"What's going on!" I exclaimed, standing up. "What's wrong with that spring?"
"There's nothing wrong with it, Willow. Wherever did you get that idea?" Mae said nervously before excusing herself to go take a walk.
"I'm not stupid," I said, looking at the rest of them pleadingly. Angus excused himself as well, to go be with his wife. "Please,"
It was Jesse who dissolved, whose hardness left him as he took pity on me.
"You can't tell her," Miles said, grabbing his brother's arm. "It'll be like normal, there'll be years before anyone figures it out!"
"She's just a kid," Jesse said. "She deserves to know what's happening to her!"
"You're just a kid, Jesse! And you'll be a stupid one, too, if you make this mistake. We can't trust her."
"We don't have a choice." Jesse broke away from his brother, taking Winnie's hand and leading her outside to talk.
"Miles, please tell me how to help her." I begged him, placing a hand gently on his shoulder
"What's your name again, girl?"
"Willow," i told him.
"Fitting," He laughed. "Well, I guess you ought to know then too, since we're telling everybody now. The spring, it does stuff to us. We stop, Willow, we stop aging."
"You're immortal?" I laughed, not believing him. "You think, because you drink from a certain spring, that you're immortal?"
"Everybody drank, everybody except for the cat, then things started happening. Jesse fell from a tree, some twenty feet up, and he didn't die, not a scratch on him. A group of hunters mistook Mae's horse for a deer-there were bullet holes, but he still stood, right as rain. The cat died, but not us. We didn't die, and we won't die."
I stared at him intently, wondering how all this could be, when the sound of laughter came in on the wind.
"She's taking this awfully well," Miles mumbled.
"So Winnie's...oh god, her parents are going to shoot me. We can't go back, not now, they'll-"
"Yes! That's it, exactly what I'm trying to say. She can't go back, Willow, because they'll see it, they'll know somethings wrong with her and we'll be found out, all of us." Miles said, taking my hand. I saw the anger in his eyes, the urgency as he thought back to another time.
"I feel sick," I said slowly, running out of the cabin just as Winnie came in.
"I told her," I heard Jesse say as I left. "I told her about the water really being piss."
I stopped in my tracks and vomited over the side of the porch.
Piss, that's what he came up with? If he really didn't feel like dropping the immorality bomb he could have come up with something even the slightest bit normal, like e coli or the possibility of it being poisonous. Piss, really? Winnie's supposed to believe that you all drink your own urine.
"I told her the truth, Miles," Jesse said, trying to egg his brother on. "That we drink it, you know, cause it helps our immune system."
"I'm disgusted," Winnie admitted. "But no harm done, I guess, right?"
"Right..." Miles said, obviously put off. "Willow, do you want to come in here? Willow knows too, Winnie."
I entered the room.
"It's definitely gross," I said, playing it off. "C'mon, Winnie, how about we clean up dinner while the boys find their parents, alright?"
The boys nodded, walking off quickly.
"That's their big secret? I never would have guessed, it tasted just like normal water!"
"I bet it did," I said quietly. "Oh, I threw up on their porch! I better clean that before they get back," I lied, running outside to catch up with the boys.
"Hello?" Jesse said, alarmed.
"It's just Willow," Miles shrugged.
"What were you thinking, you didn't tell her?" I said, hitting him on the shoulder.
"Hey! Winnie wasn't ready." Jesse said. "Wait, Miles, you told her?"
"Well, ready or not, she's coming Jesse! She can't go home now, do you know that? She's going to wonder why we're keeping her here."
"Jesse's got a little crush on your baby cousin," Miles said. "He was afraid if he told her that she'd run off."
"And lying to her is going to make it so much better?"
"I couldn't tell her, she's so little and innocent and trusting, really really trusting."
"She's going to be that way forever!" I exclaimed. "You better get used to it."
"Where does she think you are, anyways?" Miles asked. "Did you tell her you were going to meet us?"
"Unlike some, i'm not totally dumb. I told her I had to clean up vomit on the porch and ran off." I shrugged.
"See, you lie too!"
"She wouldn't have to lie if it wasn't for you!" Miles yelled; then he sighed and turned to me. "Look Willow, you better turn back, she'll be expecting you soon. We'll see what Mae and Tuck want to do."
Jesse ran ahead, searching for his parents, and I hung back with Miles.
"I'm scared for her," i admitted.
"Willow, are you...are you going to drink the water too?" Miles said, and I saw that look of memory in his eyes again-he was looking at me like I was someone else.
"No," I said quietly. "I don't want to be like this forever, not if I have a choice."
"You're a smart girl, Willow, that's what Tuck would say." Miles said, looking off towards the lake.
"What do you say?" I said, looking up at him.
Instead of answering me, he walked off. I wasted a moment staring at his back before turning around myself and heading back to the house.