“Oh shit, oh god!” Barb was getting out of the car. Barb was getting out of the car!

“What are you doing?!” I said in a harsh whisper, but she was already gone, camera forgotten, running like an idiot towards her equally idiotic boyfriend who’d gotten us in this mess.

For a moment my lizard-brain insisted I get in the front and drive away. Sometimes your lizard-brain knows what it’s doing.

I hesitated, then got out of the car too, hoping I’d see all three of them just standing there, safe and sound.

And there they were. They were actually just standing there, together at the front door of the little white house, talking to a very normal-looking woman. I blinked a few times to be sure this was what I was seeing before walking towards the house, the car rumbling its engine behind me.

“We’re really sorry,” Barb was saying as I got closer.

“You’re kids,” the woman said amiably, wiping her hands on her apron. She was plain-faced, but smiling, and that was good. “Kids get up to all sorts of shenanigans. ‘Specially right before summer. Like something gets inside ‘em and makes ‘em crazy.” She turned her smile on me as I approached. “H’lo. You with these ones?”

“I am,” I said. When I was by his side I grabbed Dennis’s hand, hard, relieved everything was okay and furious with him all at once.

“Pretty girls,” the woman said. “I never had no girls, just boys. You girls keepin’ these boys in line?”

“Apparently not very well,” I said, then laughed breathlessly. “We’re so sorry, we didn’t mean to trespass, we were just—“

“Oh, they already told me.” She put her hands on her hips in a way that reminded me of my own mother when she had reached the end of her patience. “Silly stories. Aren’t you too old for stories?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Dennis said. The woman turned her smile on him and it grew warmer. Parents liked Dennis. “And we’ll be going now. Get out of your hair.”

“Yeah, sorry,” Mark added needlessly.

“No worry,” she said, waving a hand at us. “You didn’t cause any trouble. Least had your music down. Can’t tell you how often I come out here to godawful noise, devil rock music and screeching tires. You all had the sense to be quiet about it.”

“We won’t bother you again,” I said, tugging on Dennis’s arm to show him we should get the hell out while the getting was good. “It’s getting dark, but it was nice meeting you—“

“Just tell those other kids that you didn’t find nothing,” the woman said, not unkindly. “The less of you out here, the better.”

“You got it.” Barb was also pulling on Mark, trying to make him move, but he was still standing there like he had missed something. “Now,” she added, and finally he turned away from the little white house.

“Have a good summer,” the woman called after us, “and stay out of trouble, you hear?”

“We will!” I shouted back.

When we were all in the car, I started laughing. Not quite hysterically, but in that scary way when you’re not sure you can stop.

“Just a nice lady,” I said between giggles. “A nice lady in an apron! You guys had me scared shitless!”