“Can’t this wait till morning?” I asked. I was cranky, and the mosquitoes were biting.
“No,” Matt said without looking back. “It has to be now, so you’ll remember it.”
“I remember things much better on a full night’s sleep.”
Matt just shook his head. “A full night’s sleep won’t do nothing but make you forget. Trust me.”
And I did. Even when he was talking crazy and marching me out to the ridge in the middle of the night. So I kept on following him, right up to the edge of the ridge.
“Look,” he said, and pointed out into the dark.
All I saw was black. “I don’t see anything.”
“Exactly,” he said. “There’s nothing out there. Nothing at all.”
“You woke me up to show me nothing?”
“Think about it, Pruitt, shouldn’t you be able to see the fields out there? The stars? Clouds? Something?” He turned and pointed at the sky behind us.
I looked up, and sure enough, there were stars, and even a cloud in the night sky behind us, but in front of us, over the cliff, there was nothing. Just black. “What the . . .”
“Hold on, it’s almost midnight,” Matt said.
And this is how I know I was a dreaming and not remembering, because right then, the black in front of us wavered. Specks of light popped up, one by one at first, and then a whole world appeared. Headlights and taillights, streetlights and porch lights, and way in the distance, tiny skyscrapers all lit up and clustered together like a city.
“Do you see it?” Matt asked. It was the first time I’d ever heard him sound unsure about something.
My heart pounded in my chest. This had to be some kind of a trick. There’s nothing outside of Stillwater for miles and miles. Too far to see, even at night. “What is that?”
Matt blew out a long breath and then squared his shoulders. “That’s where I’m going.”
A rustle in the trees startles me, and I’m surprised to find myself standing right at the edge of the ridge. Just like in my dream, there’s nothing out there but darkness. No stars or signs of life. The crack of a branch breaking comes from my right, followed by footsteps, each one closer than the last.
I’m man enough to admit that whatever’s coming has got me scared. I don’t know if them rumors about this place being cursed are true. And this dream, or whatever it is in my head, has got me all shook up. The rustle of leaves on leaves gets louder, and I crouch next to a cluster of big rocks.
For one crazy second I think maybe that dream was real and it’s my brother, come to take me away to the city. “Matt?” I mean to shout it, but it comes out all weak like I don’t want to be heard.
Delilah steps out from the trees. “Who’s there?”
My heart keeps right on stuttering in my chest at the sight of her. In the moonlight her skin could be any color: blue, silver, white. She stands still as a statue, frowning, fists clenched up like she’s fixing to fight. Her eyes catch on mine and I can’t look away, even though I want to.
She lets her fists come loose but holds on to her frown. “Pruitt?”
I stand and brush the dirt off my knees like it’s the most natural thing to be hiding in a bunch of rocks in the middle of the night. I try to smile but my mouth won’t cooperate. “Hey, Delilah. What’re you doing out here?”
She crosses her arms and lifts her chin. “It’s my land, too.”
One sentence in and I’ve already stepped in it. “I know. I just meant, uh, what brings you?”
“Oh.” She shrugs and drops her arms to her sides. “Same as you, I expect.”
“Yeah?” My voice is too high, but I can’t control it. “What’s that?”
Her lips curve up a little in an almost-smile. “Trying to escape.”
“You know about the ridge?” The hairs on my arms stand at attention.
Delilah’s almost-smile disappears as quick as it came. She rolls her eyes and walks past me to stare out. I can’t tell if I’m relieved that she don’t seem to think the ridge is magic.
Delilah slips her hands underneath her long hair and lifts it up. My eyes fall to the spot where her neck curves to meet her left shoulder and I get lost in the thought of running my fingers along it.
“I come out here to think sometimes,” she says, and then she turns and catches me looking. Her mouth falls open in surprise.
There I go again, making a mess of things. She probably thinks I’m a pervert now. “Well.” I take a step back so she don’t get the wrong idea. “I’ll leave you to it.” My face is so hot, sweat’s beading up at my temples.
“You can stay, Pruitt.” She moves away from the edge and sits down on the ground with a shrug. “I mean, I can’t kick you off your own property.”
It sounds crazy, but the way her eyes hold on to mine for a second, it almost seems like she wants me to stay. She lies back in the grass and looks up at the stars. I feel like I might fall over just trying to get down there next to her. Maybe this whole night is a dream.
When I’ve finally settled into a spot that’s close but not too close, Delilah asks, “Aren’t you tired of it?”
“Of what?” She smells like lilacs, and I take a long, deep breath of it.
“Being a Reese, and all the mess that comes with it.” She rips up pieces of grass and tosses them as she talks. “Being locked up tight in someone else’s idea of who you’re supposed to be.”
“Hell, yes.” Every single day. But I’d have never thought Delilah felt like that, too.
“I swear it feels like I’m never getting out of here. Like I’m never gonna turn eighteen and go away to college. It’s like time keeps on passing, but everything stays the same.”
I don’t know why I’m surprised. If anyone from Stillwater was gonna go to college, it’d be Delilah. It’s just, far as I know, no one’s ever left. But I keep that thought to myself and tell her, “I keep waiting for summer to end and school to start, but it never does.”
Delilah tilts her head to me and looks me in my eyes. She takes a deep breath, like what she’s got to say is important. “Sometimes I dream we’re all trapped—the whole town—inside a snow globe. And I just have to find the hole they used to fill it to get out. But I always forget what I’m looking for before I find it.”
Her eyes stay locked on mine while she waits for me to say something. I want to reach over and hold her hand, but my palms are sweaty and I don’t think she’d appreciate it anyhow. It’s nice to know I’m not the only one who dreams of escaping this place. “You ever feel like something’s not right about this town?”
“Yeah,” she sighs, and turns her eyes back to the sky. “All the time.”
We’re both quiet for a while, and then, out of nowhere, Delilah laughs. It’s the kind of laugh that gets right under your skin and spreads.
“What?” I ask, a grin already fixing itself on my face.
“My daddy would kill me if he knew I was out here talking to you.” It’s a fact that should have me running for the house, but her smile is brighter than the moonlight and I know I could never leave as long as she’s aiming it at me.
“Mine too.” I picture my daddy’s face so twisted up with rage, he looks like a cartoon character—and that’s all it takes. We laugh until we can’t breathe.
Seems like she’s done talking, but I’m all right with that. I’ve never been too good at it, anyways. ’Sides, just being with her, the stars look a hundred times brighter. I’ve thought about kissing Delilah more times than I can count, but somehow just lying here next to her, knowing that she understands me, feels better than kissing ever could.
I think this might be the best moment of my whole life.
I don’t know how long we watch the sky before Delilah sits up.
“I gotta get back to the house. My daddy always checks in on me at midnight.”