Meeting (11 page)

“Hey,” Candra said, but she let Maya go by.

Tuesday at lunch,
Travis sat at the Janus House table. “How was the field trip?” he asked.

Twyla and Kallie groaned.

“Sviv
so
sucks!” Twyla said.

Kallie coughed theatrically. “My throat’s still sore, and I think I’m getting a rash.” She showed the backs of her hands. They were red and had small bumps on them.

“You know you’re not supposed to touch any of the plants,” Rowan said.

“But those flowers looked so soft.”

Gwenda took a wrapped parcel out of her lunch tin. “The Littles collected some good
sva
nuts, anyway,” she said, and opened the waxed paper to reveal something the size of a grapefruit but pale and solid-looking. She tapped it. It fell apart in slices. She handed them around to everyone.

Maya held hers in front of her. It was like a round piece of wood, about a quarter of an inch thick, only the edges felt softer and there weren’t any splintery parts. Rimi explored it.
Food
, she said.
Safe. Good for you, even.

Maya took a bite. Not really a crunchy texture; solid but soft. Buttery, nutty, a little salty, with faint undertones of garlic and smoke. “Yum,” she said. She looked up. Everyone else had already eaten their slices.

Gwenda laughed and passed around the rest of the slices.

“Did you learn anything good?” Maya asked.

“Some new healing songs,” Benjamin said. “Except they don’t use songs, really, they do something else with sound and pictures, and we have to transpose it to make it work for us. That’s the hard part, the transposing. Aunt Sarutha is really good at it. I’d like to learn how to do that. How did your
sissimi
meeting go?”

“Good,” said Maya.

“Do you know what species the partner was?” said Gwenda.

“I don’t. Aunt Noona said what he was, but I don’t remember. He was like a big furry pyramid with lots of arms, no feet, and three eyes, and his
sissimi
was one of his arms. He smelled good, but his food stank. He had a trunk like an elephant, only furrier.”

“Sounds like a
mrudim
,” Benjamin muttered. “We hardly ever see those. Most of them don’t like to portal.”

“
Mrudim
sounds right,” said Maya. “His name was Kachik.”

“He had a sense of humor,” Travis said. “And a real A-plus voice. Kind of like if a bear could talk.”

“You met him, too?” Rowan asked.

“Yeah, sure, why not? Didn’t have training to go to, since my teacher was off with you guys, so I tagged along to the tea room.”

“Harper said that was okay?” asked Rowan.

“Noona did, anyway.” Travis shrugged. “What’s your problem, Rowan?”

Rowan stared at Travis, sparks kindling in his amber eye. Then he shook his head and looked away. “Still trying to adjust to the new open,” he muttered. “Sorry.”

“They chased me out before Maya got too involved with the guy, anyway.”

“What does that mean, too involved?” asked Benjamin. He leaned forward.

“We did this
sissimi
thing called fusion,” Maya said. “I think we did it with Ara-Kita, too, only that time, it was more Rimi and Kita. I was sort of nearby but not really involved.”

“Fusion,” Benjamin said. “Sounds intense.”

“Yes.”

“Is that something you’ve done pictures of?”

“Not yet,” said Maya. She frowned. “There were a lot of colors and things—it’s in my head, but it’s not in my mind, so I don’t think it can come out of my hand yet.”

I wonder if
I
could draw it,
Rimi thought.

Don’t know,
Rimi thought.
Wait till we have private time and try them both, maybe.

“Hey,” Travis said. “I have a favor to ask.”

Gwenda set down her spoon and tin cup of soup. “What is it?”

“Would some of you come to my house after school today? The caretaker needs to leave early, so I have to go straight home. I’d like to introduce some of you to my oma. I can’t talk to her about anything in Janus House, since Harper junked my tongue. But maybe you guys could tell her what happened, about me being a
giri
in training and all that.” He glanced at Rowan. “That should be okay, right?”

Rowan nodded. “Since she’s
giri
herself.”

The Janus House kids looked at each other.

“I can come,” Gwenda said, “if one of you will say I’ll be late for singing class today.”

