Chapter 5: Gold

"They're not gold," I said. "Braden, you're being ridiculous."

My own voice sounded strange in my throat, lower than I was used to.

He backed away another step and rubbed his mouth with the back of his hand.

"When did you last drink your tea?"

"What?"

"Your tea, Cass. Did you drink it this morning?"

"I poured it down a sink on Saturday," I said. "You were standing right there."

Something went across his face that was not hurt and not anger.

It was the look of a man doing arithmetic and not liking the answer.

"Come home," he said, fast and low. "Just come home tonight and let Mom make you a fresh batch. You're not yourself."

"I'm more myself than I've been in years."

"Cassandra."

"I said no."

The side door banged, and Hattie came across the lot at a run with her car keys in her fist.

"Is he touching you?" she shouted.

"He's leaving," I said.

Braden looked at the two of us, and then at the door of the Hall, where people were beginning to come out.

He had never been good at a crowd that wasn't on his side.

"This isn't finished," he said, and he walked off toward his father's truck.

Hattie unlocked her car with shaking hands and pushed me into the passenger seat.

She flipped down the sun visor and turned the little mirror toward my face.

"Look at me," she said. "Look."

I looked.

My eyes were grey, the same as always.

But in the first second, before the color settled, I saw something bright move deep in them, and then it was gone.

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