"But he idolizes you. He wants to be like you."
"I want to be like him," Lucas replied. "Or like you."
"It's not easy for me either," I said. "Not always, anyway. I don't think it is for anyone, at times. You'll figure it out, Lucas, you're a smart man."
"Thanks," he said. He pushed back from the table, standing up. "I think...I'm going to go home for a while. Would you uh...turn around?"
"Okay," I answered, and turned away. There was a soft noise, and then the scratch of claws on wood. I led Nameless down the stairs, gave him an affectionate nudge with my knee, and opened the door so he could get out.
From the doorway I watched him lope through the last of the winter's snow, dodging around late-afternoon shoppers and the occasional schoolchild.
***
Two days later, I heard a car pull up outside my shop and looked out the window to see a familiar battered pickup with a camper hitched to it. I hadn't expected the Friendly, but it made sense; a final thaw was sweeping south and they were following it for as long as it lasted. Gwen practically leaped out of the truck and was up on the porch by the time I had the door open. She threw herself into my arms, laughing.
"Hello!" I called to Tommy, who saluted from the street and came up the path with a little more dignity. "Hello," I added to Gwen, who kissed my cheek and let me go. "You're awfully close to civilization, miss Friendly."
"Came in for a hot meal," Tommy explained, leaning on the porch rail. "Gwen insisted."
"It's good food," she retorted. "And we're not here long."
"Oh?" I asked.
"Just for tonight. I wanted to make sure I saw you."
"Why the rush?"
"Construction work down south," Tommy answered. "Good money while it's on."
"Can't argue with that," I said, as Gwen wrapped an arm around my waist and leaned against me. "How's the family?"
"Christopher sends his greetings. Stuck in bed right now, sciatica's actin' up. Couple of the boys got married, lost one of 'em to a landowner. Otherwise can't complain."
"How's Low Ferry?" Gwen asked.
"Better for having you in it," I replied.
"And Lucas? We're going up to see him tonight, after dinner."
I smiled. "That'll do him some good. He hasn't been himself lately."
Gwen gave me a searching look. "Yeah. Didn't think he would be."
"Why's that?"
"We know things. I'd like to tell him thank you, though."
"Thank you? What for?"
She and Tommy exchanged a glance, hesitant, almost conspiratorial.
"You had good weather going north, huh?" I asked, and Tommy looked relieved.
"Told you then, did he?" he said. I realized, with a pang of jealousy and guilt, that they'd known. He'd told them, or they'd figured it out. And they'd believed him. No shouting, no dismissal. The Friendly had known what craziness Lucas was up to and they'd believed him, long before I ever had.
"He did a little more than tell me," I answered. "Did you know he succeeded?"
"No!" Gwen looked pleased. "But I'm glad he did."
Tommy didn't look quite so joyful. "How's he find it?"
"You'd have to ask him that."
"Didja know he can make it rain?" Gwen said. "Come on, Saint! Fetch me some books and I'll pay you. We made a little pile up north with those masks."
After they left, I turned over this new information in my mind all afternoon, trying to decide what I thought of it. In the end, it seemed like a small thing, compared to the rest. I hoped that night Nameless would get some choice scraps from the Friendly cooking fires.
I didn't see Lucas the next day, but I figured he was probably visiting with the Friendly before they left – I planned to ask him how Christopher was, next time he was in town.
As it turned out, I saw him before he came to town.
Around four o'clock that day, the boy came running into my shop. He was out of breath, and he looked like hell was chasing him.
"He isn't here, is he?" he demanded.
"Who, Lucas? No," I said. "What's the matter?"
"He's missed tutoring again and he's not answering his phone, and I think you'd better go see what's wrong."
"I'm sure it's just temporary," I replied. "Maybe his phone died. Might be some mud on the road. The Friendly are back, did you – "
"You should go. Now."
I looked up at him sharply. No child in the village had ever spoken to me that way, but his stare was direct and he looked so much older than he was that I automatically moved to obey. I was putting on my coat before I realized what I was doing.
"I'll come with you," he offered, when I paused again. "But you have to go see what's wrong with him."
I looked outside. It had been sunny all day, even if it hadn't been very warm. Now clouds were gathering, almost too quickly to be believed, and rain was beginning to streak the window.
"Fuck," I said under my breath, and flipped the sign to Closed. "Come on."
The rain got harder even as we stepped outside – the most miserable kind of rain, intense and merciless. It fell straight down with no wind to soften it and had wet the pavement within minutes, washing dirt out of gardens and piling it in gutters for innocent pedestrians to slip on. The boy started running to keep up with me, and then I started running, dodging around muddy patches and darting across streets with hardly a look to see if there were cars coming. Other villagers, taken by surprise in the rain, stood under awnings or hurried into shops to find shelter. There were more than a few puzzled looks as we went racing past.
I didn't think we'd be able to run the entire way there, but as long as the boy was running, I could. We turned on the road leading out to The Pines and kept going, even though my breath was hitching and I figured any moment my heart would probably decide it'd had quite enough of this nonsense.
By the time we reached the rutted dirt road we were both wet to the skin. Rain ran down the back of my neck and soaked my coat, flattened my hair, dripped off my eyebrows onto my cheeks. The boy didn't complain even once, though the fields we were running through were perilously slippery. It seemed like whenever he slipped and was about to fall he'd catch himself, and the speed carried us both along, though the mud splashed around our ankles and flicked up at times to coat our pants as well.