Book of Names

by Slater, David Michael

  “Quinn,” the phony said, “Quinn Quartich. Ah, those books—”

  “As in Berny Quartich?”

  “My dad, yes.”

  Dex nodded. Not because he understood what was going on, but because now things at least made some semblance of sense. Potentially.

  “These books—” Daphna said, looking up from the soot-encrusted pages of the one she’d picked up.

  “Yeah,” Quinn said, “my dad bought them from an estate after it—”

  “Do you think we’re idiots?” Dex laughed, cutting him off. “They were Asterius Rash’s. Where else would that many burned books come from around here?”

  All Quinn could manage in response to this was, “I—I—”

  But Daphna didn’t wait for an explanation. Her memory caught on something for once.

  “They were names!” she cried. “Antin mentioned something like that—a book of a gazillion names—under the ABC! Remember, Dex? When he and his thugs dragged us under the burned up store? He picked up a book and said it was just full of names and then tossed it away. It was way too dark to see what was happening on the pages.”

  Dex did remember.

  Now Daphna zeroed in on Quinn, who seemed to shrink a bit.

  “These are from the ABC,” she said, standing up again. “You—” she was starting to fume again— ”he said there were vultures sneaking in and taking all the books that were left after the—And what’s that?”

  Daphna stomped over to the box sitting under the table between the futons, dragged it out, then snatched up the book sticking out on top.

  “Dex, look!” she raged, holding it up to him.

  Dex gasped. “The Book of Maps?” That wasn’t possible.

  “It’s the book on the Portland tunnels that monk tried to take from our store!” Daphna snarled, slamming it back into the box.

  Of course, Dex realized. The straps on the cover made it look like The Book of Maps. That’s why the monk had tried to switch them.

  Quinn shrank even more now. Daphna wheeled on him, nearly apoplectic, and shrieked, “YOU’VE BEEN ROBBING OUR STORE, TOO!”

  CHAPTER 12

  quinn

  “I—I can explain,” Quinn stuttered. “This—this is just a typical misunderstanding. You have to let me—”

  “No!” Daphna spat. “You’re a liar! You’re a liar like everyone else in the world! And I’m just a stupid fool like I’ve always been. You show up out of nowhere today, and I trust you, just like that, because you’re cute and read books and you—you—kissed me!” she screamed. “I am now, officially, the biggest loser in the history of the world. Let’s go.” Daphna grabbed her brother’s hand.

  But Dex yanked it back. He wasn’t going to be jerked around like that, like he was one of those squalling little brats outside and Daphna was his mother. And he must have misheard that last part. It sounded like she said this moron had kissed her.

  “Don’t go! Please!” Quinn begged. “I can explain! You have to let me explain!”

  Dexter’s refusing to go with her was the last straw, the real last straw for Daphna. And she never wanted to lay eyes on Quinn again. She rushed to the door and grabbed the knob. But she hesitated.

  That kiss.

  That kiss was the most amazing thing that had ever happened to her. For just a moment, but a moment that seemed to stretch into always, it had made her forget about her problems. It had made her forget about herself. The feeling it produced, she suddenly realized, was the closest thing she’d ever felt to what it had been like to be up in—

  “Yes,” Quinn said, sounding desperate. “Yes, I took them. I’m sorry! I did it for my father!”

  “Oh, spare me the—” Daphna started to sneer, but turning back she saw that look in Quinn’s eyes again, the look she’d seen at school, that pain. And she suddenly knew more about it.

  She took her hand off the doorknob.

  “I—I was there, in the dark,” Quinn explained, “when those boys had you down beneath the store. That awful one, their leader, Antin—I—I think it was the bald boy we just saw up at—He almost shined his light on me. I was there during the fight.”

  Dex couldn’t deny that this was possible.

  “Antin,” he said, recalling that complicated turn of events, “before he pulled that sheet off Emmet’s body, he flashed his light around. He thought he heard something.”

