“You can sell my gun,” Charity said. It wasn’t nearly enough, but she didn’t own anything else of value. “Don’t go until you have the money.” Uncertainty suddenly overwhelmed her. She didn’t have enough information to give her mother and would be leaving before she could find out anything more. “Should we send someone from New Salem here with money? I didn’t see anyone sitting in the backseat.”
Her mother took the gun and checked the safety. “If we’re not there after a week, then yes.” She gave Charity another hug.
Charity stayed there, holding her mother for another moment, not wanting to let go.
Blue picked up the bag of food and headed to the door. Enzo edged that way as well.
It was time to go. Charity took the notebook and said a last goodbye to her mother.
As she left, she wanted to look back but didn’t for her mother’s sake. Her parents needed her to be a leader. She would have to start acting more confidently.
She could figure out what had to be done.
The group strode to the car. Someone had covered it with a tarp while they’d been in the bunkhouse. Enzo pulled the tarp off and checked his pocket for his key. He didn’t find it. He searched his other pockets.
“Oh,” Blue said. “I have it.” She took it from her pocket, unlocked the doors, and threw the key to Enzo.
“Why do you have my key?” he asked.
“I have certain skills.” She climbed into the backseat.
Enzo and Charity got into the front. “Yeah, I know,” Enzo said. “I wasn’t asking how you got it; I was askingwhyyou took it.”
Blue buckled her seatbelt. “I considered taking off on my own but decided not to.”
Charity turned in her seat. “You were going to steal our car?” Perhaps she shouldn’t have felt the sting of betrayal. Blue was young and a stranger, but Charity had already begun to trust her.
“I decided not to,” Blue emphasized.
Enzo glared at her. “Do you even know how to drive a car?”
“No. That’s one of the reasons I decided not to.”
Enzo started the car and drove toward the road. “If you want to leave, be my guest, but don’t even think about leaving us in a lurch. Remember, I know how to hunt Empowereds.”
The key still perplexed Charity. “I thought for a telekinetic to move something, they had to either see or touch it. The key was in Enzo’s pocket. How did you take it?”
Blue slouched in her seat. “I saw it when he filled the gas tank. I just kept it from sliding all the way into his pocket and then took it.”
“I’m slipping.” Enzo shook his head in disbelief. “I thought I could trust a telekinetic.”
Blue crossed her arms and huffed. “You can’t blame me. I don’t know anything about New Salem.”
Enzo shot her a look in rearview mirror. “You know it’s not full of people who want to arrest you.”
“Yeah,” Blue said. “That’s why I decided to go there after all.”
This was a bad start to a long road trip. And not a great start to Charity being a leader. She’d been so consumed by her problems that she hadn’t even considered how worried Blue must be or thought to reassure her. “You’ll like New Salem,” Charity said. “It will be a fresh start for you.”
“Right,” Enzo added. “You can act like a normal person and tell people your real name.”
“Blue is my real name,” she said.
“In that case,” Enzo said, “you can pretend your parents were sensible people and make up a different name.”
Blue rolled her eyes. “Like I’d take life advice from a police officer. Do you realize your uniforms make you look like badly dressed Nutcracker dolls?”
Enzo pressed his lips together and glanced at Charity. “She’s not going to live with us, is she? New Salem has a home for juvenile delinquents, right?”