The Gathering by Will Peterson

Author:Will Peterson
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Mystery, Young Adult, Science Fiction, Paranormal, Fantasy, Adventure
Publisher: Walker Books
Published: 2010-03-03T00:00:00+00:00

When Rachel was thirteen she had made a list of all the places in America that she wanted to visit. She had filled three pages of a notebook with the names. The major natural attractions were there, obviously – the Grand Canyon, Yosemite National Park, the Everglades – but Rachel had learned all about those places at school and it was the cities she had wanted to see, above all.

Nashville. San Francisco. Honolulu. New Orleans…

Even the names sounded exotic somehow, and she had lain awake at night in the apartment in New York City, trying to imagine what the scenery would be like, wondering how the people would talk. Back then, she had promised herself that she would get to all those places one day – she would travel as much as she could, ticking these amazing cities off her list one by one.

Now, driving through yet another city as they gradually made their way west towards Alamogordo, Rachel’s spirits sank even lower than where they’d been when they had driven out of St Louis six hours before. The car cruised past the same chain stores in the same strip malls that they had seen in every other place they had stopped at, and she wondered why she had ever wanted to see these places, how she could have been so stupidly enthusiastic. Every coffee shop and pharmacy – each one a facsimile of a thousand others – only reminded her of how far away from home she was.

Only reminded her that she no longer had a home.

Adam read her mind. “It’s hard to get excited about anywhere when you’re running,” he said. He put his hand on her arm. “When this is over, you can go see all those places you dreamed about, and I promise you they’ll be every bit as exciting as you thought they’d be.”

“Sure,” Rachel said. “Thanks.” She smiled at her brother – but he didn’t understand. It was not excitement that she craved now; it was the opposite: gloriously dull and uneventful ordinariness.

Normality.

“Hey, what about that place?” Adam asked, pointing out of the car window. It was just after midday and they had been looking for somewhere to eat ever since they had first hit the outskirts of Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Their driver, a nice man called Elliott, who had told them he was an insurance salesman, pulled over and smiled at his three passengers as they climbed out of the car. Watching them walk away towards the roadhouse, he struggled to remember what on earth had made him stop and pick them up in the first place. Why, when he had only popped out to get milk from the grocery store, had he agreed to drive them all the way from St Louis to Tulsa? He waved a cheery goodbye and turned the car around to begin the six-hour drive home, wondering what he would say to his wife when he got there.

“Wow, look at these things,” Adam said. He walked along a line of shiny motorbikes parked in front of the roadhouse.

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