“I’d get your payment?”
She nodded.
I did the quick math to assess how much more money that would be and felt my lungs fill.
I really liked her, but I couldn’t argue that more money was simply better for me. If I got enough cash, I could send money home, and maybe Mom and Dad wouldn’t fight so much about unpaid bills, and I could stay here without worrying about my sister so much.
“Wait, so if other people drop out, does that mean we get more money? Samuel—he split…”
She frowned and paused before answering. “I’m very so concerned that he has disappeared.”
I lifted the mug to my lips. “Bet he just went home.”
“I know what you’re running from, Charley.”
“What?”
“I know.” She shook her head in that weird opposite way. “I understand that your family is in, how you say, turmoil. So you run away.” She wiggled her fingers on one hand.
I bristled. I’d shared too much, and now she was making assumptions. “I’m not running away. I’m starting my life.”
“My question to you is this. I know what you’re running from. But what are you running to?”
“What?”
“You want to live here with me. You wear the boots.” She waved her hand at my fantabulous white boots. Was that an insult? Or admiration? “You sneak into club.”
“Yeah…”
She tilted her head back and forth. “What do you want from your life?”
I had no idea why she was being so adultish. Irritation brewed inside me. That was an odd and stupid question. It sounded like Mom.
“How am I supposed to know?” I snapped. “I mean, you’re what, twenty-two? Twenty-three? Yeah, like you have it all figured out.”
“The world is very big,” she said, her eyes stayed trained on me while she took a sip of tea.
I looked down, tugged on the pillow’s gold fringe.
She leaned forward. “Perhaps bigger than someone like you might see yet. Look where you go.”
When I woke up late in the morning, Katerina had already left the apartment. I took my time before leaving, examining her things. The long lipstick tube that felt too heavy. The platform shoes. The rows of flowy dresses in pinks and bright blues. The silky red robe hanging behind the bathroom door. A funny-looking matchbox with a lock on the edge. A silver dollar.
I drank some tea and ate a biscuit. Outside, I made my way back to the bus stop, but instead of going back to SRI, I jumped on a route that led back to that park with the hippies.
I thought of my sister and wondered what she was doing. It was ten o’clock here in California, so it meant it was already noon at home. Was she awake? Had she eaten anything? I hoped she hadn’t run off with that Alice girl to the old drive-in theater. I knew the high-schoolers who were up to no good went there, and I didn’t want Cindy tangled up in that. I knew, because I’d been one of them once.
At the park, I lit a joint and blew out a cloud of smoke, trying not think about what was happening at SRI. The others in the program were cool enough, but the purpose behind that place freaked me out. Annie the murderer, who wore a silk designer blouse and worked in a messy office and drank coffee, had looked like someone you’d see at the grocery store. What other people there looked normal, seemed on the right side of things, but were doing bad shit?
Maybe that was what happened in life. You went down one of two paths. You got a house in the suburbs and you worked your butt off at some boring desk job for the rest of your life. You had two-point-five kids and drove a station wagon. Or you bought a house in the suburbs, worked your butt off at some desk job for the rest of your life, and you killed people. You subscribed to some twisted view of how the world should be. You hid behind big red beehive hairdos and silk blouses.
I sat down, shut my eyes, and let the buzz of the pot massage my head.
I slept.
The next day’s sun beat down on me like a forest fire, and I wiggled my toes and opened my eyes. Panicked, I sat up with a gasp. I swam in confusion. I slept in the park like a homeless person. All day. All night.
Water. I needed water. My throat felt as if I had swallowed dirt. I didn’t want to go back to SRI, but I had nowhere else to be.
22
Julia
The way Dr. Carrillo gnawed on her toast, she reminded me of the woodchuck that our gardener Howard chased after it terrorized our family’s compound the previous summer. The scientist sat alone in the corner of the crowded cafeteria, two hands on her toast, wholly focused on her crunching.
I approached her warily, my juice balancing on my tray.
I cleared my throat, hoping to get my voice out. “I think I’m ready.”
