Dead Beautiful

by Yvonne Woon

  She led us back to the chapel, where she collected our bulbs and bags of soil, murmuring comments as she sifted through each sack—none of which were the right match.

  When it was my turn, she took my bag and shook it around. “An unorthodox pairing,” she said, almost to herself. “Crocuses normally thrive on dry soil, cool and salty ...though this might work. Yes...interesting. Very interesting. The mixture of the red clay and oil...that would definitely work.”

  Professor Mumm’s eyes swept over me, curious. “Class dismissed.”

  As everyone dispersed, Eleanor ran up next to me. “What just happened?”

  “I was just walking around when I found it,” I said, knowing that even at Gottfried it wasn’t normal to be pulled by an invisible force to a dead animal.

  “Weird. It looked like you knew where you were going.”

  “Well, I didn’t,” I said quickly.

  “How did you figure that out about your soil, by the way? That was pretty smart.”

  “I don’t know. The soil that I picked just seemed to complement the bulb. They had the same coloring, and the bulb was dry and the soil was kind of greasy.” I shrugged. “It seemed right.”

  “Intuition!” Eleanor said, mocking Professor Mumm’s voice. “Your gut!”

  I laughed. “She seemed pretty freaked out.”

  “She teaches gardening. She needs a little excitement in her life.”

  Just as we were about to head over to Philosophy, Brett ran over to us. “You’re a natural,” he said to me.

  “Hi, Brett,” Eleanor said with a smile, and leaned toward him to wipe the dirt from his face with her thumb.

  “Now you really do look like a farmer,” I said.

  He laughed. “Is it that bad?”

  Eleanor smiled. “A cute farmer.” I rolled my eyes as Brett grinned. His resemblance to Wes wasn’t just physical. He had the same easygoing walk, and spoke with the same flirty yet vacant banter; he even had the same teeth. That should have made me like him more, but instead it made him seem ordinary and unexciting.

  “So, girls, what next?”

  “Philosophy,” I said, even though Horticulture started so early in the day that we had a short break before breakfast. But just as I spoke, Eleanor said, “Oh, nothing.”

  “Nothing?” Brett said. “Maybe we should make that a something. Breakfast?”

  Unable to contain myself, I laughed, and then tried to cover it up with a cough when Eleanor gave me a threatening look. How many girls had he used that line on? Eleanor smiled. “That would be great. Renée was just saying how hungry she was,” she said, elbowing me in the ribs.

  “Um, yeah. Famished.”

  As we entered the Megaron, Brett talked about his classes and his family and his friends from home. At times I actually forgot that we were talking to Brett, and spoke to him as if he were Wes. So I wasn’t surprised to discover that their lives were almost identical. He was the oldest of three and played on the rugby and soccer teams before coming to Gottfried, where he was disappointed that neither sport existed. Now he was the captain of the track-and-field team. He had a yellow Labrador, which he liked to play Frisbee with in the summer; his favorite color was blue; he liked any music except for country; and his favorite author was Hemingway (typical), or so he claimed, though I doubted he had read anything by him other than whatever was assigned at school. By the time breakfast was done and we were walking through the double iron doors of Horace Hall, Eleanor’s eyes were glazed over with admiration.

  “He’s so dreamy,” she said while we climbed the stairs to the third floor. “So manly. So American. So...tan.”

  “So rehearsed,” I said, opening the door to Philosophy.

  The classroom had high-beamed ceilings and two windows that overlooked the green. A few people were already sitting down, talking or shuffling through their papers. We took seats in the front, and I couldn’t help but scan the room for Dante. He wasn’t there.

  Nathaniel scurried in behind me, his skinny frame hunched under the weight of his backpack, making him look like a turtle. He sat down in the desk next to mine just before the bell rang.

  “Hi, Renée,” he said, winded and sweating. He pushed his hair out of his face and adjusted his glasses. “Did you finish your essay? I stayed up almost all night doing it. I had to rewrite it four times before I got it right.”

