Here and not. Red and black. One moment there, another gone. Her face in the glass. Disappearing in the light of oncoming headlights, reappearing in the dark of outside. Gone again. The window kept her face for its own. Good, it could keep it. Back, the window didnโt want it either.โ
Redโs re๏ฌection stared through her, but the glass and the darkness didnโt get her quite right, blurring the details. The main features were there: the too-pale glow of her skin and the wide-set dark blue eyes that werenโt hers alone.ย You look so much alike,ย she used to hear, more than she cared to. Now she didnโt care to hear it at all, even think it. So, she looked away from her face, their face, ignoring them both. But it was harder to ignore something when you were trying.
Red shifted her gaze, looking instead at the cars in the lane beside and below. Something wasnโt right; the cars seemed too small from up here at her window, but Red didnโt feel any bigger. She watched a blue sedan edging forward to pass, and she helped it along with her eyes, pushing them ahead. There you go, bud. Ahead of this thirty-one-foot-long metal can, speeding down the highway. Which was strange when you thought about it; that you traveledย downย a highway whenย highย was right there in the name.
โRed?โ The voice opposite interrupted her thoughts of lowways and highways. Maddy was looking at her through the dimmed inside lights, skin screwed up around her sandy-brown eyes. She gave a small kick under the table, jabbing Red in the shin. โDid you just forget we were in the middle of playing a game?โ
โNo,โ Red said, but yes, yes she had. What had they been playing again? โTwenty Questions,โ Maddy said, reading Redโs mind. Well, they had
known each other all their lives; Red had only gotten a seven-month head start and she hadnโt done a lot with it. Maybe Maddy had learned to read her mind in all that time, more than seventeen years. Red really hoped not. There were things in there no one else could ever see. No one. Not even Maddy. Especially not Maddy.
โYeah, I know,โ Red said, her eyes wandering to the other side of the RV, to the outside door and the sofa bedโcurrently sofaโwhere she and Maddy would sleep tonight. Red couldnโt remember; which side of the bed did Maddy like again? Because she couldnโt sleep if she wasnโt on the left side, and just as she was trying to read Maddyโs mind back about that, her eyes caught on a green sign outside in the night, ๏ฌying over the windshield.
โThat sign says Rockingham, arenโt we getting o๏ฌ this road soon?โ Red said, not loud enough for anyone at the very front of the RV to hear, where it would have been more use. She was probably wrong, anyway, best to say nothing. Theyโd been driving on this same road for the past hour, I-73 becoming I-74 and then US 220 without much fanfare.
โRed Kenny, focus.โ Maddy snapped her ๏ฌngers, a hint of a smile on her face. It never creased, though, Maddyโs face, not even with the widest of smiles. Skin like cream, soft and clearer than it had any business being. It made the freckles on Redโs face stand out even more, side by side in photos. Literally side by side; they were almost the exact same height, down to the highest-standing hair, though Redโs was dark blond where Maddyโs was more light brown, a shade or two separating them. Red always had hers tied back, loose bangs at the front that sheโd cut herself with the kitchen scissors. Maddyโs was untied and neat, the ends soft in a way Redโs never were. โIโm
the one asking questions, youโre the one with the person, place or thing,โ Maddy prompted.
Red nodded slowly. Well, even if Maddy also liked to sleep on the left, at least they werenโt on the bunks.
โIโve asked seven questions already,โ Maddy said.
โGreat.โ Red couldnโt remember her person, place or thing. But really, theyโd been driving all day, setting o๏ฌ from home around twelve hours ago, hadnโt they played enough road trip games? Red couldnโt wait for this to be over so she could ๏ฌnally sleep, whether left side or right. Just get through it. They were supposed to arrive at Gulf Shores around this time tomorrow, meet up with the rest of their friends, that was the plan.
Maddy cleared her throat.
โAnd what answers did I give, remind me?โ Red said.
Maddy breathed out, an almost sigh or an almost laugh, hard to tell. โIt was a person, a woman, not a ๏ฌctional character,โ she said, counting them o๏ฌ on her ๏ฌngers. โSomeone I would know, but not Kim Kardashian or you.โ
Red looked up, searching the empty corners of her mind for the memory. โNo, sorry,โ she said, โitโs gone.โ
โOkay, weโll start again,โ Maddy said, but just then, Simon stumbled out of the small bathroom, saving Red from more Organized FunTM. The door bounced back into him as the RV sped up.
โSimon Yoo, have you been in there this whole time?โ Maddy asked, disgusted. โWeโve played two whole rounds.โ
Simon pushed his black, loosely waved hair away from his face and held an unsteady ๏ฌnger to his lips, saying, โShh, a lady never tells.โ
โShut the door, then, jeez.โ
He did, but with his foot, to make some point or other, almost overbalancing as they hurtled along the highway, changing lanes to pass. Wasnโt their exit soon? Maybe Red should say something, but now she was watching as Simon waded forward, leaning on the tiny kitchen counter behind her. In one awkward motion, he slid onto the booth beside her, knocking his knees on the table.
