Down World by Rebecca Phelps (best new books to read .txt) 📕

“Yup,” I answered over my shoulder. The car was already idling in front of the house. When I closed the trunk, my dad handed me an English muffin with a scrambled egg stuffed inside. He had clearly been up for a while. “Thanks.”

“You know, the project at work isn’t that urgent. Why don’t I take the day off and drive you up to the camp? You could even drive for a bit of it. You need more practice.”

“Dad, I told you, you don’t have to do that. Everyone’s taking the bus.” My palms were sweating. The lies were starting to flow from my mouth so naturally. I hated this. I felt like I was already a million miles away from my dad, from our house, from the family we’d once had. “It’s only two weeks.”

“Yeah, yeah,” he agreed, a little too quickly. “Well, get in. Let’s not be late.”

We drove to the bus depot in silence, and I stared out the window at our passing town as though I might never see it again.

“Call me,” he said quietly as we pulled up to the parking lot of the depot, “if you need anything.”

“We’re not allowed to use our cell phones,” I reminded him. Christy had planned out the communications. She said that cell phones are traceable, and that if my dad checked the phone record, he might see where I was calling from. So my cell phone needed to stay off for the entire trip. Instead, she set up an email from the “camp administration,” requesting that all correspondence be sent that way.

I realized, as my dad took my suitcase out of the trunk, that part of the reason for the knot in my stomach was simply the precariousness of the plan. I was banking on my dad being too distracted about my mother’s disappearance to notice any of the holes in the story. And so far, it had worked perfectly.

I got out to join him behind the car as he placed my suitcase on the curb. Several people were waiting in various stages of boredom. My heart was beating out of my chest, but I knew I needed to look like I had it together, at least until my father drove off.

“Did you want me to wait with you?” he asked.

“You’ll be late for work,” I responded, ready with my answer immediately.

“Yeah.” He nodded sadly.

“Will you be okay, Dad?”

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll be fine. Don’t you worry about me, kiddo. You just have a good time.”

A good time. The idea of it seemed ridiculous, even cruel.

I threw myself into my dad’s arms then, and I waited for the sting of tears to burn behind my eyes, but it never came. Why was that? I had never been away from my dad for two weeks before.

I stood and watched him get into the car and drive away, waiting until his little Honda became nothing more than a speck of tan color at the red light of the intersection outside of the parking lot. And then the light turned green and he disappeared around the curve. I let out a huge sigh, and felt my body shake with nerves.

A full five minutes went by before Brady showed up in his old muscle car and popped the trunk. I started hauling my suitcase over. Brady jumped out to help me, but I was already picking it up.

“I got it,” I said, and he stood back a bit. I got into the passenger side and put on my seat belt.

Brady got back in and sat next to me. He must have been able to tell that I was scared. I knew I was shaking, and I couldn’t stop.

“You nervous?”

I could only nod.

“Listen,” he said, his tone gentler than I had ever heard it. “I’ve been thinking. Do you want me to go without you?”

My head whipped towards him.

“It’s not a problem. If they can help, I’ll call and let you know. But there’s no reason for you to make this whole trip.”

“This was my idea.”

“I know that. But you’re just . . . you’re so young, Marina. Maybe you shouldn’t be going so far . . .”

“I’m going,” I said, my decision final. “Don’t worry, I won’t be in your way.”

“That’s not what I meant and you know it.”

We sat for another minute, neither of us saying a thing.

“I can’t stay here, Brady,” I said, fully realizing it was true as I uttered it. “I have to see for myself. I lost my brother. And then my mom.”

Brady nodded.

“Would you be able to just sit here and do nothing? Knowing that Piper might be stuck in DW somewhere, and only you can save her?”

“Of course not.”

“Then let’s go.”

There was nothing more to say. Brady put the car into gear and we drove over to the train station, where he parked and then hid the ignition key under the floor mat.

“Don’t lock the door,” he told me. “My cousin’s coming to get the car later.”

“Cool.” I nodded, hoping nobody would steal it.

I had over eight hundred dollars in cash that I had taken out of my savings account, mostly from old babysitting money and birthday gifts from grandparents. My dad had given me another one hundred dollars before I left, for “incidentals.” I gave almost half the total to Brady for the round-trip ticket, and I prayed that the remainder would be enough for the room in the hostel and some food.

Kieren had been right, of course: I never could have made this trip on my own. Brady and I approached the station to buy the tickets from the vending machine, only to find that in the mornings the machine was locked up, and there was a real person inside to sell them. It was a surly old man in suspenders who looked me over, a young girl in a T-shirt and Keds with a suitcase next to her, and then looked at Brady.

“She’s my kid sister,” Brady