  “That was me,” Quinn confirmed. “I’m sorry I didn’t help you. It was like Lord of the Flies! I left when everyone was gone, but I took some books for my dad.”

  “But—that was over a year ago,” Daphna said, amazed. She took a tentative step back into the room.

  “Where is your father, now?” Dex demanded. So what if he was down there? “Lord of the what?”

  “Dex,” Daphna said, “his father is gone.” She was absolutely certain of it.

  Quinn went pale. “How—how did you—?”

  “I just do. Your mom, too?”

  Quinn’s face knotted up. Finally, he blurted out, “They’re both gone! Gone! And it’s all my fault!” He slumped onto the futon and broke down entirely.

  Daphna nodded, sadly. They did share something. She’d been right.

  “What the heck are you talking about?” Dex had been rather satisfied with the way things were going, but now somehow Daphna’s attitude had completely flipped.

  Daphna abruptly turned to her brother because things suddenly clicked into place.

  “It was him,” she said, pointing to Quinn, “at the bus stop. The van driver vanished! And he was the boy reading outside OHSU! He—Someone did come after me when I went to the Fitness Center!” she realized, feeling faint. “They have been trying to kill us, Dexter! All this time!” Now Daphna turned back to Quinn, who was trying to pull himself together.

  “You—” she said, the tone of her voice softening, “you’ve been saving us.” Then, gently, “What do you know about that book?”

  “I—I don’t know anything,” Quinn replied, miserably. “I guess I picked it up with a bunch of others after—after those boys finally crawled out of there, arguing about whether Dexter disappeared or not. But I didn’t look at it, any of them. When I got home, it was just in the box with all the others I got on other days. And it just sat there until about a month or so ago.”

  “What kind of idiot steals ruined books?” Dex asked. He wasn’t ready to accept this saving-their-lives thing. And the look on Daphna’s face as Quinn spoke was getting under his skin in a serious way. He felt the urge to slap it off, which would only be fair.

  Daphna shook her head at her brother’s willful ignorance. “They can still be quite valuable,” she said. “They were restoring them,” she added, gesturing to all the tools on the kitchen table.

  “My dad’s business was failing,” Quinn explained. “Moving here was kind of our last gasp. My mom wanted him to quit for the last few years. They fought about it all the time. I couldn’t blame her, but I couldn’t blame him either. It was his passion. He couldn’t live without it! I started stealing the books when I heard about the fire. I thought maybe I’d find something rare and valuable that would save his business—and stop the fighting. But Dad figured out where they came from pretty quick and wouldn’t touch them, so I started experimenting with restoring the damaged ones myself.”

  “What about our store?” Dex asked. They hadn’t even discussed it once with Dr. Fludd.

  “I’m all alone,” Quinn said. “I broke into the basement the other day and took some to try to sell online real quick. I don’t know what else to do for money! I’ve been feeling like those orphans in Oliver Twist!”

  “Why don’t you stop with the stupid references!” Dex griped. “We’re not impressed!”

  “Dex,” Daphna urged, “let him go on.”

  “About six weeks ago,” Quinn said, looking grateful. “After we moved in. I—when they fight—I—I read. I read a lot, I guess. I always have. But we used to read together. Everything. We all read everythi
ng together. But I found out that working on the books was good, too—to block it all out. Even better because it was my own thing. The book I picked that day was the one with the names rising up and down on the pages. I was amazed, and I had to think before I remembered where it came from. I forgot all the books in that shop were about magic. I love magic, especially the idea of magic books. I guess I think all books are magic in a way.”

  “And?” Dex sighed, nauseated by Daphna’s expression at hearing this.

  “Sorry,” Quinn said. “I—I was sitting there at the table, shocked, and pretty sure I was imagining what was happening on the pages. I called my dad over, but he wouldn’t come look, and I got so mad. And my mother started yelling at him for getting me into this profession, and I—I got mad at her, at both of them. I looked down at the page, and I saw their names come up, right next to each other. And—I—I wasn’t thinking. Or I guess I suddenly thought I was Merlin or something. I picked this up off the table—” Quinn fished the little curved stone out of his pocket. “It’s part of an old tool for scraping animal skins to make parchment,” he said, holding it up.

