“I didn’t either.”

He took her in his arms. The creek murmured senselessly in its hurry. The wind rushed through the cedars. But she and Jackie held tight.

She tried lifting his mood as they walked home. She kissed him. She stuck weeds in his hair and made him laugh. When the house came into view, she yelled, “Beat you to the stairs,” a game they’d played at his house when they were little.

“No fair! I have the cooler,” he said as she sprinted ahead.

She was carrying two blankets. It was an even race.

She got to the back stairs first and ran in the house. “I won!”

“You had a head start,” he said breathlessly.

She tossed the blankets in the laundry room and took the cooler from him. She brought it into the kitchen, startled when a figure rose from a chair at the table. A white-haired, pale-skinned woman.

Not Mama returned from the spirit world. It was Aunt Sondra.

“Raven . . . ,” her aunt said. “I was worried. I found the gate open and the house unlocked.”

Raven had been too preoccupied with Jackie to lock up.

Aunt Sondra walked toward Jackie with her hand extended. “I’m Sondra Lind Young, Raven’s aunt.”

“Jack Danner,” he said nervously as he shook her hand.

“Nice to meet you, Jack,” she said.

Jackie believed Raven’s mother was with her aunt in Chicago getting medical treatment. Sondra’s appearance without her mother could signal only one outcome to him, confirmed by his expression of sorrow.

Her aunt said, “We need to talk, Raven.”

Jackie looked at Raven. “Do you want me to leave?”

“You probably should,” Aunt Sondra said.

You probably should. That meant bad news. Her aunt was holding a large manila envelope. It was addressed to her aunt in Mama’s handwriting.

“I want you to go,” Raven said to her aunt.

“Raven . . .”

“Go!” Tears burned like fire in her eyes, then dripped like ice down her cheeks.

Jackie took her in his arms and held her against his chest.

“How long has your mother been missing?” Aunt Sondra asked in a quiet voice.

Raven cried into Jackie’s shirt.

When Raven didn’t answer, her aunt said, “Jack, do you know?”

“Raven told me she was with you. In Chicago.”

Raven pulled away from Jackie. “She’s coming back! You’re too blind to understand!”

Tears glossed her aunt’s eyes. “You know she isn’t. She sent me her last will and testament.”

“I don’t care what she sent you,” Raven said. “She’s coming back!”

“She told her lawyer to send this envelope to me on a certain date. I think she waited to have it sent—until she carried out what she wanted to do. But I was on a trip with my husband when it arrived. I didn’t find it until I returned home last night.”

Jackie stared at Raven. Now he knew she’d been lying to him.

But she hadn’t been. Not really. Mama was coming back.

“Please tell me what happened,” Aunt Sondra said. “She’s my sister. I need to know.”

Jackie took her arms and looked into her eyes. “Is that what happened the night you came to my house all wet and dirty? Did she die?”

“No. I don’t know. I don’t know!” she cried.

“You haven’t found her body?” Aunt Sondra said.

“I looked. I looked everywhere. But I didn’t find her. That’s why I know she’s coming back. She wouldn’t have left without saying goodbye if she wasn’t coming back!”

She felt her lunch rise up her throat. She ran to the bathroom, barely making it in time. Jackie wiped her face with a wet towel. “It’s okay,” he said. “Everything will be okay.”

Jackie and her aunt helped her to the couch, sitting on either side of her. Her aunt said, “Raven, I’m so, so sorry. But please explain what happened. Do you think it was suicide?”

“She didn’t kill herself,” Raven said. “She would never leave me that way.”

“She was sick,” Jackie said. “Possibly something to do with her heart. Since last year. She made Raven promise she wouldn’t tell you or get a doctor.”

Aunt Sondra clasped her hand on her forehead. “Audrey! Why? Why would you do that?”

“You know why,” Raven said. She glanced at Jackie, afraid to say too much. “She was trying to work things out.”

“With whom? Those damn earth sprites?”

“Don’t call them that! She knew what she was doing!”

“Raven—”

“You can’t make me leave here! She wants me to wait for her!”

Her aunt sighed. She opened the envelope and pulled out a handwritten letter. “I don’t know if she meant for you to see this, but I think you’d better read it.”

Raven didn’t want to, but her aunt thrust it into her hand. Jackie got up and stood near the window to give her privacy.

Sondra, Mama had written in unsteady script. In this envelope is my last will and testament, all documented by my attorney. I leave everything I own to my dear daughter, Raven. I want her to keep and stay in the house in Washington until she comes of age to live there alone. I know you will find a way to make this possible. If you can’t be her guardian until she turns eighteen, please find a trustworthy person to watch over her. This person will be paid from what Raven has inherited.