Three Black Swans (29 page)

It could take years to stumble through the moral fog that was Ned and Allegra. No matter how fast they drove, no matter
how often they stopped for food, they could not drive away from those parents.

Or, thought Missy, I could do what Claire’s doing, and give Ned and Allegra an hour. Claire’s dismissing them, because they were our parents in the beginning, but they are not, in the end, our parents.

They reached the restaurant. They had just placed their orders when the third text of the hour arrived from Genevieve. “They’re at the nursing home,” Claire reported. “Genevieve sent a photograph.”

Missy stared at an incredibly ancient woman, smiling cheek to cheek with their sister. Big and Little Genevieve.

“I can see us in her face,” whispered Claire. “Same jaw. Same eyes.”

Same love, thought Missy, and the mystery of where Genevieve learned love was solved. From the gamble of her hoax, Missy had had a splendid haul: an identical twin, an identical triplet, and the great-grandmother who had made sure that somebody loved Genevieve enough.

*  *  *

Claire was wondering where Genevieve wanted to go to college. I could go there too, she thought. We could be roommates. We didn’t get the first sixteen years together, but we could have four at college. We’re both high school juniors. In two years, we could be sisters under the same roof.

Claire didn’t feel like discussing this in front of parents. She texted Missy.
What about college? Roomies—me and G?

No fair! You two would have a year without me!

I’m texting G. I want to know what colleges she’s thinking of.

What do I have to do, graduate a year early?

“What are you girls doing?” asked Missy’s mother.

“We’re bickering by text message,” said Missy. Next to her, Claire wrote to Genevieve about college. Missy considered what she wanted to say in her own message to Genevieve.

Whatever she wrote now would commit her to another trip to Long Island and another sighting of the sort-of parents. But our next visit won’t be about parents, she thought. It will be about sisters. And love.

CAROLINE B. COONEY
is the author of many books for young people, including
They Never Came Back; If the Witness Lied; Diamonds in the Shadow; A Friend at Midnight; Hit the Road; Code Orange; The Girl Who Invented Romance; Family Reunion; Goddess of Yesterday
(an ALA-ALSC Notable Children’s Book);
The Ransom of Mercy Carter; Tune In Anytime; Burning Up; The Face on the Milk Carton
(an IRA-CBC Children’s Choice Book) 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 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);
Among Friends; Twenty Pageants Later;
and the Time Travel Quartet:
Both Sides of Time, Out of Time, Prisoner of Time
, and
For All Time
, which are also available as
The Time Travelers
, Volumes I and II.

Caroline B. Cooney lives in South Carolina and New York.