Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

Chapter Four

THE NEXT DAY AT school, Emily found it even harder than usual to concentrate in her classes. She was feeling just a little bit

ashamed of herself. Maybe more than a little. What she'd said to Amanda-telling her she would be the next one to vanish-wasn't very nice. She knew Jenna was proud of her for having the guts to talk to Amanda like that, but it wasn't really an Emily thing to do. She wasn't the type to fight mean with mean.

Amanda had been really scared, Emily knew. She'd probably worried about it all night long. She might not even be at school today, she was so nervous. But if she wasn't there, it wouldn't be because of Emily's prediction. Because it hadn't been Amanda who was missing in Emily's most recent vision of the gifted class.

She'd had the vision before Amanda even called her over in class the previous day. It came just after Madame left the classroom to make phone calls; it came without any effort on her part. She hadn't even forced her eyes to glaze over-it happened automatically.

The vision had been the clearest one yet. There was the gifted class, on the next day-today. She was positive about the date, because she could actually make out the calendar that hung by the door. That was peculiar-her visions didn't usually include details like that. She could easily see that Carter still wasn't there, and neither were Tracey and Martin. And there was another person missing.

Sarah.

She confessed this to Jenna at lunch. "I don't know why I didn't warn Sarah. Maybe I just wasn't sure it was a real prediction. Or maybe I guess I just didn't want to scare her."

Jenna grinned. "Yeah, scaring Amanda is much more fun." Jenna.

"Oh, c'mon, Em-lighten up. It was good for Amanda. She's got a little too much self-esteem. She needs to be taken down a notch."

Emily looked over at another table in the cafeteria. "She doesn't look upset today."

Amanda was with her usual snotty friends at their usual table. Nina was crying, she noticed. She must have just found out she didn't make the cheerleading squad. The other girls looked like they were comforting her. Not Amanda though. She was busy filing her fingernails. She couldn't even show a little sympathy for her own friend! Maybe Jenna was right. Amanda deserved a scare, even if it didn't last very long.

Jenna was eating. "You know, these school lunches aren't half bad. The way you and Tracey are always complaining, I thought they'd be a lot worse."

"Speaking of Tracey," Emily said, "aren't you just a little worried about her?"

"Not really. Because I still think Tracey disappeared on purpose. You know how she's been trying for ages to stay invisible for longer periods."

"What about Carter and Martin?"

"Well, Carter's a mystery, right? He appeared out of nowhere, and now he's disappeared. I just can't get too spooked by him. And Martin, he's always whining about his home and how his mother nags him. He probably ran away. Any day now, they'll find him sleeping in a bus station."

"So you still don't believe in my predictions."

Jenna just shrugged. "You said it yourself--they're pretty screwed up."

Emily didn't get it. "But you supported me yesterday in front of Ken and Amanda."

"I'm your friend," Jenna said matter-of-factly. "I'm always loyal to my friends." She went back to her mashed potatoes. "Could you pass the salt?"

Emily couldn't believe Jenna could be so blithe about everything. She wished she could read her friend's mind. She had a pretty good feeling this was all an act Jenna was putting on, to show how tough she was.

"What about Sarah?"

Jenna did her who-cares shrug. "Let's wait and see if she shows up in class."

She didn't. The second Emily entered room 209, her heart sank when she saw the empty seat. Sarah was always there early. Madame, at her desk, was staring at Sarah's seat, too.

Ken arrived, then Amanda, then Charles. Jenna sauntered in as the bell rang. When she saw Sarah's empty seat, she turned to Emily.

"Okay, I take it back. You've got a gift."

Madame spoke sharply. "What do you mean by that, Jenna?"

Madame was one of the only people who could intimidate Jenna, and Jenna practically stammered. "Well, I, uh, meant that, you know, how Emily makes predictions of the future, and, you know. ."

Madame broke in. "Emily! Did you know that Sarah would disappear?"

Emily shifted uneasily in her seat. "I–I sort of had a vision. But I didn't know if it was real."

Madame stared at her. "And the others? Carter, Tracey, Martin-did you have visions about them?"

Suddenly Emily felt terrible. She nodded.

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"Because-because I didn't trust them. The visions, I mean. My predictions are always so mixed-up. They're like bits and pieces, like a puzzle, and I can't put them together to make a real picture! Like, I'll see an earthquake, but I don't know when or where it's going to happen. Or I'll see someone have an accident in gymnastics, but I don't know if it's going to be at the next competition or the one after that."