  A wave of queasiness passed over me. “Essay?” I looked to Eleanor, hoping it was news for her too, but she pulled hers out of her notebook.

  “Yeah, about a myth that we want to believe in. You didn’t do yours?”

  “No, I had to miss class because Mrs. Lynch sent me home to change. Remember?”

  “Oh, right …” Eleanor gave me an apologetic look. “Sorry. I thought you knew. You looked so busy during study hall that I figured you were working on it.”

  I sighed and tried to figure out what to do. “No, it’s my fault. I should have asked.”

  “I have a couple of my drafts,” Nathaniel said. “They’re not that good, but you can use one if you want.” He handed me a few crumpled sheets of paper.

  It was a sweet gesture, but I wasn’t keen on cheating. Plus, even though everyone knew Nathaniel was a math prodigy, I wasn’t so sure that his brilliance transferred to writing. “Oh no, that’s okay. I’ll just explain what happened to the professor.”

  But Nathaniel wouldn’t let me refuse. “I really don’t mind,” he said earnestly, holding the essays in front of me. We both stared at them. With nothing else to do, I took them and began to read.

  His handwriting was messy and there were smudges of eraser marks all over the pages. The first one was titled, “I Want to Believe in Myself.” I flipped to the next draft. “I Want to Believe that Calculators Can Replace the Human Brain.” And “I Want to Believe in Imaginary Numbers.” The last one was the most promising, though it looked more like a math proof than an essay, and it didn’t really fit the assignment.

  I bit my lip. “These are really...good,” I said, handing them back to him, “but I’d feel bad passing in your work. I’ll just talk to the professor after class. Hopefully he’ll understand.”

  Nathaniel shrugged and stuffed them back into his notebook. “It’s a she.”

  As if to complete his sentence, a woman entered the room, carrying an armful of papers. She set them on the desk and walked to the front of the class, holding a book. I gazed at her in awe. It was the same woman who had saved me from going to the headmistress’s office.

  Annette LaBarge wasn’t beautiful. In fact, she was quite plain. Her clothes were functional and basic, comprised mostly of earth tones: today a linen skirt that exposed her slender ankles and cork clogs. I pictured her in one of those women’s catalogs, posing on a rocky beach while holding a long twig or a piece of driftwood.

  “Fairy tales.” Her voice carried like a wind chime. “What if they were true?”

  She glanced around the room, her eyes wide with excitement. She was a small woman, thin and fragile looking, though her presence seemed to fill the room with energy. “What if the world once had giants and witches; animals that talked and monsters that threatened all that was good? These stories are the foundation of our society, and what most of Western philosophy is based on.

  “I want you to think of the books we read this year not only as philosophical stories, but as realities.”

  She opened her book and flipped to the first page. “So let’s go there, to that faraway land where ‘Happily Ever After’ still exists, and see where it takes us.”

  She began to read. “Once upon a time...”

  And listening to the delicate sound of Miss LaBarge’s voice, I was lulled into a daydream; a simpler place where people were either good or evil, and love lasted forever, where problems could be solved just by believing, where fairies and fauns helped you find your way when you were lost.

  After class, I waited until everyone filtered out, then approached the front of the room. Miss LaBarge was standing
behind her desk, organizing some papers. I cleared my throat, and she looked up. “Oh hi, Renée.” I was surprised that she remembered my name. It made me feel even more terrible about not doing my homework. “Professor, I—”

  “You missed class earlier this week and didn’t know there was an essay due. I know.”

  I looked at my feet. “I’m sorry.”

  “Just do it for next week,” she said gently. “Write about something you don’t believe in, but wish you did. And next time, just ask.”

  I nodded and hugged my books to my chest. I thought about my parents. About Benjamin Gallow. About the graveyard behind the chapel. What did I want to believe in? Life after death.

  When I got to Crude Sciences at the end of the day, Dante was waiting for me at our table. This time, with no Latin book, no journal.

  “Hello,” he said, pulling my chair out for me.

  Surprised, I sat down next to him, trying not to stare at his perfectly formed arms. “Hi,” I said, with an attempt at nonchalance.