She looked at me as if I were standing before her coated in mud.
“I’m ready for testing.”
She looked at me and continued to chew furiously.
“And I’d like to try remote viewing.”
She looked back at her journal, as if I hadn’t said anything.
“And…” I said, almost pleading, my tray tottering. “I have psychokinesis, and it would translate well. Moving my mind to another location.”
She dropped her toast, looked up at me, and chewed some more.
I waited.
“You’ve been AWOL your entire time here, Cavanaugh.” She shook her head and looked at the journal.
My throat closed up. “Let me show you … I … you were busy yesterday—”
“We found our remote viewing test subject.”
“Minnie doesn’t think her skills are well suited,” I said.
She didn’t respond. Instead, she went back to the gnawing. She lifted the magazine, which read American Journal of Physics. She sniffled.
Katerina sang a hello as she sat down at the table. Dr. Carrillo perked up.
Katerina waved her hand at me and said, “Sit, Julia, sit!” She injected a refreshing breeze into the corner table, and I eased onto the bench with my tray.
“And how you must be this beautiful morning?” she asked.
Dr. Carrillo put down her journal and smiled, showing two long canine teeth. “I’m surprised to see you here, Katerina. Normally you’re filing my paperwork at this time.”
“About that,” Katerina said, placing her hands delicately on the top of the table.
“Yes?” Dr. Carrillo smiled, revealing a bit of toast stuck on her tooth.
“I am so sorry. I must quit that job.”
“Why?” Dr. Carrillo’s face darkened.
“Some things… How you say? Came up.”
Dr. Carrillo’s lips tightened. “Disappointing.”
Then, after a pause, the scientist glanced at me sideways. “Well, I would offer the job to Julia, but she doesn’t need the money, obviously. And given her pattern of behavior, she’d probably be a wreck.”
My face flushed red and I looked down at my tray.
Katerina cleared her throat. “This bacon is so much delightful.”
I ate quietly as Katerina and Dr. Carrillo exchanged empty comments about the food and the weather.
And then, out of nowhere, Katerina turned on a strange kind of charm. “Did you know, Julia, that Dr. Carrillo worked so very hard. She told me how she obtained an electrical engineering doctorate! Yes?”
Dr. Carrillo nodded and cast her gaze down at the table, bashful.
“She then invented special electronic beams! And she even studied alternatives to … what is it called?”
“Quantum mechanics,” Dr. Carrillo answered, clipped.
What was with the flattery? And how did she even know all these things?
“Oh,” I said. All I cared about was getting into the metal cage that would let me investigate my aunt’s death.
“Katerina, are you getting enough to eat?” Dr. Carrillo asked, pointing at the minuscule amount of food on her plate.
A clattering at the door interrupted the strange conversation, and Dr. Monson charged through t
he cafeteria, weaving between people to reach us. Face pale, lips and eyes bent into a harrowed expression.
She held out a piece of paper with a stiff arm. “Dr. Carrillo, I’m afraid I cannot do this anymore. I wrote my resignation letter.”
The two scientists acted like Katerina and I weren’t even there.
“Why? I offered you a stupendous salary, and the work is going well.”
“There were orbs in my room last night. And the blade.”
“What on earth are—”
“The spinning blade—it was just as they said happened to Samuel.”
Dr. Carrillo still didn’t take the letter. She gazed at it, and Dr. Monson’s hand trembled.
Dr. Monson tossed the letter on the table, as if it was too heavy to hold. “Samuel. He’s gone. And Charley? She… she never came back to her room. The last two nights.”
“Charley is a—” Dr. Carrillo started.
“Something supernatural is going on here. It’s … too much for me.”
“Charley was not back at basement experiments yesterday?” Katerina asked.
Dr. Monson’s head shake was an avalanche, quaking her whole body.
Charley is missing? Rocks filled my lungs. Really creepy killers had roamed California in the past year, targeting young girls. Disbelief wrapped around my neck like a cord. More orbs? Nothing made sense to me, and I kicked myself for not being involved in the experiments earlier. If I had, I might have had some clue as to what was going on. Dr. Monson was visibly shaken, and something was amiss.
