“Donna?”
“I think we’d all feel better if we did it together,” Mayfair added quickly.
Donna looked back.
“We weren’t followed, Donna,” Corliss said. “Mayfairy is right. Stop worrying so much.”
“Okay, okay.”
Corliss moved first, slithering under the fence as carefully as she could, and then stood up on the other side and smiled back at them.
“The air is different here,” she joked.
Mayfair laughed and followed. They waited for Donna, and then all three started for the top of the rise. When they got there, they realized they were looking down at the village of Piñon Pine. There was a clearly worked pathway down the slope, leading off toward what looked like the rear of a large, U-shaped mall.
“Little less than a mile, I’d say,” Corliss said.
“Someone from there went through all this trouble to invade Spindrift?” Mayfair wondered aloud.
The girls stared down at the community below. It was as if they were looking at another planet with an alien population.
“Invade?” Donna said. “That’s a bit of an exaggeration, wouldn’t you say?”
“You pointed it out first, Donna. We’re off-limits, aren’t we?” Corliss said. “For us, mingling with mere humans is another one of your serious violations, social problems for us, and for them it will be . . .” She ran her right forefinger across her throat.
Mayfair laughed.
“Not me,” Donna said sharply. “It wasn’t always a problem for me.”
“But it was big enough at least once to get you a first-class ticket here,” Corliss reminded her.
Donna looked back. “We’d better return before someone sees us. Someone else could have decided to jog this morning,” she quickly added.
Neither Corliss nor Mayfair moved.
“You do remember that if we are expelled from here, our families lose whatever money they invested in our education. My parents worked very hard to save for my future.”
Corliss turned to her. “I’m here on a full scholarship, but it would not please my parents, either.”
“My stepmother would be devastated. She finally got rid of me, and here I am being sent back,” Mayfair said. “I could be tried at least for involuntary manslaughter when she died from the sight of me.”
“Still,” Corliss said, “it’s tantalizing, isn’t it? The possibility of meeting average, normal people our age again, and secretly. I love secretly.”
The three stared in silence at the community below, a toy world, so close and yet so far.
“I’m going back,” Donna suddenly said sharply, then turned and hurried toward the fence and the ditch.
Corliss watched her. Mayfair continued to stare at what had quickly become the Forbidden Village.
“Let’s finish the trail,” Corliss said. “Come on, before she uses us as an excuse and turns back.”
“Not the worst idea I’ve heard this morning,” Mayfair said.
They caught up to Donna, who was slipping under the fence.
“Maybe we should report this,” Donna said from the other side.
“Don’t you dare,” Corliss said. “This is our secret.”