“Are you sure you want us along?” asked Ronnie. “We don’t know anything.”

  “Neither do I. So we’ll know three times as much nothing.”

  “We should have borrowed Harold Macklin from Kris.”

  “Mackie’s not mine to lend,” said Kris. “He’s certainly not my boyfriend. We just go out together sometimes.” She said nothing more for a few moments, her eyes on the road ahead. “He’s never seemed all that much into me.”

  Joey said nothing to that. She’d noticed. Ronnie had too. It was to be expected that the two had gossiped about it.

  “This our turn?” Kris asked.

  “Ridge Road? I think so,” said Joey. “Never been here.”

  “It’s a good thing I thought to bring a map,” Ronnie told them, holding it up. “Pine Ridge is confusing. The streets wind and are not numbered.” They could hear the rattle of the paper as she unfolded her chart on the back seat. “Hmm, was that Center Street? Keep going.”

  “Your brother knows Russ, right?” Kris asked over her shoulder.

  “Uh-huh. Take the next left.”

  “I’ve never met him,” said Joey. “An told me about the car. I ran into him when I was up at Edison.” Neither Kris nor Ronnie was likely to have ever had a conversation with An Wesolowski, despite being cssmates for years. A word or two at best. He was a quiet sort. A daydreamer. “He was enrolling too.” A te decision, like her own.

  “And Russ just graduated. There are still a lot of empty lots in this neighborhood, aren’t there? Big lots, too. Here we are.” Kris pulled her Volkswagen into the drive. “And that must be the car. God, it’s ugly.”

  “If it runs, I don’t care. Russ only wants seventy-five dolrs for it.” According to An. She couldn’t afford much more.

  “I wonder if the surf racks are included,” said Ronnie, squeezing out of the back seat. “You’ll have to get a board if they are.”

  “There are loads of cheap surfboards around,” Kris told them. “Everyone suddenly wants the new short boards and they’re practically giving the big ones away.”

  “That’s for sure,” said a tall, blond young man stepping out of the shadows of the open garage. “In fact, I have one of those I’d be willing to sell, too. Hi, Rhonda. And Kris, right? So you must be Joanna.”

  “Joey.” Had An called her that when he spoke to his brother? Of course, it was her name. She looked over the Corvair. It definitely was ugly on first look, but that was mostly the oxidized green paint.

  “It’s a Sixty-two,” Russ informed her as they walked over to it. “It runs fine but, um, it’s a bit of a dog with its two-speed automatic. You won’t win any drag races.”

  “Unless they’re against Ronnie’s Simca,” said Kris. “You wouldn’t stand a chance against the Bug.”

  “We’ll all have rear-engine cars if you get it,” Ronnie said.

  Kris snickered. “They’ll call us the Unsafe at Any Speed Gang.”

  “Yeah, yeah, sure. Can we take a test drive?” Joey asked. “You and me, not these two.”

  “Sure. The keys are in the ignition.” Russ slipped into the front passenger seat without further words.

  It took a few seconds for the engine to catch. Joey scanned the dash in front of her. “Where’s the shifter?”

  “That little lever there.” Russ pointed it out. It looked more like it belonged on a toaster than in an automobile. “Despite the two-speed tranny, it does have pretty good power. More than your friends’ cars.”

  She nodded. Joey knew the Corvair had a bigger engine. Hmm, noisy, but not as noisy as Kris’s car. Smoother, too. She backed out of the concrete drive.

  “You have a new car?” she asked as she put it into drive and gingerly gave it some gas.

  “Yeah.” Russ chuckled. “A new old car. A van, actually.”

  Joey had seen the Econoline in the driveway. It was green too, a darker green. “For surf trips. Can I turn here?”

  “Yeah, Hickory will loop back around.” He waited until she went around the corner. “Surf trips, right. I can camp in it. I took this Corvair to the east coast more than a few times.”

  Then at least it was dependable. Or had been at some point. Russ had been driving it back and forth to Edison too. “Now you’ll be going to college over there.”

  He only nodded and looked out the window. Houses stood here and there among the vacant lots of pine and palmetto. The lots to the right were quite rge. Some had fencing and pasturage. Horses, maybe? Joey didn’t see any.

  “Take the next left, if you want. Or drive more.”

