Read Kindred Spirits for Free Online Page A

mad?”
    Gabe sighed. “In a larger sense, yes. At you, in this moment, no.”
    “OK. Good.”
    Elena hunkered down again. She watched the cars driving by. She would be really, really glad to be home tomorrow night. After the movie. The movie . . .
    “Gabe?” she said.
    “What?”
    “I can’t sleep.”
    “Why not?”
    “Star Wars!”

THURSDAY
17 DECEMBER 2015
    Something strange happened at 6 a.m.
    Darth Vader got in line.
    It was one of Troy’s friends. He kicked Troy’s feet off the cooler and shouted, “The Force awakens!”
    “Yeah, we’ve heard that one,” Gabe grumbled, sitting up.
    Elena was watching everything from a gap between her hat and her sleeping bag.
    “I haven’t slept in a week,” Gabe said. “I think you can die of that. I think I’m dead.”
    Troy woke up and welcomed his friend, who eventually got in line behind Gabe.
    Elena and Gabe walked together to Starbucks. She gave him some of her baby wipes; they were both in dire need of a shower. Gabe looked like he was growing a beard. It was coming in redder than
his hair. Elena painted new Yodas on her cheeks.
    “You into Star Wars?” the barista asked.
    “Nope,” Gabe said.
    “Yes,” Elena said.
    “I’m going to see it tonight,” the barista said. “Midnight showing.”
    “Cool,” Elena said.
    “There are already people in line over there,” he said. “Have you seen them? Just three miserable dorks sitting on the sidewalk.”
    Elena smiled brightly. “That’s us!”
    “What?”
    “We’re the three dorks—well, two of the three.”
    The barista was mortified; he gave them their coffee for free. “May the Force be with you!” Elena said.
    When they got back, there were three new people in line.
    By noon, there were twenty, at least half of them in costume.
    By three, there were speakers on the sidewalk, and someone kept playing the victory parade music from
The Phantom Menace
over and over again. (It was only a minute and a half long.)
    Elena consented to a ninety-second dance with Troy. Gabe turned him down.
    Fifty people showed up by dinner time, and some of them brought pizza. Elena went up and down the line, posing for photos and posting them to Instagram. (Her hashtags were
inspired
.)
Troy, who’d changed into his pilot costume, was a little wary of all the newcomers—“Jar-Jar-come-latelies.”
    “We have to keep our guard up,” he said. “These people aren’t part of the line covenant. They might try to surge at the end.”
    “We still have our tickets,” Gabe said.
    “I will be the first person to walk into that theater,” Troy said. “You will be second. And Elena will be third. We are the line. These are just day guests.”
    “So are we sitting together?” Elena asked.
    “Oh,” Troy said. “Well, we can sit near each other. I’ve actually got a bunch of friends coming . . .”
    “We can sit together,” Gabe said, looking at Elena, but somehow
not
looking at Elena. “If you want.”
    “Sure,” she said. “Let’s see this through.”
    The newspaper photographer came back. The line wrapped around the block. Mark came out with a loudspeaker to give everybody directions.
    “We’ve got two hours,” Gabe said to Elena. “I think we’ve only got time for a tattoo
or
a nickname. Your pick.”
    “Let’s not talk about nicknames,” she said.
    They’d packed up their stuff and Mark said they could leave it in his office during the movie. “Thank you for not being drunk or disorderly,” he said. “And for not
littering. I hope you camp outside a different theater next time—I’d be happy to make a few recommendations.”
    “No chance,” Troy said. “This is home.”
    Elena bounced up and down, pointing from side to side.
    “What’s that?” Gabe asked.
    “It’s my Star Wars dance,” she said, bouncing and pointing.
    After a few seconds, he joined her. Then Troy’s friends picked it up. The dance traveled down the line. From the street, they must have looked like the