Silent Symmetry (The Embodied trilogy) (15 page)

I shifted in my seat to get a better look at him. He was clutching the steering wheel at the top with both hands, the same way he had done the time I’d met him.
I suddenly found it hard to concentrate. What did I want to ask him again? Oh yeah – about Noon.

“Can I ask you another question, Sir?”

He gripped the steering wheel tighter, didn’t acknowledge me. Wow, it must have been the hum of the engine or the rhythm of the road, but I was almost passing out from tiredness.

“Are you
Noon and Aranara’s father?”

He looked at me in the rear-view mirror. Out of the blue, I had an almost irresistible urge to pee.

“Can we stop please? I have to go to the restroom.”

He nodded. “Two minutes.”

As I waited for him to reach the rest area, my mind wandered. Wasn’t there something I needed to know? It was like having a word at the tip of your tongue but you can’t think of it, no matter how hard you try. Or like trying to remember a dream that was so clear the moment you woke up, but then dissolves back to nothing by the time you get out of bed.

Cilic took the next exit and parked the limo outside a gas station convenience store. He stayed in the idling car while I went inside. On my way out of the restroom I grabbed some beef jerky, an iced tea and a gossip mag. Then I grabbed two more. It was gonna be a long ride if this was the level of conversation. I decided to text Cruz to make
sure he was clear on the plan.

Crap
, I must have left my phone in the car. When I opened the limo door, it was already ringing. It was a panicked Pops.

“Kari, honey! Oh my god, where are you?”

“On the... the bus to New York, like I said,” I answered as Cilic merged back onto the highway.

“Gran and I almost had a stroke.”

There you go.

“How could
you do this to us?” he went on (but I could hear the relief somewhere underneath the panic).

“Don’t worry, Pops. Mom knows already.”

“I know she knows, but did it never occur to you how upset we would be?”

“Yes, Pops, it did. I’m sorry.”

Gran snatched the phone away from him.

“You’re just a child!” she squawked.

“Hi, Gran,” was all I said.

“You made me
cry
.”

I was starting to feel
crappy.

“Okay, I know. It was bad. But didn’t you do anything crazy when you were young? Weren’t you ever a teenager in love?”

“Honey, I never ran away from home.”

Now I felt even worse because I was lying to her twice over. I wasn’t on the bus and I wasn’t running away to be with Cruz, like I’d told them in the note and told
Mom in the email. I was running because there was something exciting going on. Something bigger than my life. And I just couldn’t resist. I hoped they’d understand one day.

“How about I call you when I get in? Would that make you feel better?”

“Sure, but don’t you ever do anything like this again, young lady,” she admonished me.

“Okay. I love you, Gran.”

“So do I. But please be careful.”

“Promise.”

As the word came out of my mouth, I knew I wouldn’t keep it.

I hung up and started to read the magazines. I’d forgotten all about my questions for Cilic. It was warm in the limo, and as the afternoon went on, my head started bobbing. I found myself reading the same article three times. Eventually, I fell asleep.

Big mistake.

* * * * *

I opened my eyes and assumed I was dreaming. It was the huge, empty pyramid room in the ToT apartment and I was lying on my back on the floor. The immense ceiling, the black and white tiles, windows covered over... I turned my head and could just see the tiny diamond pyramid sparkling a few feet away from me in the middle of the floor. But now I noticed something I hadn’t seen before: another tiny diamond pyramid embedded in the ceiling above it, pointing downward.

I propped myself up on my elbows and blinked a few times. Okay, I wasn’t dreaming. WTF was going on?
I stayed like that, stunned, for several seconds. Why was I here? Where were Cruz and Aranara?

I got to my feet and approached the closed door. Then I froze as I realized that the door wasn’t the same. This door was sleek, made of metal, not the old wooden apartment type. I turned to look back at the rest of the room. Now that I was paying
more attention, I could see that I’d been mistaken. When I woke up, I guess I’d imagined seeing windows boarded up because I was expecting them to be there, so I hadn’t noticed that there weren’t any windows at all. There were just four smooth walls with a door in the middle of one of them. This room was somehow a modern version of the other one in The Warrington.

I reached in
to my pocket for my phone. It was gone! Okay, now this was super freaky. I ran to the door and tried to open it. Locked. Not only that, but there was no keyhole to look through. I started hammering on it.

“Hey! Let me out! Hey!!”

A whirlwind of confusion and fear enveloped me. I was about to shout out again, but then my brain seemed to disconnect and a wave of calmness washed over me. I stepped back from the door. And it opened.

Aranara entered, closing
it quickly behind her.

“Shhhh
...” she said, taking both my hands in hers. “There’s nothing to worry about. You’re totally safe here.”

I looked into her beautiful eyes and I believed her. Somewhere though,
in some lost corner of my mind, there was a voice. And it was my voice. The voice that always questioned things, that was always curious. The voice that had gotten me into this situation in the first place.

“Where is here? Where am I?” I asked her.

“We needed to get you away from the Temple of Truth, Kari,” she answered, still holding my hands.

“But this looks just like the room there!”

She squeezed my hands tighter. “There’s a reason for that. You’ll find out soon.”

“Why isn’t Cruz here too?”

“Kari, I’m sorry, but...”

“But what?!!”

She lowered her gaze for a second, then looked back up again. Her hazel eyes and soft hands were so incredibly calming. Why wasn’t I freaking out more?

“We saw each other over the holidays.”

“Yes, I know – you ran into each other in Chelsea Market.”

