Chapter 10 Benny
Ten
Benny
Benny and Zara spent the downpour in the library reading Evelyn’s new journal entry while Gil sat and read all the diaries Evelyn had given them already.
Benny couldn’t help but be nervous for him.
Hearing what Evelyn had done to save him and their friends was a lot for anyone to take in, let alone someone who lived it. “How are you doing, Gil?”
Gil was quiet for a moment before he spoke. “I have a lot of feelings. Sparrow was my best friend, and she kept all this from me,” he said slowly. “I wish I could ease her burden. Tell her how thankful I am for all she did.”
“She knew,” Benny told him, feeling that tightness in her chest return. “That’s why she and Aggy worked together to find me. Together, we’re going to end this curse. Just like she wanted.”
His laugh was bitter. “We will need a great deal of luck, I’m afraid. Not everyone wants to be free of immortality.”
Benny felt her fingers tingle. “Like who?”
Gil paled.
A knock at the library door interrupted them.
Wally held a tray of cookies and a pitcher of iced tea.
“I just wanted to remind you of the time,” Wally told Benny as he placed the snacks on the table, and Zara and Gil dove for them.
“The vineyard event you’re attending with your mother starts at six p.m.”
Benny threw herself back on one of the leather chairs and placed her hands over her face. “I don’t want to go to a stuffy party! We need to get to the monument!”
“First of all: you may soon own that vineyard, so start liking stuffy parties. Terry Estate Vineyards hosts most of the big ones in town,” Zara reminded her. She placed a few Post-it Notes on the wall. These had names on them: Calia, Charlotte, Violet, Victoria.
Benny had written the same notes. She, too, thought there was something strange about this woman Evelyn had befriended.
“And second, it’s almost four o’clock,” Zara added. “It will be close to dark by the time this rain lets up, and the club probably closes at six anyway. Gil will stay with me tonight, and we’ll all go first thing tomorrow.”
“Fine,” Benny said, resigned. She felt like her heart was being squeezed. Tomorrow. One less day the island had to stay put. She had to move faster. “Let’s talk about the pages.”
Zara nodded. “Three entries, and they’re not in order. Gil? You read these too?”
Gil sat up and nodded. He was lost in his thoughts, Benny could tell.
Benny grabbed a pad of paper on the coffee table and the pen that was with it, and wrote out a timeline. “One journal entry is dated immediately after the last entry from Evelyn’s first game.”
“Yes. Evelyn turns around and poof! The island is gone,” Zara said watching Benny take notes. “And Kimble warns Evelyn about someone named Grace.”
“Grace.” Benny wrote her name in big letters and circled it. “Could she be the person who shows up at the end of the entry eleven? Who says hello? I also want to know more about the new neighbor in entry twelve who says she can see the island too. Her name keeps changing, which is fishy.”
“Something’s up there.” Zara drummed her fingers thinking, and Benny noticed Gil jump up from his chair and start pacing. “Could this be the same woman referred to in the note? The one that says, Don’t trust her?”
“Maybe, but why wouldn’t the person who wrote the note just say, Don’t trust Grace?
Or Don’t trust Charlotte?” Benny wondered aloud.
“And why pull entry three about Calia’s arrival out of Evelyn’s original journal pages so we couldn’t read it till now?
Charlotte offered to help Evelyn find the island again even though it disappeared. Isn’t that a good thing?”
“I thought so,” Zara said, tucking her legs under her on the chair. “Unless it’s more than just a random meet-my-neighbor moment and that’s what Evelyn didn’t want you to know at first. Maybe she can’t be trusted. What if Calia-slash-Charlotte has something to do with the game?”
Behind them, Gil dropped a book off one of the bookshelves and hurriedly put it back. He was acting fidgety.
“She must.” Benny looked down at her notes again. “If we’ve learned one thing so far about Evelyn, it’s that she doesn’t do anything without a reason. Oh! And her dad seemed weirded out about where Calia-slash-Charlotte lived too.”
Zara nodded. “Yes! He said someone else lived at that farm. Then he started acting strange and said he had to go see someone. We just don’t know who. Gil, do you remember who lived there?”
Boom! Another book fell out of Gil’s hands. “My apologies,” he said quickly. Benny noticed his hands were shaking. “Er, no, I’m afraid not.”
“Gil?” Benny kept her voice neutral. “Do you know who Calia or Charlotte is?”
