A Clatter of Jars (13 page)

Renny

“
D
O YOU WANT SOME P
UNCH?”
R
ENNY ASKED HIS
brother as they rolled their sleeping bags onto the lodge floor. Miles had picked the spot by the door to the kitchen, which had the absolute worst view of the screen Del had set up for the movie. “Hannah made it this afternoon. I could get you some.”

“No, thank you,” Miles replied, crawling inside his sleeping bag.

Renny pressed his hands against his sides to stop them from fidgeting. Ever since the campfire, he couldn't manage to keep them still. “You sure you don't want to . . . climb the wall?” he joked. “Try out Nolan's Talent before you have to give it back?” Chuck had Coaxed new Talents to everyone, it seemed, at the campfire—everyone except Renny. Chuck hadn't given him anything.

(She had, in fact. But Renny didn't know that.)

“You could”—Renny's eyes swept the lodge, searching for a good punch line to his joke—“kiss the moose up there.”

Miles zipped his bag around him. “I don't like kissing moose.”

Renny settled himself into his own sleeping bag, not even bothering to change into his pajamas. When he was sure Miles wasn't watching, he pulled the jar from his pocket, squinting at the smeared ink on the label.
CODE
, it could be. Or
COOS
.

“When are you going to put the bracelet on?”

Renny startled at his brother's voice.

“None of your business,” he told Miles, his hands beginning to fidget again.

“If you put it on now,” Miles said, “then you could use it at dress rehearsal tomorrow.”

Renny searched his brother's face. “Are you mad at me?” he asked.

“You have to put the bracelet on,” Miles said, his voice as flat as if he were reciting Talent history. “You earned it.”

No matter how hard Renny pressed his hands into his sides, they still kept fidgeting. “It was only
water
,” he whispered to Miles, when the lodge lights had dimmed and the movie had started. “You can't be mad at me, because it was only water.”

Spinach.

The memory hit Renny hard, and it tasted rancid, like spinach that had sat too long in the refrigerator.

He'd been young, Renny remembered, scratching the turned-spinach memory. A toddler. He'd wandered through a gate, toward a sparkling swimming pool.

Sputtering-and-gagging-and-coughing-and-screaming.
Renny pressed his hands hard against his sides as he tasted the rest of the memory. Willed his heart to slow in his chest.

“Why didn't you ever tell me you almost drowned?” he asked his brother. It was Miles's memory he'd gotten, Renny was sure of it. “Why didn't you tell me that's why you're afraid of water?”

Miles didn't answer. In the darkness, Renny watched his brother's sleeping bag rise and fall with breath, and he rolled the turned-spinach memory over and over.
Scratch scratch.
He pressed his hands into his sides to stop them from fidgeting.

It wasn't until he was on the edge of sleep that it occurred to Renny to wonder how Miles had given him his memory, after his Recollecting Talent had been Coaxed to someone else.

• • •

Deep in the night, Renny awoke. The lodge was still except for the gentle breathing of sleeping campers. The jar in Renny's pocket poked his hip. All was exactly as it had been when Renny had drifted off to sleep. All but Miles.

Miles was gone.

Chuck

C
HUCK PULLED A PILLO
W OVER HER HEAD, SHIF
TING TO
face the wall. She was finding it difficult to sleep, with the harmonica on the bedside table gleaming in the moonlight.

Ellie had said that everyone was mad at her for Coaxing their Talents. But Ellie was mad at Chuck for
not
Coaxing hers. And then there was Lily, who'd practically begged to have her Talent trapped away forever.

Chuck smushed the pillow harder against her head. As soon as the sun rose, she decided, she was going for a good, long swim. A dip in the lake ought to make her feel better.

Renny's Orange Cream Smoothie

a drink reminiscent of quiet nights on empty piers

FOR THE SMOOTHIE:

1 cup fresh-squeezed or store-bought orange juice

1 tsp freshly grated orange zest—less than 1 orange (optional)

1 large banana, frozen (see Note)

1
/
2
cup plain yogurt

1 tsp vanilla

Combine all ingredients in a blender or food processor, and blend until smooth. Serve immediately.

