Andy only knew of one way to slow down her racing thoughts.
She had to outrun them.
Almost every day since she got here two months ago, Andy ran the loop around the quarry, a gaping pit from the old mining days.
Andy had no idea how far down it went, only that it was deep. Her high school friends used to come here to jump off the cliffs and into the unnaturally aquamarine water. None of them had ever been able to touch the bottom.
It was dangerous, but that was part of the fun. As long as you knew to avoid the rock outcroppings just below the water's surface on the eastern side. Andy and her friends cannonballed off the northern end.
She'd never seen her dad as mad as when he found out.
"I thought you were smarter than that," he had said, his voice low with rage. "You should know better than to jump off a cliff just because everyone else is doing it."
She didn't go back to the quarry for the rest of that summer. But that was only partially because of her dad. A week after he'd told her to stop going, the police were fishing out the body of one of her classmates. A boy. No one had told him about the rocks.
Andy felt a shiver go up her spine, despite the sweat she'd already worked up from running. She could still see the boy. He sat in front of her in Algebra. She always had a crush on him, the way his dark brown hair curled at the nape of his neck. They made a game out of swapping candy when the teacher's back was turned. Andy had never told him how she felt, and now she never would.
Regret. The word felt like bile in her throat. She'd become so familiar with it over the last few months. Her face flushed, half from exertion and half from humiliation.
She'd flown too close to the sun, and now she'd lost everything. She had taken her whole life for granted. She missed it so bad it hurt.
And now, Martha, of all people, had outsmarted her again. Stolen Honey's money again.
I'm going to have to close Honey's bank account again.
She picked up her pace.
I'm going to have to open a new one. Cancel any transactions. Move over all her utilities again.
The trail took a steep incline.
Just keep pushing, Andy told herself. Don't worry about anything except making it to the top.
Her breath came in ragged bursts.
I can do this. She repeated to herself.
Her legs shook as she pushed herself forward. A stitch formed in her side, and a sharp pain went shooting through her lungs.
Just a little further.
It was only a few more steps to the overlook.
You can do this.
With one final burst of energy, she launched herself up to the small clearing above the quarry.
She wanted to collapse, but she kept herself upright. She'd gotten into the habit of stopping here to stretch halfway through her run.
You did it. Sometimes that had to be enough, running to the top of a big hill. Sometimes that was all she could do.
Andy could see the whole town from here. The high school, the creek, the little downtown with its cafe and barber shop. She could even see Honey's house.
And down below her, the bright water of the quarry.
"Oh my god," she whispered.
There was a body floating in the water. A boy. He looked to be about 15 or 16.
"Hello!" Andy screamed. "Are you okay?"
He didn't respond. A cloud moved away from the sun, shifting the shadows, and Andy saw that the water surrounding his head was a murky red.
"I'm going to get help!" Andy cried. She fumbled with her phone, which was still blasting her stupid upbeat workout mix.
"Come on, come on!" she muttered to herself. Her shaking fingers weren't moving as fast as she needed them to. It felt like it took her an eternity to dial the three numbers.
"9-1-1, what is your emergency?" said the operator.
"I'm at the quarry. I can see a boy floating in the water. It looks like he's hurt," Andy spat out.
"Not again," sighed the operator. "These kids just never learn. Can you tell if he's breathing?"
"I don't know." Andy bit her fingernails. "He's in the water, and I'm at the top—"
Andy shot a glance back down toward the water just as the boy slipped beneath the surface, disappearing into the deep.
"SHIT!" Andy cried. "What do I do? What do I do?"
"Ma'am?" Andy barely heard the 9-1-1 operator's muffled voice as she dropped her phone and launched herself off the cliff, diving toward the water.
It's a good thing the lookout is on the north end, was all Andy had time to think before she hit the surface.
She plunged underwater, stretching her arms wide, searching for the boy.
She sank deeper, deeper, until her lungs burned from the lack of oxygen. She had no choice but to push herself back up.
She broke above the surface and took a great, heaving breath.
I have to find him, she thought, and forced herself back beneath the water.
Andy was a good swimmer. She grew up here, after all.
When you're a kid in Tennessee, there's one lesson that even the most neglectful parents drill into your brain. If you disappear below the surface of the water, chances are, no one's going to find you until it's way too late. It's murky, and there are currents beneath the surface that will drag your body this way and that. The quarry water drains into a river, which drains into a lake. Everyone grows up swimming in these waters. Everyone knows to be careful because everyone knows someone who disappeared.
That didn't soothe Andy's guilt as she re-surfaced for the 3rd, 4th, even 5th time, gasping for air, refusing to accept that the boy that she saw only moments ago was beyond her reach.
Finally, after she was so thoroughly exhausted that each descent she took beneath the surface was becoming so brief it was basically useless, Andy clawed her way to the shore.
She collapsed onto her back, too defeated to move, her chest rising and falling with each heaving breath, when her eyes caught something glinting at the cliff top.
My phone, Andy groaned. She'd failed to protect her grandmother, she'd failed to save this boy, and now she'd have to hike all the way back up to get her phone. As much as she wanted to leave it behind, she couldn't afford to replace it.
Why am I worrying about my phone right now? Andy chastised herself. I just let a boy die in front of me.
And who did she have to talk to anyway?
She groaned and rolled onto her side before pushing herself up to a seated position. The water was totally smooth, no hint of the person it had just swallowed whole or of Andy's frantic search effort.
Her eyes drifted up to the cliff top again, but this time, someone was standing there.
"Hey!" Andy called, but the figure didn't move.
Am I hallucinating? Andy thought. She squinted into the afternoon sun.
The figure appeared to be a woman about Andy's age, but she was dressed as if she had been plucked out of another era. She wore an ankle-length white dress, and her curly hair was long and loose.
"Were you here with a boy?!" Andy cried. She felt the figure look at her, and her blood ran cold.
Just then, Andy heard sirens behind her. She whipped around. An ambulance was making its way up the gravel road.
"Can you at least bring me my phone?" Andy muttered, but when she looked back up, the figure was gone. "Rude."
"Andrea?" said the EMT as he hopped out of the cab. "What happened?"
Charlie, Andy thought. Of course it has to be Charlie.
"I saw a boy in the water," Andy gasped, furious at the tears that were already pouring from her eyes. "I tried to save him, but—" She could barely get the words out. It hurt too much to admit that she had failed again.
"Shhhh, it's okay," Charlie pulled her into his arms. For a second, it felt so easy to relax into him, so natural. She shook herself out of it and pushed him away.
"We need a diving team. He could still make it. If we find him right now, he could—" It was hopeless, and Andy knew it. The pity-filled look on Charlie's face was worse than anything he could have said to her.
"Why don't you take a seat in the back of the ambulance?" Charlie said, and he gently guided her to the open door. "I'll take care of everything from here."
The rest of the day was a daze. Someone wrapped her in a blanket. Someone forced a bottle of water into her hands. Someone asked her if she could describe the boy.
"He looked about 15 or 16," she said. "He had dark brown hair. I liked the way it curled at the nape of his neck."