Chapter 47

Kate and Leah

“…and this is Eric’s room!” growled Frisby Wiser as he fearlessly flew right in. Kate hopped inside. Exactly like she’d imagined it! Messy and full of cool stuff. Keyboard, electric drumset, music mixing stuff, some books, laptop, a bunch of metronomes…

Frisby had little interest in Eric’s room, though, and soon showed her out into the kitchen. He had quite a bit of interest in the contents of the cookie jar. Kate thought maybe Leah wasn’t supposed to have cookies in the mid-afternoon, but she also thought it probably didn’t matter.

But she didn’t want to think about that! Thinking about it made her feel cold, like something sharp was squeezing her heart.

“What’s his name?” asked Leah, tugging at Kate’s sleeve as she joined Kate at the table.

“What?”

Leah pointed at Tal, resting atop Kate’s bass on the table. “Oh!” said Kate. “His n-name is Mikhail T-Tal. Just Tal f-for short!” Tal for short! Isaac would love that one.

Leah shook her head emphatically. “He is not tall,” she informed Kate. “He is a turtle. His name is Short.”

“Short?”

Leah nodded. “Short.” She took a bite of the cookie.

“That’s a p-p-pretty s-she-shell!” said Kate, pointing at the beautiful rose-and-gold scallop shell (pectinidae) that Heidi had given Leah.

Leah nodded in affirmation. “Its name is Not Square.”

“Hmm…I th-think you’re b-bad at naming things,” said Kate with a smile. Leah considered this for a moment, then nodded.

They played together for a while. The kitchen table became a fantastical landscape in which her guitar case was a big castle and her travel bag was a mountain guarded by a fearsome Giant Monster Evil Turtle (Chelonii horribilus!). The protagonist was Frisby Wiser, and they had a great battle, and they celebrated after with milk and more cookies. Although it was fun, and Leah was incredibly cute and funny, Kate could not put her heart into it.

“What do you want to do?” asked Leah when it was over.

Go home. Go home go home go home. Be a butterfly. Not die. Kate blinked quickly a few times and took an unsteady breath. She stood and looked around dramatically. “Y-you know what Eric’s r-r-room needs? A d-d-dragon’s t-touch!”

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Leah’s eyes widened at this revelation.

“Y-y-you should go c-clean it up for him!”

Leah and Frisby ran off to do this, leaving Kate alone at the table. She checked the clock on the oven across from her. Four fourteen. She didn’t know when it was going to happen. Should she…check the group text? No, she couldn’t. Not yet.

She dug around in her bag until she found her journal. She tore off a blank page, spent some time writing on it, and put it in her pocket. She took the little notebook containing her notes on the Museum and put that in there as well. She removed her phone from her coat pocket and placed it with the journal on the table.

What else? Of course. The butterfly chess piece…she took it out of her lab coat and looked at it again. It pulsed with light. Did she have to break it? Or would that ruin everything? She didn’t know, she didn’t know, it mattered a lot but she didn’t know.

She sniffed. No. Not going to cry. Going to…

Going to play music instead. Eric had an amp in his room. Kate stood violently, knocking her chair over. She seized her guitar case and marched into Eric’s room. Leah was there, not having made much progress in cleaning. She was walking Frisby along the keys of Eric’s keyboard.

She looked up at Kate. “Is it true? Can Eric really move around in time?”

Kate didn’t think that Leah really understood what that meant but she was suitably impressed anyway. Kate sat on the floor, her painted lab coat spread out around her. “Y-y-yes! B-but n-not yet! W-what-whatever that means!” She winked at Leah, but Leah didn’t get it.

“Oh,” said Leah.

Kate unlatched her case and removed the heavy green-and-black bass. It took her only a moment to plug in her guitar, adjust the amp settings, and turn it on. She tried out the strings. Not outstanding, but the amp was decent. Low, rich notes filled the room. The bass had received some structural damage from earlier, but it could still play.

Leah watched in rapt anticipation, leaning forward on her knees.

Kate removed the crystal butterfly from her coat and handed it to Leah. “H-hold on to that,” she said. Leah received it with reverence.

Kate made herself comfortable on the floor. She leaned against Eric’s bed. She didn’t think he’d mind. It wouldn’t matter for long, anyway.

She played a song—the same one, or close, that she’d played earlier in her dream of the Museum. Unlike regular dreams, she could always clearly remember her dreams of that place.

It would be okay. She had to remember that. She had to believe that. No matter how dark the skies, no matter how big the storm, there was always blue sky up there behind it. And the sun was rising somewhere. Always.