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She and I got out and opened the doors. Crystal and Butterfly stepped out and Raven and I dug our fingers into the rear of the seat and pulled up. It came out easily and there we saw a few dollars worth of change, but we also saw something else.

"What's that?" I asked. I didn't touch it. Raven reached down slowly as Crystal looked over her shoulder and Butterfly looked over mine

It was a heavy clear plastic bag filled with what looked like white flour. Raven opened the bag slowly and put her finger in. She looked at me as she scooped up the powder and brought some to her lips. Her eyes widened.

"It's cocaine!" she declared, holding up the bag. "And a lot of it."

"Cocaine?" Crystal said. "Are you sure?"

"I'm sure. I've seen it before," Raven said. "My mother and her boyfriends used to leave some around our apartment. This is worth a lot of money."

"Gordon must have been selling it," I said. It started to rain harder again, but none of us seemed to care. "Now I understand what he was doing when I saw him with someone at the station wagon late at night. I bet that was his supplier or a customer."

"You did?" Butterfly asked.

"Yes, a few times. I thought he saw me watching him from the window last night and I got scared," I

said. "Wow, cocaine." My mind reeled. "And. we've been driving around with it stashed right under us."

"Yes, and-across state lines, too. Let's get rid of it right away," Crystal said.

Raven started to heave it.

"Wait," Crystal said. Raven hesitated.

"You want to keep it?"

"No. Give it to me," she said. Raven handed it to her. Crystal opened the bag. "We can't just throw it on the side of the road like this. Someone else might find it and sell it, even to kids, and we'd be

responsible." She walked away from the car.

"What are you doing?" Raven cried.

Crystal shook the bag into the wind. The powder flowed out and began to spread on the ground. The rain started to dissolve it quick

ly.

"Hurry up before someone comes and sees this," I cried.

Crystal shook harder. A small white cloud appeared and then thinned out and was gone in the wind along with most of the powder. Crystal walked a few feet deeper off the road and put the bag under a rock.

"Let's go," she called as a car appeared coming toward us.

We fixed the rear seat and everyone got back into the wagon. I started driving away as the approaching vehicle slowed. A man and woman gazed at us. They looked about fifty or so. They didn't stop, however. I watched them in my rearview mirror.

"I hope we're never sorry we did that," Raven whined.

"We'll be sorry about a great many things we've done," Crystal assured her, "but never about that."

"Wait a minute," I said as we continued to drive on. "We can't go back now."

"Why not?" Crystal asked.

"Gordon might not kill us for taking his car, but dumping his drugs . . ."

"Brooke's right, Crystal. There's no telling what he might do to us," Raven said.

Crystal was silent.