dark visions by L.J. SMITH

Author:L.J. SMITH
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: SIMON PULSE
Published: 2009-06-16T16:00:00+00:00

She woke in the morning to Rob’s mental exclamation. She hurried out of the van to find him and Anna bent over, staring at the ground beside the van.

The asphalt was covered with a thin layer of sand blown from the beach. In that sand, all around the van, were delicate tracks and footprints.

“They’re animal tracks,” Anna said. “You see these? These are the tracks of a raccoon.” She pointed to a footprint three inches long, with five long splayed toes, each ending in a claw. “And these are from a fox.” She moved her finger to a series of delicate four-toed marks.

“And those oval ones are from an unshod horse, and the little ones are from a rat,” Anna finished. Then she looked up at Kait.

Kaitlyn didn’t even bother saying, “But all of those animals couldn’t have been here last night.” She remembered very well what Rob had said yesterday—sometimes victims of a psychic attack found the footprints of people or animals.

“Great,” she muttered. “I have the feeling we should get out of here.”

Rob stood up, brushing sand from his hands. “I agree.”

It wasn’t quite so easy, though, since the van picked that morning to be obstreperous. Rob and Lewis fiddled with the engine but could find nothing wrong, and in the end it started.

“I’ll drive for a while,” Anna said. She’d been sitting in the driver’s seat, starting the engine when Rob told her to. “Just tell me where to go.”

“Stay on 101 and we’ll head into Washington,” Lewis instructed. “But maybe we’d better stop at a McDonald’s for breakfast first.”

Kaitlyn wasn’t sorry to say goodbye to the black basaltic Oregon coast. Gabriel had been edgy and silent all morning and she was beginning to wonder if what she’d done on the beach last night had been a mistake. She knew she would have to catch him sometime and talk it out, and the idea sent humming bees and butterflies into her stomach.

Please let us find the white house soon, she thought. And then, with a twinge, realized that Gabriel had been right. She was expecting a lot of the people in the white house. And what if they couldn’t solve all the problems she was bringing them?

Kait shook her head, then turned to look at the dismal, slate-gray day outside.

They passed stands of what Anna said were alder trees, which from a distance looked like big pink clouds. The alder branches were mostly bare, but there were a few reddish leaves hanging on each twig, which gave the stand an overall reddish cast.

By the side of the road were little kiosks which held huge bunches of daffodils, yellow as spring. Signs on the kiosks said $1.00 A BUNCH, but there was no one to take the money. It’s the honor system, Kaitlyn thought. She longed for the pure gold of the daffodils, but she knew they couldn’t spare the money.

Doesn’t matter, she thought. I’ll draw instead. She opened her kit and pulled out aureolin yellow, one of her favorite colors.

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