  “And?” Dex demanded.

  “Dex,” Daphna said. “You don’t have to be so—”

  “And?”

  “I scraped them off!” Quinn cried.

  “You scraped what off?”

  “Their names! I scraped their names off the page!”

  “And they disappeared,” Daphna whispered.

  “Yes! It’s all my fault!”

  “But where did they go?” Daphna knew he didn’t know, but she had to ask.

  “I don’t know!” Quinn confirmed. “I want you to tell me!” He turned, desperate, to Dex. “You disappeared down there in the dark under the store,” he said, pleading. “That’s why I’ve been looking for you. You disappeared, and you came back! Where did you go?”

  Neither twin responded to this at first. Dexter shook his head, thinking Quinn was in for some serious disappointment. Daphna felt a rush of sympathy, but also a sickening pit in her stomach.

  “Dex didn’t disappear,” Daphna finally said, as gently as she could manage. “He was just invisible. I know it sounds crazy—”

  Quinn took a second to absorb this, but as he did, he seemed to fizzle.

  “Invisible?” he asked, as if the word were unfamiliar.

  “I’m sorry,” Daphna said. And she was, deeply sorry, for both of them. She’d been used—for a good reason, she supposed, and Quinn had saved her life, perhaps many times. But she’d been used. He’d gone through her to get to her brother. She’d let her guard down for one second, and this was the incredibly predictable result.

  “You’re not really in my Homeroom, are you?” she asked.

  “No,” Quinn admitted, though he looked surprised by the question.

  Daphna just nodded.

  Quinn stood up, took a breath, and began walking around the room.

  “I waited for something to happen for a few days,” he said, “for them to come back, I guess. I stared into the book every minute, but no matter how much I thought about them, I never saw their names again. Eventually, I called the police, but they thought I was pranking them, of course. I hung up when I realized they’d send me off to my horrid aunt, like in Jane Eyre or something, but even worse.

  “Then I got paranoid thinking I saw cops and creepy people following me everywhere. I knew I had to find them and bring them back, like the kids who rescue their father in A Wrinkle in Time, but I didn’t know where to start. Then I read in the paper that you were at the hospital. I didn’t know who else to go to that might possibly help. I went up there, but they wouldn’t let me see you. The best I could do was sit outside and hope you came out. And then, when you finally came out, Daphna, I saw someone came after you with a gun. I didn’t know what to do! I looked down at my book and saw a name rise up, so I scraped it off.”

  “And then he was gone.”

  “Yes. There were a couple of cops there, and—like I said—I’ve gotten paranoid. I didn’t come back for a while, but then I got scared someone else would try to hurt you. But you never came out again. I thought maybe I was too late! Why are people trying to kill you? They told me you were released last night, so I found the doctor’s house—”

  “Thank you,” Daphna said. “Thank you for saving our lives. However many times you did.” She was thankful. She owed him that.

  Quinn smiled a bit through his distress and even seemed to relax slightly.

  “Do you have any idea what the book is?” he asked, taking hold of Daphna’s hands.

  Despite herself, Quinn’s touch jolted Daphna’s heart. She pulled her hands back.

  “I—I’ll never be able to live with myself if I don’t find my parents,” Quinn said, too emotional to take in Daphna’s reaction. “I feel so—They’re my best friends, even if we had problems sometimes. We’re supposed to work that all out. We’re going to work that all out. I know we are. Please, do you have any idea where they might be?”

  “No,” Daphna said, feeling her heart go weak again. She was impressed with Quinn’s dogged optimism, though there was something odd about it. “We do know a few things, though,” she said.

  “Please, tell me everything,” Quinn begged.

  “It’s kind of a long story.”

  Dexter snorted. “Yeah,” he said, “The Neverending Story.”