  “How are you?” I could feel his eyes on me.

  “Fine,” I said carefully, as Professor Starking handed out our lab assignments.

  Dante frowned. “Not very talkative today, I see.”

  I thrust a thermometer into the muddy water of the fish tank in front of us, which was supposed to represent an enclosed ecosystem. “So now you want to talk? Now that you’ve finished your Latin homework?”

  After a prolonged period of silence, he spoke. “It was research.”

  “Research on what?”

  “It doesn’t matter anymore.”

  I threw him a suspicious look. “Why’s that?”

  “Because I realized I wasn’t paying attention to the right thing.”

  “Which is?” I asked, looking back at the board as I smoothed out the hem of my skirt.

  “You.”

  My lips trembled as the word left his mouth. “I’m not a specimen.”

  “I just want to know you.”

  I turned to him, wanting to ask him a million questions. I settled for one. “But I can’t know anything about you?”

  Dante leaned back in his chair. “My favorite author is Dante, obviously,” he said, his tone mocking me. “Though I’m also partial to the Russians. I’m very fond of music. All kinds, really, though I especially enjoy Mussorgsky and Stravinsky or anything involving a violin. They’re a bit dark, no? I used to like opera, but I’ve mostly grown out of it. I have a low tolerance for hot climates. I’ve never enjoyed dessert, though I once loved cherries. My favorite color is red. I often take long walks in the woods to clear my head. As a result, I have a unique knowledge of the flora and fauna of North America. And,” he said, his eyes burning through me as I pretended to focus on our lab, “I remember everything everyone has ever told me. I consider it a special talent.”

  Overwhelmed by the sudden influx of information, I sat there gaping, unsure of how to respond.

  Dante frowned. “Did I leave something out?”

  I thought about Benjamin, about my parents. This was my opportunity. “What about your friends?” I asked gently.

  “I thought it was already decided that I didn’t have any.”

  “And I thought it was already decided that there was more to you than you let on.”

  Dante gave me a pensive look. “Maybe I did have friends once.”

  “What happened?”

  “They turned out to be different people than I thought they were.”

  “What do you mean different?”

  “Capable of doing things I never thought they would do.”

  What was he talking about? “Like what?”

  “Anything,” he said. “That’s the point.”

  “Does it...does it have anything to do with Benjamin Gallow?”

  Dante stared at me, his eyes almost threatening. “Benjamin Gallow?” he said softly, so that only I could hear. “What do you know about Benjamin Gallow?”

  “Nothing,” I said quietly. “Just that he was dating your friend. And that he died. And that you found him.”

  “So that’s why you wanted to talk to me. You wanted to gossip about a boy’s death.”

  “No! I didn’t mean to—I just—I don’t think he died of a heart attack.”

  Dante began to respond, but held back, taking me in. “What do you think he died of, then?”

  “I was hoping you’d know.”

  “And why are you so interested? So you can talk about it with your friends?”

  His words hit me in the face like a slap. “My parents died three weeks ago. I was the one who found them. They both died of heart attacks. At the same time. In the woods. Just like Benjamin.”

  I could feel his eyes on me as I turned away from him and faced the board.

  He didn’t say anything for a long time. Finally he said stiffly, “I can’t help you.”

  “Does that mean I’m right?”

  Dante lowered his voice. “Maybe you’re right,” he said, almost mocking me. “Maybe it wasn’t a heart attack. Maybe it was an attack of the heart.”

  It took me until Saturday to tell Eleanor about my suspicions about the connection between Benjamin’s death and my parents. She thought I was losing it.

  “You’re losing it,” she said, looking at me in the mirror while she did her hair. It was the start of the weekend and she was helping the Humanities department hold auditions for the school play.

  I didn’t respond.

  “And aren’t those the same things anyway? A heart attack and an attack of the heart?”

  “Who knows. He was just making fun of me.”

  “What did you say after that?”

  “Nothing. The bell rang. And then he was gone.”

  “Maybe he’s losing it.” She pinned her hair back with a clip. “See, you’re perfect for each other.”

