A Quill Ladder

by Jennifer Ellis

  “What’s on the other maps?”

  Mark blinked, realizing that Abbey may have already asked this question twice while he had been thinking. He hadn’t worked a lot with the golden ratio, but he knew that, from a mapping perspective, Mecca was considered to be situated on the golden ratio point of the Earth, based on its distance from the north and south poles and the prime meridian.

  Mark lifted the map they had been looking at to reveal the one underneath—the one with the two crisscrossed lines running precisely north-south and east-west, intersecting at the center of the map.

  Abbey stared at this one. “It’s a plus symbol, or a cross,” she said. “What do you think it means?”

  Mark shook his head. He had no idea. He passed her his sketched transparencies of both maps and Abbey placed the two maps on top of each other.

  “The north-south line runs through one of the dots,” she said. Mark nodded; he knew this already. “And the east-west line almost runs through a dot, but not quite. Do you think that’s a mistake?”

  Mark was about to shrug, but Abbey just continued talking.

  “What’s on the other map?” she said, lifting the photocopy.

  “Anyone for blueberry smoothie?” Sandy’s chipper voice rang through the doorway. Mark snatched up the maps and slammed closed the folder.

  Up close, his sister—or half-sister, he corrected—was even scarier, her pert face wreathed in smiles, two glasses of milky purple drinks in her hands. Mark felt ungainly and like he might in fact be as slow as many people had often suspected, even though he knew he was not.

  “So this is your room now, huh Mark? I see you like maps.” Sandy entered the room and plunked herself down on the bed. A small amount of the smoothie from one of the glasses dripped onto the duvet. Mark expelled his breath from his nose heavily in short snorts. Abbey looked alarmed, and Mark started counting by threes.

  “He would prefer if you didn’t sit on the bed, I think,” Abbey said quietly.

  Sandy looked confused. “Oh. Sorry. I didn’t know.” She rose and placed one of the smoothies on Mark’s desk and handed the other to Abbey. The drip from the side of the glass formed a ring on Mark’s desk.

  “So, what do you want to do today?” she said. “It’s a beautiful day. We can’t spend it inside. Your Mom and Dad hope to have Simon home by mid-afternoon. But we should go out and do something before then.”

  Mark considered the potential horrors associated with this. What if she suggested going to a park, or the mall, or the Farmers’ Market?

  “I need a map,” he said.

  Sandy gave a little laugh and gestured at his walls. “Looks like you already have lots.” She winked, but when she saw he wasn’t laughing in response to her ribbing, she sobered. “What did you have in mind?”

  “I need the map from…” He almost said “the very bad man’s office,” but stopped himself in time and plastered a tight grimace on his face. “Your dad’s office.”

  Sandy wrinkled her nose. “I suppose the college is a nice enough place to go for the morning, but I don’t have the keys to his office, and he’s busy today.”

  “Can you get the keys?” Abbey said.

  Sandy shifted her eyes to Abbey. “I guess. But what’s this about?”

  “Your dad promised Mark a copy of the map, and then I think he’s just been a bit too busy, what with you coming home and all. I think he might have forgotten. And Mark is… well, he’s quite obsessed with maps, and once he gets something in his mind, he really, you know, has to have it. He gets really upset sometimes when he can’t get things he wants.” Abbey darted exaggerated, meaningful looks in Mark’s direction, as if he couldn’t understand what she was saying. Mark had never heard Abbey speak this way, and he concluded after a bit of consideration that perhaps she was putting on a show for Sandy… to get Sandy to help them find the maps. Perhaps he should play along.

  Sandy folded her arms under her breasts. “All right. My dad’s condo is near the college. We can just go grab the key on the way. I need you all to have something to eat before we go though.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” replied Abbey. Mark couldn’t tell if she was being sarcastic or sincere. Not understanding tone was definitely challenging.

  *****

  “So how did you know our mom, anyway? You were friends in high school?” Caleb said. The trees and other cars on the side of the road were flicking past at an alarming rate, and Abbey checked for the third time to make sure that her seatbelt was done up. Sandy drove the small red Mazda that Dr. Ford had purchased for her like a lunatic. Even the whites of Caleb’s eyes seemed to be a bit larger than usual as he tossed the occasional glance at Abbey and Mark in the back seat.