  “I’m not exactly sure where to start,” Daphna admitted.

  “Anywhere,” Quinn urged. “Start anywhere.”

  Daphna glanced around the room, then approached a shelf and removed a book. “Okay,” she said. “We’ll start with this.”

  She was holding the Bible.

  CHAPTER 13

  nora

  And so Daphna unspooled the story. She began at the beginning—the very beginning—with books. Books were the beginning, books were the middle, and as she spoke, Daphna realized that books would be the end. She explained that Eden was a library rather than a garden. She spoke about Adam, the Adam, their poor, misguided father, who read from the forbidden Book of Knowledge, and all the unfortunate consequences that followed for him and Eve, and she supposed, for everyone else who came to live in the world. She spoke about Eve’s Book of Maps, which poor, bereft Eve had used to follow her beloved Adam down through the eons, and how it led them to The Book of All Things and then all the way to Heaven where they let a killer open a locked book that released a fire into the Infinite Library there, a library full of sad angels who seemed to be searching for a missing volume. She told him about their mountainside showdown with the monster Lilit, the original castoff from Eden. She explained that they were among the thirty-six Lamed Vavniks, and about how their special ribs were God’s insurance policy to guarantee the survival of the human race—how they allowed women who possessed them to conceive children without a man, and how, if buried, they could bring life spontaneously out of the earth. She told him about the Secret Keeper of the Church, and how the whole long, insane story was going to end with their being murdered, probably a few minutes after they left the apartment, if not sooner.

  Quinn sat on the futon without making a sound as he listened to it all. Dex could tell that having gone through what he had with that book and his parents, he was prepared to believe every word.

  Nora’s reactions were not so easy to read. She’d been standing in the kitchen mostly watching the TV. But as Daphna talked, she’d turned to look at him every so often. He somehow felt as if she wanted to see how he felt about it all, whether this was all some cosmic joke at her expense, or maybe she was trying to determine that if any of it were true, whether he planned to help her deal with it. Or maybe she was just wondering how to get away from this bunch of nutcases without being sacrificed or something.

  “God?” was Quinn’s only response when Daphna finally finished. “We’re talking about books that belonged to God?” He was whispering for some reason. “Did that book of names come from Eden—or, Heaven, like that teacher said?
”

  “Anything’s possible,” Daphna told him. “Our father told us there were many sacred books in the Library at Eden, many Books he and Eve never touched. I don’t think anyone knows what became of them.”

  Both twins thought about “their” Books up there.

  “What are we going to do?” Quinn pleaded. “I—I don’t know anything about any of this!”

  “What about those pictures?” Dex asked.

  “Right!” Quinn cried, pulling his phone out of his pocket. “I forgot all about them! They’re definitely going to give us a clue!” He hastily hooked it up to the laptop and clicked some keys. But then he said, “It’s really slow sometimes. I like to say it ‘sloads.’” Daphna smiled at this. Dex rolled his eyes.

  An awful silence filled the room as everyone waited for the pictures to load. Dex, in the interim, tried to fight off the urge to tell Nora that everything was going to be all right because he knew it wasn’t true. She’d turned back to the TV and stared at it, blankly.

  Just to break the silence, Daphna turned to Quinn and said, “So, that book—In all the time you looked at it, was it always just names?”

  “Yes,” Quinn said as he watched the laptop screen, “just names.”

  “And it can show you anyone’s name, even if you don’t know them?”

  “That seems right.”

  “How many names do you think it had?”

  Quinn shrugged. “Who knows? Thousands. Tens of thousands. Millions even if they change around, I guess. It kind of looked that way. I started writing them down a few days ago to see if they repeated. I mostly wrote the ones that just popped up out of nowhere. I wish I’d’ve thought of doing that earlier.”

  “Could there have been billions?” Dex asked, watching Nora watch the TV. Did she believe any of this?

  “Possibly.”

  “Like, seven billion?”

  Daphna looked at her brother. “Do you think it has everyone’s name in the world?”

  “Why not?”