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  "What are you doing?" I whispered, but I wasn't sure why.

  Gran sighed, took a few steps back, and then she crossed her arms and tapped her foot. "Listen up," Gran said, using the voice that always made me snap to, knowing that she meant business. “You are going to stand yourself up and stop being silly."

  Nothing happened and she tapped her foot again. "I take time out of my day to come all the way here and this is the way you behave? Get yourself up, introduce yourself properly, and stop this nonsense." Gran let about three seconds of silence pass by. "This instant!"

  "Gran, what are you-" There was a scraping sound and I stopped talking.

  "That's better," Gran said encouragingly. "Stand up. Get yourself together."

  The scraping continued and the rock moved. Layers and layers of colored rock began to come apart. My breath caught when an outline didn't appear as much as became noticeable, like it had always been there, but I hadn't been paying enough attention.

  That outline appeared to be a person.

  Chapter 2

  The rock uncurled itself and rose up. I'm pretty sure my heart skipped a few beats in terror, as it continued to grow and take shape into that of a person, man or woman, it was impossible to tell.

  But it kept rising. It quickly loomed over the small figure of Gran standing next to it.

  Gran took what might have been the thing's hand and patted it gently. "That's good of you. Come on now, you're comin’ home with me."

  It wasn't until Gran led the rock monster over that I found my voice. Well, I screeched anyway. The creature stopped moving when I made the noise. It towered over me looking lanky and lined with colors like a sedimentary rock. It stared at me and then began to shrink.

  "No, no, no," Gran said, patting its hand. "Cassie, dear, you've frightened him." She kept her voice light and friendly. "Smile and say something nice, so he doesn't stay scared."

  I tried to say something. My eyes were wide and my breathing was stunted. It was scared of me? What is this?

  Gran was right, though. There's one thing about being a Reader that I couldn't seem to turn off. If someone was experiencing an intense emotion, I could tell, even if I wasn't viewing the Path. Intense might not be the right word. All-consuming might be better. Right now, I was feeling hints of fear, and I knew it wasn't coming from Gran. This skinny, tall creature in front of me was terrified.

  "It's okay," I said, finding my voice again. It was shaky and what little smile I could produce was weak and forced, but it slowed the creature's movements all the same. "I'm sorry. I was startled is all."

  Gran patted its hand again and tugged on the rock. "Let's get you out of here." She dragged again. "Come on."

  It still wasn't budging, even though the traces of fear I felt had disappeared.

  "Cassie, dear, why don't you go back to the car and bring it closer," Gran said.

  "You want me to leave you alone with this thing?" I managed to keep my voice light, but the idea of walking off without Gran sat uneasily. It's not that I would have been able to do anything if this giant rock attacked, but at least she wouldn't be alone.

  "Darlin', go on. I don't think he's going to move much with both of us starin’ at him."

  "But-"

  "The car, Cassie." Gran used the same buoyant tone, but there was a promise of a stern talking to hidden beneath the surface.

  I wavered, but in the end, I did what Gran said. She would know if anything was about to go wrong, right? While squelching through the ditch, I convinced myself the universe would give Gran a grand revelation if the day was about to go terribly wrong, but I listened intently and was poised to run back the moment I heard any sign of distress.

  It wasn't until I got into my car that I realized, yes, Gran might know if something was about to go wrong, but if things were going to get bad, she'd probably send me away.

  With that realization, I shoved the car into gear and brought it as close as I could so Gran could jump in quickly if needed. The windows were rolled down so I could hear what was going on around us. My heartbeat was frantic, but increased to a dangerous pitch when Gran came up through the ditch, holding the hand of the impossibly tall hunk of stone as though it were a frightened child.

  My whole body was trembling when Gran opened the back door and ushered the beast inside. For my part, I kept my eyes straight ahead. My grin would have been manic instead of friendly and that would help no one.

  My car squeaked and dipped low when the rock got inside. It had compressed itself again to fit. When it scooted itself across the seat, I heard the fabric tear. It didn't bother me much, though. Right then, I was more worried about getting out of this situation with Gran and me alive and unharmed.

