Wander Dust (22 page)

Mona stands in Sam’s place. She looks dejected. The man standing next her I don’t know, even though I’ve seen him before, but only in my mind. His is the face I conjured in my mind for Mona’s Protector, Joseph.

“Where have you been?” Mona asks. Didn’t Sam just ask me that? I’m having some kind of déjà vu.

They’re waiting for an answer, but I don’t know if I can trust Joseph.

“Ann?” Joseph asks.

I look around for Ann, but I don’t see her. “Did you call me Ann?” I ask, confused.

“Of course, it’s your name,” Joseph says. “We’ve been looking for you for years!”

“I’m not Ann,” I assure him.

“Look for yourself,” Mona says, pointing back to where my stars rest on the ground.

When I turn and glance down at them, I don’t just see stars. The surface reflects the face I imagined for the person that hurt Mona—Ann. I’m the person responsible for changing the course of her teammates lives with her selfishness.
Am I selfish like Ann?

I launch into a sitting position, sucking in air. My fingers grasp the sheets beneath me. The miniature box, holding the CeCe relic, falls out of my hand and onto the floor. The dream makes me realize, I need my team. I don’t want to become Ann.

::29::
Meditation

I’m not sure how long I’ve slept off the shlag. The sun beams as brightly through the window as it did when I originally arrived. For all I know, it could be the next day.

I roll out of bed and stumble across the room. Opening the door, I peek my head through the crack and listen for Mona. The house is silent except for the usual old house, creaking noises.

Still feeling a need to be sneaky, I tiptoe across the floor to the bathroom. Finally, I’m able to indulge in a well-deserved, hot shower.

When I return to the bedroom, I gather my things. I hold up my clothes, inspecting the dust and dirt. Reluctantly, I slide back into them. They’re nasty, dirty, and sweaty. Unfortunately, I need them as my relics, to keep me connected in time.

As I slip on my shoes, I take in my surroundings. The room is larger than my first bedroom, but this one has a masculine feel. Black and white photos of various cities hang on slate blue walls. Books cram the shelves. A vintage guitar sits in the corner. Mona never mentioned that she played, but I consider it a possibility. She loves music as much as I do.

I turn my attention elsewhere and grab the miniature box from the desk where I left it before my shower. I place the box and Mom’s bracelet on the bed. Tired and too disheveled, I guess I couldn’t think about them before this moment. Now that I think about it, it doesn’t really matter what relic is hidden within the tiny box, because I cannot see its life path without a Seer—without Sam.
I need my team.

I decide that knowing can wait a little longer. So I shove the relics back into my pocket. They bulge there uncomfortably. I slip on my coat and head for the front door.

•

Finally, I’m back on true time. I’m sitting on Sam’s bed, between two large stuffed animals, one white tiger and one pink pig. I can just imagine the look on Sam’s face when I admit to her that I need help.

I hate admitting when I’m wrong, but I’ve never really had anyone to rely on. Ray’s always been so elusive. I realize that I’ve unknowingly become a loner, making it hard for me to accept help from others. Now that I have people, a family of sorts, I’m not quite sure how to act.

Nervously, I rotate Sam’s antique watch around my wrist.

Terease scolds Sam and Bishop in the next room for allowing the old me to escape via window.

I wonder what my consequences will be when Terease finally catches up to me, but I can’t worry about that now. I know I’m very close to finding my mom. I can feel it.

Terease’s screams migrate toward the front door of the apartment. In the space between the floor and the door, a dark shadow moves away. “Find her!” Terease barks. The front door finally slams shut.

When she leaves, the apartment breathes a sigh of relief and brightens. Her veil of darkness creeps away, probably following her down the hall.

The door to the lemon yellow room pops opens. Sam walks in stiffly. “Good. You’re here.” She isn’t in the least bit surprised to see me and is all business. “Now, show me what you’ve found,” she says.

“Wait, where’s Bishop?” If I’m going to do this, then he should be here too.
We’re a team.

“He’s coming. He went to fetch Stu,” she says and walks over to adjust an annoyingly cute poster of kittens.

“Stu? Where’s he been?” Somehow, I’m surprised he’d survived whatever Terease dished out.

“Expelled,” she says, pacing the room, inspecting it for further adjustments.

“That’s it—
expelled
?” I imagined so much worse. Maybe a mind-erasing machine in a dungeon under Olde Town is a little far fetched. Kind of.

“Yes—well—sort of. I’m sure he’ll tell you all about it.” She waves her hand through the air in a dismissive manner.

“Okay, so you never said why we needed Stu? I’d rather not drag him into this.”

“He knows a lot about this kind of thing,” she says as she picks a pair of silk toe shoes from the floor and places them in a duffle bag. She walks to the corner and repositions a cello case.

“And what sort of
thing
is that?” I’ve never told Sam anything about what I’m looking for.

“Look, Sera,” she says curtly, turning to face me with a hand on her hip. “I’m
not
stupid. In fact, I’m quite intelligent. Sometimes I wonder if I’ll ever find my equal.” I almost burst out laughing, but I hold it in like a balloon slowly letting out air. I know she’s just trying to prove herself to me, just like I’m always trying to prove myself to Bishop. Maybe Sam and I aren’t so different.

She rolls her eyes, but continues. “Bishop told me about how you were trying to use the relicutionist to find someone who crossed paths with a bracelet, and it hadn’t worked.” She adjusts her stance. “And I was also there the night you told everyone about the first time you wandered, which happened to also involve a missing bracelet.”

“So?”

“So,” she huffs, “I put two and two together and figured out that you found the bracelet and are looking for your mom! Like I said, I’m not stupid.” She walks over and sits, ramrod, on the bed next to me.

