Goddess of the Night (3 page)

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would just
relive a day or, if she had jumped time into the future, lose a day.
Vanessa wasn't so sure. There was also the tunnel, the hole in time
they had to go through. She was terrified of getting stuck there.

"I don't
know why you worry so much," Catty said, taking another bite.

"Forget
it. It was probably a homeless person, like you said," Vanessa
insisted. "I don't need to see."

Catty spoke
with her mouth full. "We should check it out. To be sure."

Vanessa plucked
a French fry from the globs of melted cheese and chili. She twirled
it in the raw onions and slipped it into her mouth.

"You
remember the first time you took me traveling?" Vanessa said
with a smile.

"Yeah,"
Catty giggled. "You about broke my eardrums in the tunnel."

They had been
watching TV after Catty's ninth birthday party, waiting for Vanessa's
mother to pick her up. Catty wanted to show her something special.
Vanessa had thought it was another birthday present. Instead, Catty
had

29

grabbed her
hand, and a strange heaviness crackled through the air. The fine
hairs on her arm stood on end before the living room had flashed away
with a burst of white light. Suddenly, they were whirling downward
through a dark tunnel. The air inside felt thick enough to hold. She
could barely breathe. Her screams bounced back at her until the sound
became deafening. Just when it had grown unbearable, they fell with a
hard crash back into the living room. Only, the living room was
different now. Sunlight came through the windows. Wrapping paper and
ribbons were scattered over the gray-green rug. Then they had peeked
into the dining room, and Vanessa had seen herself, sitting at the
table eating cake and ice cream. She had been too shocked to scream
again. Catty stole into the kitchen, and returned with two pieces of
cake, and before Vanessa could ask her what was going on, they were
back in the hated tunnel with its thick, sucking air and bad smells.
Instead of landing in the living room, they had landed five blocks
away on someone's front porch.

"I got in
so much trouble." Vanessa shook

30

her head. "My
mother thought I had wandered off." She couldn't tell her mother
what had really happened. Her mother would never have believed her,
anyway.

"But the
cake was worth it," Catty said.

"You ate
my slice." Vanessa smiled. "I was crying because the tunnel
scared me so much. Remember?"

"It's not
like you didn't get even."

"You
deserved it," Vanessa teased. "You were always getting me
in trouble." Vanessa had planned for weeks, practicing with her
teddy bear until she could make it invisible with her. Then one
Sunday while they were playing in Catty's backyard, she had hugged
Catty and scrunched her eyes in concentration until she felt her
molecules pinging. She had opened her eyes. Catty was becoming a
dusty cloud. The cloud swirled around, and Vanessa had seen a look of
utter astonishment on Catty's face before she became completely
invisible. Success! Her plan had worked. Vanessa's molecules had
exploded outward in complete delight. At first Catty had buzzed
around the backyard like a balloon losing

31

its air.
Vanessa couldn't see her, but she could feel her air currents. But
then she had started to get cold and wanted to become visible again.
Vanessa wasn't as practiced as Catty. An hour later, even with total
concentration, she had only managed to make parts of them visible.
When Catty saw her hand floating, unattached to her arm, she had
started crying. That had made Vanessa more nervous. It had taken her
hours to get them back together, whole and right.

Catty nudged
her. "You should use your gift more often. Practice makes
perfect and all that."

But Vanessa had
felt so bad about what she had done to Catty that she had sworn never
to use her power again. Since then she had tried to control her
molecules, but in times of intense emotion, her molecules had more
power than her ability to restrain them and the light from a full
moon seemed to fuel their change.

"Hurry up
and eat," Catty prodded her.

"Why?
We've got plenty of time."

Two minutes
later, Catty put her hand on Vanessa's shoulder. Her eyes were
dilated as though a powerful energy were building in her

32

brain. Vanessa
glanced at Catty's watch. The minute hand started moving backward.

"Don't,"
she begged. "This will be the third time we've left without
paying."

