The Blue Girl by Laurie Foos

Author:Laurie Foos [Foos, Laurie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781566894005
Publisher: Coffee House Press

Taking the car is easy. Audrey comes out with the keys and hands them to Greg without looking at him.

Are you sure your dad won’t notice that his car is gone? I ask. And Audrey starts laughing hard, and says, If only. She points at the living room window. We can see right in. There’s her father with the little ball in both hands, aiming it at the hoop. I tell Greg to open the car door because I don’t want to see if he makes the shot or not.

The engine is quiet, and I tell Greg to drive slow, not to get crazy. Caroline reminds us that none of us has a license yet, that this is definitely against the law and that we could probably all get thrown out of school if we get pulled over. I don’t even mind when he says, Shut the fuck up, Caroline.

We drive, all of us quiet, even Greg. At the spot in the woods where the road ends, Audrey says from the back seat, Turn here. It’s the only thing anyone has said the whole way, and for a minute, while thinking about Ethan and his voices and the girl out there somewhere in the dark, I almost forget that Audrey is with us. I turn around to look at her, but Audrey doesn’t look back at me. She looks really awake now, though, and she hasn’t looked that way in a long, long time.

Greg turns down the road so hard the tires spin in the gravel, and I fall against the door. Fucking road, he says, and then squeezes my knee and mouths a sorry. It’s so dark that even with the brights on we can’t see anything, just trees and road and gravel. It’s quiet in the car except for Greg muttering all of his fucks under his breath, and for a minute, I think I’m going to scream like Ethan. I’m just going to open my mouth as wide as it will go and scream for them to let me out when Audrey says, Stop the car.

Greg doesn’t stop, so Audrey says it again, louder, then puts her hand on the back of his neck.

I said, stop the fucking car, she says.

Greg stops. The car shakes when he hits the brakes hard. Take it easy, Audrey, Greg says, and she tells him to stop telling her what to do.

You wanted to see her, right? she says. Well, now you’re going to.

She opens the car door. The dome light goes on overhead. It’s so dark even its faint light makes me squint. While I’m squinting, Audrey leans her head back into the car and looks right at me.

Stay here, she says. Stay here until I tell you to come out.

I nod at her. This time it’s my turn to squeeze Greg’s knee.

And turn off the lights, she says.

Caroline says to wait. How is Audrey going to see in the dark? It’s so dark out here, she says, and she is breathing very hard when Audrey closes the door.

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