  I rolled my eyes. “It means he’d rather torture me with teasing than actually answer my questions.”

  “It means you’re reading too much into it,” she said, grabbing her bag. “Okay, I’ve gotta go.”

  Eleanor would be busy all day, so we agreed to meet for dinner in the dining hall.

  “I would say you should try out,” she said, “but only boys are allowed to act in plays. School policy.”

  I frowned. “Why?”

  “Apparently Shakespeare did it.”

  “Isn’t that illegal or something. Like sexist?” Even if it wasn’t illegal, it was wrong.

  Eleanor shrugged. “It’s a private school. They can do whatever they want.”

  I normally would have been angry at such a ridiculous policy, though this one didn’t seem much worse than Gottfried’s other rules. But I was relieved to finally have time to myself. Or at least that’s what I thought. I had so much homework that I spent virtually the entire day in my room, huddled over my books, leaving only for dinner. But Eleanor never showed up. I waited outside the Megaron, drawing circles in the dirt with my shoe as everyone but her filtered in. Finally I gave up and went inside by myself. Thankfully, I spotted Nathaniel sitting alone in a corner, surrounded by papers and glasses of milk. He was even more stressed about his homework than I was, and together we ate a quick meal before going back to the dorms.

  When I got to my room, Eleanor still wasn’t there. Maybe she was with the production crew. Alone at my desk, I didn’t know what to do with myself. I tried to write my philosophy essay, but as I stared at the words I had written on the page, the letters blurred, rearranging themselves into shadowy silhouettes of my parents. And when I was able to push them out of my mind, they were only replaced with Annie, Dante, and a perturbing amalgam of Wes and Brett.

  I glanced at the clock on the wall. It seemed that every time I looked at it, another hour had passed and I still hadn’t gotten anything done. I needed to clear my head, but with Eleanor gone, I didn’t have anyone to talk to. I could go next door and see if her friends were there, but the only thing we seemed to have in common was Eleanor. I chec
ked the clock again. If it was eight o’clock here, then it would be five o’clock in California. I picked up the phone and called Annie, but no one answered. Slamming the phone down into the receiver harder than I had intended, I paced around the room. It was messy and cluttered with clothes. I picked them up and shoved them into my dresser, and continued cleaning until I found my way under the bed to get a sweater out of my suitcase. Dust bunnies were everywhere, and thin wisps of spiderwebs fluttered down from the bed frame. Yet as I reached for my suitcase, my hand was met with something soft. I pulled it back to find a collection of dead moths dangling in a dusty knot. I gasped and shook my hand, wiping it on the carpet until the moths were stuck to the floor. I grimaced at them. I had to get out of this room. Without thinking, I shoved my books into my bag and slipped out the door.

  The hallway welcomed me with the tart aroma of femininity. Floral and citrus floated through cracked doors; hot bursts of steam wafted in from the bathroom showers; and the faintest trace of cloves seeped out from the fourth-year wing. The hallway was empty, yet muffled chatter hummed behind each door, giving the dormitory a feeling of enchantment, as if every room held its own enclosed universe.

  Having only an hour until nine o’clock curfew, I scurried down the stairs and into the crisp night air. When I reached the fork in the path that led to the different corners of campus, I stopped. I didn’t know where I was going or what I would do. In a split-second decision, I took a right and started to jog to the library.

  Copleston Library was a massive Greek structure with thick Doric columns holding it up in the front. Above them, a triangular façade bore an ancient war scene. Engraved around the rim was another phrase in Latin: HOMO NIHIL QUAM QUID SCIET EST.

  The giant iron doors creaked on their hinges when I opened them, and a warm burst of air escaped from inside. The librarian was a mole-like woman with bad posture, closely cropped gray hair, and a faint mustache. She stopped me at the entrance. “The library closes at nine o’clock,” she cautioned. I jumped at the sound of her voice, which was far too loud to be appropriate in a library. “And no food or beverages. Or smoking. Or game playing. Or talking. Or whistling.”