“I never met someone named Calia or Charlotte,” Gil said, not making eye contact as he rushed the words.
“But…” Benny hedged her bets as the rain pounded the roof, “you did meet someone unusual around the Blood Orange Moon, didn’t you?”
Gil looked up then; his glowing eyes seemed sad. “Yes. Someone I fear I shouldn’t have trusted.” He swallowed hard. “Maybe that note you found was meant for me, and I never got it. Which means what happened was my fault.”
“It’s alright,” Benny said, moving closer. “Whatever happened, happened. It’s in the past. If we’re going to fix it, you need to tell us everything you know.”
Gil stared at the sneakers that were a size too big. Benny made a note to order him better clothes. “Right around the time the island appeared, a woman came into the mercantile. She said she was looking to buy land in Greenport. A private island. She said her name was Connie.”
Another C name, Benny thought.
“I told her she should speak to Elias Rudd. He owned everything. I said I knew of no islands for sale, and I thought she left.” He played with the pages of the book on the table in front of him.
“Then Sparrow came to speak with me at the shop. She was talking excitedly about our island. We’d only just found it days before.
We agreed to meet that afternoon to explore it, and Sparrow left.
That’s when Connie came around one of the shelves.
She’d heard everything. She said she wanted to see this island Sparrow found and said she could make me rich.
She was very persuasive. There was something I didn’t trust about her, but when she offered me a whole dollar to take her to the island, I was weak. I said yes.”
“A dollar was like a week’s salary in the 1820s,” Zara explained to Benny. “Grams does a whole speech about money in the museum. Like a dollar could buy seventy pounds of potatoes or a pair of boots. It was a lot of money.”
“I never had money of my own before,” Gil said miserably. “My aunt and uncle didn’t pay me to work at the mercantile. I thought if I saved that dollar for someday when I wanted to travel, it could go a long way.” He pursed his lips.
“So you took her to the island?” Benny wanted to know.
“Not exactly,” Gil said. “I took her to where we always met Sparrow, but then I couldn’t find the island on my own.
I explained to Connie that Sparrow was the only one who seemed to know exactly where to go.
Connie said I could keep the dollar if I told her how to find Sparrow.
” Gil looked ashamed. “I told her where she lived.”
Benny pressed her hands into her legs. “If Connie and Charlotte and Calia are the same person, then they targeted Evelyn to find the island.”
“And since they were searching for it already, they had to know about the treasure,” Zara realized. The sound of rain against the roof cut the silence in the room.
“So you see? This is my fault,” Gil said, his chin quivering.
“No,” Benny insisted. “She tricked you. Whoever she was. And we still don’t know if she ever found her way to the island. Or if she could find the treasure on her own. If she did, she could have taken coins as well, which means more are missing.”
“Or she got nowhere,” Zara countered.
Benny bit the pencil in her hand. A bad habit.
“Evelyn’s letter said there were others after the treasure that we had to watch out for.
Kimble is searching for treasure too, and maybe more.
If Kimble mentioned Grace to Evelyn, then I think we have to talk to Kimble about who Grace is.
And get him to tell us if he knows who this Connie-slash-Charlotte-slash-Calia person is. ”
“If he doesn’t, maybe Aggy does,” Zara suggested.
“Let’s go,” Benny said, feeling charged, her fingers tingling.
“Problem: time works differently there,” Zara reminded her. “If you go now, you’ll miss the vineyard, and Vivian and Ryan will wonder where you are.”
“I’ll go,” Gil said suddenly. “Let me risk it and talk to Aggy.”
“You shouldn’t go alone,” Benny said worriedly. Behind them, the clock chimed 3:30. The rain was starting to let up. They were supposed to meet Kimble at four anyway. The new questions were so big, it was enough to make her want to curl up in a ball again and sleep for a week.
But that wasn’t her style. They needed to get to Greenport.
Benny jumped, heart racing. “Gil, you’re about to learn how to ride a bike.”
***
Gil was a natural. Ten minutes after Benny and Zara showed him how to pedal, he was speeding along.
“I love this wagon with two wheels!” Gil shouted, tipping his head to the sky, which was still gray.
Drizzle was coming down as Benny and Zara led the way into town.
The sound of chainsaws cutting down trees filled the air, while the power company had a truck on Main Street working on the downed wires.
Two of the cross streets were closed off, yellow caution tape blowing in the breeze.
