Read Desert Crossing for Free Online Page A

Was it an hour later back home? I couldn’t remember.
    â€œHello?” Her voice was husky and muffled. Maybe it wasn’t an hour later. “Who is this?”
    â€œMe. It’s me.” I whispered back. The dog flicked his ears and raised his head, watching me.
    â€œLucy? Jeez.” I could hear her stirring under the sheets. “Where are you?”
    â€œNew Mexico. We had an accident.”
    â€œWhat?” She sounded more awake. “What happened? A car accident?”
    â€œYeah, a car accident.” I told her quickly, still whispering. I told her about the beer and the rain and the girl lying next to the road. It seemed real suddenly, all of it, as if the words were pinning it down and making it something you could stand back and look at.
    When I stopped talking, Ginny was quiet. “Holy shit,” she said finally.
    That was why I’d called her. She always said exactly what I felt.
    â€œWhat are you going to do ?”
    â€œJamie’s at the police station. They have to check the car, and, I don’t know, other stuff.”
    â€œBut what’s going to happen to you guys? I mean, to Jamie? He was the one driving.”
    â€œI don’t know.” I thought of Jamie and that smile he used on everybody: Maddie Dilworth, Kristi Bendall, the waitresses at the diners. It seemed so long ago.
    Ginny exhaled into the phone, a long whoosh of breath. “Is he in jail? I mean, did they arrest him?”
    I flinched. “No! No. Don’t say that. It wasn’t his fault.”
    â€œOkay, okay.”
    â€œIt was an accident.”
    â€œI know. I’m just thinking.”
    â€œIt was Kit who bought the beer.”
    She groaned. “Kit the zit.”
    I heard footsteps in the hall. “I’ve got to go,” I whispered quickly, snatching the bracelet from the nest of blankets.
    â€œOkay, call me later.”
    â€œI will,” I promised. I dropped the bracelet in my backpack just as Beth pushed open the door.
    â€œYou’re up,” she said. “I was looking for Oscar.” She snapped her fingers and he bounded off the bed, tail wagging. “I thought he’d end up with you. He considers this his bedroom. I should’ve told you to latch the door.”
    â€œThat’s okay,” I said. “I like dogs.”
    She turned away. “Do you? I don’t. But I’ve gotten used to these guys.”
    I pulled on a pair of jeans and followed her into the kitchen. It was a long white rectangle at the back of the house: white cupboards, white tile, white wooden table at one end. There was a chipped red bowl of bananas on the counter, the only color in the room except for the window’s pale square of sky.
    The desert looked different now, sparkling with colors. I could see tiny clumps of yellow flowers, a cluster of lavender buds. “Hey,” I said. “Look.”
    Beth smiled. “The desert after a storm. Everything grows at once. Flowers shoot up and bloom in a day, and you see insects and animals you never knew lived here. All because of the rain.”
    â€œHow long does it last?”
    â€œNot long. We’ve had hot weather lately, much hotter than usual. Everything will die back to nothing. But water does amazing things in a place as dry as this.”
    The phone rang, a long, shattering brrrring. Beth lifted the receiver from the wall.
    â€œHello? Oh, hi, Stan. You’re at work early. Yeah, she’s right here. He’s still sleeping. Oh, okay. That’s no problem. Around ten o’clock? Okay. What? No, I don’t think so. Why don’t you ask Lucy?” She handed me the phone.
    I swallowed, suddenly nervous. Now what? “Hello?”
    â€œMiss Martinez? This is Sheriff Durrell. I just wanted to check on something. Last night, none of you kids happened to take anything off the person of the victim, did you?”
    He knew about the bracelet. But how could he?
    I twisted