Books of the Dead (17 page)

Nora didn’t dream anything that night; she slept in the cozy warmth of her sister’s embrace, the bed felt soft and welcomed her and she was lost, never wanting the night to end.

“Wake up! Mom is calling us, and I have to be at school.”

Nora didn’t want to and lazily lifted herself from the bed. “You go on. I’ll come along.”

Poppy agreed and went out first. Nora heard her mother preparing Poppy for school, but she never asked about Nora, and it disheartened her. She lay down and waited for Poppy to go to school. Nora decided to have a word with her mother, hiding away in the room was not one of her traits and she hated herself for that.

“Mother, can we talk?” Nora asked.

“The truth?” Nora’s mother questioned back.

Nora wasn’t ready so she bowed her head down, but her mother was so submerged in work, she didn’t notice the obvious guilt-ridden face of her daughter. “I lied, but I am doing this for Merly. Mother, you have to trust me on this, I am not doing anything that will harm me, I swear to you.”

Nora’s mother softened up a little, and touched her daughter’s injured leg and stroked the wounded area. “Dear, I cannot imagine you hurt and in trouble, so I have to look after you. You lied to your college, didn’t tell me where you were going, and you kept me in the dark. What if something had happened to you? You and Poppy are all I have.”

“Mother, please!” Nora insisted.

“Just let me know when you think it is the right time, okay?” Nora’s mother went back to work.

The conversation was not over and Nora intended to go on. “Mother, I need to go back to college and I want to leave first thing tomorrow morning,” Nora requested.

“But you leg, dear, it hasn’t recovered and you are still limping.” Nora’s mother refused her request.

“But Mother, I think I can manage it. These are just a few scratches and they are not even hurting anymore.” Nora protested, but she was not able to fool her mother.

“Dear, you are not that good a liar, try as you might, but I will not listen to you until you are fully recovered. I spoke with your college the other day and I have informed them you will not be going back until you can at least walk properly and eat healthy again.”

Nora had to go back, but she couldn’t deter from the conditions set forth by her mother. “But then I will miss a whole lot of classes. What about them?” Nora tried to persuade her mother one last time.

“What about them? You should have remembered them before taking off and without telling anyone just like that. You must have had classes that you missed as well.” Nora’s mother seemed determined not to allow Nora back to college until she was convinced that she was fit to go back again, which Nora knew she wasn’t.

No amount of reasoning convinced Nora’s mother to allow her to be back in college, and Nora knew that it was a kind of punishment and she had no other option than to endure it. She accepted her fate and waited for her legs to heal, and then sitting through the entire day in the emptiness of her room, she had all sorts of thoughts in her mind. Nora wanted to contact Merly, she wanted to know what had happened while she was gone, but then contacting her friend and telling what she knows might be inappropriate, because she knew Merly and how perplexed she was the day that Nora left her alone in the room. Now she was unable to go back. In desperation, Nora threw her notebook down on the floor, and when it opened, the pieces of paper she had photocopied from the town library fell out of it.

Nora picked them up, and started to go through them. Things were getting clearer to Nora now and she had no doubt about the sender of the parcel to their dorm room a week earlier. Nora clutched the papers hard and went through them over and over again, and then folded them neatly and hid them in her drawer and locked it, hiding the key under her mattress. She couldn’t tell her mother this part.

******

Back at the college, Merly was still trying to cope with the recent happenings and her friend being absent for days. One week seemed like a year, and it wasn’t easy for her being friends with Natalie, as she was seen with her more often and students started talking about that, too. Thus she submerged herself more into work. It was Wednesday night and Merly was busy finishing her project. Zoë passed on the offer to work together sighting a party with her friend. Merly didn’t urge her to work with her; she preferred doing it alone, and although it would take her more time to complete the entire assignment, she thought it was better than going back to bed.

It was late at night around 10:00 p.m., and Merly missed her dinner in the wake of her work. There was a knock at the door. She saw Natalie waiting for her there when she opened the door. Her face said that there was something that she wanted to say, “Come on in, what happened?” Merly asked.