[Serves 1]

NOTE:
To freeze bananas, peel them, then store them inside a plastic ziplock bag in the freezer for several hours or overnight. This is a great use for overripe or mushy bananas.

Renny

R
ENNY STOOD ON
THE PIER ABOVE
L
AKE
A
TROPOS, PRESSING
his hands into his sides to stop the fidgeting. It hadn't been difficult to slip out the back kitchen door of the lodge. Judging from the Caramel Crème wrappers littering the kitchen floor, it was precisely how Miles had escaped, too.

Renny reached into his pocket and pulled out the jar from Jo's office.
Darlington Peanut Butter
, that's what was embossed on the bottom in curving letters. The yellow Talent bracelet shifted this way and that as Renny brought the jar to his nose, still unable to decipher the inky smear of letters on the label.

Renny stared down into the black water, lit only by the white globe of the moon. Fifty yards away on the pebbly shore, Renny heard a clattering noise, but he couldn't make out the source.

Miles had told him to put on the Talent bracelet. To claim the prize he'd earned. Renny should do it. He knew he should.

But he didn't.

Gripping the jar tight in his fidgeting hands, Renny pushed a thought to the very front of his mind. Miles may have lost his Talent for Recollecting at the campfire, but Renny knew
someone
had gotten it. And perhaps that someone would be able to pluck the memory out and pass it along to his brother, wherever he was.

You were never a disappointment to me,
Renny thought. The memory was cool and thick and sweet, like orange juice.
Remember THIS.

Renny flung the jar into the lake.

• • •

As Fate would have it, the small glass jar with the yellow bracelet that Renwick Fennelbridge hurled into Lake Atropos did not sink to the bottom entirely undisturbed. On its way down, the jar struck a large black stone.

The stone dislodged the jar's lid, and the bracelet settled itself among a patch of weeds, the treasure it had been holding in its woven threads seeping into the surrounding water.

Anyone who happened upon the scene—although of course no one would ever happen upon such a scene, not at the bottom of a lake—might have realized that the composition of the lake was shifting. It transformed quickly, before the sun edged its way back into the sky the next morning. Anyone who happened upon the scene might have said that it would be much too dangerous to swim in such compromised waters.

And anyone who happened upon the scene—well, anyone with a Talent for discerning smudged text—might just have been able to decipher the inky smear of letters written on the jar's lid.

COAX
.

But, of course, no one saw.

Lily

L
ILY AWOKE WITH A START.

By the time she'd made her way to the lodge for the slumber party, Max and Hannah had already picked sleeping spots, and the only place left for Lily was half wedged between the refreshment table and a stack of chairs. Every time she'd tried to talk to her brother, he'd said he was exhausted—even though he was gulping down punch like a person with plenty of energy. So Lily hadn't gotten a chance to tell him about Coaxing her Talent into the harmonica.

Orange juice,
Lily thought, rolling over the memory that had jerked her awake.
Cool and thick and sweet.
But just as she thought she'd snagged the memory, it fluttered away again, clearly not meant to stick to her.

Lily blinked once, then twice, then fell back to sleep.

Renny

M
ILES WASN'T IN THE
EQUIPMENT SHED.
H
E WA
SN'T
behind the archery targets. He wasn't at the camp store. (Although he'd been there, Renny could tell, because every last case of Caramel Crèmes was empty, and five bills poked out from underneath the register.)

Renny searched and searched, deep into the night, but his brother was nowhere to be found.

When Renny couldn't think of a single new place to look, he headed to Cabin Eight and curled up on Miles's empty mattress on the bottom bunk. Pressing his palms hard into his sides to stop the fidgeting, he fell asleep, his eyes wet with tears.

He'd never felt more like a disappointment.