  Once the thing was settled, Gran jumped into the front seat.

  "Where are we taking this thing?" I asked, trying not to be obvious about staring at our new passenger through the rear-view mirror.

  "I'm surprised at you. You saw the person behind us move and act like an intelligent being and you're here treating it like an animal. I really thought better of you." Gran shook her head. "Go to my house."

  Gran's words drove a significant amount of my fear away, turning it first to anger, which quickly shifted to embarrassment. When I thought about her words, I felt shame overtake all else. Once again, Gran was right.

  From the passenger seat, she twisted to talk to the thing...no, person…the person in the backseat. Closer to the highway, more cars began to show up on the road. Gran motioned for the stone man to lower itself. From the mirror, I saw that he sunk and looked more and more like any other large rock.

  After that, Gran sat straight, but still spoke to it... or him, even though there was no response beyond the scraping noise of rock against rock as it adjusted itself. When a large military-looking truck drove by followed by other vehicles, all with lights and sirens, Gran tensed. Her new friend in the backseat ground himself more tightly down and made a new noise that sounded more like nails on a chalkboard than it did rock against rock.

  Gran responded by talking quietly and even reaching into the back seat to pat the stone.

  "Does it, uh, he or she, understand you?" I asked once things settled down again.

  "He," Gran said, "and I don't think he understands the words, but the tone of voice helps get the idea across."

  "Do you know what he is?" I asked. "Or where he came from?"

  "No idea what his race is, but I expect we can look him up on the Google."

  "Um, I'm not sure you can Google ‘rock person’ and expect to get good results."

  "We'll see," Gran said before turning her attention to the person in the back seat.

  Person. I had to remember that. It might look like a large stone monster, but it was a person. I was going to have a hard time wrapping my brain around that idea.

  "Do you know what that bright swirling light was?" I asked when Gran faced forward again.

  "I expect it's a way they travel," Gran said.

  "Travel? I've never seen anything like this. Where did he travel from?"

  "I’m not too sure where he’s from, and I don't know that many would be able to say they've seen somethin' like this. Takin' note of your reaction, I'm sure we'd have heard about it."

  My face began to turn crimson and I focused on the road. "I'm sorry. It was a bad reaction."

  "It was you not thinkin'. Not really seein' what's in front of you. You've been doing a lot of that in these last months."

  She wasn't wrong, so I didn't reply.

  "I think things will get better now, though," Gran said. "We both needed a little excitement back in our lives."

  "We've got that in spades now," I said under my breath.

  Gran laughed. "I suppose we do at that."

  The person in the back seat made a noise. Instead of sounding like rock grinding together, the noise was smooth rocks gently gliding across one another.

  "Is that...Do you think he's talking to us?" I asked.

  "Now y
ou're thinkin'." Gran seemed more pleased with her statement than I thought necessary. "It could be. Hopefully, we'll be able to figure it out."

  "You think we can get a translator that knows rock?" It was meant to be a joke, but there was a twinge of distress that got loose.

  "We won't know unless we try," Gran said.

  She sounded serious. I glanced over at her, and she looked content, as though this were an everyday occurrence.

  "We're almost to your place," I said. "What are we going to do when we get there?"

  "We'll need to get him inside," Gran said. "You'll have to drive into the garage. I don't want my neighbors feelin’ the need to get nosy about my business."

  "What are you doing with him after that?" I asked.

  "Doin’ with him?"

  "Yeah, I mean, it's not like he'll live with you forever, right?" Mentally, I was crossing my fingers that the answer was no, but after seeing Gran in action today, I wasn't really sure what to believe.

  "What comes next is up to him, I guess," Gran said.

  This didn't lighten my anxiety over the issue, but I drove into the driveway and jumped out. Thankfully, Gran's last husband had updated their garage door, so I punched in the key code and then moved my car into the shadowy depths of Gran's garage. Once the outside world was shut firmly away, Gran spoke with the man in the back.