“I have to tell you something and it is important.” Natalie walked inside in a hurry.

“Relax,” Merly said.

“Nora, your friend, do you know where she went or what happened to her?” Natalie questioned between panted breaths.

Merly didn’t focus on the question and asked instead, “Did you run all the way up here?”

“Merly, is that important? Now tell me where did Nora go so suddenly, or did you receive any news from her?” Natalie wanted to know.

Merly did receive a message from her the other day, but she hid the fact from Natalie, and now she was not sure whether to tell her that. “Why do you want to know?” Merly asked.

“Because there is something I know that you are not aware of,” Natalie answered back.

“What are you talking about? I told you that she had left her phone behind and I am not able to contact her, and that is true,” Merly firmly insisted.

“Did you even try to find out where she is or where she went?” Natalie questioned her again.

“She must have gone to her parents; that is where she must have been,” although deep down Merly was aware Nora didn’t go back to her home; otherwise, she would have never sent her the message. But she had to keep up the pretense of not knowing.

“I don’t think she was on her way to her home,” Natalie countered back.

“What do you mean?” Merly knew exactly what Natalie meant, but she pretended not to understand.

“Nora must not tell you everything these days; she was going away somewhere else, a junior saw her on her way to the town of Elmhurst.” Natalie laid down what she knew.

“What are you saying? What has Nora got to do with Elmhurst? Who saw her going there?” Nora asked the questions all at once.

“Huh? You are asking too many questions all at once. Wait, what I am saying is true. I don’t know what business Nora has in Elmhurst. Do you think she has a friend living there?” Natalie asked.

“None that I know of, Nora never told me about any of her friends living there. I don’t know, I assumed she was going back to her home.” Merly expressed her disbelief, but while she uttered these words, she knew exactly why Nora was on her way to Elmhurst and that it had something to do with the delivery of the books or Mr. Summers. Merly let out a breath of air, but remained silent and looked at Natalie’s face to convince her that she was also in the dark.

“I was asking a few of those I know if they have seen Nora on the morning she left, and one of them saw her on her way, getting on the bus to the town, her home is not that way is it?” Nora questioned.

“No, it is not, in fact it is in the opposite direction,” Merly admitted.

“What are you two friends up to?” Natalie mockingly questioned.

“Natalie, you are not making any sense.”

“Oh, I am making sense all right. Nora didn’t go back to her home yet, she lied about it. She didn’t tell you anything about it. Do you think this has anything to do with the disappearance of the books or Mr. Summers?”

“I told you before, she left suddenly and since then I haven’t heard anything from her, she must be coming back in a day or two,” Merly said in an assuring manner.

“How can you be so sure about it?”

“Well, I am not, but she is my friend and I have confidence in her, she will be back.”

“Very well then, I think her not going back home and being elsewhere doesn’t bother you much. Let’s just hope she comes back safe then.”

Natalie was about to say something, but Merly cut in, “It bothers me, but is there anything that I do at this moment other than to wait for her to come back? Do you have any other solution?”

“Why don’t you try calling at her home?’’ Natalie suggested.

“Natalie, no, I can’t do that. You know that she is not at her home and I don’t want bother her mother or sister, and what would I tell them? That is absurd; what are you thinking?” Merly asked.

“We could go to where she went and investigate on our own, it is not impossible,” Natalie suggested.

“We can’t do that. We cannot go to Elmhurst without knowing why she went there or anything.” Merly was having a conflict of ideas with Natalie, and both of them tried to convince each other to accept the idea, but none complied.

“I don’t understand you. She might be in trouble right now and you cannot risk this much for your friend, and Nora is not even my friend, yet I am willing to go,” Natalie said in a raised voice.

“Don’t you judge our friendship!” Merly tried to calm herself down. “I know what I am saying, I only think that it is hasty to run off to where Nora went and we are not even sure if it is true. Some random student claims to have seen Nora on a bus going to Elmhurst; that is the most unbelievable story ever.”

Natalie chuckled a little, then said, “You know it is believable. My sources are always right. She was not on her way home, and like us, she wants to find the truth, too. Why are you constantly denying it? I fail to understand that.”

