Free Turn Left at the Cow by Lisa Bullard Page A

same time?” She was quiet a minute, and then she said, “Your turn.”
    â€œI’d rather be eating,” I said.
    She laughed and reached out to poke my side with her finger. “Be serious.”
    â€œOkay, here’s the hardest one.” The dorky game was going better than I had expected. “Would you rather be able to turn invisible or be able to grow wings and fly?”
    â€œThat
is
hard,” she said, thinking a while and then turning to look at me again. “What did you choose?”
    I grinned at her. “I cheated. I couldn’t decide. But I won the prize that week anyway ’cause I wrote a killer essay for each answer. I mean, if I were invisible, I could sneak around and learn everything, right? Nobody could keep any more secrets from me. And flying—that’s like swimming is for you, maybe? I’d just let go of everything that’s dragging me down and spiral free, off into the sky.”
    â€œFree,” Iz echoed. She stretched her neck back and stared up at the stars, so I did too. They seemed to have faded a little since we’d first started talking. Then she whispered something really low. I had to lean closer to her to try to hear.
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œSometimes people fly away and never come back,” she said again, still talking quietly.
    I wasn’t sure if that was an anti-flying vote or not, but something told me not to push her on the point. Besides, leaning in close that way, I could smell the strawberry again, and her ear curled like a seashell, and I wondered if her hair was really as soft as it looked when it brushed against her cheek as she turned her head to look at me again.
    I leaned in a little closer.
    Then suddenly this crazy laugh rang out, and Iz and I jumped apart as if we’d heard a gunshot. I looked around, convinced Kenny was going to pop out from behind a bush or something, and Iz rose to her feet.
    â€œIt’s just a loon.” She pointed out across the dark water. “They call out to one another like that. Bet you thought for a minute it was some psycho killer coming after us, right?”
    She looked over at the eastern end of the lake. “The sky is starting to lighten. It must be close to morning, and Uncle Ken gets up way early. I better go.” She hurried up the dock but turned to look back at me when she reached the yard. “I liked your game, Trav.” Then she flicked her hand in a tiny wave and headed to Kenny’s house.
    The wind picked up and goose bumps rose along my arms. Flying versus invisibility—making a choice like that was nothing up against the no-win either-ors I had on my plate.
    Would I rather find out my father was dead or alive? Somehow, knowing he could still be walking around somewhere didn’t make me go all fluffy-bunnies with happiness like it probably should have. If he was just playing dead, didn’t that mean he’d chosen to ignore me my whole life? And if so, was there anything I could do to make him come out of hiding? The only bait I had to offer him was my actual existence, and that hadn’t been enough to interest him before now.
    And if he really was dead, so it wasn’t him spending the bank money, was it Gram? Just how many bank robbers was I going to find swinging from my family tree?
    And would I rather be trapped here in Deputy Dude lockdown or heading back to the big house in California? I already knew life there was no walk on the beach. I’d been starting to think that maybe Minnesota wasn’t so bad after all, even though there were more grain silos than stop signs in town. But now the friendly people of Podunk had apparently decided to string me up for something I didn’t do.
    If I could figure out who really was spending the money, the deputy would have to let me leave town if I wanted to, and I should be glad to get gone, right? I wasn’t so sure. I still thought being here might help me figure out a