CHAPTER FIVE PRESENT DAY #2
“I begged Baba to let me visit Masr. For years, I wondered about my mother’s death, about the cousins and uncles and aunts I’ve never met.
I wanted to walk into a room and not think about how the way I look affects everyone else around me.
I wanted to sit at my mom’s grave. I’ve always felt like there were two parts of me, two halves of my soul that have never met.
Do you know what it’s like when you can see an entire life you might’ve had stretched out in front of you? A life where—”
Where you aren’t completely and utterly alone.
I wanted to impress upon Jesse that my decision to lie to Baba and book a ticket to Masr was out of character. Before spring break, I considered skipping class a cardinal sin. I ate my veggies and went to bed at a reasonable time. By all accounts, I was the perfect daughter.
“Last November, I got a call from an unknown number. It was a woman claiming to be my mother’s younger sister.
She knew details about Mama, about the history of her and Baba’s marriage.
She knew things nobody other than family would know.
She offered to fly me out to Masr.” I clear my throat.
The excitement had been more than I could bear.
I didn’t stop and wonder why she had called me now, after seventeen years.
After Mama had been dead for eight of them.
I didn’t wonder why she hadn’t asked to talk to Baba, the way any normal adult would have.
“I called her back the next day and accepted. I didn’t tell anyone I was going.
I knew Baba would never let me meet someone on my mom’s side of the family. ”
The last sentence emerges in a shamed whisper. What a fool past Mina was. What a fool she still is.
A creaking from downstairs causes me and Jesse to freeze. “Yasmina? Are you home?” Baba calls. A replica of my own entry a few hours ago.
Panicked, I lurch off the bed and grab my door. “I’m home, Baba! I’m taking a nap, though, so please don’t knock on my door.”
“Are you sure? I bought your favorite for dinner.” A worried pause. “Thai food is your favorite, yes?”
I’ve never tried Thai food. The nearest Thai restaurant is fifteen miles outside of Ward, and my car tries to pass into the afterlife if I drive it more than ten miles on any given day.
“Absolutely. Thank you!”
“Good, good. I’ll leave it for you on the table.”
I close the door, sliding the lock in place. I installed the latch myself a week ago. Baba still doesn’t know it’s there. Jesse finishes untangling his shoelaces and shrugs his jacket into place.
“Does it happen with your dad?” Jesse asks.
He tips his head, and I realize that he’s listened silently for the past twenty minutes.
Cataloging, assessing. I still don’t know why he thinks I’m cursed or how he knew about the thing, but he’s got half my life story on a silver platter, and I know nothing new about him. A good negotiator, I am not.
“I don’t know. We haven’t been in a room together since I got back.” Besides my newfound powers of avoidance, Baba is always at the university. We’re glorified housemates.
Jesse jumps from the bed and begins pacing.
Dressed in black from head to toe, he resembles a thundercloud creeping over my sunny yellow bedroom.
His steel-toed work boots leave indents in my carpet.
“Before I leave, tell me exactly what you’ve learned about this thing. How it works, when it appears.”
I gesture at him to keep the volume down. Our walls are paper thin. “Not much. I’m usually too busy fighting for my life to jot down notes.” No way am I showing him the journal.
“Mansour. I’ve seen you scribbling in that notebook of yours.”
I balk. He’s been watching me?
But Jesse has a strange look on his face, almost as if he regrets speaking, and I would rather not push for answers I’m not sure I want. If my fall from grace was obvious to even Jesse Talbot, then I don’t want to think of how many curious eyes I’ve had on me since spring break.
I give him the recap without much emotion. “I can’t be alone in a room with someone. That’s the only part I know for sure. I was filling my car at the gas station and an attendant doused me in gasoline, so I think empty outside areas are also a no-go.”
A hint of shock finally pierces Jesse’s impeccable poker face. “Shit.”
“Agreed.” I replace the sopping wet towel under the metal door with a new one from the dresser.
“I think it’s getting stronger. What happened this morning, and with Miss Diaz, she—” I clear my throat.
The words don’t want to come, too horrible to usher into reality.
“The thing shouldn’t have been able to hold on to her after you arrived.
It took way too long to leave her body.”
I shudder, wrapping my arms around myself.
Whatever it is, it’s getting stronger.
Jesse appears to arrive at the same conclusion. “First, we need to figure out what the hell happened during your trip. Collect intel on your aunt and the house. We need to find the source before the solution.”
“We?” I track his frenetic movements. “You’re going to help?”
Jesse stops wearing grooves into my carpet, his features pained but firm. “Yeah, I guess I am.”