  “Best friends,” Sandy said. “I guess that’s the good thing about going to Nowhere. I’ve maintained my youthful looks.” She gave a small, harsh snort of laughter. Abbey stared at Sandy. Was this some sort of slight on her mother? Nevertheless, Abbey had to admit her mother had been looking old and unwell lately. She choked back a small flood of tears. If her mother was dying, someone would tell them. She was sure of it.

  “And how did you end up in Nowhere, exactly?” Caleb said.

  “That’s classified, sharkbait,” Sandy said, switching lanes and accelerating ahead of the traffic around her.

  Abbey suppressed a smile. Caleb’s suave “moves” earlier had obviously failed to impress if she had already started calling him names.

  “Is everything classified?” Caleb said. “Seriously. What were you doing?”

  “I was saving someone’s life, ’kay? Someone that I guess was supposed to die. But I cared about that person, so I prevented their death. And that’s a big no-no.”

  “Who was it?” Caleb said.

  “That’s definitely classified.”

  Caleb crossed his arms over his chest. “How does anyone expect us to help if we have no idea what’s going on or why?”

  “That’s the point,” Sandy said, flipping the bird at a blue sedan going too slow in the left lane, the silver charm bracelet on her wrist jangling. Abbey flashed an apologetic smile at the old lady in a grey hat, who had her hands clutched firmly at ten and two. “You’re not supposed to help. You’re supposed to let us handle it. There are things going on here that you can’t even begin to comprehend. Dangerous things.”

  Caleb threw his hands in the air. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. We got it. Don’t create paradox, or you’ll be lost forever, and some bad folks are trying to jump to a parallel universe, and could destroy our universe in the process. People keep involving us somehow, so it would be distinctly helpful if we had a clue what was going on.”

  “Trust me, I don’t know much more than you.” Sandy skidded the Mazda to a stop in front of a nondescript green eighties-style condo building surrounded by dense shrubbery. “Okay, you all wait here. I’ll go in and get the key and be right back.” And before they could say a word she was bounding into the building.

  “Well, you have to admit she’s enthusiastic,” Caleb said as soon as she was gone.

  “I strongly prefer to drive the speed limit,” Mark muttered.

  Sandy was back in the car a moment later, and the Mazda hurtled away from the curb. Sandy played with the tuner on the radio, trying to find a station she liked. Abbey decided it would be better if Sandy kept her eyes on the road.

  “My mother said something about a Witches’ Council meeting,” Abbey ventured. “Did that ever happen?”

  Sandy stopped playing with the tuner and chewed on her fingernails. “You could say that. It didn’t go well. There was no agreement.”

  “Were my parents there?”

  “Yes.”

  “Were Damian and Nathaniel in Nowhere with you?”

  “Of course.”

  “Do you know them?”

  “No. They were part of Selena’s crowd.”

  Then why were they visiting your dad? Abbey wanted to ask.

  “I st
rongly prefer if we drive the speed limit,” Mark said. “This speed is making me very nervous, and I get carsick.”

  Abbey saw Sandy’s blue eyes reflected in the rearview mirror. She raised a single eyebrow, but nonetheless slowed down a little bit.

  “So when you say there was no agreement, what does that mean?” Abbey asked.

  Sandy didn’t say anything, and became very interested in the radio tuner again. She didn’t turn the wheel quite quickly enough for a bend in the road and had to jerk the car to the left suddenly to stay in her lane. Mark let out a low moan.

  “Let me guess,” Abbey said. “Classified?”

  “I think maybe we should just let Sandy drive,” Caleb said. “No need to be pestering her with questions.” He turned and gave Abbey a bulgy-eyed impatient look.

  Abbey huffed out a snort of disgust. Had Caleb fallen so head over heels with Sandy during their banana-bread-making episode that he didn’t feel she needed to be grilled about her father’s clearly shady dealings? Abbey tried to think charitable thoughts; perhaps Caleb was just trying to keep them alive by allowing Sandy to focus on the road.

