Where’s Blossom?” Seth asked, glancing over at me as he walked back to the trailer to get more pieces of the fencing.

“What do you mean?” I looked around, as if expecting my occasional roommate to be standing behind me.

“She wasn’t with you?” Seth paused and turned back to face me.

Sometimes Blossom went out with me to explore the town, but most of the time, I went on my own. Since we lived on the road in a traveling show with fifty other people, I enjoyed the solitude that the long walks provided.

I shook my head. “No, she wasn’t with me last night. She probably crashed at my trailer.”

“I don’t think so.” Seth’s brow furrowed in concern. “Your mom was going around looking for the both of you. Gideon calmed her down by telling her that you guys must be together, so you’d be safe.”

“Crap,” I whispered. “Thanks for giving me the heads-up. I should go make sure my mom’s fine, and see if Blossom made it back yet.”

As I rushed through the campsite, I told myself that I shouldn’t be worried. Blossom was sixteen and a runaway. Sometimes she went off on her own, and she could handle herself.

But I felt that strange chill growing inside me again, the one that I’d felt when we’d arrived at Caudry.

I opened the battered screen door to the Winnebago and my eyes immediately darted to the small bench where Blossom slept. It was empty, and though I wasn’t really surprised, my heart sank to my stomach.

The trailer wasn’t empty, though. Gideon was in our tiny galley kitchen, sipping his morning coffee. The little TV sat on the dining table across from him and played a fuzzy morning news show it picked up on its rabbit ears.

“Morning, Mara,” Gideon said, and he pointed to the beaded curtain that served as a door to the back bedroom. “Your mom’s been looking for you.”

Despite their age difference—Gideon was over ten years younger than my mom—he and my mother had been dating rather happily for nearly a decade, but they’d never lived in the same trailer. The spaces were so small that it made it impossible for two of them to have any privacy if they shared a motorhome with me.

Our current Winnebago had much more privacy than any of our previous ones, and that was a small bedroom with two twin beds. It used to have a pocket curtain-door, but it was broken, so we only had the beads.

“Mara?” Mom asked, and a second later she pushed through the beads, making them clatter. “Finally, you’re home.” Then, after assessing that I was indeed all right, her eyebrow raised, and her gray eyes hardened. “Did you and Blossom have a nice time last night?”

“I had a nice time,” I replied carefully, and I tried to erase any sign of worry from my face. “But I don’t know about Blossom. She wasn’t with me.”

“What do you mean?” My mom’s eyes widened. “Didn’t you go out together?”

“No, I went out on my own to get some air,” I tried to explain as calmly as I could.

“What about Roxanne?” Mom asked, referring to my best friend and fellow carnie Roxie.

My mom had this strange habit where she never called anybody by shortened versions of their names. Me, she referred to with the term of affection qamari all the time, but everyone else got their full names.

“I don’t know. I didn’t see her,” I admitted. “I didn’t know Blossom had left, but Caudry seems like a really great small town. I met some really nice people, and Blossom probably did too. I’m sure she’s fine.”

“No, no, don’t give me that.” Mom shook her head, causing her necklaces to clatter against each other.

First thing in the morning, and she’d already donned her jewelry. Most of it was cheap costume jewelry, except for one, the only necklace she actually slept in—a large key that hung on a thin leather strap. The head of the key was a skull with two bright red rubies for eyes, and it seemed to stare at me while my mom began her lecture.

“You can’t keep doing this,” she said. “Staying out all night in strange places.”

I groaned in exasperation. “Everywhere we go is a strange place!”

“No, not like this.” She shook her head again, more fiercely this time. “This place is different.”

“Lyanka, it’s a small town, and Mara came home safely,” Gideon said. “I’m sure Blossom is fine too.”

An amethyst bandana was holding back my mom’s thick black hair. Her lips pressed into a thin line, and she rubbed the back of her neck. She cast her gaze to the floor, letting her mind run wild with worry.

Gideon put a hand on her arm, and she let her shoulders relax and leaned into him. “It will be all right, love. We’ll only be staying here a week, and then we’ll be moving on. Everything will be fine.”

“I know you’re right so often, and I hope you are this time.” She lifted her eyes imploringly to me. “Please, Mara. Can you try not to give your old mother a heart attack and stay close? At least while we’re here?”

I gave her my most reassuring smile. “Sure, Mom.”

She walked over to me and put her hands on my face. “I worry about you, qamari. I only want you to be safe and happy.”

“I am, and you don’t need to worry about me so much. I’m almost nineteen. I can take care of myself.”