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brushing the ceiling. “You started rebelling,
getting into trouble.”
    “I took off with a band for a while, Aunt
Susan nearly cracked me over the head and chained me to the
radiator when she caught up with me four months later, but I was
out of high school, I didn’t see the problem,” Miranda said.
    “How old were you?”
    “Seventeen, I just graduated,” Miranda
replied.
    Bernie could see that she honestly didn’t
see the issue with a seventeen-year-old girl running around the New
York area with a band without telling her guardians where she was.
The parallels – Max spending his college fund on their old school
bus, road money and a demo around the same time, acts which
infuriated Bernie’s dad, but there was little he could do. The only
real differences were that Max was eighteen when he ran off, and
that Bernie went with him.
    “What?” Miranda asked after a stretch of
silence.
    “You’re perfect for each other,” Bernie
said.
    “I didn’t want a boyfriend, I’m here to
figure out the next act,” Miranda said. “Can’t think about that
though, not since that ride. The Gathering was all I came for, I
love nature, and connecting with the universe the way we do, so I
couldn’t skip this. I was looking forward to reuniting with you and
Scott too, and it’s good to see you both after so long. Max has
stolen the scene though.”
    “Stolen the scene?” Bernie asked.
    “I was in a few plays in New York, mostly
background stuff, it means…”
    “I get it,” Bernie said.
    “But if he’s going to be all broody and
quiet the whole time, I don’t know,” Miranda said. “I’ll hang out
until he cracks, if he cracks.”
    “He will,” Bernie said. “I think if anyone
can connect with him, you know, aside from me and Scott, you
can.”
    “Cool, but what’s with his British accent?
It’s even thicker than before.”
    “He spent four months in England with his
Great Uncle before he died,” Bernie replied. “Must have been three
years ago now. He brought back a small library and that
accent.”
    “Oh,” Miranda said. “At least I can
understand him, most of the time.”
    “So, instead of proving your aunts wrong,
you made sure you were one of the first things he saw when he came
into town?” Bernie said.
    “No,” Miranda said, shaking her head. “They
both had a vision, and they told me, where he’d be and when,”
Miranda confirmed.
    “Then you go there,”
    “To prove them wrong,” Miranda said. “I
wanted to get right up to him and take a good look, so I could go
back to my Aunts and say; ‘nope, I checked him out and didn’t even
get a buzz.’”
    “Then-“ Bernie started to reply.
    “Then I’m asking him for a ride out of no
where, I didn’t plan it, I didn’t even think about how it would
look to my Aunts, who are gloating,”
    “I heard that the first time,” Bernie said,
patiently. He was glad there would be dozens of people to talk to
once they got back to the farm. People other than the love-stunned
Max and Miranda.
    “Yeah, so I just forget everything and ride
with him, like we’re tucked into that blanket together all over
again, and time passes so fast, and we’re at the farm and I
remember – shit! I was supposed to turn my nose up at this
British-Canadian hick, not throw myself at him! Then he says; ‘take
it easy!’”
    “Do you want advice? Or are you just talking
to blow off steam?”
    “Oh, suck an egg!” Miranda shot at him.
    “That’s what I thought,” Bernie said. They
were finally getting close to the farm, and he wondered what
trouble awaited him there. He was the peace keeper between Maxwell
and Zackary, the lead guitarist and lead singer, but sometimes,
especially when Zack had gotten into a terrible substance and was
on a bad trip, Max was the only one who could calm him down. He had
a way with the inebriated and insane.
    “Sorry,” Miranda said, slowing the car down
to a reasonable speed, probably for appearances sake.
    “Don’t