It dawned on her that she'd probably never said so much at one time in class.

Madame looked sad. "I know your premonitions are confusing, Emily. But you have a gift. You should have told me about these visions."

Not for the first time, Emily wished she could give her gift back to whomever gave it to her. The disappointment in Madame's face. . Emily couldn't bear to look at her teacher. She felt like she'd let her down. Not to mention Carter and the other missing students.

Madame's voice became softer. "There's always an element of truth in your visions, Emily. You might not understand them, but they have meaning. You have to learn how to interpret them, to look for clues that can help you put them in context. You have to figure out what's important and weed out what's irrelevant."

Emily's head was hurting, and her eyes were stinging.

"Can you see them, Emily?" Madame asked. "The missing students. . Can you see where they are? Is anything coming to you?"

Emily shook her head. "I see the future, not the present," she whispered.

"Concentrate on the future of one of them," Madame urged. "Carter. Do you see him in the future?"

She tried very, very hard, so hard her head wasn't just hurting, it was throbbing. Something started happening. A blurry image began to form. .

In pain, she managed to say, "I see him, I see him."

"Where is he?" Madame asked.

"Here. He's here, in class, in his seat."

"And the others?" Madame persisted. "Where are they?"

Her head was about to explode. Emily burst into tears. "I don't know, I don't know."

She was dimly aware of Jenna on one side of her, Madame on the other. As they led her out of the room, Madame spoke softly.

"I'm sorry, Emily, I shouldn't have pushed you like that. I'm going to send you to the infirmary and have your mother called. Jenna, could you go with her?"

A short time later, Emily was lying on the infirmary cot, and the school nurse was calling her mother. And it wasn't long until her mother appeared at the door.

"The school called me. Honey, are you all right?" She came to the cot and put a hand on Emily's forehead. Emily gently pushed it away.

"I don't have a fever, Mom."

"She just got upset in class," Jenna declared. "Madame thought she should go home."

Her mother's lips tightened. "Which class? The crazy class?"

"Mom!" Emily shot Jenna an apologetic look.

"It's okay," Jenna murmured. "I'd better get back."

Emily's mother didn't even bother to thank her for helping Emily. She was more than upset.

"I'm taking you out of that class," she declared in the car on the way home. "It's not doing you any good at all-it's making things worse. Now, you just close your eyes and relax. I'll give you some aspirin when we get home."

Emily was grateful to be left alone. She had a lot to think about.

She'd tried to tell Madame about her visions, and she should have tried again. But Madame just kept telling her she needed to interpret them, to study them, and never told Emily how. Was she stupid? Or lazy? Now she was starting to feel like she'd been given a gift she didn't deserve. Carter, Tracey, Martin, and Sarah.. With her gift, she might have been able to stop them from disappearing. If only she'd worked harder, if only she'd understood what her visions meant … Now her head was hurting again, but she was glad. She deserved the pain. She'd never felt so guilty in her life.

At home, she swallowed the pills her mother brought her, even though she knew they wouldn't do any good. But they did help her to relax a little, and maybe that was why the vision appeared.

She saw herself, in the dark of night, on a street corner. She could read the names on the signpost- Maple Street and Stewart Avenue. She wore jeans, a green T-shirt, and a brown sweater. She was alone.

A car pulled up. With no street lights, she couldn't see what color it was, but she could tell it was an ordinary car, nothing fancy or unusual. There was a woman in the driver's seat and a man sitting next to her. The woman's hair was blond--it must have been a very light blond for Emily to be able to notice it in the darkness.

One of them said something. She couldn't hear the words, but the Emily in her vision got into the car. And then the vision faded.

Emily sat up. How bizarre, she thought. She knew Stewart Avenue-it was on the other side of town, in a business district that was busy by day, empty at night. What possible reason would she have to go there? And why would she get into a car with strangers? For as long as she could remember, her mother had warned her never to talk to strangers, let alone get into a car with them. It was the wrong thing to do. Didn't all parents warn their children about this? Anyone with half a brain knew how dangerous talking to strangers could be. It was totally out of character for her to even daydream of doing something stupid like that.

She took the book she'd been reading from her nightstand and opened it. It was a good book, a mystery, and she looked forward to reading a few pages every night before going to bed. But she couldn't concentrate on it. She got up and went out to the living room.

