Timepiece: An Hourglass Novel

by Myra Mcentire

  I couldn’t respond. I gave in to instinct, taking her hand and squeezing it gently before letting go.

  After a full minute of silence, Lily cleared her throat. “I’m glad we had a touching moment and all, but you should be aware of the fact that I still don’t like you.”

  “Not even the fifty percent that’s solid?” I fought the desire to laugh.

  She kept her focus on the street, but I could see her lips twitching from the corner of my eye. “Don’t push it.”

  “Fine, then.” I kept my focus on the street as well. “I don’t like you, either.”

  “Good,” she said, sounding authoritative. “You think we can work on this ‘finding crap’ thing for a few minutes before dark? My calculus homework isn’t going to do itself.”

  I gave in to my smile. “Let’s go.”

  Chapter 18

  T

  hree days. That’s how long it took Lily to find an object that didn’t belong to her.

  “I did it, uh-huh, I did it.” She danced around in my laundry room, swinging her hips from side to side, holding up the shirt I’d worn the night at Em’s house when I’d discovered Lily’s ability.

  It took great effort, but I kept my focus off her hips and on the situation at hand. While I was happy about the latest development, I had to fight to ignore the twinge in my gut telling me that we weren’t moving fast enough. “Okay, think. What did it feel like? How did you know where it was?”

  “Kind of a hook in my belly button.” She rubbed her hand across her stomach. “But I could see the shirt, too, like a photograph. Right there under your Batman boxer briefs.”

  “Those were a gag gift. And my last pair of clean underwear.”

  “I don’t know which of those statements I find more disturbing.”

  “Try again,” I said. “Find my sword.”

  She tilted her head to the side. “Lame.”

  “Get your mind out of the gutter, Tiger.” I didn’t sound half as frustrated as I meant to. “I meant the one from the masquerade.”

  “There’s no room in the gutter. You’re taking up all the space.” We stepped out of the laundry room into the hall. “I simply meant that finding the sword should be a piece of cake.”

  “Sure you did.”

  We’d reached some sort of working truce after the conversation about my mom. I didn’t want to blow it by pushing Lily harder, but I needed more from her. We all did.

  She’d just closed her eyes to concentrate, when my back door flew open.

  Dune had a folder full of papers, and a big smile.

  “What did you find?” I asked.

  “The jackpot. I searched the public school systems around Memphis.” Dune dropped the folder on the kitchen table. “Oh. Hey, Lily.”

  “Hi, Dune.”

  They spent more time smiling at each other than was really necessary.

  “I didn’t realize you two had met,” I said, a spark of jealousy popping up out of nowhere. Why did I care who Lily smiled at?

  “Yeah,” Dune said. “Em introduced us after you told me about Lily’s search ideas.”

  When Dune noticed I was staring at him, he stopped smiling. “Okay, then. I did some editing on a photo of Jack and ran a face recognition program. It only took twelve hours to get a hit.”

  “Who are you? Bill Gates’s younger brother?” I picked up the folder.

  “Don’t insult me.” Dune flipped a chair around and straddled it. It creaked under his weight. “My gene pool is way more impressive than his.”

  Lily laughed. It was sort of husky and really sexy. I’d never heard that laugh from her before.

  Dune started smiling again and slid a picture out of the folder. “Here’s the one I created.”

  “Nice editing work,” Lily commented, putting her hand on his shoulder to lean over and look at the photograph. “Is that version 9.5 or 9.7?”

  He looked up at her sideways, and his expression rivaled that of a kid getting ready to blow out his birthday candles. “It was 9.5, but I had an add-on and I was able to manipulate—”

  I cleared my throat and tapped my fingers on the tabletop.

  Dune’s smile disappeared, and he pulled out a piece of paper. It was a black-and-white picture, and it was grainy. “Here’s what the search uncovered.”

  A copy of a photograph. I peered down at the face. It wasn’t super clear, just a tiny scan from a yearbook, but there was no mistaking it. “That’s him. Jack. With a really bad haircut.”