Dr. Carrillo scoffed and then turned to glare at me for a long beat. “Charley and Samuel’s departures seem like typical behavior for this kind of subject. And orbs? Linda, I’m sure you just had a bad dream. Let’s be professionals here.”
“The results we’re seeing are fundamentally difficult to accept. It defies all logic. All laws of—”
“Physics? I think we’re trying to prove a new paradigm of physics.”
“Or we’re tapping into something strange, something really, really dark.”
I interjected. “Perhaps … maybe … there’s some connection to the Russians?” It was just Cord’s continuous talking about the Russians and our duty to our country. It was Dr. Carrillo’s talking about the Russian psychic that very first day. And I didn’t really believe it. But somehow I found myself blurting it out.
Katerina placed a warm hand on my arm. “What a very strange thing, Julia!”
“True,” Dr. Carrillo said, turning a fierce glare on me. “You sound like a … McCarthyist. The 1950s are long gone.”
Katerina nodded. “Dr. Carrillo is probably accurate, yes? People must surely let their imaginations get—how you say?—get the best of them here.”
Dr. Carrillo returned her attention to Dr. Monson. “Listen,” she said, cocking her head and sighing deeply. “You’re thinking about paranormal events all day; it’s getting to you. Take a couple days off. Please. I insist. Without Dr. Strong, you are the only solid scientist I’ve got to continue the project.”
Without Dr. Strong? I wondered why I hadn’t seen him in several days. I wanted to ask why, but couldn’t bring myself to be so rude again. She’d just tell me it wasn’t any of my business.
Dr. Monson looked flabbergasted, and she cast me a quick glance. “He left? You didn’t tell me,” she said.
I wanted to vanish into thin air, and I considered standing up to leave the table. Dr. Carrillo’s expression was easy to read, and somehow, I knew Dr. Strong hadn’t left of his own volition: Dr. Carrillo had forced him to leave.
“Did you know that in Bulgaria,” Katerina whispered to me, “we have a tradition.”
I glanced at her.
“We decorate eggs using heated beeswax and dyes.”
Katerina kept talking, and I strained to hear Dr. Carrillo and Dr. Monson’s conversation over the din of the cafeteria.
“Why?” Dr. Monson asked.
“Because he was doing some dangerous…” Dr. Carrillo’s voice dropped to a murmur, while Katerina’s voice grew louder.
“Eggs continue to be a ritual gift. I can show you one at my flat if you’d like.”
“But—” Dr. Monson started.
“I have my reasons,” Dr. Carrillo interrupted. “Later, Dr. Monson.”
From the corner of my eye, I could see the frizzy-haired scientist standing there, with arms dangling and fingers spread. Her attention bounced between Katerina and Dr. Carrillo like a tennis match.
Finally she nodded quickly, her hair bouncing like a nest on top of her head. “Fine.” She turned on her heel and walked toward the cafeteria’s exit. She and Henry passed in the doorway. Her pace faltered as she glanced up at him, shuddering as their bodies passed. She ran down the hall.
That brief interaction, which lasted just a tenth of a second, rattled me, as did Katerina’s smooth, condescending response about Russia’s involvement and Dr. Carrillo’s brush-off response to her colleague. Dr. Monson was really scared, and Dr. Carrillo didn’t care.
I stood up. “I’m finished. But Dr. Carrillo, I’d really love to try the cage today. I’m available if things open up,” I said.
She didn’t look at me when she gave her response, and it landed hard, a clear indication she wasn’t changing her mind. “No.”
Outside, I spotted a girl in the distance, wandering across the quad. She looked disoriented, like a blind bird tottering around. After a few seconds, I registered the blond hair and the lanky gait.
“Charley!” I yelled and walked toward her. She jerked up to see me and waved.
On a closer look, she looked like she’d been sucked up and spit out of a monster’s mouth. “Where’ve you been?”
