When he saw the look of welcome on her face, he hurried toward her, only to find she was now looking past him at Suzanne and Beth. It never got easier — the pain of being close to her, but far away, never seemed to lessen.
"Now, take your time over lunch," Lillian was saying to the girls. "It's a slow day, so do a little shopping.
Be sure to take a peek in that new gift shop. I'll bet they don't have glow-in-the-dark wind chimes."
"Not in the shape of leprechauns and fairies," Beth said. Whenever she came to the shop, she got a look of total wonder on her face. Suzanne had to reach back and pull her out the door.
Tristan followed the girls through the mall. They stopped at one store window after another, and he began to grow impatient. He wanted Beth to sit down right away and start scribbling in her notebook.
He thought they'd never get out of the Beautiful You shop, with all those bottles and tubes and little pots of color.
He began to pace from one side of the store to the other and ran head-on into Lacey. He hadn't realized that she had come along.
"Chill out, Tristan," Lacey said. "Ivy's safe for now, unless someone runs her through with a nail file."
Then she wandered off to a corner, as mesmerized as the others by the hundreds of colors— which all looked pretty much like red and pink to him. Tristan wondered whether, if he ever made it to the next realm, some mysteries about girls would be explained.
Suzanne, now wearing stripes of tester lipstick all the way up her arm, was talking about a wedding in Philadelphia that she was going to that weekend.
"I wish you were coming with us. Ivy," she said. "I showed my cousin your picture. He's definitely interested, and he's so perfect for you."
Terrific, thought Tristan.
"So you decided to go to the lake after all?" Beth asked. She was trying on a shower cap that looked like a silver mushroom.
"The lake!" Suzanne said, surprised. "She's staying home, and you're staying with her, Beth."
Beth frowned. "Suzanne, you know I can't miss my family reunion. I thought she was going to Philly with you."
Ivy had turned away from both of them.
"Ivy!" Suzanne commanded.
"What?" She started sorting through a bin of barrettes and didn't look up.
"What are you doing this weekend?"
"Staying home."
Suzanne raised her perfectly shaped black eyebrows. "Your mother's letting you stay alone?"
"She thinks that you and Beth will be with me. And I'm counting on you two to cover for me," Ivy added.
Lacey glanced over at Tristan.
"I don't know what the big deal is," Ivy went on. "I'd like to have the house to myself for a change. I'll have plenty of time to practice for the festival, and Ella will keep me company."
"But Ella can't protect you," Tristan protested.
"I just don't like the idea of you moping around all weekend by yourself," Suzanne said.
"That house is too big, too lonely," Beth added.
"Listen to them. Ivy," Tristan urged.
"I told you both, I won't go to Jumper Lake! I can't!"
"This is some kind of Tristan thing, isn't it?" Suzanne said.
"I don't want to talk about it," Ivy replied.
It was. Tristan remembered the plans they had made the night he died. Ivy had told him how she was going to float in the sunlight in the deepest part of Juniper Lake. "I'll swim in the moonlight, too."
"The moonlight?" he'd said. "You'd swim in the dark?"
"With you I would."
Lacey touched Tristan on the arm. "You've got to get through to her this time."
He nodded.
They followed the girls out of the store. Tristan was tempted to slip inside Beth's mind right then, to direct her toward a table where she could take out her writing pad, but he didn't want to give her too many instructions. She might begin to resist.
Beth stopped suddenly in front of Electronic Wizard, and Tristan followed her eyes to a display of computers inside.
"Look at her. Look at her!" Suzanne said, nudging Ivy. "You'd think Beth was checking out guys."
"There's the laptop I want," Beth said.
Then Lacey came up quickly behind her. Tristan saw that the tips of her fingers had stopped shimmering.
She gave a swift push. Beth stumbled through the door and looked back in surprise at Suzanne and Ivy.
They followed Beth inside, with Tristan and Lacey right behind them.
"Can I help you?" asked a salesman.
"Uh, I'm just looking," Beth said, blushing. "Can I try out your display models?"
He flicked his hand in their direction and walked away.
"You're on, Tristan," Lacey said.
It didn't take Beth long to find the word-processing program. Tristan had to struggle to keep up with her, to think what her next thought might be, which was the way Lacey had taught him to slip into the minds of others.
When a writer looked at an empty computer screen, what did she see? Tristan wondered. A movie screen ready to be lit with faces? A night sky with one small star blinking at the top, a universe ready to be written on? Endless possibilities. Love's endless twists and turns — and all love's impossibilities.
Beth started typing: Impossibilities What did she see when she looked out every night at the lonely black screen of sky? Possibilities. Love's endless twists and turns, and, oh, bitter heart, all love's impossibilities.
Phew! Tristan thought.
"Phew!" Beth typed, then squinted at the screen.
"Stay with her, Tristan," Lacey said. "Keep your focus."
Back up. Delete word. Oh, bitter heart, Tristan prompted Beth.
"Oh, bitter heart, lonely heart," Beth typed, then paused.
They were both stuck, then Tristan saw the connection: You should not stay home alone.
"You should not stay home alone," Beth typed.
It's not safe alone, he thought.
"It's not safe alone," she typed.
Then, before he could send her a message about anything else, she wrote on: "But is my heart safe alone with him?"
No,he thought.
"Yes," Beth replied.
No!
"Yes!"
No!
"Yes!" Beth frowned.
Tristan sighed. Of course, she wanted the romance to work out and have the girl who was gazing at the night sky not be lonely anymore. But Tristan wanted to issue a warning. If Ivy was alone with the wrong guy… "What's wrong?" asked Ivy. "I've got that funny feeling again," Beth said. "It's really strange, like there's someone inside my head, saying things."
"Oh, you writers." Suzanne snorted. Ivy bent down to look at the screen. "'No! Yes! No! Yes!'" she read, then laughed a little sadly. "It sounds like me when I first met Tristan." "It's Tristan," Beth typed quickly.
Ivy stopped smiling.
Tristan pressed on, and Beth typed as fast as he thought: "Be careful. Ivy. It's dangerous. Ivy. Don't stay alone. Love you. Tristan."
Ivy straightened up. "That's not funny, Beth! That's stupid, and mean!"
Beth stared at the screen, her mouth open in disbelief.
Suzanne leaned down to read it. "Beth!" she said. "How could you? Ivy, wait!"
But Ivy was already halfway out of the store. Suzanne ran after her. Beth stared at the screen, her entire body shaking. Tristan slipped out of Beth's mind, exhausted.
"Would you like to print that out now?" the salesman asked, walking toward her.
Beth shook her head slowly and keyed in Delete Page. "Not this time," she said with tears in her eyes.
Every effort Tristan made to reach Ivy that week failed. What was worse, his attempts at warning her had pushed her further away from him and from those who cared for her. She was avoiding Beth, and now Philip too, after the little boy told her his angel said she must not stay alone. Tristan could have tried once more through Will, but he knew Ivy would just build another wall, a higher one.