Simon sat in the back of Ned’s blue station wagon. Gin was in the front passenger seat and Audrey sat next to Simon in the back. Pony had disappeared when Ned went looking for him, and Simon was somehow disappointed not to have him here as well. They followed the faint dust-spray of Madaline’s Corolla as it threaded its way carefully along the rain-pocked road. Audrey’s hand brushed his as they drove over a pothole. She seemed to have forgiven him for his words about her mother, about not believing in ghosts. Gin had changed into a new outfit. Red T-shirt and shorts, with Flash Gordon written in comic book writing on both. Ned’s hair made its way through the gap in the driver’s headrest, blonde strands ruffling in the wind. Underneath his borrowed jumper, Simon’s borrowed shirt was beginning to itch. He had left his own things in the plastic bag Madaline had brought; he would put on proper clothes when he was back with his parents.