Red studied him: his pupils were sitting too large in his dark, round eyes, and there was an incriminating wet patch on the front of his teal-colored Eagles shirt.
โYouโre drunk already,โ she said, almost impressed. โI thought youโd only had like three beers.โ
Simon moved close to whisper in her ear, and Red could smell the sharp metallic tang on his breath. She couldnโt miss it; that was how she knew when her dad was lying to her,ย No I didnโt drink today, Red, I promise.ย โShh,โ Simon said, โOliver brought tequila.โ
โAnd you just helped yourself?โ Maddy asked, overhearing.
In answer, Simon balled both his ๏ฌsts and held them in the air, yelling: โSpring break, baby!โ
Red laughed. And anyway, if she just asked, maybe Maddy wouldnโt mind sleeping on the right tonight, or for the rest of the week. She could just ask.
โOliver doesnโt like people touching his things,โ Maddy said quietly, glancing over her shoulder at her brother, sitting just a few feet behind her in the front passenger seat, ๏ฌddling with the radio as he chatted to Reyna in the driverโs seat. Arthur was standing just behind Oliver and Reyna, now shooting a closed-mouth smile as he caught Redโs eye. Or maybe it was actually Simon he was smiling at.
โHey, itโs my RV, I have a claim to anything in it,โ Simon hiccupped. โYour uncleโs RV.โ Maddy felt the need to correct him.
โWerenโt you supposed to have a driving shift today too?โ Red asked him. The plan was to share the drive equally among the six of them. She had taken the ๏ฌrst two-hour shift, to get it out of the way, driving them out of Philly and down I-95 until they stopped for lunch. Arthur had sat with her the whole time, calmly directing her, as though he could tell when she was zoning in and out, or when she was panicking about the size of the RV and how small everything looked from up here. Mind readers everywhere, clearly. But sheโd only known Arthur six or seven months; that wasnโt fair.
โReyna and I swapped,โ Simon said, โon account of the beers Iโd already drunk.โ A wicked smile. Simon had always been able to get away with
anything, he was too funny, too quick with it. You couldnโt stay mad at him. Well, Maddy could, if she was really trying.
โHey, Reynaโs really cool, by the way,โ Simon whispered to Maddy, as though she had some claim over the coolness of her brotherโs girlfriend. But she smiled and took it anyway, a glance over at the couple, picture-perfect, even with their backs turned.
A break in the conversation; now was the time to ask before Red forgot. โHey, Maddy, about the sofa bedโโ
โโShit!โ Oliver hissed up front, an ugly sound. โThis is our exit right here. Move over, Reyna. Now! NOW.โ
โI canโt,โ Reyna said, suddenly ๏ฌustered, checking her mirrors and ๏ฌipping the turn signal.
โTheyโll move for you, weโre bigger, just go,โ Oliver said, reaching forward like he might grab the wheel himself.
A screeching sound, not from the RV but from Reyna, as she pulled the hulking vehicle across one lane. An angry Chevrolet screamed on its horn, and the guy at the wheel threw up a middle ๏ฌnger, holding it out the window. Red pretended to catch it, slipping it into the chest pocket of her blue-and-yellow-check shirt, treasuring it forever.
โMove, move, move,โ Oliver barked, and Reyna swerved right again, making the exit just in time. Another horn, this time from a furious Tesla they left behind on the highway.
โWe could have just come o๏ฌ at the next one and worked it out. Thatโs what Google Maps is for,โ Reyna said, slowing down, her voice strange and squished like it was working its way through gritted teeth. Red had never seen Reyna ๏ฌustered before, or angry, only ever smiling, wider each time she checked in with Oliverโs eyes. What was that like, to be in love? She couldnโt imagine it; that was why she watched them sometimes, learning by example. But Red should have said something about the exit earlier, shouldnโt she? Theyโd made it almost all day without any raised voices. That was her fault.
โIโm sorry,โ Oliver said now, tucking Reynaโs thick black hair behind her ear so he could squeeze her shoulder, imprinting his ๏ฌngers. โI just want to get to the campsite ASAP. Weโre all tired.โ
Red looked away, leaving them alone in their moment, well, as alone as they could get in an RV with six people, thirty-one feet long. Apparently that extra foot was so important they couldnโt round it down.
The world on her side of the RV was dark again. Trees lined the road, but Red could hardly see them, not past her own re๏ฌection and the other face hiding beneath it. She had to look away from that too, before she thought about it too much. Not here, not now.
The truck in front slowed as it passed a 35 sign, its brake lights staining the road red ahead of them. The color that followed her wherever she went, and it never meant anything good. But the road moved on, and so did they.
Oh wait, what was it she needed to ask Maddy about again?
