need to teach her to control them. Could I do that?
Savannah's mother may have passed along some attitudes with which I strongly disagreed, but Eve had loved her daughter and had wanted the best for her. She'd believed that the "best" was this ceremony. Did I dare dispute that?
How could I make a decision like this so quickly? I needed days, maybe weeks. I had only minutes.
I walked up behind Savannah as she swung, her sneakers scuffing the dirt into clouds.
"I'll do the ceremony," I said. "Your ceremony."
"Really?" She twisted to look up. Then, seeing my expression, her grin collapsed. "I didn't mean it, Paige. What I said."
"What's said is said."
I turned and walked back to the car.
I drove in silence, answering only questions directed at me.
"Can I see the grimoires, Paige?" Savannah asked, bobbing from the backseat.
I nodded.
"Maybe I can help you learn these. Or we can learn them together."
I had to say something. I'm no good at holding grudges. It feels too much like sulking.
"Sure," I said. "That ... sounds good."
Cortez glanced back at the grimoire in Savannah's hands, then looked at me. He didn't say anything, but his look oozed curiosity.
"Later," I mouthed.
He nodded, and silence prevailed until we reached the outskirts of East Falls.
"Okay," I said as we drove into town. "We've got a decision to make. We need this grave dirt, but I'm not going near the East Falls cemetery. The last thing I need is for someone to look down from the hospital and see me darting among tombstones. So, we have two choices. One, we can go to the county cemetery. Two, we can go to the one here in town and you can get the dirt, Cortez."
He sighed.
"Okay, I guess that answers my question. We head to the county cemetery."
"It wasn't the proposition to which I was registering my objection," he said.
"So what's wrong?"
"Nothing."
Savannah leaned over the seat. "He's pissed because you're still calling--"
Cortez cut her off. "I'm not 'pissed' about anything. The town cemetery is closer. I'll get the dirt."
"You don't mind?"
"Not at all. I should be able to retrieve dirt through the fence without having to enter the cemetery proper and therefore without risk of being seen."
"Is that where they buried Cary?" Savannah asked. "By the fence?"
"I think he was cremated."
Cortez nodded. "A course of action which, had it not been determined prior to the visitation, I'm quite certain would have been considered afterward."