The Different Girl

a trap?”
    “It’s Caroline!” said Eleanor.
    “But how?” May shook her head. “How could she escape?”
    “She did!” said Isobel.
    “She must have hid like us,” said Eleanor.
    “I’ll go help her,” I said, trying to get past May. But May shoved me back and growled. She was out of the cave and clinging to the rocks before we knew it. I followed to the lip of the cave. May craned her head around the edge, toward the peak. I turned to Eleanor and Isobel. “Help me.”
    I put a hand where May had put hers, and then extended my foot into the air, feeling for the right stub of rock. I felt Isobel’s palm against my back, helping me balance. May disappeared around the edge. She was talking, but I couldn’t get the words. I inched along, Isobel having to reach so far to help me that Eleanor had to help her, too. I finally inched my head around. May was halfway back to the peak. Above her, right at the brink, tottered Caroline.
    Robbert’s satchel hung from her right shoulder, heavy with the notebook. Somehow she had found it and somehow she had found us, too. Her smock was torn and black with soot. Her smooth face had been scratched, the abrasions clogged with red dirt, looking like May’s scab. Caroline’s left arm hung limp, dangling from an inch of exposed cable at the shoulder socket.
    She dipped her torso and the satchel slipped clear. Caroline caught the strap before the notebook hit the ground, and then held it out for May.
    “You have to take it,” she said. “He put everything inside to keep us safe.”
    “Caroline!” I called.
    May whipped her head around. “What are you doing? Get back!”
    I didn’t care. “Caroline, what happened? Come with us—we’re safe!”
    “Take the notebook,” Caroline said to May. “Robbert made sure I knew it was important. Please.”
    May hurried forward. “Give me a second! I need my hands free to help you climb.”
    May caught the satchel strap and ducked her head through the loop, making sure it fell against her chest so its weight wouldn’t pull outward. She clambered into position and patted where Caroline needed to place her first foot.
    “Come on now.”
    “But we’re not supposed to go near the edge.”
    “That doesn’t matter. It’s all changed—come on now.”
    Caroline stepped near the edge, but she was weaving. Something had happened to her leg, too.
    “Careful!” cried May. “One foot at a time . . .”
    Caroline nodded, standing still. May looked back to me.
    I heard Isobel and Eleanor from the cave.
    “What’s happening?”
    “What’s wrong?”
    “She can’t climb,” hissed May.
    “Caroline!” I called. “Where did you go? Where are Robbert and Irene?”
    She turned to my voice, tottering again. It was her left leg, dimpled at the knee.
    “I saw the fire. I watched them break it all. Smash the aerial. I fell down.”
    “Where are Robbert and Irene?”
    “I don’t know.” She shook her head, as if those words were wrong. “I don’t understand . I didn’t see what to do.”
    “We couldn’t do anything,” I said.
    The wind pulled at her hair like it pulled mine.
    “Stay there,” called May. “We can find another place for you to hide.”
    “There isn’t one,” said Caroline softly. “I looked.”
    She stood at the cliff’s edge, blinking, trying with all her mind to answer all she’d seen.
    “May!” I whispered, pleading.
    May’s fingers squeezed the rock. I saw how tired she was, the tears in her black eyes. She inched closer to Caroline, reaching out. “We can try. Look at me! Put your hand where I have mine.”
    But Caroline’s eyes had swept past us, to the sky. Too late I realized her attention had been captured by the birds, soaring and diving around the peak. She stood in the center of a spinning globe, transfixed and taking refuge in the patterns.
    “Caroline!”
    Her head tipped back to follow a rising gull. In a terrible, silent instant her balance changed and the weight of her body turned on her weak leg. Then Caroline toppled out, straight off the edge and down. She struck the rocks halfway and bounced, spinning like a star, into the foaming sea.

11.
    We stayed inside the cave until May’s water jug was empty, almost three days. Then she told us to wait and climbed out alone. We sat together until May reappeared, peeking around the edge. She called to us: no one else was on the peak and she was going to take a look farther down. We wanted to come with her, because if anything