Her mother was watching TV. She was pleased to see Emily. "Are you feeling better, honey? Do you want something to eat?"

Emily shook her head. "I'm not hungry, Mom. But I'm not sick," she added hastily.

"How about if I heat up the leftover macaroni and cheese?" her mother asked hopefully.

She knew that if she could show some enthusiasm for macaroni and cheese, her mother would feel a lot better.

"Okay, that would be great."

Soon she and her mother were curled up on the sofa with bowls of macaroni and cheese. They found a marathon of a fashion makeover reality show on TV and settled down for the evening.

Emily liked this kind of show. She enjoyed watching ugly ducklings turn into swans with the right clothes and makeup. But no matter how entertaining the episodes were, her mind kept going back to that last strange vision. Maple and Stewart. When would she find herself on the corner of Maple and Stewart? And why?

By ten thirty, both she and her mother were yawning and the marathon was finished. Her mother did something she hadn't done in years-she followed Emily into her bedroom to tuck her in.

"I know you're going to feel better in the morning," she said, kissing Emily on the forehead. "And I'm going to call your principal. You won't have to go to that gifted class anymore."

Emily was in no mood to argue. '"Night, Mom."

Once her mother left, she realized she really wasn't sleepy at all. She just lay there and thought about the events of the past week. But there, in the corner of her mind, she kept going back to that earlier vision. Maple and Stewart, Maple and Stewart. .

She gave up on trying to sleep, got out of bed, and went to her desk. Madame was always telling her she had to interpret the visions, search for details and look for clues. So once her computer had warmed up, she typed "Maple and Stewart" into the search box on her Internet browser and hit enter.

There was an old movie starring actors named Alicia Maple and Del Stewart, and a store called Maple and Stewart that sold plumbing supplies. There was a law firm called Maple, Stewart and Jones, and a mapping service that offered to give her directions to the corner of Maple and Stewart. She clicked on that one, but it didn't tell her anything she didn't already know.

There were no clues here.

Maple and Stewart. . She realized the street intersection wasn't far from where Jenna lived in that housing project. Maybe Jenna would know something unusual about that corner. She looked at the clock. It was after eleven, too late to call. But there was a chance Jenna might be up late surfing on her computer. Emily could send an instant message. She went into her e-mail file, where Jenna was listed as an IM friend, but she wasn't online.

She noticed something else though-a notification that she had a new e-mail. She clicked on it.

Hi Emily, it's me, Tracey. I'm so sorry-they made me send this. They said they'd hurt us if I didn't. Can you go to the corner of Maple and Stewart tonight at midnight and wait there? Someone will pick you up.

Tracey

And then someone had added, a couple of lines down:

If you want to find your classmates, you will he there.

And find herself in the same danger her classmates were probably in. But it was her fault if her classmates were in danger. She knew what she had to do.

In the dim light, she dressed in the same clothes she'd been wearing in her vision: jeans and a green T-shirt. The brown sweater hung on the back of her chair. She threw a few things in her backpack- her contact lens case, a change of underwear, her toothbrush. And she put her watch back on.

She scribbled a note and placed it on her bed. Then she left the room, glancing anxiously at the half closed door to her mother's bedroom. She noted with relief that there was no light on-her mother wasn't up reading. Even so, she moved very quietly. Her mother was a light sleeper.

Once outside, she debated taking her bike, which was in the building's parking garage. But she had plenty of time to get there by midnight, so she went on foot. It took her forty-five minutes to reach the corner of Maple and Stewart.

There were no lights, no sounds-the area was deserted, just like in her vision. It was a little chilly- maybe she should have worn a jacket. But she hadn't been wearing a jacket in the vision.

She waited. Funnily enough, she didn't feel very nervous. In fact, she was unusually calm. She looked at her watch. It was midnight.

She heard something and looked down the street. In the distance, she could see a car coming. It wasn't going very fast.

She couldn't make out the color of the car, but it looked fairly ordinary. It slowed down as it approached her corner and then stopped. There was a blond haired woman in the driver's seat and a man next to her. Shadows obscured their faces, but the woman's platinum blond hair was too bright to ignore.

The woman spoke, calmly but firmly. "Get in, Emily."

She did. Because she knew that in this particular situation, it was the right thing to do.