can?t be found and dug out. She didn?t expect him to fall at her feet
or anything, but to go from holding her hand everywhere they went
to saying her would never touch her? How could that be?
Unable to sit still with these thoughts in her head, Helen jumped
up into the air with a little cry and let an easterly wind take her out
over the water. For a few heartbeats she hung in a calm envelope of
air as the stars switched on, desperately sucking up the beauty of
that experience like it was emotional Novocain.
When she was calmer, she circled higher and hitched a ride on a
steady westerly gust that brought her back over the island. She was
not a graceful flyer yet?in fact she was barely competent?but if
she didn?t think about it too much she knew what to do to move
herself along. She had no clear idea where to go, but suddenly she
was freezing cold and in need of comfort. Without making a conscious
choice, she found herself circling over Claire?s house.
Helen alit in Claire?s front yard, and then realized that in her condition
she couldn?t just go up and ring the bell. She was soaking
wet and shaking with cold. Mr. and Mrs. Aoki would call her father
immediately if they laid eyes on her like this.
Circling the house on foot, Helen peeked inside the windows, trying
to figure out where Claire was. She fished her cell phone out of
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her jeans to call Claire and get her to come outside, and then
smacked herself on the forehead when she saw that her two-dayold
phone had been ruined by the salt water. She heard Claire
yelling at her mother in Japanese as she stomped upstairs to her
room. Claire?s bedroom light switched on, and she slammed her
door shut behind her.
It was a terrible way to come out to Claire, and Helen was vaguely
aware of that fact as she floated toward the window and saw her