  “Someone put it up on a social networking site pretty recently. They’re trying to organize a high school reunion, and Jack was on the ‘cannot find’ list. He grew up in Germantown. The rough part.” Dune shuffled through the papers some more and removed a set of school records. “No brothers or sisters, no dad. Not even on his birth certificate.”

  “You found his birth certificate?” Lily asked, sounding impressed.

  “It’s easier than most people think,” Dune answered, sounding modest.

  “Well,” I said, sounding pissy, “we obviously need to focus our search on West Tennessee.”

  I handed the school records to Lily. At least Dune finding a location narrowed things down for her.

  “The bad news is, this was all I could find,” Dune said, tapping on the folder. “So if we’re going to focus the search, we’re going to have to go to West Tennessee to do it.”

  “So someone needs to go to Memphis,” Michael said when Dune finished explaining his results.

  I’d been standing in the corner, watching Lily not look at Dune.

  “Yes. Maybe more than one of us,” Dune said. “Someone there might still have a memory of him. I think it would be worth asking around, since at this point, any information would help.”

  “I don’t think a lot of us popping up somewhere and asking a bunch of questions is a good idea,” Em said. I’d been pretending she hadn’t been looking at me while I watched Lily. “The last thing we need to do is draw attention to ourselves.”

  “Then we’d better not waste any time.” Dune leaned back in his chair. “We could map out the city, take it by section. Do you have your laptop, Kaleb?”

  “Battery’s fried,” I said. “Michael still owes me money for the last one he and Em shorted out.”

  “If no one has a map handy, I can pull one up on my phone.” Dune started to reach into his pocket. “But a big one would be easier for everyone to see than all of you trying to scoot in close and lean over my shoulder.”

  “No scooting in close necessary,” I said, pushing myself away from the wall. “There’s an atlas in Dad’s office. I’ll get it.”

  When I got back, I handed the map to Dune, who had just said something to make Lily laugh. She took the atlas out of my hands without looking at me.

  Dune crossed his arms over his chest as he watched Lily flip through the maps of the states. He’d always been solid, but not exactly shredded. His biceps were more defined than I remembered. So were his pecs. Probably from working out with Nate, who was on a perpetual quest to build bulk.

  I needed to get back to the gym.

  “Liam is never going to let us go to Memphis without a fight.” Em looked at Michael. “You’re going to have to do a lot of convincing.”

  “We don’t all have to go.” Michael was doing the superior thing. Em called it protective, but I didn’t need protection. Neither did she.

  Em punched him in the shoulder. “Don’t you even, Michael Weaver. You aren’t cutting me out of this.”

  “Or me,” I said.

  Everyone started talking at once, arguing about who would go where and when.

  Just as we were on the brink of a full-scale blowup, Lily dropped the atlas and gasped.

  Shock. Disbelief.

  “What’s wrong?” Em abandoned her argument and went to Lily’s side.

  Lily covered her mouth with her hands. They were shaking. “The map …” She slowly lowered them. “I touched Ivy Springs. I was going to trace the route
from here to Memphis.”

  “Okay.” Em waited for the rest. The amount of concern she was putting out made me tense. Lily didn’t seem like the kind of girl to needlessly overreact.

  “I was going to look for Kaleb’s sword from the masquerade earlier, by using my ability.” Lily took a deep breath. “We didn’t get around to it. But just now, when I touched the map, I saw the sword. Immediately, and exactly. In my mind—through my fingers. Like I was reading Braille or something.”

  “Where?” I asked Lily, my palms on the table. “Where was it?”

  “In your backyard.” She met my eyes. “In your fire pit, surrounded by ashes.”

  “I tried to set the sword on fire,” I said.

  “The costume, too?” Lily asked.

  “Yes. The costume was the only thing that burned. I needed to do it.” I didn’t know how to explain further without talking about Poe slitting Em’s throat, and I didn’t know how much Lily knew. “It was … cathartic. But how did you find it?”

