Amelia squinted down the road, holding her hand up to block out the sun, a piece of sour grass hanging out of her mouth. She wore a tie dyed t-shirt with handmedown jean shorts, so big and weighed down by

Isabel squatted in the sand, writing her name with a stick and crossing it out again and again. Selene walked over from the house, holding two plastic cups of water, a can of Diet Cherry Coke hanging out of her shorts pocket. When she reached the girls she jutted her hip towards Amelia, who reached over and grabbed the coke, then she brought one of the cups to Isabel who drank it thirstily, water spilling out the corners of her mouth.

The road Amelia's family lived on was a windy canyon road, lined with trees and grass that turned brilliant green in the winter but now, in the middle of July, everything was dried up and dead. Except the sour grass and the lizards that darted through it. On Tuesday the girls had gone to the public library and played computer games on the huge desktops in the air conditioned basement. On Wednesday they had a big family dinner and the girls had cleared all the leftover wine glasses to pour out onto the concrete patio and push around all the fruit flies that had drowned inside. On Thursday they had driven up to big Sur with Isabel and Selene in one car with their parents and Amelia in another with hers. Amelia gave Isabel and Selene a walky-talky and when the cars were close enough, winding up the sharp cliffs, they could hear her crackle in over the radio.

"Blue car to grey car, do you read me grey car? over."

"Grey car to blue car, we read you. What snacks do you have in your car? Over."

"Pirate's booty and clementines. Over."

"Triscuits and apple slices. Over."

"Did you see the dead rabbit in the road? Over."

"Yes. Over."

Selene did most of the talking. Isabel spent most of the ride with her head in Selene's lap, inhaling sharply with each tight turn as she imagined the car careening off the unprotected side and barrel rolling into the jagged rocks below.

Every summer Isabel and Selene sat together in the back of their parents grey Rav 4 with the cup holder pulled down between them as they drove down the coast towards California. Their father's family had lived there since he was born, nestled into the central coast right between the ocean and the fields.