Ashlyn's Radio by Norah Wilson, Heather Doherty Page A

conclusion.) But it hadn’t worked on Maudette.
    Ashlyn knew for a fact that her grandmother liked Rachel. She’d said as much when she’d seen the Riley car pulling out of the driveway. Maudette didn’t hold with the village gossip about Rachel being odd or a witch. Which was understandable. Ashlyn could only imagine the ugly names thrown at Catherine Brennan over the years. But as much as Maudette liked Rachel, she wasn’t budging. Literally. She stood in front of the door, barring it.
    “That’s totally unfair!” Ashlyn shouted.
    Maudette just stood there, her arms crossed over her ample chest.
    “Arghhh!” Ashlyn crossed the floor and thumped her way up the stairs to her room. She slammed the bedroom door. Twice for emphasis.
    Dammit, what now?
    She paced the room, burning off steam and examining her options.
    God, she had to get out of this house tonight! She’d go crazy if she didn’t. Especially knowing Caden was waiting for her. She’d thought of him all week, ever since Rachel had proposed this Friday night hook up. And she’d talked to him out at the kennels a few times (not too many times so as to make it really obvious, but enough times so it was … obvious that she liked him).
    Caden….
    Her resolve hardened. No way in hell was she staying in tonight.
    So … what to do?
    She could march right down into the kitchen and out through the front door. Or the back door, if Maudette still stood guard at the front. It wasn’t like the old woman would throw a tackle at her, pin her to the floor or anything. But Ashlyn wasn’t sure she wanted to openly defy Maudette. Not anxious to go down that particular one-way road. But she’d be damned if she was going to be a no-show while Rachel and Caden waited down by the river. In the dark. Together.
    Flirting. Laughing. Kissing.
    Cursing, Ashlyn shook her head to dislodge the unwanted — and unwarranted — image of Rachel and Caden. Rachel wouldn’t do that. She knew Ashlyn was seriously crushing on Caden. She’d respect that.
    Wouldn’t she?
    Ashlyn groaned. What was it about that boy? She’d had a couple of boyfriends in Toronto over the last few years — both of them pretty damned cool by Jarvis Collegiate standards — but neither of them had made her feel like this. While she’d felt appropriately … proprietary … over those other guys (just ask that total poser who’d try to latch onto her B-boy), she could see now what a pale emotion that was compared to how she felt around Caden. And he wasn’t even her boyfriend. Yet. But here she was, ready to go off with him in search of a freakin’ ghost train, for God’s sake!
    Yeah, the train. Despite Rachel’s vehemence, Ashlyn still couldn’t wrap her mind around the … um … legend (she refused to think of it as an urban legend on principle, since nothing in Podunk Junction deserved that adjective). Come on, a ghost train chugging through the Junction, blowing its whistle and stealing the souls of those who climb aboard?
    Yeah, yeah, the radio. Ashlyn was perfectly aware of her own hypocrisy. If the radio could do what it did — playing without power, predicting the future, coming back from destruction and following the Caverhills around — then anything was possible. Theoretically. But a ghost train with a soul-stealing conductor? Ashlyn wasn’t sure her mind could stretch that far.
    But she was pretty sure her body could make the leap out the window. Well, more of a lean-launch than a leap. Out her bedroom window and into the nearby maple tree. How hard could it be? The wind was blowing just enough to set the limbs in motion. They brushed up against the windowpane as if egging her on.
    “Plan B it is.”
    Ashlyn opened her bedroom door, stuck her head out and hollered to her grandmother, “Okay, fine! You win! I’m in for the night! But … just leave me alone! ” Another door slam (she was getting good at this) and she was sure Maudette wouldn’t be climbing the stairs for another