  Leaving them to work things out for themselves, I let myself into the house. Since Gran really did have neighbors that would take note of activity inside the house, I went ahead and closed a few of the lacy curtains, but I kept the blinds open to let in some light.

  With that done, I went to find Gran in the kitchen. If she had made it into the house with the rock man, she would bring him straight there and try to get him to eat or drink something. Gran was born and raised in the south, and there were certain customs that she performed routinely. To her, the first and foremost course of action was to be a gracious host and make sure your guests had everything they needed.

  The stone man looked awkward sitting at the table. He watched me when I entered so I made sure to move slowly and tried my best to look pleasant when I sat down across from him. At least, I assumed he was watching. Sitting across from him was the first time I'd had the chance to get a good look at the man while not filled with fear.

  Don't get me wrong, I was still afraid of him, but it was no longer a terror that left room for nothing else. Levels of curiosity now had space to breathe.

  It's possible that he had eyes. He appeared to be looking around, so that indicated eyes, but I didn't see anything on his face that resembled them. There were two slits, and when he turned his head, I saw others in the back. Nose or ears maybe?

  As I got used to him, I began to see how beautiful he was. His entire body was made up of layers of colored rock. White and dark gray rock banded his middle section. His head was a blue-gray color with lines of white, and scattered across the surface, what appeared to be flecks of crystal. Those might be his eyes, I supposed.

  His arms and legs were mostly dark grays with hints of red. They somehow looked…harder. I had a feeling that if he had been human, I might have wondered if he lifted weights to build muscle.

  "Do you have a name?" I asked, as Gran sat a glass of sweet tea and a plate of cookies in front of him.

  He looked from me to Gran and back to me again.

  "I don't think he understands anything that we're sayin'," Gran said.

  "We need to call him something," I said.

  "Rocky?" Gran suggested.

  She had given me an idea and I grinned. "How about Dwayne? As in, The Rock."

  Gran chuckled. "Dwayne it is."

  The newly minted Dwayne poked the glass, pushing it forward an inch or so. It looked like he was unsure what the glass was for. Gran and I both demonstrated by drinking our own tea. That's when I noticed Gran's face fall.

  "Have you spoken to your mother today?" Gran asked.

  "No, why?" That had been my plan earlier in the day when I thought Gran might be slipping mentally, but after everything that had happened, I realized Gran was more stable than I was. Somewhere in the past two years, I had lost myself.

  "She'll be here any minute." Gran looked at Dwayne, as though sizing him up. "I don't think she's going to be happy once she meets our new friend."

  "She'll flip. I think it's better if she doesn't know anything about him. Can we hide him?"

  "There’s too much of him. I’m not sure we can convince him to scrunch down in the yard and I’ve no idea how to ask him to stay quiet. Unless we could talk to him and explain things, there’s no hidin’ him."

  "Maybe if we keep her out of the kitchen, it'll be okay." There was no way for me to sound convincing, even to myself.

  I could hear a car drive up and tried to think fast.

  "Okay, keep her in the livin’ room and find an excuse to get her to leave," Gran said. "You get the door. I'll be right there."

  Chapter 3

  The doorbell rang as I stepped into the living room. "Hi, Mom," I said after opening the door. She looked flustered, which was never a good sign.

  "Is everything all right?" she asked.

  "Uh, yeah, why wouldn't it be?"

  "Teddy, Mr. Simpson that is, mentioned that you had a family emergency. Where's your grandmother and why did no one call me?"

  Like me, Mom knew where Gran could usually be found, and she went straight for the kitchen.

  "Gran's fine," I said, but she didn't even pause. "Hey!" It came out without thinking. I raised my voice and my panicked tone wasn't a good one to use with my mother. There was no turning back if I wanted to stop her from going into the other room. "Why would Mr. Simpson tell you anything? You're working at a rival firm. Are you spying on me?" It did the trick and she turned around.

  "What on earth are you talking about?" she asked.

