Free Uncertainty by Abigail Boyd Page A

plate, and rushed outside.
    "What are you doing?" Jenna asked, as I slid the door shut in answer.
    I stepped up on the supports and jumped the fence, a little trick Theo and I had both learned a long time ago. Crossing the lawn, I greeted her.
    "Hello, stranger, how are you?" I asked, but my question was answered just upon looking at her. Her face was haggard, brown roots showing at the base of her ruby hair. Her bright green eyes were bloodshot, her mouth turned down in an irritated scowl.
    "Not so well," she said glumly. A couple of thick paintbrushes were clenched in her fist, their bristles chunky with paint. She wrestled with the garden hose, then turned it on and started spraying the paint out.
    "Where have you been the last couple of weeks?" I asked. I'd never, ever seen Theo like this. She was usually bubbly and put together, and while she had a tendency to be shy with strangers, it didn't last long once you got her talking. "Have you been working on the mural this whole time?"
    "Yeah. I'm really sorry about that, Ariel. I just can't get it right." Paint was smudged on both arms, a yellow swipe across her forehead and off into her hair.
    I had so many things I wanted to tell her, and yet I didn't feel like I could say any of them. Like I had a box full of secrets that would disappear if I opened it.
    "Is there anything I can do to help?" I offered, knowing probably not. My art skills were nonexistent, and I sensed that she was like Hugh — she couldn't work with people watching.
    Theo shook her head, shutting off the hose and shaking the brushes vigorously to get out the colored drops of water. "I just want to get this over with. And I have to work alone. It's just the way I am."
    "I figured as much."
    "I promise we'll make up for lost time. After."
    "Don't worry about that," I said. "Just do your thing. I'll be here when you get out of purgatory."
    The corner of her mouth quirked for just a second. Then she was retreated back into her house, and the door slammed behind her. Clothes fluttered on the laundry line, sheets and blankets and towels. I wondered if Ms. Vore was teaching summer school. It was all so mundane that it threw me for a loop.
    Jenna was standing in the dining room when I went back in, looking at me in confusion.
    "What was that?" she quizzed me.
    "Nothing you have to worry about," I assured her, echoing what I'd told Theo.
    I heard Hugh coming down the stairs. He was on the phone, or talking to himself. For some reason I didn't even know, I hid myself behind the kitchen cupboards.
    "Are you a spy now, too?" Jenna asked in amused annoyance.
    "Shhh!" I said with my finger to my lips, even though he couldn't hear her. She was distracting.
    "It's moving too fast," I heard Hugh say to the person on the phone. "Much faster than I expected. It's like he was planning it all long, before he got here."
    A pause, while the other person was talking.
    "That's what I think, too," Hugh said. I heard him come close to the kitchen, and I scrunched up against the cupboards. "It wouldn't have been hard to communicate online, text messaging. It opens everything up."
    He got closer. I heard him rifling through the mail on the table.
    "I can meet up after Claire gets home. I'll just tell her I need to pick up something at the store," Hugh said. It made my blood run chilly. He never lied to my mom.
    He must have retrieved whatever he needed, because his footsteps became fainter as he went back upstairs. I peered around the cupboards, staring after him.
    Jenna and I were laying on the basement floor, facing in opposite directions, staring at the ceiling. Beneath us lay the faded oriental rug that had come from my grandma Eleanor's living room. I ran my hand over the red and black beasts and swirling flowers, lined with gold.
    It was Saturday. My parents were having a movie date night. I had opted out, not that they had asked me. Since I wasn't stirring the waters, I had mostly retreated into the background.
    I was glad for