In a Dark Mirror by Kat Davis

In a Dark Mirror by Kat Davis

Author:Kat Davis [Davis, Kat]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Published: 2024-06-02T00:00:00+00:00


When they finally emerged from the pool, Maddie, emboldened by Sage’s compliments, didn’t pull her T-shirt back over her suit. Sage put on her cover-up but let it slip low over her right shoulder. As they left the pool area, a tanned boy lying in one of the lounge chairs appraised them behind opaque sunglasses, his head turning to watch them go.

“Bye, girls,” he said. Sage and Maddie giggled all the way back to the picnic table where they’d left Mr. Newman.

But when they got there, Mr. Newman was gone. Maddie turned and spotted him in the distance. He was standing in the shade near one of the smaller roller coasters, talking into his phone and pacing. He looked serious, scowling as he spoke. He must have felt Maddie’s eyes on him because he looked up, wiped his face clean, said one last thing into the flip phone, and abruptly closed it.

“Where is he?” Sage asked.

“He’s coming over here,” Maddie said.

“Did you girls have fun at the pool?”

“It was the best,” Sage said.

“Ready for lunch?”

Again Mr. Newman produced his wallet to pay for Maddie’s lunch—a hamburger, french fries, and a Diet Coke. Maddie had never had Diet Coke before, but Sage ordered one, so she decided to give it a try.

The rest of the afternoon disappeared into a blur of rides—none of them too far off the ground, to accommodate Sage’s fear of heights. They were supposed to be home in time for dinner, but it was suddenly five o’clock, and Mr. Newman had promised they’d have a chance to visit some of the game stalls before they left. He handed Sage a ten-dollar bill and went off to get another coffee. Maddie and Sage spent the money quickly at a stall where you had to shoot water from a gun to knock over some ducks. Maddie proved to be pretty good at this, and she won a prize—a small stuffed giraffe. Sage was disappointed when they ran out of money and she hadn’t won anything—which was when Maddie remembered the twenty dollars in her pocket. Then they played a little on a Skee-Ball machine and at another stall where you had to throw balls into a high-up tub, which neither one of them was very good at. By the time they were out of money, the shadows were getting long on the ground. They found Mr. Newman sitting on a bench near the exit, again looking at his phone in displeasure.

If the day had ended there, things might have gone differently. As it was, this was the last real day of Maddie’s childhood, though of course she didn’t know it. In some other timeline, this is the day that begins Maddie’s close friendship with Sage. Maybe she draws closer to Sage and drifts away from Lana. There it is: another life. All Maddie has to do is not walk through the exit.

But they did walk through the Wild World gates, back out into the near-empty parking lot. They started walking toward Mr.



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