“That’s what he told you?” she asked, feigning surprise.

Oh man, I didn’t like where this was heading.

“Uh-huh.”

She smiled apologetically. “No. We saw each other a whole bunch of times. Like I said, I’m really sorry. I broke it off when he told me he loved me.”

I couldn’t believe it. Yet I did.

“He...” was the only word that came out through my dry lips.

Aranara pulled a plastic
water bottle out of her purse.

“You must be thirsty – have a drink.”

I took the bottle and had a big, long gulp. So I was right to be jealous of Cruz and her! Who could blame him, I guess. Why didn’t I feel more mad at him?

I drank some more, staring off into space. Aranara took back the empty bottle.

“I feel really bad, Kari,” she said. “I thought we were just hanging out, but then he kissed me and said he loved me. I told him right away that I didn’t feel the same and asked him about his feelings for you. He answered that he cared about you, but that you guys were more like brother and sister.”

Why didn’t I feel more mad at
her
? Wait – brother and sister – I needed to ask her about Noon.

“Where’s
Noon?”

“I don’t know,” she shrugged.

“But you said he was in trouble and that I needed to come back to New York to help him!”

“You are helping him – he just doesn’t know it yet.”

“I don’t get it.” My head was spinning. “And if Cilic is your father, he must be Noon’s father too. But I saw a man in a dark suit that I thought was Noon’s father on my first day at Chelsea Prep. Who was that? Plus, I don’t get how you two can be brother and sister and, like, totally ignore each other during an entire lunchtime.”

She threw back her head and laughed loudly. “You know, a lot of siblings don’t get on!”

Made sense. But still...

I stared at her enquiringly. “What happened between the two of you?”

She finally let go of my hands and now I sensed some real pain underneath her carefree exterior.

“Long story,” she sighed. “Long, long story.”

I put my hands on my hips. Time to get some more answers. “Okay, so, speaking of stories, I saw something in a book in the Temple of Truth apartment.”

Her eyes flashed back to mine and she grabbed my hands again.

“I just realized – you have to call your mom back!”

“What? How do you know she called...?”

Aranara seemed stumped by this question. This had all better start making sense soon or I was going to lose it. She pulled my phone out of her pocket.

“I told Cilic that he shouldn’t have taken it.”

I grabbed it from her and unlocked it. There were no missed calls. I looked at her suspiciously. She anticipated my question.

“She Skyped you an hour ago. I didn’t answer. You really should call her back, she sounded worried.”

I opened Skype and said to her, “Can I have some privacy?”

“
Of course,” she answered. “I bet you’re starving. I’ll go get you something to eat.”

I watched her leave, closing the door behind her, then pulled up
Mom’s Skype contact. I made a video call and a few seconds later Mom’s face appeared on the screen. She seemed to be in a hotel room.

“Hi, Kari!”

“Heyyy...” I said warily, expecting an avalanche of shit to land on me via the medium of Transatlantic video.

She beamed at me. “Everything is great here in
Paris.”

“Oh. Good.”

She kept grinning, almost goofily. I actually thought the video had frozen.

“Mom
...” I continued, “I feel really bad about – ”

She cut me off:
“I know, I know, I spoke to your grandparents and everything is fine. Cruz and his family are wonderful people and I’m sure you’re having a great time with them.”

This was ironic, given what Aranara had just told me about her and Cruz.
But I decided to go with the flow.

“So you’re not mad?”

“No, Kari.”

Again, she just smiled. Something wa
sn’t right though. Maybe the slight delay in the video connection was making the conversation so stilted?

“So
... how’s it going with Bob? Oh, wait – is he with you right now?”

“Everything is great! Bob is wonderful.”

Had she turned Stepford in the space of a few days?

“Uh-huh. Um
... how’s the weather?”

“The weather is just great!”

That’s when I realized something. The time on my phone said 4.48pm. That meant it was already dark in Paris. But the light hitting Mom’s face looked like daylight.

“Mom?”

“Yes, Kari?”

“You remember what tomorrow is?” I asked, watching her reaction closely.

“Tuesday, isn’t it?”

“It’s December 29th.”

“Oh yes, so it is. Can’t wait for New Year’s!”

This was when I knew that something was very wrong. Because Decemb
er 29th was the anniversary of Dad’s death. Mom was beaming at me like it was no big deal, but there was no way she could ever forget that date.

“Okay, I’ve gotta run,” I said, my voice shaking. “Bye,
Mom.”

“Bye, Kari!”

She disappeared from the screen and I just stood there, staring at my phone, a horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach. I looked at the walls around me, at the metal door. I’d been led into a trap. Everything was a lie.

I ran to the door and turned the handle. To my surprise, it wasn’t locked. I threw it open and stepped into another much smaller room with the same tiled floor and smooth, windowless walls. The only thing in the room was a narrow, long table draped with a large white cloth. Aranara was standing behind it next to one of the room’s two chairs, unpacking Chinese food boxes from a bag.

She looked up with a breezy, “Hey!”

I stopped in my tracks. The feeling in the pit of my stomach had vanished and I was super hungry. What was up with that? I sat down and Aranara handed me a pair of chopsticks and a can of soda. I put down my phone and feverishly opened the boxes. The smell of the food inside overwhelmed my senses and I started to shovel noodles and unidentified meat into my mouth as fast as I could with the sticks.

“Take it easy!” she laughed, sitting down on the other chair and folding her hands on the table in front of her.