“Today is Saturday.” She pointed to the day on the calendar.

Raven crossed off the days she’d missed. She wished she could fly like a bird into the next day and see Jackie right away.

She spent the rest of the day at home taking care of the garden and helping Mama do laundry and clean the house. She did lots of lessons to make sure Mama wouldn’t make her stay home the next day. She went to bed thinking of Jackie and all the games he’d taught her to play. She looked at her wood ceiling and wished it had glowing stars.

The next day, she left the house before Mama returned from her morning walk with the spirits just in case she asked Raven to do more lessons or housework.

Raven waited for a long time, sitting in the stream pebbles next to the Wolfsbane. When the day grew warm, she took off her boots and put her feet in the water. Baby had taken food at the house that morning but hadn’t yet appeared. Raven hoped she was okay.

She and Jackie saw each other at the same time as he came around the bend. He smiled. He was carrying her boots. She stood.

“Hi,” he said. “You got my letter?”

“Yes.”

“Here are your boots.” He looked at the boots she’d taken off. “I guess you didn’t need them.”

“I have lots of boots.” Mama bought her many to make sure she always had dry ones for walking.

He placed the boots next to the other pair. “My mom was afraid you’d need them. She tried to go to your house to give them to you, but there’s no way to get in the gate.”

Only Mama and Aunt Sondra knew the numbers to make the gate open from the outside.

“What did your mom say when you came home without your shoes?” he asked.

“I told her I lost them when I took them off by the stream.” And that had helped her explain why she’d come home late that night. She’d said she was looking for her boots.

“She wasn’t mad?”

“No.”

“My mom said those are expensive hiking boots.”

Raven didn’t know what that meant. Mama ordered things and they came to the gate in boxes.

Jackie looked around. “Where’s Baby?”

“I don’t know.”

Raven felt his nervousness. He’d never been like that with her.

“I’m sorry I ran away,” she said.

“It’s okay.”

“Is your mother mad at me?”

“No. Not at all.” He picked up a stone and looked at it. “She’s more like worried.”

“Why?”

He looked up from the stone. “About you. And your mom and everything.”

Her mom and everything. What did he mean? Had his mother figured out that Raven was the daughter of an earth spirit? The boys never acted like they knew, but maybe a grown-up could see something Raven should have hidden.

“My mom didn’t understand why you don’t want her to meet your mom.”

“My mom doesn’t like to meet people.”

“Why not?”

She had no answer. Not one she could tell him.

“Reece’s dad is dead, and his mom drinks a lot. That’s why he kind of lives at our house.”

Raven didn’t know what drinks a lot meant.

“My mom would understand if something like that is happening with your mom,” he said.

Ms. Taft wouldn’t understand anything about Mama. They almost lived in different worlds.

He held out the stone in his hand. “The white lines on this look like an R. For Raven.”

She took the rock. It did have an R on it. She handed it back to him, but he said, “Keep it.”

The stone was surely a message from earth spirits. But Raven didn’t know what they were saying. She slid the rock into her shorts pocket.

“So . . . my mom wants me to ask you to come over,” he said.

“She knows you came here?”

“Not exactly here,” he said. “She said to invite you over if I see you again. I’ve been looking for you to tell you.”

She felt like two very different birds were inside her. One was happy about going to Jackie’s house, swooping around, making her stomach feel funny. The other felt like her heart had dived down into brambles to hide from a predator. Raven was afraid Ms. Taft would try to see Mama again. If Mama found out she’d been keeping Jackie a secret from her, she might close her eyes and never open them.

As if he knew her thoughts, he said, “My mom said she doesn’t have to talk to your mom. She just wants to know you’re okay.”

“I am okay.”

“I know. But come over and let my mom see. She’s worried about you.”

Raven didn’t like Ms. Taft being worried about her. Mama was right about the outsiders. They didn’t understand anything. They ignored what was important and made trouble about things that didn’t matter.

“Okay,” she said.

“You’ll come to my house?”

“Yes.” She would go there and show Ms. Taft she was not a person to worry about. She was Daughter of Raven. Her father was a powerful earth spirit. Her mother walked in a spirit world few knew how to enter. Even if they knew, they would be too scared to go there.

She put on the wet boots and left the pair Jackie had brought on pebbles near the Wolfsbane. When they started walking in the creek, Baby swooped down and landed on her shoulder.