Chapter Twenty-Three #2
“The two of you got into mischief.” Thomas laughed at the memory.
“Little Cali wanted to climb her first tree, and you decided to help her. But there were no trees that were good for climbing near the house—pines and birches are lousy climbing trees, but there was a maple tree in the back garden with potential, except its lowest branches were still too high. Calisa here had the bright idea to reach it from the roof of the greenhouse….”
Jack looked at her, a smile on his lips. “That was you?”
“What happened?” Calisa asked. “I don’t remember.”
“Jack found you a ladder, and instead of leaning it against the tree…”
“The idea was to climb onto the roof of the greenhouse and then jump onto the tree,” Jack said. “It seemed sensible at the time.”
Calisa winced. “Which of us fell?”
“Neither, actually,” Thomas said. “But you did get stuck.”
“And we were too embarrassed to call for help, or too certain we’d get in trouble,” Jack said. “So we stayed up in the tree until after the sun set, long after, when our parents noticed we hadn’t come in for dinner and went out to look for us.”
Huh. She had a vague memory of that—being in a tree with a friend while the stars came out overhead. She’d assumed it was a tree. There weren’t trees like that in Brooklyn. Or so many stars. “I’d decided you were an imaginary friend,” Calisa said to Jack.
“Very real,” he said.
“I’m glad.” She smiled at him.
“How long did Auntie Zee say she could keep the portal open?” Thomas said as he took three honey-coated pastries from a tray. He passed two to Jack and Calisa. “We don’t want to risk cutting it close if she isn’t back to full strength.”
“She didn’t open it,” Jack said. “Calisa did.”
Pastry frozen halfway to his mouth, he looked alarmed. “You? You can open portals?”
“I’ve done it twice now.” Calisa felt all the worry she’d shoved away crash into her like a wave on the shore. She glanced up at the cliffs, but she couldn’t see the portal from here.
Thomas surged to his feet. “Then you don’t know how long you can hold it open.”
She jumped up too, and Steve chirped querulously from beside a tray of shellfish.
“This realm is far from ours,” Thomas said. “It takes extraordinary strength to hold a gateway across this distance. If you don’t know yet how strong you are—we need to leave. Right now.” He hastily whispered to his friends and then hugged several of the villagers.
Her heart thumping harder, she wanted to drag him and Jack away as quickly as possible, but she tried to be patient. He’d lived among them for three years. He deserved a moment. But if he thought the portal could close…I don’t want to live here for three years. Or at all.
While Thomas finished his goodbyes, Calisa scooped up Steve and deposited him onto her shoulder. He had a crawfish half shoved into his jaws. He swallowed it quickly and strained his neck toward the tray of food. “No, we’re going home,” she told him.
As another round of food was brought out on oar-like platters, they finally slipped away from the festivities.
Carrying Steve, Calisa hurried after Jack and Thomas as they wound up the dirt trail toward the portal.
She had to jog to keep up. She put one hand on Steve to be sure he stayed attached. She was not going to leave him behind.
Puffing as he climbed with long strides, Thomas was saying to Jack, “I tried to return, but there’s no nexus here, or if there is, it’s too well hidden.
I couldn’t even find a hint of one. I bribed travelers to keep an ear out.
Chased after rumors. In the end, though, there wasn’t anything to find.
So I returned here. Tried to start over, build a life.
” He glanced back down at the village, and Calisa saw a flash of emotions: sorrow, fear, hope, regret, guilt.
“It’s a good place filled with good people. ”
“You’ll be able to come back and visit here,” Calisa said, “now that the portal’s open.”
“Auntie Zee must have been so pleased to finally have a successor.” Thomas was trying to sound cheerful, conversational, but Calisa could hear the worry threaded through his voice, and it made her heart pound faster as if it were shouting, Hurry, hurry, hurry!
“Actually, she doesn’t know yet,” Jack said. “She’s…been gone.”
Thomas’s smile dropped. “What do you mean ‘gone’?”
“She was supposed to be back days ago,” Calisa said, keeping a hand on Steve. “But no one’s seen her in any of her usual supply places….”
“Then we have to hurry.” Thomas picked up the pace to a near run.
In minutes, they were back at the portal.
It still shimmered, and Calisa felt a bolt of relief shoot through her like lightning.
It looked exactly the same as when they’d left it.
She wondered if it would show any sign it was about to collapse, fading or wavering, or just vanish like a popped bubble.
Glancing one more time at his home away from home, Thomas hesitated.
The music from the fishing village rose toward them, filled with the sound of his friends talking and laughing.
A flute soared in a melody high above the singers, while the drumbeat matched the rhythm of the waves crashing on the shore.
He then looked at his son.
And he walked through. Jack followed immediately after.
With one more glance at the sea writhing with dancing serpents, Calisa stepped through into the inn. Steve clung to her shoulder as the iridescence folded around them.
In less than a breath, they were back in the Faraway Inn.
“All this time away,” Jack said to his father, “did you find what you were looking for?”
Thomas looked around him like he’d woken from a dream and wasn’t sure if this was real life yet. His eyes swept over the closets, the laundry machines, the window with the view of pine trees. “Yes,” he said at last.
“What were you looking for?” Calisa asked.
“A remedy. To save the inn. To save Auntie Zee.”