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tuba came from inside the music room.
    At the end of
the buildings, they stopped and scanned the football field. It was
empty.
    "Walk
slowly," Catty warned. "If security calls us, just turn
back and pretend we didn't hear the bell. Or . . ."
    "Or?"
Vanessa said.
    "Or just
make us invisible."
    "Right,"
Vanessa mumbled sarcastically, and glanced behind them. Her heart
thumped against her chest. Catty was always talking her into doing
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    things she knew
were wrong, like staying out late, cutting classes, and making prank
calls.
    They squeezed
under the wire mesh fence and hurried down a side street to La Brea.
    "There,
see? Not so hard." Catty grinned as they headed down La Brea
Avenue toward Third.
    The Darma
Bookstore was between Polka Dots and Moonbeams Dress Shop and Who's
on Third? cafe. Brass bells on long leather cords tingled in harmony
when they pushed through the door. Smoky incense curled sinuously
around them and filled the air with a pungent scent.
    "Hi, Mom,"
Catty called.
    The store
always gave Vanessa a feeling of peace and security. Water bubbled
from fountains set in stone planters near the door and the chanting
of Tibetan monks flowed from speakers set in the wall. Books,
packages of candles, incense, prayer beads, crystals, and essence
oils lined white shelves in neat arrays.
    Catty's mother,
Kendra, pushed through the blue curtains separating the back room
from the store.
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    "You got
out of school early," she said with a smile and winked. She was
tall and bony, with a narrow face and long brown hair streaked with
gray. She wore a stunning purple dress that flowed around her when
she walked. The sleeves were long and touched the tips of her
fingers. A pair of red-framed reading glasses dangled on a chain
around her neck and clicked against the rose crystals she wore. She
believed in the healing energy stored in crystals. Today she also
wore the pouch given to her by a traditional doctor on one of her
trips to Botswana.
    She hugged
Catty, and then put both hands around Vanessa's face and kissed her.
She smelled of sesame oil, camphor, cardamom, and cinnamon. She
rubbed the spicy concoction into her temples several times during the
day to stimulate her senses.
    She looked at
Vanessa a long time. Vanessa always had the feeling that Catty's
mother was trying to detect something different about her.
    "I was
just making ginger tea. Let's go in the back. It'll help detoxify
your body and digestive system,"
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    Catty rolled
her eyes. "Mom, don't you have anything that regular people
like?"
    "I just
grated the ginger and the milk is warm," Kendra went on as if
she hadn't heard Catty's complaint. "You'll love it."
    They followed
her through the bookcases to a small kitchen in the back of the store
and sat down at the oak table. Pictures of UFO sightings and a huge
poster of deep space taken from the Hubble telescope hung on the
walls.
    "Did you
girls have a good day at school?" Kendra asked, and started to
pour them each a cup of milky ginger tea.
    Catty put her
hand over the top of the cup. "Don't you have any cocoa mix?"
    "The
ginger tea is better for you."
    Catty rolled
her eyes.
    Vanessa smiled.
She liked Catty's mom.
    Kendra sighed.
"All right." Then she looked at Vanessa. "I suppose
you want hot chocolate, too?"
    "Yes,
please." Vanessa studied the picture of a fuzzy flying saucer
hovering over the desert in Arizona.
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    Kendra reheated
the milk in the microwave, then spooned cocoa into two mugs. She
poured milk over the cocoa and brought the mugs back to the table and
sat down.
    Vanessa opened
her messenger bag and pulled out a piece of paper on which she had
carefully written the words she had spoken on the night she was being
chased. She handed the paper to Kendra. "I was wondering if you
knew what this meant."
    Kendra put on
her reading glasses. Her lips moved as she read the words to herself.
    "These
words just came to you?"
    Vanessa nodded.
    Kendra examined
the words closely. "The words are misspelled,