  “Nah, that’s enough. Seventy-five is definite?”

  “It seems like a reasonable amount to me.” Joey almost ughed at his nonchant drawl.

  “Me too. Consider it sold.” She knew there would be more expenses. Insurance. That could be worried about ter on. There was the Wesolowski house. Not just a house. A sign out front said something about it being a veterinary clinic. She wasn’t sure it was actually in Pine Ridge, strictly. A couple spindly pines stood in the front yard and there was a separate parking space over to the far side. For people and their pets, Joey figured.

  Her friends stood at the front of the open garage, looking at something on the floor. Oh, a surfboard. Ronnie came out to greet them. “What do you think?” she asked.

  “The deal is done. I just need to slip this guy some greenbacks.”

  “And sign some papers so we can change the registration,” added Russ. “Hey, how’s your brother doing these days? I don’t hear much from him.”

  “Neither do we. I guess the navy’s keeping him busy.”

  Russ nodded slowly. “He never said a word to me before enlisting.”

  “He didn’t say much to his family,” said Joey. Ronnie had confided at the time. Two years ago.

  “No, he didn’t,” Ronnie agreed. She didn’t seem to want to say more.

  “You serious about selling your surfboard?” asked Kris, emerging from the shade of the garage.

  “I am. An wants to strip off the fibergss and cut it down into a short board but I’d rather not let him!”

  “An surfs?” asked Joey.

  “I’ve never seen him,” added Kris.

  “That he does. We usually go to Doctor’s Pass ’cause it’s nearer, so you wouldn’t see us much at the pier. If you’re serious, fifteen bucks and you can have both the board and the surf racks. I don’t feel like bothering to remove them anyway.”

  “We’ll all chip in,” said Ronnie. Kris nodded agreement.

  Of course, the racks would stay on her own new old car, Joey realized. She’d be the one carrying the board around. “It is long, isn’t it?”

  “Nine-six. The square-ender is, um, not the best to learn on, maybe. It’s designed as a specialty board. A nose-rider.” Russ let out a small, quick ugh. “Something that’s gone out of style all of a sudden.” He went to pick it up. “It’s in good shape and not all that heavy. Gordon and Smith makes good boards. Officially, this is known as the ‘Stretch’ model.”

  Joey could see where the square-ender nickname came from. The nose of the surfboard was squared off. Well, so was the rear but that was common enough. She’d seen enough surfers and boards to know the rudiments even though she’d never tried it herself. Kris had, but not seriously, just borrowing boys’ boards.

  A few minutes ter, money had changed hands and signatures had been scrawled. The board was atop Joey’s new car. Her new old car. “I’ll ride with you,” said Ronnie. “You can drop me at work.” She seemed hesitant to speak any further but she turned to Russ and said, “We’re all going to a party at the Summerlins’ house tomorrow night. Want to come?”

  Was she asking Russ Wesolowski out on a date? Well, she had said ‘we,’ not ‘me,’ hadn’t she? Still, it surprised Joey. Kris looked a tad bemused too.

  The boy frowned. “Tomorrow. Ah, no, I’m going to be heading out of town. For most of the rest of the summer, actually. That’s why I wanted to get the car sold right now.”

  “Then tell your brother,” Joey said. “He’s invited too.” She wasn’t quite sure why she made the invitation. Just because she’d run into An? She hardly knew him, really.

  “I’ll tell him but it’s unlikely he’d go. You know how he is.”

  “Yeah. He can just show up if he doesn’t want to call one of us or anything. Good to do business with you, Russ!” She got into the Corvair and cranked it. Her own car. Maybe she didn’t really need it but she did need the feeling of freedom that went with it. Ronnie slipped in on the passenger side.

  They were only a little way down the street when Joey asked, “Do you have a bit of a crush on Russ?”

  Ronnie stifled an embarrassed giggle. “I used to, when he hung out with Rick. They’d go snake hunting together, of all things.”

  “He’s into that naturalist stuff, huh?”

  “Yeah.” She looked out the window and didn’t speak again until Joey turned onto the highway. “He’s going to study biology at Florida Atntic. Marine biology.”

  “If he doesn’t spend all his time surfing.”

  “I wouldn’t put it past him.”