The water, visible through openings between shops and streets, looked choppy, most of the boats still docked after last night’s storm; foot traffic on the usually busy street was almost nonexistent.
Zara led the way down a side street to Hooked. The restaurant had yellow caution tape surrounding the walkway. “Looks deserted, which is perfect.” Zara came to a stop and leaned her bike against a stop sign. “Maybe the captain is hanging out inside just waiting for us with a scowl on his face.”
As Benny swung her leg over the bike and prepared to lock it, she heard whispers.
Welcome, Everly Benedict! Welcome home!
She looked toward the water, the fog not as thick as earlier. She could just make out the lighthouse in the distance. The sandbar she’d seen earlier with Earl was not visible. Neither was the island. Could the other entrance be gone already? It couldn’t be if the island was calling her.
“You’re late,” Kimble grumbled, slipping around the side of the restaurant on the docks.
He was wearing the same clothes Benny had seen him in earlier.
Jeans and a T-shirt that had seen better days.
His jacket was slung over his shoulder, a smudge of what looked like dirt on his cheek.
“I hope it’s because you found Evelyn’s treasure. ”
“Not yet,” Benny told him, and he groaned. “We’ve cracked her first clue though and know where the second one is, but—”
“Why are you here then?” he asked, rubbing his chin as if it hurt. “You’re wasting time coming here to tell me this.”
Benny scowled back at him. “You said to meet you at four, and we’ve got questions for you based on Evelyn’s new journals.”
“Kid, talk to me after you find the treasure,” Kimble interrupted. “Didn’t I make myself clear? That island is going to up and disappear in a fortnight. There is no time for questions.”
“Too bad,” Benny bristled. “We need to know facts to find the treasure, like who ‘her’ is. Who’s Grace?”
Kimble kept his expression neutral. “How do you know that name?”
The door to Hooked creaked open, and everyone looked up in surprise to see Ryan. His button-down shirt was rumpled, his shorts dirty, his Crocs caked with mud, his hair askew.
“Benny—” He started stuttering. “I…didn’t…I…”
“Where is Axel?” Zara barked.
“Downstairs trying to get back to the island, but he can’t seem to get through the cave alone, and he’s flipping out.
” Ryan’s eyes were wide with terror. “He wigged out when we got outside and he saw the cars, and then a plane flew overhead. He won’t stop screaming.
” He rubbed his face with his hands. “I don’t know how to help him.
” His eyes flitted to Gil. “Wait. Are you…?”
“Nope. You don’t get to know who he is,” Zara said, jumping in front of Gil as her phone started ringing. “It’s my dad,” she told Benny. “I should take this.”
“Go,” Benny told her. She squared her shoulders and looked at Kimble and Gil. “I’d like a moment alone to talk to Ryan, if you don’t mind.”
“Of course,” said Gil. “I’ll be over there with the captain if you need my assistance.”
Kimble glared at them. “You’ve got five minutes.” He and Gil walked over to the water, but Benny knew they were still in earshot.
“I’m sure you’re pretty mad at me,” Ryan said miserably.
“Of course I’m mad!” Benny said. She didn’t trust easily, and she’d let him in. She wasn’t sure who she was madder at—Ryan or herself for being played the fool. “I thought you were my friend and you wanted to help Evelyn. Instead, you used me to get the treasure for yourself.”
“I didn’t do it for myself,” Ryan said, looking anywhere but at her face. “I swear.”
“You said you wanted to sell the treasure. Sell,” Benny’s voice was venomous, and she knew it. “As in profit off a treasure that cursed Evelyn’s friends and trapped them. One that kept them from growing up. Having a life. Growing old!”
“I didn’t know people were trapped,” Ryan insisted.
“I didn’t read the last diary entry, remember?
Only you and Zara did. When I woke up on the island, I didn’t know what was going on.
” He hugged himself. “I didn’t want any part of this!
But they made a deal. When she realized how close you were to finding the island and the treasure, she made me do this. ”
“She?” Benny caught the word and inhaled sharply. “Who are you talking about?”
Ryan didn’t hear her. “I thought Evelyn was delusional to think her friends were alive and waiting to be rescued. If I had known the truth, I would have tried to talk her out of this.”
“Ryan, who is she?” Benny pressed.
“Vivian Rudd,” Ryan admitted, sounding small.
“You’re working for Vivian Rudd?” Benny said incredulously.
“I’m not working for her,” Ryan’s expression turned grim. “She’s my grandmother.”