Page 121 of A Dead Girl's Guide to Living
I didn’t miss the weight of the expectations I didn’t think I could carry, or had constantly been told I couldn’t. The weight of trying to be someone Margaret had been so sure I was.
It all seemed a world away now, because I was halfway across the country on one of the most random road trips to ever exist, about to camp in a field with a ghost and a girl who’d started making my chest ache in a way I couldn’t even pinpoint when it began.
This hoity, standoffish girl who had sneered in my shop… now…
Now had some kind of chokehold on me.
In a way I couldn’t explain.
In a way I didn’twantto explain.
I didn’t feel lost here. Not really.
If anything, being on the road, being away from it all, felt like something inside me had cracked open. Like something had started shifting.
I noticed more now. I saw and felt things through a sharper lens than the one I’d been wearing. I noticed the way sunlight fell just right on Ellis’s red hair, the different expressions she wore and what they meant. I noticed the way Liv’s laughter often had a shadow behind it, something she masked with an offensive comment or a witty one-liner.
My tarot cards—Margaret’s cards—had started to feel warmer in my hands. I’d taken to shuffling them before bed, placing them reverently back into their velvet pouch.
My mind flitted back to Ida and her text, and I bit my lip before navigating to call her. I needed to tell her what I had done—and what I had been doing. Scattering Margaret across the route and, hopefully, the grand finale into the Pacific was all good in theory, but Ida needed to know.
She needed the option to be there for it.
She picked up after two rings.
“Dovey!”Ida greeted, warmth in her voice, and I could feel the smile on her face.
“Hey,” I murmured as a gust of dusty wind kicked up around me. “How are you? How is the shelf?”
“Oh, it’s fine,”Ida said, and I could practically see her flippant hand wave.“Whereabouts are you now on the route?”
“The halfway point,” I murmured, a grin on my face. “Literally standing in the middle of the halfway point.”
“Amazing,”Ida said with glee.“How exciting for you. How is your little friend?”
I eyed Ellis, who was giving me privacy as she stood off to the side with Liv, the two of them talking.
“She’s good,” I said carefully, knowing Ida would pick up on whatever was happening regardless. It was just what she did. So I beat her to it. “I like her.”
Ida chuckled gently down the line.
“Of course,”she said, her know-it-all voice unmistakable.
“Listen,” I said quickly, my palms beginning to sweat. “I have something to tell you… and I don’t know if you’re going to love it or hate it.”
“Well, you have my interest,”Ida said, curiosity filling her voice.“What crime have you committed?”
I blinked. How did she know me so well?
“Well…” I bit the inside of my lip and sighed. “I stole Margaret’s ashes from Uncle Bill, and I’ve taken her on the road with me. I’m scattering her piece by piece across each state and location, and then, when we get to Santa Monica, I’m launching her into fireworks and scattering her into the Pacific.”
I let out a breath of relief when the words were out there, no longer a secret.
Ida was silent for only a second before she laughed loudly down the line, the sound filled with shock and elation, becoming so shrill I had to pull the phone away from my ear.
“Oh, Dovey!”she gasped as she caught her breath.“That’s about the best thing I ever heard come out of your mouth, you crazy girl. You are definitely Margaret’s granddaughter.”
“You’re not mad?” I asked, feeling the tension slowly easing out of my body.