“Now, show me what you’ve found,” she insists, holding out her hand, palm up.

I smirk at her. There’s something endearing about her confidence.

“Well, it’s two things.” I empty the contents of my pockets and hand over everything: a bracelet, the small CeCe box, and a chewed piece of gum with a wad of hair tangled up in it. Sam’s face crumples in disgust as she picks up the unwanted piece with two fingers and tosses it in the waste basket.

“Eww—Sorry,” I say.

Together we move to a spot on the floor, facing each other. Sam lays the items out to inspect them. She opens the tiny box. A squarish, flat piece of bronze, with an open void in the center, falls out and onto the carpet. I squint to get a better look, but it doesn’t look like anything I can put a name to, like a ring or a necklace. It’s just a squarish piece of metal.

The door swings open. On edge, I jump, thinking of Terease. Sam remains calm and continues to inspect the relics when Bishop strolls through the door. With their mental connection, she must have seen him coming.

His green eyes catch mine, lingering for a second longer than usual. I blush, but this time I don’t look away. His perfect smile stretches across his face, revealing his dimple. “Glad you’re back, Miss Parrish.”

I try to control my smile, my heart, and whatever other body part he seems to have control over.

Stu struts in behind Bishop’s large frame. “Hello, ladies. I understand you require my services.” I roll my eyes. Sam giggles and relaxes. Stu seems the only person capable of softening her rigid exterior. Young love is so gross sometimes.

“I’ve filled Stu in on what’s going on,” Bishop says.

“And I’m glad to help,” Stu offers.
Everyone’s coming to my rescue.

“Glad you made it out alive,” I respond. His personality is obviously still intact.

“Yep, yep.” He tucks his shirt into his pants and adjusts his belt. “It’s hard to keep Stewie down.”

“Sam told me you got expelled. What’s the other half of the punishment? She won’t tell me.”

“You’ll see for yourself in a few minutes, if we don’t get this party started.”

“Um—okay,” I’m confused, but whatever.

The boys sit down on either side of me and inspect the relics.

“What is all this stuff?” Stu asks.

“The bracelet is something that belonged to my mom. My dad gave it to me for my last birthday. I lost it with my luggage when I moved here from Miami.” It gives me pause, wondering what had happened to everything else in my luggage, but I focus back on the issue at hand. “It was returned to me in Venice.”

“Returned to you by
whom
and
when
, exactly?” Bishop sounds suspicious. He pushes the objects around with his fingertip.

“Um...” I’m not sure what to tell them. Will they believe me?

He looks up at me, questioning me silently with his eyes. I guess this is where the trust part’s going to happen—the team part. So, I just let it. Just like jumping off a catwalk above a pool, and just like my big jump from the bell tower in Venice. I pray Bishop will grab me on the other side, again.
“Okay, here’s the deal.” I settle myself for a long explanation. “When we were in Venice, and we were—separated—
after—well, you know.” I twist awkwardly, thinking back.

“You mean, after he tried to kiss you?” Sam snorts.

Bishop and I glare at her. She shoots us both a smug look. Stu’s expression is lost as though trying to connect the dots. I skirt around the subject before he starts with the questions and we get off track.

“Anyway, a lady gave me the bracelet. She said, ‘reassemble this, and it will guide you to your heart’s desire.’ When I asked her name, she said she was my friend.”

“What did she look like?” Bishop asks.

“I couldn’t tell. She was covered, head to toe, in a gold cape, black gloves, and a full face mask.”

“You’re saying a complete
stranger
gave you back a piece of jewelry that’s been missing for weeks? And somehow that person knew you wanted it back to find your mum?”

“Yes,” I say, unconvinced myself that it really happened that way.

Everything seems to be crashing into a precipice, all perpetuated by the mystery lady in Venice. She presented me with the extra leverage I needed to start sifting through the pieces of information. She gave me back the relic, but how did she know what I wanted? Who was she?

Maybe it was
me
from the future? I can’t be sure. I could have added the Lady in Gold to my now debunked list of weird and unknowns, but the puzzle pieces are falling into place so quickly now. Somehow, my destiny is finding me, and I hope my mom is on the other end, waiting.

“Sera?” Bishop catches me in thought.

“It’s strange. I know. But
who
it was doesn’t matter. I think I’ll find out when I’m meant to.”

After everything I’ve witnessed in the last twenty-four hours, it turns out that everything, even the bad stuff, like getting catapulted from a commuter train and busting a lip, happens for a reason. I touch my lip. The scab is finally healed over.

“It doesn’t look broken.” Sam holds up the bracelet. “The Lady in Gold said to put it back together. That doesn’t make sense,” she says.

“Yeah, I don’t know why she said that. It’s not broken. It’s as perfect as when it was given to me.”

“Okay, where did you get this piece here?” Stu asks, pointing to the relic that was in the tiny box.

“Well, it’s a long story, but I found it in the Relic Archives under the entry CeCe. It supposedly has something to do with my mom—according to a drunk bum.”

They all stare at me, as though I’ve lost it.

“Is that the most reliable source, Sera?” Bishop questions in his smooth textured voice.

“I’m not sure if it’s connected, but I thought it wouldn’t hurt to find out why some random person thinks my mom is somehow related to this CeCe person.” Or is CeCe.

“Wow, Sera, you really get around, don’t cha?” Stu says then chuckles.

Sam clears her throat. “Okay, let’s begin, shall we?” she asks. She’s all business again.

She meditates very quickly on each object, not giving any indication about what the life paths reveal. After the last object falls to her palm from its hovering ballet, Sam huffs with a tone of annoyance.

“What? What did you see?” I ask.