  “I felt an instinct, and I knew I needed to put my hand on the map.” Lily’s voice was stronger now, and the color started to return to her cheeks. “There was a pull, the same kind of pull I felt earlier when Kaleb and I were practicing.”

  “Has anything like that ever happened to you before?” Michael asked, concerned.

  “No.” She held her hands over the map, a half inch away. Then she pulled them back and folded them in her lap. “But I’ve never actively searched for things before, either.”

  “I have an idea,” Dune said. “A way to test this out. Emerson, think of something of yours Lily has seen before but hasn’t seen lately. Preferably not somewhere Lily could guess easily, but you need to know exactly where it is.”

  Em thought for a few seconds. “Okay. I know what and where it is.”

  Dune leaned down, and he and Em had a hurried, whispered conversation. After they came to some sort of agreement, he straightened.

  “Map?” Dune asked.

  Lily gave it to him, this time with no teasing.

  Dune opened it to the side-by-side pages that featured a full map of the United States. “Okay, Em. Tell her what object you’re thinking of.”

  “It’s a movie, My Fair Lady. We used to watch it over and over again in middle school,” she explained. “We both wanted to be Audrey Hepburn.”

  Lily laughed softly. “We were so sad that neither one of us looked a thing like her. A curvy Cubanita and a tiny, little white girl.”

  “We tried, though.” Em laughed, too, and the bond between them felt warm and solid. “Remember the hats?”

  “And the cigarettes, with the long holders? I thought your mom was going to kill us.”

  “She never forgave me for the hole we burned in the couch.” Em faltered, and tears formed in her eyes. Michael took her hand in his, and she leaned into his shoulder, quiet for a moment. “Anyway, the movie disc. I know exactly where it is.”

  Dune put the atlas down on the table and flattened the crease. “Ready?”

  Lily nodded and lifted her hands. They hovered a half inch over the shape of the United States before landing somewhere in the vicinity of Kansas. She closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths. When she moved her hands, I thought of the motion people make when they play with a Ouija board. Back and forth, in repetitive figure eights.

  “Anything?” Dune asked, dividing his focus between Lily’s face and the map.

  She stopped and her eyes flew open.

  “Thompson’s Hill?” Lily asked, referring to the next town over. “Behind the courthouse?”

  Em bit her bottom lip and then nodded. “Yes. In storage, with the rest of my parents’ stuff.”

  The memory cost Em. Her energy level dropped, and lines formed on either side of her mouth. Michael kissed her on the temple, and her low leveled out as he helped her carry the weight.

  “That’s a good memory,” Lily said, wiping tears from her eyes. “And I’m glad you still have all their stuff.”

  “Me, too. I had the breakdown before we could go through it. Since I came back here, I haven’t been ready. Neither has my brother. I don’t think Thomas or I will ever be ready.” Em stood up and took a glass down from the kitchen cupboard, filling it with water at the sink.

  “Are you ready to try the watch?” I asked Lily, sensing the need to draw attention away from Em.

  She bit her lip. “I think so.”

  “Maybe everyone should clear out,” I suggested. “Lily and I are supposed to be working on this together, anyway.”

  Michael met my eyes, and I saw the unspoken “thank you.” Dune … not as much.

  When Lily and I were alone, I placed the map in front of her on the table. “Ready?”

  “Wait.” She put her hand on my arm. “It was really decent of you to get Em out of here before we did this. We shouldn’t have brought up those memories.”

  “I disagree.” I sat down beside her. “Sometimes, it’s good to remember, and you were the perfect person for her to do it with. If she didn’t totally trust you, she wouldn’t have felt safe enough to open up. She’s lucky to have you.”

  She looked at me for a long minute.

  “Okay. Let’s try this.” There was a moment of complete silence, and then she pulled back as if the map were smoldering firewood. “I see it. The pocket watch, but on the night of the masquerade. I could see the details of the stitching on Jack’s vest.”

  “Okay.” That gave me an idea. “Try again, but concentrate on today, right now this very second. But this time, I want you to close your eyes.” I fanned through the pages of the atlas, all the way to Alaska. I placed it flat on the table in front of Lily.

