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Pinto parked by the roadside. Visions of abduction once again began dancing in my head.
    He laughed. “Nothing like that. I have some crutches in the back from when I sprained my ankle last month. Should be able to adjust them to fit, and then, I can take you wherever you want to go. Do you live there?”
    He pointed to our house, which looked suddenly really old and dirty. Obviously, I should have let him drive me up the driveway, but I knew Mom would freak if I came home in a strange car with a strange guy. The way she’d been acting lately, she’d probably lock me in my room forever. Also, I didn’t want the day to be over so quickly.
    “Um, yes, but I’m supposed to go buy eggs from our neighbor, Mrs. McNeill. That’s where I was going. My mother called and told her to expect me. She’s probably waiting outside.”
    That wasn’t true. Mom wasn’t friendly with Mrs. McNeill. They’d fought when the McNeill goats had gotten out and terrorized my mother’s precious garden, and now, she only let me buy eggs when she didn’t feel like going to town. But I figured it wouldn’t hurt to have him think someone was expecting me.
    “Okay, Mrs. McNeill it is.” He managed to open the car’s passenger door and lowered me to the seat. “Just a sec.”
    He walked around to the trunk and took out not only the crutches but an ace bandage. “Look what I found. Can I put it on you?”
    “Um, shouldn’t I know your name first?”
    “Oh, sorry. It’s Zach. You can put it on yourself, if you want. I just thought—”
    “No, it’s okay. The name was all I wanted. I’m Danielle, by the way. But everyone calls me Dani.”
    “Nice to meet you, Danielle.” He knelt beside me and drew my foot up to his bended knee. He pushed my pant leg up, and when he touched my skin, a cold spark ran through me. I shivered.
    “You okay?” he asked.
    I nodded. “Just static electricity, I guess.” It wasn’t, but I didn’t know what else to say.
    He began to massage my ankle and, with each touch, I felt the same electric thrill.
    “You’re not from around here,” I said.
    He smiled. “How do you know that?”
    “It’s a small town. Everyone knows everyone else.”
    “Oh, I thought maybe it was because I was so special you’d have noticed me if you’d seen me before.”
    I rolled my eyes, even though it was true.
    “I’d have noticed you,” he said. “Pretty girl like you. I bet you’re the prettiest girl around here.”
    “Hardly.” I laughed. I certainly wasn’t. Emily had been, but I wasn’t even a close second. I’d never even had a boyfriend. Of course, that was partly because everyone was scared of my mother.
    He finished rubbing my ankle and began to wrap it with the ace bandage. His hands were firm, strong. “I find that hard to believe. Is this a town with inordinately beautiful girls?”
    “I don’t know. I’ve never been out of it. Well, except sometimes to go to the mall down in Glens Falls for school clothes, but that’s not a big city either.”
    “You’ve never been away from here? And you’re how old?”
    “Seventeen, almost eighteen. And a lot of people have lived here their whole lives. I’m not some stupid hick, you know.”
    Although saying it made it sound like I was. And, really, how did I know I wasn’t?
    But he said, “I didn’t say you were. You might be the most brilliant person in the world, but how would you know if you never see anyone else?”
    It was like what I’d been thinking, only sort of the opposite, sort of turned on its ear.
    Of course, I’m probably not brilliant. At least, I’d always been a C student in school. I was always bored in my classes. Besides, what’s the point of killing yourself in school when you know you aren’t going to college, aren’t going really anywhere? Still, I secretly have always thought, hoped I was smart. I also hoped maybe there was something I was good at, best at. And, more than anything else, I hope that someday, something