Free Until I Die Again [On The Way To Heaven] (Soul Change Novel) by Tina Wainscott Page B

mind, leaving the same trail of fear they left through the night.
    “I guess it just looked closer. I’m sorry.”
    Velvet glanced over at her before pulling back onto the highway. She seemed to drive with special care after that. Hallie stared out the window for a while, concentrating on the scenery and not her trembling hands. Once she was calm again, she studied the clutter on the floor of the car for clues about the woman she would now call mother. Two combs and a brush, Snickers wrappers, a discarded tube of lipstick. Not much to go on.
    They headed north of Escondido, then west toward the Pacific. The sun glistened across a cloudless sky, and Hallie vaguely thought of Jamie’s eyes. Blue like a sunlit sky. Cold as snow. Velvet turned up the radio and bounced around like a teenager to a rap song. At that moment, Hallie felt older than her mother. At least inside.
    They slowly cruised by bikini shops, sidewalk surfboard sales and beachside bars. Velvet turned down the radio, slipped on purple-rimmed sunglasses and turned to Hallie.
    “Does it bring anything back?”
    Hallie looked around, pretending an effort to dislodge memories. In fact, it was completely foreign to her. Surfboards attached to car rooftops, sun-bleached blondes in sandals, groups of teenagers leaning against souped-up cars. It was small town, but nothing like Maven, Colorado. Hallie shook her head when she realized Velvet was waiting for an answer.
    “I thought I’d take you around to some of your old haunts, you know, try to jar some memories. Hey, how about Kent and Steve? Do they stir anything up?”
    Hallie ignored Velvet’s wiggling eyebrow and waved back at two incredibly beachy looking guys. They looked as if they had walked right out of Beverly Hills 90210 . Velvet cruised by them without stopping, thank God.
    “Did I go out with one of them?” Hallie asked.
    Velvet snorted. “You went out with both of them. At the same time! Deny it all you want, hon, but you’re just like your mama. It was two years before they talked to each other after that.”
    Hallie frowned. “Did sh—I break up their friendship?”
    Velvet laughed in that harsh way of hers. “Friendship? Hah! They’re brothers! Their father told me later that when he came over to talk to you about what you were doing to his sons, you came on to him, too! You’ll have to tell me whether that was true or not when you start remembering. I always thought he was making it up, but I wouldn’t put it past you.”
    Hallie tried to laugh it off, but her image of the former Hallie was becoming less and less amusing. Velvet parked behind a line of cars by the side of the road where it snaked alongside the ocean. Hallie followed her mother’s lead and stepped out of the car. Huge brown, beige and orange boulders led down to a beach covered with smoother, miniature versions. The sand was an odd shade of light brown, looking scorched in some places. Foamy waves stretched for about twenty yards out before turning deep blue. A bearded man and his wife threw a Frisbee into the water for their spotted dog to retrieve.
    “You used to practically live out here. Here and Windansea Beach. I knew you were sneaking out at midnight to watch those boys surf, but what could I do? If I would’ve said something to you, you probably would’ve gone out more just to defy me. You’d go there after school and spend all weekend there, too. And speaking of, let’s head over to your high school.”
    Hallie studied the brick building, pretending once again to conjure memories that weren’t there. It seemed as though the old Hallie’s life had been more of a teenage soap opera than years of study and decision about life choices. If Chris had been a little too studious and serious, Hallie had been the exact opposite. And now those years of taking night courses at the community college were wasted. She had the knowledge, but the credits were on a dead girl’s records.
    As if reading her thoughts, Velvet