Page 97 - NS 2024

them I wanted to study it, but they’ve given up on me.”
“Are you still living with them?” I asked, wondering if that was an appropriate uestion to ask
someone I’d just reunited with aer years of not talking. I’d always been too young to comprehend Sienna’s relationship with her parents, but I was beginning to grasp that it had never
been great.
“No,” Sienna replied. e song on the radio faded out and the car seemed too silent. We
pulled up to the hotel where my brother was staying. He was waiting outside, wearing sunglasses. When Owen stepped inside, the car’s silence seemed to gain weight. I wondered how the three of us used to ll endless hours every day with conversation and stories. It seemed like there was nothing any of us could say anymore.
“So...” I started, “ere’s coordinates on the back of the letters.”
“Oh god,” Owen remarked. “Everly, are you in on this too? You can’t just go around looking for clues.”
“Do you think Mom would give us these letters for no reason?” I asked.
He hung his head on the headrest of his seat. “I don’t know. I never knew her motivation for anything. I know she always tried to keep us safe and do what was best for us, but I don’t see how any of this could be good for us... unless there’s a large cash prize at the end of this.”
“Were you a business major or something?” Sienna asked. “Because all you care about is money.”
Owen was uiet, so I lled in for him. “He was.”
More silence.
“Alright, I’ll gure out where these coordinates are, and in the meantime, Owen, you
can direct us to this island,” I said as Sienna pulled out of the parking lot.
“You want me to direct you to the island we went to one time when I was in third grade?”
Owen asked. “Yes...”
“You better be thankful for my amazing memory,” Owen muttered. “By the way, it would make a lot more sense for me to be in the front seat.”
I shrued. “You could have driven.”
“Whatever,” Owen replied. “Turn le here.”
I uickly realized that Sienna was not a great driver. It didn’t help that Owen told her the
directions at the last possible second, but she took every turn too sharp, and she cut into trac in some uestionable ways. Every time she made a move into trac that had me holding onto the ceiling handle of the car, I would look back at Owen and he would meet my eyes. Aer a few times of this, I swear I saw him crack a smile.
e benet of Sienna’s crazy driving was that we made it to the beach in record time. “Is that the island out there?” I asked, gesturing about a uarter of a mile away from the shore.