Free Hunting Memories by Barb Hendee

again. They were never getting rid of her.
    She’d considered popping in on them several times but decided against it just yet. She wanted to wait until she had her freedom first. Then, boy, would they be surprised. This was all their fault! They left her to go see some stupid art opening, not even asking if she wanted to go. They never asked her if she wanted to go with them, and her dad was selfish enough to turn his phone off so she couldn’t even call. They’d practically murdered her. They’d be sorry soon.
    Looking around, she realized she was alone outside the church and floated up a few feet to look in one of the stained windows. Peering through a piece of yellow glass, she could see the blond guy sitting on the floor of the empty sanctuary, reading a sheet of paper.
    He suddenly looked up and crammed the paper in his pocket. The front doors opened and Eleisha and the other one—Philip—walked inside.
    Mary had to find a way to listen. Julian was getting sick of her just reporting on their whereabouts, and he had started demanding she give him reports on what they said to each other. Ugh.
    She put her face against a piece of red glass and let the side of her head pass through just enough so she could hear what was being said.
    No one would see her against these thick, colored windows.
     
    “Of course you won,” Eleisha said, opening the front doors . “It was no contest. The best I could do was lure a 7-Eleven clerk into a back room.”
    She’d cut her own hand and then gone into an empty convenience store and turned on her gift, and the clerk had fallen all over himself to help her. Philip’s success had been much more clever and creative.
    But she hoped he would not wish to play his game again, and she could not understand why he’d been so quiet afterward. She chatted to try to cheer him. She was half-tempted to try reading his mind, but he’d feel her and push her out if he was hiding something private. What could he be hiding? She had agreed to his “more fun” change of plan tonight. She’d done exactly what he wanted.
    Then she stepped inside the church and was surprised to see Wade sitting on the floor of the empty sanctuary.
    He stood up. “Philip, I’ve got the DVD player hooked up to the TV, and a movie came in that I think you’ll like, an early nineties action film called Universal Soldier with Jean-Claude Van Damme. Lots of machine guns and some good hand-to-hand fight scenes.”
    Philip took a step toward him, the dark look on his face vanishing. “Oh, Wade . . .”
    He stopped. Philip didn’t know how to express gratitude. It wasn’t that he didn’t feel it; he’d just lost the ability to express it long ago.
    “Will you watch it with me?” he asked.
    “Sure, just go downstairs and get the film put in, and I’ll be right down. I want to talk to Eleisha for a minute.”
    A tense pitch in his voice made Eleisha pause and look at him. Philip bounded off down the stairs, and she waited until he was out of earshot.
    “What’s wrong?” she asked.
    Wade tightened his mouth in indecision, and then he blurted out, “A letter arrived from Rose today. I read it.”
    As he said this, he pulled a crumpled letter from his shirt and held it out.
    Rose sent a letter! And so quickly.
    “What did she say? Did she tell us what to do?” Eleisha took the letter and scanned it, exclaiming, “An address! She wants us to come, and she’s trusted us with her address.”
    Her mind drifted into the future, of finding Rose in her apartment, bringing her here, making a room for her, building their community . . .
    “Aren’t you angry?” Wade asked in surprise.
    “About what?”
    “That I read her letter, and it was written to you.”
    “I don’t mind. I already showed you all her letters. I only wish Philip would read them. Then he’d understand.”
    Suddenly, Wade tensed up again. He reached out and took the letter from her. “That’s right. Philip hasn’t actually read any of these,