  "Why were you talking to my boss?" I put my hand on my hip, but I'm pretty sure I didn't pull off a glare.

  "Of course I'm not spying on you. Wherever would you get an idea like that? Now, is your grandmother all right?"

  Now that I had entered this line of questioning I actually was wondering why my mother was talking to my boss. "I told you, Gran's fine, and I got the idea that you were keeping tabs on me from the fact that you were talking to my boss."

  "Cassie, we're old friends. He was concerned that we had an emergency and he wanted to make sure everyone was okay. We also had a few things to discuss about an upcoming conference."

  "Oh." I felt slightly deflated and Mom grabbed hold of that.

  "Imagine what I felt like hearing this from someone else instead of you. If something happens to my mother, you have to call me."

  "Anala, it's good to see you, hun," Gran said, entering the room. "What are you two stirrin’ up a fuss about?"

  "Cassie was about to explain what happened today." She gave Gran a hug and looked her over. "You look okay. Did you have a bad spell?"

  "A bad spell of what?" Gran asked.

  "Well, I assumed..." She apparently wasn't ready to let Gran know that she was worried about Gran's age. "I thought that something happened, and since you both look well, it must be something else."

  Great, she was going to use this against Gran. "It was my mistake," I said.

  Mom looked at me expectantly.

  "Uh, Gran called the office and wanted a ride to the doctor, so I thought there was an emergency." It was almost true. "It turned out that Dee Dee couldn't take Gran to the eye doctor."

  Gran nodded and gave me a thumbs up while Mom was concentrating on me.

  "You thought that was an emergency? I was worried sick after I heard," Mom said.

  Not worried enough to call. Had she planned to use an emergency and her own concern to guilt Gran into moving in with her?

  She loved to be in control of everyone, so it was possible, but that was pushing things, even for Mom.

  "Sorry, Mom," I said, trying to sound sincere. "That talk we had about Gran the othe
r day made me jump to conclusions. You know, the one where you thought-"

  "Well," Mom broke in, "it looks like everything is fine here. Looks like we both jumped to conclusions.”

  It was petty, but I smiled at my small triumph.

  "Since I'm already here, what are you all doing for dinner?" Mom asked.

  "I have plans tonight," Gran said, "but I'd love to have dinner with you two another night." She skillfully took mom’s husband, Bob, out of the equation.

  "I thought we could chat, though," Mom said.

  A light sound of stone sliding across stone came from the kitchen and Mom looked up.

  "Actually, I was hoping you could help me with something," I said, once again thinking wildly, “at my apartment. Since you're still in town and have a few minutes, could I borrow you?"

  "What do you need help with?" Mom asked.

  Swallowing hard, I knew I was throwing myself under a bus to get Mom out of the house. "Decorating advice. I was thinking about getting a new living room set."

  "That sounds like fun," Mom said.

  She really did want to control everything.

  "Mom looks okay, and I do have a bit of time,” Mom said.

  A loud crunching noise came from the other room.

  “What is that noise?" Mom asked.

  "Refrigerator," Gran said quickly. "It started making that sound yesterday."

  "Would you like me to take a look, or ask Bob to stop by?" Mom asked.

  "I wouldn't dream of being a bother. Someone is comin’ to fix it tomorrow," Gran said.

  Mom nodded reluctantly. "Well, I guess Cassie and I will go. I still want to be home to make dinner for Bob tonight. I'm happy everyone is all right." Mom hugged Gran, and she looked sincere for the first time since she'd arrived.

  Maybe Mom really was anxious about Gran and thought she had a reason Gran shouldn’t live on her own anymore.

  Which to me sounded fishy. There was a way for me to cheat and see if she was only concerned, but I was nervous to try. Giddy, but nervous.

  For the first time in almost two years, I closed my eyes and reached for the Path. Relaxing, I stretched my mind to the edge of its knowledge. When I reached forward, I came to a mental cliff. Once I reached that point, I jumped to break free of the mundane physical world.