Chapter 49 Where You Chew I Will Follow
IS THAT ATTIC?” FIFI ASKS, leaning over to get a better look at the page. “It’s a shame we can’t read it.”
But Arjun is looking at me, his eyes thoughtful as he glances between me and the book and back again. “Can you read Attic, Ellie?”
“I can’t,” I tell him. And it’s the truth. I have no idea what the letters on the page are, let alone what words or sounds they make.
The fact that that doesn’t stop me from knowing—with soul-deep certainty—what this says scares me. But it also makes me want to turn the page and see what else is in this book.
“Of course she can’t!” Fifi tells him with a roll of her eyes. “So what do we do with it? It doesn’t seem right to just put it in the box in the lobby.”
My hands clench the book as everything inside me reacts to her words. “We definitely can’t do that.”
“Okay.” Arjun is still watching me curiously. “Why not?”
“I can’t explain it. But what I do know is that when I look at this page, I see her.”
“Her?” Fifi looks mystified. “Who?”
“The woman I told you about earlier. With the peacock feather in her hair.”
Arjun’s brows shoot up. “The one you saw when you were falling?”
“Yes. And later, when I needed help. I don’t know who she is, but I do know this story is about her.”
I wait for them to ask me how I can be so certain, but I can’t tell them that. Because, the truth is, I don’t know myself. I just feel the connection so clearly that I know these words—this story—can’t be about anyone else.
I half expect them to make fun of me—or, at least, to tell me that I’m being fanciful and I can’t actually know if what I’m saying is true or not. That’s what my mom and dad would do in this situation—what they have done in the past. And it’s one hundred percent what Paris would do too.
But Fifi just nods like what I’m saying makes perfect sense, even though I know it doesn’t. And asks, “What’s her name?”
“It’s H—” I break off as my mind suddenly goes completely blank.
“It’s huh?” Arjun looks confused.
“No, it’s H—” Again the word—her name—disappears from my mind, like water through a sieve.
I try not to panic, but it’s hard not to when my brain just suddenly stops cooperating.
Fifi gets serious fast. “What’s going on, Ellie?” She reaches over and squeezes my hand.
“I can’t say her name. Like, I look at the page and I know it. I can hear it inside my head. But the moment I actually try to think it or say it, it just disappears like it never existed.”
Arjun’s eyes go wide. “That sounds like you’ve got a concussion!”
“Maybe, but I never hit my head hard. And it’s not like this is happening with all names.” I say his and Fifi’s just to prove that I can. “And I’m Penelope. So what is going on with this book that makes it so impossible to say this woman’s name?”
“I don’t know.” He looks uneasy as he reaches for the book for the first time. “Maybe we should close it.”
He’s probably right, but that doesn’t stop my hands from curling protectively over the edges anyway. I know I’ll have to close it eventually. I even know I’ll have to give it up to win the scavenger hunt. Just not yet.
Not now.
Before I can try to explain what I’m feeling, Fifi springs up from the bed. “I know someone we can ask about this!” she exclaims as she races to her side of the room. “And he even speaks ancient Greek!”
“Who?” I ask, then stop dead as I watch her pull out her bag of gumballs and pop a red one in her mouth.
Of course. Why didn’t I think of Frankie? He definitely tops the list of people I think might know about peacocks and the people who wear their feathers.
He’s also super responsive, unlike my muse. Fifi hasn’t even chewed the gumball enough to be able to blow a bubble with it when her muse suddenly appears.
He’s sitting on top of Fifi’s desk, swinging his legs and drinking a bottle of Gatorade the same exact color of his suit.
Today’s suit is bright blue, and so is the gemstone pierced through his right nostril.
His shirt is leaf green and his tie is one shade lighter, and it’s got candy hearts all over it that say things like “Muse and Tell,” “Don’t Muse With Me,” and “Muse Me Yet?”
The last one is my favorite, but all the sayings are pretty adorable. And so is Frankie as he bats his eyes at Fifi. “You chewed?”
I crack up at his play on “you rang,” and he shoots me a smile of appreciation before focusing his attention back on my roommate.
“I did.” But before she starts trying to explain anything, she leans over to the trash can near her desk and spits her gum out.
“Wow.” Frankie pretends to stab a knife through his heart. “You planning on using me up and throwing me out like that gum?”
“Never!” Fifi pledges. “I don’t like the red ones, but I adore you. And that suit. All it’s missing is a feather boa.”
“What is this, amateur hour?” Frankie demands. Seconds later, he reaches into his messenger bag and pulls out a lime-green boa, which he uses to tickle Fifi’s nose before he drapes it over his shoulders. “Better?”
“Perfection,” she answers.
“Right back atcha!” He makes a little clicking sound out of the corner of his mouth before pulling his legs onto the desk so he can sit cross-legged. “Now, what can I do to help? Inspire your English paper? Make someone fall in love with you? Start a war in your honor?”
“I’m going to assume you were just teasing with that last one,” she tells him with a frown.
“Of course I was,” he agrees, right before he glances at me and mouths, “No, I wasn’t.”
Which makes me laugh, despite everything that’s happened. Then again, I’m pretty sure that’s what he was going for.
But Fifi just rolls her eyes. “Come on, Frankie! We have a real problem.”
“Oh, yeah?” He lifts his brows, turning serious. “And what exactly is that?”
Fifi nods toward me and I take her cue, holding the book up so he can see it.
Just that easily, the smile drains from his face—and his eyes. “Is that what I think it is?”
“I don’t know,” I answer.
“Don’t play games, Penelope. Not with that book, of all things.” He springs off the desk before stalking toward me. “Where did you get it?”
“Does it matter?” I counter, not wanting to sell Kyrian out.
He narrows his eyes at me. “What do you think?”
“Yeah, well, I don’t think where I got it is important. I think what matters is that as soon as I opened it, I knew this first page was about a woman I’ve seen before.”
That gets his attention. His eyes zero in on me as he asks, “What woman?” He eases around next to me so he can get a better look at the page in question.
“That’s the thing. I don’t know her name. But she was dressed all in white and she had a peacock feather in her hair.”
“A what now?” Frankie asks, right before he chokes on his own saliva.
“A peacock feather. You know, the beautiful green-and-blue birds.” I give his outfit a very deliberate side-eye.
“I know what a peacock is,” he answers, but as he says it he’s looking at every possible thing in the room that isn’t Fifi, Arjun, or me. “I just don’t know who you’re referring to.”
“You sure about that?” Arjun speaks for the first time, and it’s obvious he finds Frankie’s odd behavior as suspicious as I do. “Why don’t you read the first page and—”
“I don’t need to read the first page. I just know I have no clue who you’re referring to.”
“Her name begins with an H,” Fifi tells him. “Right, Ellie?”
“Yes. H—” Once more I try to say her name and once more something blocks me.
“Stop!” Frankie says, looking faint. “Don’t ever do that again.”
“Don’t do what, exactly?” Arjun asks.
At the same time, Fifi demands, “I thought you didn’t know who she was.”
“I didn’t. I mean, I don’t.” As he stutters, Frankie turns a very unbecoming shade of gray. “I mean…”
“What do you mean?” I ask when he breaks off.
But he just shakes his head and says, “I’ll be back,” seconds before he disappears.