“Me, too,” said Benjamin.

“Do you need me as well?” Rowan asked. “At the business meeting last week, we discussed your oma. Aunt Noona said we should send help to her, since she had been our help for so long. We should talk to her about what she needs and what we can give.”

“Why don’t I just introduce her to Gwenda, Benjamin, and Maya—if you can come, Maya—and we can talk about the other stuff later?”

“All right,” said Rowan.

“I can come,” Maya said. “I’d like to meet her.” Tuesday afternoons she didn’t have training at Janus House, and she hadn’t found an after-school art class to sign up for yet. She was curious about Travis’s oma. He spoke of her with such tenderness, and then sometimes he was harassed and irritated about having to take care of her. She already had several pictures of Oma in mind. A real image would be better than invented ones.

“So, good,” Travis said. “Meet you guys out front after last period.” He went back to sucking Jell-O worms out of a cube of red cafeteria Jell-O with a straw.

 

 

 

After school, Gwenda, Maya, and Benjamin fell into step beside Travis. Leaf smoke scented the air. The sky was brilliant blue, and the fall leaves glowed orange and yellow on the trees along Passage Street. The trunks of the trees looked black and skeletal.

Travis glanced toward Dreams & Bones as they passed. Lots of people were inside, looking around.

“Do you go in there?” Maya asked Travis.

I want to go inside
, Rimi thought.
There’s something—a
skrill
—something. I want to
sisti
it.

“When I have time,” Travis said. “Weyland has a lot of great stuff, and he knows everything he’s got. He’s like a talking comics encyclopedia.”

“Wait. Wait. There’s a store here? How long has it been there?” Benjamin asked. “I never noticed it before.” His voice had an edge to it.

“Nor have I,” said Gwenda. She gripped Maya’s arm and stopped to stare toward the store. “The windows are cloudy. What’s inside?”

Maya looked into the café. The light was bright but touched with gold, making it look warm inside. Kids and grown-ups were sitting at the tables, reading comic books or working on their laptops or iPhones, drinks in tall, colored, flared cups beside them, plates of pastry next to their computers. Past the café part of the store were the wooden shelves full of books, manga, comics, and anime-related toys. There were lots of kids in the store, some of them talking to the proprietor, who leaned back against the glass case containing dice, role-playing game cards, and other game equipment.

“You can’t see inside?” Maya asked Gwenda.
Rimi, do you see the store?

Gwenda said, “I see soapy windows and a locked door. It looks run-down and vacant.”

“It’s a store,” Benjamin said. “I can tell that much.” He narrowed his eyes and stared at the sign. “There’s writing on the sign, but it’s faded, and some of the letters are missing.”

“You guys are kidding, right?” Travis said. “Dreams and Bones has been here about a year and a half. All new.” He pointed to the sign, which to Maya looked sparkling and clean, red letters outlined in yellow against a dark brown background: DREAMS & BONES.

Benjamin shook his head. “That’s not what I see.”

“I don’t even see a sign,” Gwenda said. She touched some of the charms on her bracelet and sang softly in Kerlinqua. Her eyes widened. “Oh! Oh! Benjamin!”

He sang the same phrase she had, and staggered back, almost stepping off the curb. “Oh! I’ve never seen wards like this before. We have to tell Columba.”

“But—” Travis said.

“It’ll keep,” said Gwenda. “It’s already kept a year and a half. Probably it’s not an immediate threat. And we promised Travis we’d go home with him today.”

Benjamin sucked on his lower lip. “Okay,” he said.

They turned away from Passage Street and headed north. Some porches of the houses they passed bore pumpkins, and one yard had a witch scarecrow and her arched-back black cat lurking near a big cauldron on the front lawn. Another house had fake spiderwebs with big black spiders hanging from the porch eaves. Someone else had put up tombstones on their front lawn, and another yard sported leaf bags that looked like giant skulls staring toward the street.

“Are you going to dress up for Halloween?” Maya asked Travis.

