Cody stood on the deck behind the house and watched the boys playing their favorite new game, Queen's now famous one-eyed cat. They ranged so far apart in age, he feared that when school started they would slowly grow apart, especially Donny, who was now an official teenager. He just hoped that the basic closeness between them didn't diminish during the years. "Who's winning?" Queen asked. Cody turned and grinned. "No one. Everyone. That's the beauty of that game, isn't it?" Queen nodded. "My sisters and I always played it. Partly because we didn't have anyone else to play with, and partly because there wasn't room in the backyard for more than one base." "Do you miss them?" he asked. She bit her lip and looked away. "More than I thought possible." "You could always call them. I wouldn't care about the bill. You know that, don't you?" Queen remembered how carefully he'd been treading around her feelings since that day in Snow Gap, and she nodded. "I know. It's just… Lucky and I have no way of contacting each other at all.