"But they
won't know. As far as they'll know, we never came in. It will be last
night for them."

"But we've
still eaten their food without paying for it."

Catty rolled
her eyes. "The food didn't
exist
yesterday, so why does
it matter?"

"It just
feels wrong, and I told you I didn't want to go back, anyway."

The hands on
Catty's watch stopped moving.

"You need
to go back and see that nothing was there, or you'll never stop
thinking about last night."

"I won't,"
Vanessa said. "Besides, Morgan just walked in."

"So?"

"She's
been around too many times when we've switched time. I think she
suspects something."

"Morgan
doesn't suspect anything. She can't."

"I know
she can't, but she's been asking

33

questions,"
Vanessa said. Catty was sure that when she went back in time, people
had no sensation of returning to the past. But Vanessa thought people
sensed the changes in the length of an hour, the confusion of memory,
and a rash of deja vu.

"Besides,"
Vanessa added. "I told her we'd go over to the Skinmarket with
her."

"Why do
you want to hang out with her when she tried to take Michael away
from you?"

"She
didn't try to take Michael away. She's a better dancer than I am, and
Michael likes to dance."

"I don't
want to hang out with her," Catty complained. "She makes me
feel like I'm not clean enough."

"That's
just your imagination."

Vanessa reached
for her soda. As she put her hand out, Catty clasped her wrist. The
hands of the watch started spinning backward.

"No!"
Vanessa screamed as "Love Potion Number 9" began playing on
the Seeburg.

The bikers
turned and stared at her. Morgan waved, and her lustrous hair swung
out as the air pressure changed.

34

Vanessa dropped
the hamburger and clutched the strap of her messenger bag. Her skin
prickled with static electricity. A white flash burned reality away,
and the diner roared from them with the speed of light.

That was the
last thing Vanessa remembered as she fell into the tunnel with Catty.
She kept her eyes closed as they spun downward, and her stomach
lurched. She hated the smell and feel of the air. Without looking,
she knew Catty was watching the backward-spinning hands on her
glow-in-the- dark wristwatch. When they arrived at their time
destination, she'd put all her concentration into stopping the flow
of time, and they'd fall back into time and reality.

They landed on
a lawn with a heavy thud.

She looked up.
The smells of onions and frying hamburgers still wafted in the air
around them, but it was dark now, and they were on the street where
she had walked the night before.

"You've
got to work on the landings," Vanessa groaned and pulled herself
up.

"I told
you, a fall is the only way out."

Vanessa looked
around. The night was silent

35

except for the
occasional scrape of palm fronds overhead. Then, in the distance, she
heard soft, running footsteps and the rapid, pounding steps of the
person who had chased her.

"Let's go
see who it was," Vanessa said. "I mean, who it
is!'

"Right,"
Catty agreed.

They bolted and
ran wildly down the street. The cool evening breeze stung their
faces. Their footsteps pounded softly on the dew-wet pavement.
Vanessa knew at once that the second set of footfalls she had heard
the night before were those that she and Catty were making now.

A block ahead,
she could see herself, barefoot and running rapidly. Someone was
chasing her. It was impossible at this distance to identify her
pursuer, who was dressed in black and wearing a cap.

She heard
herself shout the strange prayer in the language she didn't
understand.

At the same
time her pursuer glanced back. The person must have seen them, but
Vanessa couldn't be sure. Suddenly, the person darted across a lawn
and into the shadows.

36

"This
way," Catty said.

Vanessa
followed her to a shortcut between two houses and into a narrow
alleyway. She whispered, "Do you think whoever it is saw two of
me?

"If so,
they'll never chase you again."

Vanessa almost
laughed, but she was too breathless and excited with anticipation to
see who it was.

They ran down
the alleyway to the next block, then crossed another street.

"Whoever's
following you should be around here someplace," Catty whispered.

They crouched
low and stepped cautiously down the alley.