“So this is what it is to you, you only need to prove how superior you and your sources are. Well, they are great, but I am not going to turn this situation into one of your little games. So please don’t lecture me on my friendship with Nora and help me find the one who sent the books and then stole them from me again,” Merly angrily said.

“All right, but remember that is not what you wanted me to do in the first place…” Natalie was not finished when there was knock on the door, and both of them turned towards it to see who it was at that hour.

It was no one they expected, so both Merly and Natalie stood at the door looking at each other. Merly spoke first. “Do you have a message for me?” It was the lady from the information desk who came to give information or a message to individual students, if there were any, but for Merly, it never happened in her years at the college. She never got a call. The Internet and mobile was enough for her to make necessary contacts. So of all the things she expected, it was not to receive a call. “Who is it?” Merly asked.

Mrs. Carmody who was in charge of the particular duty, replied back, “Nora, is she your friend?”

“Yes, but why? Has something happened to her?” Merly asked and her voice was filled with concern.

“It will be better if you talk to her mother; she is the one who wants to speak to you,” Mrs. Carmody said.

In the many years of friendship between them, Merly never spoke with Nora’s mother. Nora was the chatty one. She had met Merly’s mother when she came to visit at the university the previous year and had talked over the phone on numerous occasions. Merly somehow always felt that Nora’s mother was reserved on most occasions, so she never went forward and talked with her. Nora although denied it claiming that was how her mother always looked.

“She wants to speak with me?” Merly was clearly surprised.

“Yes, and you better hurry, because she is on the line,” Mrs. Carmody said while walking away.

“You are coming with me?” Merly turned back and told Natalie.

Natalie was well aware of what she meant. Her plan of following Nora to the town of Elmhurst was not accepted by Merly and she did not hold back from expressing her disapproval of the idea.

Both of them headed downstairs to receive the call. Natalie decided to stay behind and listen to the conversation; Merly, however, did not protest.

“Hello, Mrs. Carlson, it’s Merly,” she said answering the phone.

“Oh, hello, Merly, are you doing well?” Mrs. Carlson spoke very softly.

Merly saw that Natalie was gesturing her something and mouthed a few words indicating that she wanted her to ask Mrs. Carlson something, but she ignored it and tried to concentrate on what was said to her. “Mrs. Carlson, you never called me before,” Merly said.

“I know that I never got the opportunity to speak with you, but this is important because it’s about Nora,” Mrs. Carlson said.

“About Nora?” Merly questioned back. In her mind, she raced back and forth with the thought of what it could possibly be about Nora that Mrs. Carlson wanted to ask her. Merly couldn’t tell her the truth and what would she lie about? She wanted to deny knowing anything, but then she remembered that Mrs. Carlson hadn’t even said a thing to her.

“Merly, are you still there?” Mrs. Carlson was unsure if Merly was still there as she had fell silent. Merly promptly replied back upon hearing the question.

“Yes, Mrs. Carlson, I am here. What is it about Nora that you wanted to ask?” Merly asked and thought that if she had to, she will tell the truth.

“I never said that I wanted to ask you anything about Nora, I want to inform you on something about her. Do you have the time?” she asked.

Merly’s calculations were wrong, and she couldn’t guess what was it that Mrs. Carlson wanted to tell her. “What is it, Mrs. Carlson?”

“Nora won’t be attending college for a few days. She is not well, more like she is injured and is unfit to walk,” Mrs. Carlson said. Silence ensued, and Merly repeated the words in her head.

“Nora is at home?” Merly managed to ask a few seconds later.

Mrs. Carlson said, “Where else is she supposed to be? Of course, she is at home. Nora had a little accident the other day that injured her left leg. She cannot go back to college right now, and she asked me to give this news to you.”

“Can I speak to her?” was all Merly could manage to say.

“No, she is sleeping and I am afraid she requires rest. She was worried about you and asked me tell you that you don’t need to worry about her and she will meet you soon.” Mrs. Carlson waited for Merly to answer back.