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rebuilding his life. And they couldn’t see that he looked better than he had in a long time. A deranged driver had blown him off his feet, but flashbacks, chronic pain, and grief at losing his best friend in the crash had kept him down. When finally he had sought help, he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. Now, at last, he was on the mend.
    Wally was suppressing a smile. “How are things back in ...”
    “Manitoba. Good.” Jesse took the name tag from Ceci. “And I was a political prisoner.” He turned and headed into the club.
    Ceci held out a welcome pack to Wally. “It has your fifteen-year commemorative pin, the Dog Days Update book, and coupons for ten percent off at Krause’s Auto Body.” She handed Abbie her pack. “Discounts at Weight Watchers, too.”
    Abbie smiled. “How’s their program working for you?”
    Ceci colored. Abbie and I strolled after Jesse.
    “What’s with her?” I said.
    “She’s the dental hygienist for Wally’s practice. She’s an anal-retentive neat freak who thinks she could run his life much better than a slob like me.” She pushed her glasses up her nose. “She’s been coming on to him for years.”
    I managed not to gape. Abbie and Wally had three happy blond children and always seemed to make each other laugh. We should all be so lucky.
    Above the bandstand hung strings of red lights shaped like chili peppers. The band was pumping out old pop rock, the jump juice of our youth. People crowded around the buffet table, their plates piled with coleslaw and weenies toothpicked to pineapples. Fusion cuisine, desert-style. The acreage of shiny spandex on display could have covered the Hindenburg .
    I smiled, suddenly glad to be back.
    China Lake is the navy’s top weapons-testing facility. I was thirteen when the U.S. Navy transferred my family here. It was not the California of my dreams, consisting instead of crystal skies, shrieking fighter jets, jackrabbits, and blowing sand. When we drove into town my mother, who had weathered transfers from Norfolk to D.C. to Pearl Harbor, inhaled sharply.
    My father, driving with one elbow cocked on the window frame, smiled and said, “Welcome home, Angie. Again.”
    She smoothed her hair against the wind and peered back at my brother and me. She had on her game face. This is what we do. We’re a navy family. Chin up . Right then, my stomach hurt. Twenty years later, this place was more or less my hometown.
    Abbie stuck by my side. “Man, look at Becky O’Keefe. Tell me my butt isn’t that big.”
    “Not by half.”
    “You’re a lousy liar.”
    I stopped. “Oh, no.”
    On the wall behind the buffet hung a display of photos, blown up to poster size. Jesse was parked in front of it, shaking his head.
    “Rock my world. Now I’ve seen everything,” he said.
    The photo showed me standing on the football field at halftime of the homecoming game, wearing a fake ermine stole and a cockeyed rhinestone tiara. I was clutching the arm of my escort, Tommy Chang, and looking surprised out of my head.
    Jesse’s mouth skewed to one side. “Evan Delaney, homecoming queen.”
    “Can I get a drink before you start in on me?” I said.
    “And you never told me. All this time I’m thinking of you as the tomboy, the sprinter, the outsider. . . .”
    Abbie nodded.“Dirt biker, creative writer, girl gladiator ... ”
    “He doesn’t need any help,” I said.
    “Talk about a cover story,” Jesse said. “Did everybody in China Lake live a double life?”
    “Yes. Like you.” I raised a fist. “Fight the power. Free Canada.”
    He gazed at the photo again. “Who’s that in the background?”
    “Valerie Skinner.”
    “Your mortal enemy?” He leaned forward. “Why does she look blurry?”
    “She lunged and knocked the tiara off.”
    “She looks like a rottweiler. She really held the grudge that hard?”
    Abbie grabbed a pineapple weenie. “Like a vise grip.” She looked at the posters. “I wish they’d put up the