CHAPTER 78
Mandy watched the strange bird descend from the darkening sky. The last hint of light revealed no color on the helicopter. It was gray, darker than day but lighter than night. If she looked away, it might be hard to find again. She couldn’t look away. She didn’t even shield her eyes against the kicked-up dust and the fumes, in case they evaporated, some apparition come to tease her in the descending night.
The blast of wind did not move her from where she stood at the edge of the front porch. The high whine of the engines dropped like a glissando scale. The rotors thumped their way to silence until there was nothing, nothing but the pounding of her heart.
Two doors opened. Someone long and limber climbed out of the front. A girl had left her years before, she barely recognize