“Probably not so much,” he said. “I’ll be handing out candy with Oma, most likely. Me and the digital camera. We like to have pictures of the best costumes. This way.” He turned from Passage Street onto Thirty-fourth.

The houses got bigger as they walked, the yards more expansive, more hidden behind various kinds of hedges. The decorations here were smaller and less fun, more like things picked by grown-ups who didn’t know any kids.

“Interesting neighborhood,” said Benjamin.

“Yeah. You never see anybody playing outside at these houses,” Travis said.

“When you were little, did you play in the yard?” Maya asked.

“I played all over my old neighborhood. Dad and I have only lived with Oma since the crash.”

“When was the crash?”

“A year ago.”

“Great-aunt Elia died about a year and a half ago,” said Benjamin, “and I guess your oma didn’t connect much to anyone else at Janus House. Great-uncle Harper must have known her—Elia was his favorite sister and they spent a lot of time together—but he didn’t sponsor her to come back after Elia died. I don’t know what that’s about. There are two other
giri
at Janus House now. One of them, Miss Delia, was chosen by Cousin Columba, and she’s friends with several other people now, and does errands for all of them. She’s about sixty. The other one, Morgan Fetters, is
really
old, and was recruited by Istar Jerusalah, the one who used to be in charge of everything before Harper took over. He’s too old to do much for us. Some of the cousins stop by and check on him and take him places if he needs help.”

“Uh . . . was I supposed to get chosen by somebody?” Travis asked. “If I was, who is it?”

Benjamin laughed. “That’s right,” he said. “Somebody has to pick you! I’ll do it.”

“Does that mean we’re best friends?”

Benjamin looked sideways at Travis, still grinning. “Works for me.”

“Okay,” said Travis. “Maybe we should, you know, like, get to know each other better. What would happen if you sat with my other buddies at lunch sometime, instead of at the Janus House table? Would the universe implode?”

“I don’t know,” said Benjamin. “Let’s try it and see.”

“Benjamin, we’re not supposed to—” Gwenda said.

“It’s different if the person is
giri
,” Benjamin said.

They walked in silence for a little while, and then Gwenda said, “Maybe I can get a
giri
, too.”

“Or you could go sit at a different table with me and Rimi,” Maya said. “What do you think about Helen Halloran?”

“She’s always nice,” Gwenda said. “Nicer than most. You know? We have a rep at school. Most people just ignore us. Helen has lots of friends, but she still says hi to us once in a while.”

“What about Sibyl Katsaros?”

Gwenda frowned.

“There’s something off about her,” Travis said.

“Yes,” Gwenda said. “She has music on her, only some of the pitches are tuned differently. There’s something.... Something.”

“So it’s not just me,” Maya said.

“She noticed Rimi,” Benjamin said. “Usually if people see something strange, like pencils moving by themselves, their brains make up some kind of excuse for it, and they forget it. She watched. I think she saw.”

“We’re here,” Travis said. He stopped at a house with a low rock wall in front of it. Some of the rocks were huge chunks of agate, and some were black-and-white streaked granite, with gleaming mica. The wall was just the right height and width to sit on comfortably, and between it and the sidewalk was a little strip of garden that hosted a lot of bushy chrysanthemums, most blooming in colors of rust and fire. An opening in the middle of the wall gave onto a flagstone pathway that ran between flanks of overgrown garden to the front porch of the house. Two steps led to the front porch with a wheelchair ramp beside them.

A cardboard skeleton was tacked to the door. It was smiling.

Travis crossed the porch, unlocked the front door, and stood back, revealing a wide hallway with dark walls. Framed art hung against the dark paneling. A runner carpet with a pattern of autumn leaves led toward the far end of the hall. Light came from the doorway to a room on the right side.

“Oma? Artemis? I’m home,” Travis called as he followed the others into the hall.

“Well, thank goodness, that,” said a woman who came out of the room with light leaking from it. She was skinny and had brown, bushy hair and sandy brown skin. She pulled a beige jacket on over her orange dress, grabbed a messenger bag, and slung it over her shoulder. “You tend to her right now. She needs to go to the bathroom.” The woman rushed past them and out the front door.