Towering

said . . .” There was a car behind us, close behind, which seemed strange on such a deserted road. Its lights glowed bright in the mirror between our heads. I saw Mama’s hands on the steering wheel, gripping, her knuckles white, striped red. I sunk down in my seat, still arranging my hair.
    The car roared around us at incredible speed. Soon, I could only see the red lights on the back of it as it disappeared into the night.
    Mama laughed, a short bark. “Crazy driver.” Then, she turned to me. “I don’t even know where we’re going.”
    “Maybe . . . the police?” I wasn’t sure whether this was the way to go, but in books, people called the police when there was trouble. Wyatt had mentioned that he should have called the police about his friend Tyler.
    But Mama shook her head. “I’m afraid not. The police were . . . not helpful when Danielle disappeared.” She pursed her lips together. “They thought she had simply run away . . . or perhaps, that I killed her. And I can’t take you to my house. It’s no hiding place, and we can’t hide anymore anyway. No, we will have to settle this ourselves.”
    I had feared, or maybe anticipated that. On both sides of the car was blackness, black trees, black rocks, black space. Mama was barely a shadow beside me. “I think he is at the Red Fox Inn, in Gatskill. I heard . . .” I stopped. It sounded crazy.
    “What?”
    “Sometimes, I can hear his voice in my head. And he can hear mine. I know he can. That is how he found me.”
    Mama nodded. “I had suspected as much. That’s where I was going, in any case. The Red Fox Inn was where it all began.”
    “Where what began?” I found the ends of my hair, and I arranged it, as best I could, into three sections. I began to braid it as close to my head as possible, though I knew it would grow.
    There were no cars on the road now. It was so quiet, so dark.
    “All of it,” Mama said. “I suppose it is time to tell you. Perhaps I should have told you long ago.”
    The scary car was long past, but her knuckles were still white. I wanted to embrace her, but I feared it would distract her. “Tell me what, Mama?”
    She sighed. “Once, when I was a much younger woman, I had a difficult life. I took care of my elderly parents, worked hard at a job, and didn’t have much hope in my life.”
    “I’m sorry, Mama.”
    “Then, one day, a smiling stranger came along and I believed myself in love. He offered me a magical leaf. He said that, if I ate it, I would be happier, more alive. I ate it, and so I was. I saw wonderful visions, even felt like I could fly, and when I ate that leaf, which was a drug called rhapsody, I felt like I had no problems, even when the stranger left. But then, there was no more rhapsody, either, and I was miserable. I tried other drugs, but they weren’t the same. I went through horrible withdrawal.”
    She looked at me, then away, and I realized she was embarrassed. I decided to say nothing, so she could go on.
    She did. “Just at that time, I met a wonderful man, your grandfather, and we fell in love. I told him about the rhapsody, and I found that, with his help, I was able to control my urges. We were married and were very happy. Soon, I was expecting a baby, which would be the culmination of my joy. My husband’s name was Daniel, so we planned to name the baby Daniel if it was a boy, Danielle if it was a girl.”
    I nodded. She meant my mother, Danielle. I continued to work on my hair, though it was already nearly a foot from my head now.
    “And then, my husband was killed in an accident. I was all alone, frightened, no family, no friends. I only wanted to return to the one friend that had kept me company before, rhapsody. I had heard on the street of a secret place to get the drug underneath the Red Fox Inn. I went there, and I stole it. I was, of course, caught, and the owner, a man named Carl, said that he would tell the authorities, who would take my baby from me. I cried and cried, my remorse was so deep. Finally, he agreed to let me go. But he looked at the baby, who had such startling blue eyes, almost the color of rhapsody flowers themselves, and he said, ‘I have one condition. When she is seventeen, she must come here to work for me.’
    “I looked at the man. He was very old with wrinkles upon wrinkles. I thought that by the time my child was seventeen, he would surely have died. Besides, I had no choice. I realized my mistake, and I wanted to leave right