  Her concentration hung heavy in the air, like wet sheets dripping on a clothesline. “No.”

  “Try to relax.” I turned to Hawaii, but marked Tennessee with my finger. “And try again.”

  “Nothing.”

  With as much stealth as possible, I turned the pages. “One more time.”

  Lily touched the map of Tennessee, and then her fingers slid quickly from right to left. Kingsport, through Knoxville, all the way over to Memphis. “Here. Right here, right now. He’s wearing a different suit, but the same vest. The pocket watch is tucked inside it.”

  Her eyes flew open. Her finger was on Memphis, right over the marking for Bennett University.

  Chapter 19

  I

  n the end, Michael went to bat for all of us. He hit a home run. Of course. I packed while Dad argued.

  “I might not be able to stop Emerson and Michael, but you’re my son. I could stop Lily, since she’s about to skip school—”

  “But you won’t. Lily’s calling this a college visit, which is not a lie, and Em can’t go unless she has a chaperone.” I threw my shaving kit in my bag with my already folded clothes, figuring I’d go with the scruffy look in the morning. Maybe it would make me look older.

  Nate and Dune agreed that Em, Michael, Lily, and I should be the ones to go to Memphis. They’d stay behind and keep an eye on things. Including Ava.

  I dropped my travel toothbrush into my open suitcase and faced him. “I’m going to be eighteen soon. What are you going to do then?”

  “Drink.”

  Family trait.

  I raised my hands. “I’m only packing in case we don’t find what we need in time to drive back. I’ll probably be home tomorrow night.”

  “You’ll be home all day because you aren’t going.”

  I turned around to get a hold on myself and to make sure my flask was covered. I zipped up my suitcase for good measure. “Dune found Jack’s information from high school. And since the university is still in the process of computerizing old student records, we have to physically go there to see what we can find.” I kept the part about tracking Jack’s pocket watch to myself. “This is the next logical step. You know you can’t go without drawing attention.”

  “Then let Michael handle it.”

  I ignored the drop m
y stomach did, but only because I really wanted to get my way instead of getting in a fight. “Michael might be Superman, but even Superman had Jimmy Olsen and Lois Lane.”

  Dad tapped his chin with two fingers, a sure sign he was about to cave.

  He shoots, he scores.

  “I still don’t like it,” he said, but he relented. “You’re checking in. Every hour.”

  “Dad.”

  “You can take turns.”

  “I’m positive Michael will make sure you’re in the know.” I pulled my candy stash out of my bedside drawer. An open box of Hot Tamales spilled and skittered across my hardwood floor, and I bent over to pick them up. “Dammit.”

  “It’s not that I don’t trust you,” Dad said, backpedaling.

  I stared at his scratched-up black boots, with mud crusted and flaking around the heels. Mom would’ve freaked that he had them on in the house. “But you trust him more.”

  “You are my son—”

  “Glad you noticed,” I said, standing up straight. Even in his boots, I had an inch of height on him.

  “My job is to protect you.”

  Super heartwarming.

  “It’s … Your mother was the one who handled the nurturing part. I’m not …” He stopped, his wide shoulders dropping, and attempted to explain himself. “I’m trying. I may not show it the way she did, but I do love you.”

  “Why do you refer to her in past tense?” The candy went sticky in my tightly closed fist. “‘Was.’ ‘Did.’”

  His whisper hurt me worse than a scream. “There’s been no improvement; in fact, she’s declining. You’d know that if you’d go see her.”

  “Are you saying it’s my fault she’s getting worse?”

  “No, but hearing her son’s voice, feeling his touch, that couldn’t hurt her. You know how much she loved—”

  “Loves. Loves. She loves me. I sat with her when you were dead. I did everything I could. I even tried—” I broke off just in time. “I know what my mistakes are; I don’t need a list from you. I’ll make sure Michael checks in with you while we’re all in Memphis. There’s nothing else to say.”