Without
streetlights, the backyards were darker, the shadows deeper. Vanessa
peered over the fence. She didn't see anyone, but she heard the soft,
padding steps of someone trying hard to be quiet.

They ducked and
hurried along a length of fence to a garage. She looked around the
corner of the garage. A shadowy figure ran across the back lawn to
the next house.

37

She motioned to
Catty, and they stepped silently forward. When they got to the next
house, they gazed over a row of garbage cans into the tomblike quiet
in the yard beyond. If her pursuer had been there, the person must
have heard their movements and hidden.

Catty nudged
her and pointed.

A thicker
shadow formed between the house and a twisting cypress. It looked
like someone was standing there. Vanessa was sure the person was
looking directly at her even though she couldn't see the eyes. And
then the shadow whispered,
I'll find you later when you're alone.
She wasn't sure she'd heard it, as much as felt it like a soft
rustling across her mind.

Panic seized
her.

"Did you
hear that?" Vanessa asked.

"What?"

"Take us
back, Catty. Now!"

38

Chapter 4

VANESSA FELT
HERSELF jerked away. Her neck whipped backward, and then the night
zipped away with a sudden flash and roar. Vanessa clutched Catty's
hand as they spiraled through the tunnel. Her stomach wobbled with
nausea, and she knew if they didn't stop soon she was going to lose
her hamburger.

They landed
with a hard knock. The air left her body. Pain spun thin and sharp
inside her skull. She closed her eyes against the harsh fluorescent
lighting.

A buzzing sound
filled her ears. She soon realized it was laughter.

39

"Dang!
Girls," someone shouted and the laughter grew. She struggled to
open her eyes.

She was vaguely
aware that Catty was squealing and calling her name.

"Catty,"
she whispered. This time Catty's voice penetrated her aching head.

"Vanessa,
we're in the boy's locker room and the water polo team just finished
practice."

Water polo? She
was still in a dreamlike trance. Michael was on the water polo team.
She'd get to see him. That made her smile. "Michael."

New laughter
echoed off the walls. "She wants to see you, Michael."

Her nose
touched something wet. She looked down. A wet blue Speedo lay in the
chlorine-smelling water near her face. Her head shot up. The boy's
locker room!

As quickly as
she had looked up, she looked down again. A scream caught in her
throat.

"Catty!"
she yelled. Keeping her head down, she stood. She was never going to
forgive Catty for this landing,

"Here."
Catty was giggling in pure delight.

Vanessa found
Catty, yanked her hard, and

40

pulled her
through the throng of naked boys.

"Did you
get to see what you came looking for?" someone said.

Embarrassment
made her molecules disarrange. "Not now," she whispered.

A shrill
whistle made the laughter stop. Vanessa spread her fingers. Coach
Dambrowsky plodded into the locker room, his tennis shoes squishing
water. His forehead and nose were sunburned.

Vanessa ducked
around him, her hands in front of her face. He must have sidestepped
because she ran into his soft stomach.

"Excuse
me." She tried to worm past him.

"Wait a
minute!" He grabbed at her arm. His fingers whipped through her
disorganized molecules. "What the--?"

This time he
caught Catty.

"You two
are busted," he said and brushed flecks of dandruff from his
blue sweatshirt.

Catcalls filled
the locker room.

"You girls
should be ashamed of yourselves. Don't you have any modesty?"
Coach Dambrowsky scolded.

"If we
were boys in a girls' locker room you'd

41

snicker and pat
us on the back," Vanessa argued from behind her hands. She
spread her fingers to see how angry he looked. The sunburn had turned
crimson. He was pissed.

"Let's
see, who do we have here?" Coach licked his thumb and pulled
pink demerit slips from his pocket. "Let me see your face."

Vanessa slowly
brought her hands down.

Coach looked
surprised. Was her face disarranged?

She glanced at
Catty. She could tell by Catty's expression that she looked fine. She
took a deep breath. How was she going to explain this to her mother?