She stares at the hand with the bandage. She, and not Lander, will carry the scar of this nightmare. It’s a very small scar, when she considers how this could have ended.
Thank you, God.
When she can draw a steady breath, she says, “Let’s drive on home. To the cottage. We need to see our river and know that there are no sharks in the water.”
“Except there are,” says Lander shakily. “There are sharks everywhere.”
Miranda puts her arm around Lander. “And friends everywhere, too, Lanny. Except Willow. Drop Willow. She’s worthless.”
They bicker satisfyingly over the value of Willow.
Geoffrey sends a text. Coming?
She texts back. Soon.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am especially thankful to Beverly Horowitz, Rebecca Gudelis, and Elizabeth Harding for all their hard work.
To see more photographs of the cottage, the river, and tugs and barges, visit my Facebook page, carolinebcooneybooks.
The cottage in No Such Person is similar to a real house in Connecticut where for many summers I mostly sat on the porch, admired the river, and read a lot of books.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Caroline B. Cooney is the author of The Lost Songs; Three Black Swans; They Never Came Back; If the Witness Lied; Diamonds in the Shadow; A Friend at Midnight; Hit the Road; Code Orange; Goddess of Yesterday (an ALA-ALSC Notable Children’s Book); The Ransom of Mercy Carter; Burning Up; The Face on the Milk Carton (an IRA-CBC Children’s Choice) and its companions, Whatever Happened to Janie? and The Voice on the Radio (each of them an ALA-YALSA Best Book for Young Adults), as well as What Janie Found, What Janie Saw, an ebook original story, and Janie Face to Face; What Child Is This? (an ALA-YALSA Best Book for Young Adults); Driver’s Ed (an ALA-YALSA Best Book for Young Adults and a Booklist Editors’ Choice); and The Time Travelers, Volumes I and II.
Caroline lives in South Carolina. Visit her online at carolinebcooneybooks.com.
Follow Caroline:
No Such Person Page 17
