Free Now You See Me ... by Jane B. Mason Page B

look. “Uh, I hate to point out the obvious, but how could you have been ‘up there’ when the tower was torn down years ago?”
    â€œIn my dream.” Lena explained quickly. She wanted to get that information to her friend before her eyes popped out of her head or she asked the bus driver to take a detour to the psych ward. “That’s where I climbed in my dream.” Lena nodded, thinking back. Robbie must have wanted her to see something in the tower. Only, how could she when the tower was gone?
    â€œThis is us.” Abby reached up and tugged the cord that lit the STOP REQUESTED sign at the front of the bus. They rolled to a stop at a crossroad. The doors opened, the girls clambered off, and the bus huffed a hydraulic sigh before leaving them in a cloud of dust and fumes. The air cleared to reveal Ruth’s Thrift, the shabby-looking shop they had visited several days before. It looked as though it had been waiting for them.
    Lena braced herself and without a word the girls crossed the street and made their way up thecracked walkway. When the door opened, Lena exhaled. She had not realized that she’d been holding her breath. In the back of her mind she’d been worried that the store would be closed, or perhaps not really there at all. Or maybe those were hopes instead of worries.
    The bell hanging over their heads rang loudly and the old woman behind the desk lifted her head. Her brow was furrowed. She didn’t look at all happy to see them.
    â€œBack again,” she muttered.
    Abby raised an eyebrow at the lackluster greeting and mumbled something about the feeling being mutual. Normally, Lena would have laughed or elbowed her best friend, but something had caught her off guard. She stood there and stared at the old woman behind the desk. There was something in the way she looked at them — something familiar — that had Lena frozen in her tracks.
    With a light shove, Abby got Lena to take a few stumbling steps forward. “Where are we headed?” she prompted as they made their way through the musty store. Her patience seemed to be wearing thin.
    â€œOver here,” Lena whispered as she led Abby tothe shelf where she had found the camera and remembered seeing the bag. It was still there — the yellow duffel — nestled beside the stack of tattered
National Geographic
magazines. “It’s right here.” She started to reach for it when a voice behind her made her jump.
    â€œThat bag is not for sale!”
    The shop owner had followed them. Her voice was scratchy with disuse and startled Lena so badly, she knocked several magazines off the shelf and nearly dropped the duffel.
    Without another word the woman snatched the duffel from Lena’s hands.

CHAPTER TWELVE
    The gray-haired woman loomed much taller than Lena expected. She was faster than Lena expected, too. Lena had flinched when the woman’s hand shot out to pull the bag away from her.
    But Lena’s reflexes were quick, too. Without thinking, she’d reached out and grabbed ahold of one of the duffel bag handles. She had to have that bag!
    For a long moment the two stood, each grasping one handle, staring hard at each other. It was a standoff.
    â€œUh, Lena …?” Abby said cautiously, backing away. “I think maybe it’s time to go….”
    Lena had other ideas. She held the old woman’s gaze, noting the dark intensity of her eyes, and feltthe same weird déjà vu she’d had when they’d walked in. There was something here. A connection, or … She shivered, unable to put her finger on it.
    Whatever it was, it ran deep.
    â€œI need it,” Lena said, pulling the bag closer. As she said it she knew it was true. She
needed
the bag, or something inside of it. The angry intensity of the woman’s stare made Lena’s voice quaver. “It’s for Robbie,” she ventured uncertainly.
    With those words the old woman’s