  On campus, Sandy wheeled into a small spot with a flourish and they all got out. She beamed at them. “That is one thing I definitely missed. Driving. Can’t get enough of it. That and French fries. Anyone want to grab a snack?”

  Caleb raised his hand and gave Sandy a besotted smile.

  Abbey glared at him. “Aren’t we supposed to be getting a map?”

  “Well, I promised your mom I would look after you. That means making sure you eat,” Sandy said in kind of a singsong voice. Abbey tried not to think that there was a sinister undertone to Sandy’s words.

  “Snacks first, then the map, Abs. What’s the rush?” Caleb said. He and Sandy set off along the treed walkway at a rapid pace, chatting between themselves. Mark and Abbey were forced to follow along. Mark wore a stormy expression, and Abbey feared that he might simply balk, but he continued along beside her.

  Abbey was so focused on trying to eavesdrop on the conversation between Caleb and Sandy that she almost didn’t see Jake pop out of Dr. Ford’s office building and run-walk to the next building. Jake? What is he doing here? Whatever it was, Abbey was sure it wasn’t good.

  Abbey hustled until she was walking on the other side of Sandy and affected her sincerest expression. “So, how’s your mom?” she said.

  Sandy’s face grew a bit cloudy, but she continued to smile. “She’s okay. The doctors say she could make a full recovery. She’s got a long road of rehab ahead of her though. She still can’t speak, so it’s hard. My dad’s pretty shattered by it. Even though they weren’t still together, they’re still great friends.”

  “Should we go visit her?”

  “I don’t see why not. I think she would like that.”

  Up ahead, Abbey wondered if she didn’t just see a flash of a red scarf behind a tree.

  Abbey ducked her head over her shoulder to look at Mark, who still plodded behind them. She lowered her voice. “I was wondering if we could possibly go get the map right now. It’s really important to Mark, you see, and I’m sure it would mean a lot to him if you could help him get that map. We could get the fries later.”

  Sandy peeked over her shoulder at Mark, then shrugged. “Sure, why not?”

  She dropped back and started to walk with Mark, turning in the direction of Dr. Ford’s building. “So Mark, I hear you love maps. What is it that you love so much about them?”

  Mark paused, but apparently wasn’t immune to Sandy’s magic, and Abbey could hear him start to talk about topographical maps, political maps, physical maps, thematic maps…

  “Jake’s here,” Abbey said to Caleb.

  “What?” Caleb stuttered. He looked a little bereft at the switch in walking partners, and Abbey tried not to roll her eyes.

  “Jake just ran from Dr. Ford’s building to another building. And I think I may have seen Selena behind a tree near the library.”

  “Hmm… the library,” Caleb said, almost dreamily. Abbey wanted to smack him. But then his expression sharpened. “You know… the library here looks a lot like the library in the future.”

  Abbey had to admit that Caleb was right. The campus library had a distinctive cubist motif.

  “Probably a coincidence. Aren’t all college libraries cubes?”

  “Maybe.”

  They reached the building that housed Dr. Ford’s office without another sighting of Jake or Selena. Mark was deep in his lecture regarding the importance of contour lines and their various uses beyond representing topography. Together they entered the building, all of them continuing to listen to Mark. Dr. Ford’s door was closed, and Sandy jangled the keys in the air with a conspiratorial grin.

  “I think isobars and isotherms are the most interesting other uses of contours. However isostachs are also interesting. They’re used to join points with constant wind speed…” Mark stared at the ceiling as he spoke.

  Sandy slid the key into the lock, and turned and opened the door.

  Caleb flicked on the lights, and Mark, still mid-sentence, emitted a gasp of sheer horror.

  The map was gone. Four pushpins remained on the wall where it had hung. Mark let out a sharp scream. There was a flutter of movement in the office, and then it was Abbey’s turn to scream as Sanome emerged from beneath the desk. The dog crawled over to Sandy, wagging her tail and crouching in some strange display.

  “What’s wrong with her?” Abbey said.

