Goddess of the Night by Lynne Ewing Page B

cab. She held a tackle
box in one hand and an artist's pad under her arm. Her messenger bag
dangled from her shoulder. She wore bunny slippers and a tan trench
coat over her pajamas.
    Vanessa ran
outside and gave the driver fifteen dollars. He waited until they
were inside before he drove off.
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    Vanessa locked,
then bolted, the front door. When they were in her room, she spoke.
"Do I look different?"
    Catty's mouth
fell open. "What did you do with Michael? Tell me all about it.
Every detail."
    Vanessa flopped
on her bed. "Nothing happened with Michael, other than I acted
like a fool. Someone followed me again tonight. I don't look
different to you?"
    "You look
tired is all. Someone followed you with Michael there?"
    Vanessa sat up
and cuddled a pillow against her. "I acted like some freaky
Amazon woman."
    "He saw
your true self? So what? I bet he liked it."
    "I don't
even know why I did it. I felt like I had to protect him. He's
probably never going to speak to me again."
    "Then you
don't want him. Did you see who was following you?" Catty set
her bag down, opened the tackle box, and took out several charcoal
pencils. She sat on the floor with her artist's pad as Vanessa
explained everything that happened, from the walk down the canyon
wall to the
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    strange look in
Michael's eyes when he didn't give her a good-night kiss.
    "We could
go back, you know, and see who was following you."
    Vanessa sat
cross-legged on her bed. "That's not why I asked you over. I was
... I didn't want to be alone."
    "Maybe
it's date anxiety. You've never been afraid of anything before.
You've only had these strange feelings since Michael started acting
like he liked you. Maybe they're panic attacks."
    Vanessa
laughed. "I don't think you can call the way he makes me feel a
panic attack. You think he likes me?"
    "Yes."
Catty nodded firmly.
    "Did you
bring anything to eat?"
    Catty pulled a
glass pan covered with aluminum foil from her bag. Vanessa could
smell the rich chocolate before Catty removed the crinkling aluminum
foil.
    "The
dateless made fudge," she said, and handed the pan to Vanessa.
    Four pieces
were already missing.
    Catty looked at
her. "Maybe you should tell
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    your mother. I
mean, it could be some pervert or something. Your mom would know how
to handle it."
    "Tell her
I think someone is following me because I can make myself invisible?"
    "It's not
like you can't prove it," Catty pointed out. "Sit in the
light so I can sketch you."
    Vanessa sat in
the overstuffed chair next to her bed. Catty's pencils scratched
across the paper.
    "I think
we should go back while it's only a few hours in the past and see who
was there," Catty declared.
    "Yeah, and
end up falling down the canyon. Sorry, your landings make it too
dicey."
    Catty didn't
argue this time.
    "Maybe I
should visit Serena. She might see something in her tarot cards.
Morgan said she was good."
    "You don't
think she can really tell fortunes, do you?" Catty drew
Vanessa's hair in long swirling lines.
    "You're
right. The best thing to do is talk to my mom." Vanessa watched
Catty draw her face,
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    pouty lips, the
dimples in her cheeks. Catty was too quiet, which meant she had
something more on her mind. Finally she stopped drawing and looked
up.
    "Did you
ever think my mother was right?" Catty said finally. "Maybe
we did come from another planet and the spaceship crashed. That would
explain the two memories I have."
    "The crash
and the fire."
    "Maybe we
survived both, and the moon is like a guidepost that tells us how to
get home, only we don't understand it yet because we're still in a
sort of larvae state."
    "Great,
that's all I need. You mean we haven't grown our green antennae yet?"
Vanessa joked. She started to laugh, but then she thought of the
changes she had seen in her eyes when she looked in the mirror an
hour ago.
    "Maybe
together our powers can take us home."
    "Your
mother's theory only works if I was adopted," Vanessa said. "And
my mother has assured me with gory