“Oh.” She pushed her hair out of her face. Primping. “I was just … cruising around for a bit.”
Cruising around? “We were so worried.” I considered telling her that I was beginning to lose my mind. Carol. Samuel. Dr. Strong.
“Oh.” She shrugged. “I just checked out the city. You’d dig it.” She didn’t make eye contact.
All night? She checked out the city for two days? “Where’d you sleep?”
Her shoulders tensed, and her voice became an icy breeze. “I saw Katerina’s show. I slept at her pad. And then, I just cruised around.”
“Cruised.”
“Hung out at the park. It was cool city.” She opened the front door.
The hippie park? I noticed dirt on her back. “You’ve got gunk on your back, Charley. What happened?”
“Uh…” She paused and then let out a laugh. “Fell asleep? Maybe?”
“What?” I forced a laugh. “How could you not know?”
“I checked out.”
Does that mean she was high? Did she even remember? I couldn’t imagine being that out of control.
She shot me a look that could have wilted flowers. “Quit your judging.”
“I…”
“I’m back. I’m alive. So get over it.”
We walked through the lobby and up the stairs in silence. She stood a couple inches taller than me, and even disheveled, she still felt older and more mature. Like a big sister whom I wasn’t allowed to question.
Once we got to the door to my room, I decided to talk. “So I decided that I want to try the cage.”
“Really?” She held open the door to her room, which she had left unlocked.
“But Dr. Carrillo says I can’t . My window apparently has shut.”
She scrunched up her face. “Why’d she say that?”
“She’s punishing me for not doing the experiments.”
“Well. Maybe she’ll change her mind.” She threw her thumb at her room. “I gotta go take a shower and clean up and all. I smell like horse shit.” And she kind of did.
Later, Charley appeared at my door with combed wet hair and a plaid miniskirt and wide-collared blouse. Her surprise visit somehow capped the brewing anxiety that had me pacing the room, biting my fingernail, trying to figure out what to do
next.
“You looked like you needed to talk.” She moved through the space, wafting up the scent of raspberry shampoo, and plopped on my bed. “So. What’s on your mind?”
I sat on the opposite bed and hesitated. Do I tell her? How do I even begin? I bit my fingernail and she jumped up and slapped my hand.
“Gross!”
I smirked. “Mother says nail-biting is like licking a sewer.”
“I wouldn’t go that far. It just makes your hands looks like shit, and I am the one who has to see it. So really, it’s about me.” She paused, smiling. “So,” she said, “what changed? Why the big interest in the cage?”
“I want to find my aunt.”
“Ooookay.”
“The girl in the blue dress. My aunt.”
She rolled onto her side and held her head with her hand. Her wide eyes told me to continue.
“That night in Chinatown? I saw her ghost. I talked to her.” I stood up and paced in the room, grabbing my hair with two hands and tugging. “On top of that, a man followed me. And it scared me to death.”
“In Chinatown? Shut. Up.”
I stopped, gazed out the window and told her about Aunt Sabrina, how she mysteriously disappeared, about the fire, and then how my cousin thought she might have gone to Mandaree. She earnestly listened, squinting and nodding.
“No one talked about her. It was just … I don’t know … we didn’t … Cavanaughs don’t talk about stuff.” I turned around and looked at Charley. Did she understand? I couldn’t tell. So I kept talking.
“I’m supposed to be quiet. Good. And until now, I never really demanded answers. Until now.”
Charley nodded slowly, absorbing a secret I’d never shared with anyone.
“I want to go to Mandaree to find out what happened to her.”
“Oh.”
“Never mind. It’s crazy.” I chewed my nail and stood up, ready to end the conversation.
“So, why didn’t you tell me all this before?”
Because I don’t tell people things. I’ve spent my whole life living inside my own head. I shook my head, unable to answer.
Then, taking a deep breath, I summoned the courage to ask my question. I was desperate, and a little more than mad at Dr. Carrillo. For the first time in my life, I wanted to take things into my own hands, break the rules.
Extraordinary Lies Page 16