  Sandy shook her head and bent to comfort the dog, who curled around her feet and whimpered. “She’s upset. Why is she even in here? My dad takes her with him wherever he goes. He was supposed to be meeting with some… colleagues today.”

  Abbey studied Sandy. She was sure the woman had been going to say “witches” instead of “colleagues.”

  Caleb had gone around to the other side of the desk. “Um, I hate to be the one to mention it, but there’s like… a lot of blood here on the floor.”

  Sandy sprang to her feet and hurried over to Caleb, tucking her blond hair behind her ears as she stared at the floor. Abbey followed at a more measured pace; she didn’t like blood. Mark continued to stare at the empty spot on the wall, holding his satchel to his chest, his mouth hanging open.

  There was a lot of blood on the floor. More blood than Abbey would ever have liked to have seen at one time, in scattered drops and smeared patches, as if someone had knelt or stepped in it, or maybe been dragged through it. Abbey couldn’t tell. Her knees went a bit soft and she retreated back to the other side of the desk and sank into one of the chairs. This was a key reason why she had focused on physics and chemistry rather than biology. She lowered her head so that it was almost between her knees. Sanome pressed her hard little skull against Abbey’s thigh, and Abbey could feel the dog quivering.

  “It’s not enough blood for someone to have died,” Abbey said.

  “I need to call my dad,” said Sandy. She withdrew a pink iPhone from her pocket and tried to jab buttons on it. “Damn! I still can’t quite get this thing figured out. Oy. Sorry guys. I didn’t say that. I’m a big swearhead. Just don’t listen to me, or your mother will have a fit. Can you dial for me?” She handed the phone to Caleb. “I’m not going to panic. He could have just cut his finger or his knee or something.” Her voice sounded a bit strained. Caleb dialed and Sandy held the phone to her ear.

  “The map…” Mark said finally.

  Abbey sighed. “Mark, there’s blood, and we don’t know where Dr. Ford is. I know the map is important to you, but you’re going to have to forget about it for a bit.”

  “Hey, Dad.” Abbey wondered if Dr. Ford had picked up, but then realized Sandy was talking to voicemail. She spoke loudly, like someone who distrusted cell phones, or had never seen one before. “It’s Sandy. Just calling from your office. There’s some… odd things here. Call me back. Immediately.” She handed the phone back to Caleb, who pressed end. “O
kay, now I’m worried. We need to look for him.”

  “Maybe we could follow the trail of blood,” Caleb said, pointing to a single drop by the door.

  Abbey, Sandy, and Caleb all piled into the hallway, scanning the floor for more drops.

  “Here’s one,” Caleb cried jubilantly from a few meters down the hallway. “He went this way.”

  “Hold on for a second, Cale,” Abbey said, bending to look closer at the blood on the floor. At least droplets were less horrifying than smears. “The direction of movement of the person determines the nature of the blood droplet. We need to analyze the spines and satellite spatter.”

  “Or we could just look for another droplet of blood,” Caleb said, farther down the hall. “There’s one here. He must have gone this way.”

  “The spines and satellite spatter always point in the direction of travel,” Abbey said. “And in this case, it’s this way.” She pointed her thumb over her shoulder, in the opposite direction.

  Caleb scowled. “Then why would there be blood here?”

  “I don’t know.” Abbey stood and walked over to Caleb, expecting to correct him. But the spines on this drop of blood pointed the other direction. The direction Caleb had suggested. Abbey walked a few meters down the hall in the other direction. The direction she claimed Dr. Ford had gone, and there was another droplet, with the spines pointing the original direction. “He must have… turned around.”

  “Then why is there another drop here?” Caleb had moved again, and now stood at the end of the hall.

  “It’s like he went two directions,” she said.

  “Or there were two people bleeding,” Caleb offered. Or there are parallel universes, Abbey thought grimly, and Dr. Ford went one direction in one universe, and the other direction in the other universe. This was terrible. She was starting to believe almost any half-baked suggestion that her mind tossed at her, with absolutely no scientific evidence.

  “We need to split up,” Sandy announced.

  “What? No,” Abbey said. “That always went badly in Scooby Doo.”