The Broken Circle (The Book of Sight 2)

by Deborah Dunlevy

  “Not that I can tell,” said Eve. “She just kept going on and on about the color.”

  “I can see why,” said Logan.

  “Yeah, but, um…it can tell when you are lying,” said Adam. “I’d say that’s a little more interesting than what shade of pink it is.”

  “How did you figure out what it does?” asked Dominic.

  “My mom was making me pull weeds while she watered the other day, and Mrs. Howard came by to gossip. I was sitting right there when all of a sudden I see this little bush with flowers that are opening and shutting, opening and shutting, over and over again. It freaked me out. So I’m watching it when I hear my mom say something about me. She was telling Mrs. Howard that I am such a good girl, always so helpful, something like that. Of course, the flowers all closed up tight. Mrs. Howard said that she just wished her daughter, Sarah, could be like that. They stayed closed. Mrs. Howard has always hated me. Then my mom starts talking about all the things I’ve supposedly done. It wasn’t hard to notice that the flowers opened up whenever what she said was true and closed when it was a lie. It’s lucky for my mom that Mrs. Howard didn’t notice how often they were closed. After that, I tried a few tests of my own, and it works the same way every time, so I picked just one of the flowers to bring and show you guys.”

  “Seems like a waste to pick it,” said Adam.

  “Well, I couldn’t exactly think of a believable excuse for us to all huddle around a bush in my front yard. My mother freaks out if anyone gets near her flowers. Plus, like I said, I wanted to take it to the Dund to see if he knows anything about it.”

  Logan’s face turned stony again. “Like I said, you guys should just go. You picked the flower. You don’t want to waste it.”

  Eve felt a little wave of irritation. She hated it when people felt sorry for themselves. “We’re not going to waste it. But we’re not going to leave you out, either. We’ll all go.”

  “Eve, I can’t leave the kids here or my mom will kill me. And I sure as heck can’t take them along.”

  “Why not?” asked Eve.

  Everyone stared.

  “I would think that’s pretty obvious,” said Adam.

  “Well, they don’t have to be right there with us. We can get them distracted with something and set them up over by the trees where we can see them, but they can’t hear anything that’s going on.”

  “No way,” said Logan. “I could maybe find something for Sam to do, but there’s no way that Darcy won’t be spying to see what we’re up to. She already snoops around in all my stuff.”

  “Then maybe we should tell her about it. Show her the book. If she’s interested in it, maybe she’s ready for that.”

  “No!” said Logan. “No. We all saw how that kid James was last year. The last thing I need is for Darcy to have one more thing to use to make my life miserable.”

  “Okay,” said Eve. “Then I’ll find some way to bribe her into leaving us alone for a bit.”

  “It’ll never work, Eve,” said Logan. “It will be a lot easier for you guys just to go and then tell me how it went later.” He returned Eve’s stare stubbornly.

  “It would be easier,” said Dominic, and Adam nodded.

  “I thought we had already learned our lesson about doing stuff without the whole group.”

  “We have! This isn’t one person going off on their own, Eve,” said Adam. “This is four of us going while one is babysitting. Plus, we’re just going to see the Dund. We’ve all visited him alone before.”

  “But not when we were going to ask him something this important,” insisted Eve.

  “I don’t like leaving Logan behind, either,” said Alex, “but I don’t think we have much choice.”

  Eve knew she was outnumbered. She looked at Logan.

  “See?” he said. “I’m right, and everyone knows it. It’s no big deal. You guys just go. Someone can come and fill me in later.”

  Was it her imagination or did that sound a little forced?

  Alex and Adam were already standing up and hefting their backpacks. Dominic was at the door. Logan handed Eve the flower in its water with an attempt at a casual smile.

  “I’ll bring the cup back as soon as we’re done and tell you every word,” she promised.

  • • • • •

  “Well, look what the cat dragged in! Eve Sloane, I do declare, if you aren’t looking just as pretty as a picture and as fit as a fiddle. And Adam and Dominic and Alex, as well. It never rains but it pours, now isn’t that the gospel truth? This is wonderful, just wonderful. I haven’t seen you all together in a month of Sundays. They say three is company and four is a crowd, but I’d have to say the more the merrier, and I’d not complain if Logan happened along right now, too. But count your blessings has always been my motto, so I’ll not complain if…”

  “Logan couldn’t make it,” said Eve forcefully. She knew better than to wait for the Dund to give her an opening. His long life as a tree stump and occasional baseball backstop had not given him much chance for socializing, and he liked to make up for lost time. “He really wanted to come, but he had to watch his little brother and sister. I’m sure he’ll come by another day.”

  “For sure and certain, tomorrow is another day, as they say, so I’m sure he’ll be by tomorrow. I’d love to see him, I always do, but family first! That’s my motto, or would be if I had a family. Do you suppose I have a family somewhere? Nothing comes from nothing, they say, and I’m sure that means me, too. I never heard anyone say, “Nothing but a Dund comes from nothing,” so I must have come from somewhere, wouldn’t you say?”

  This anxious question was punctuated by several quick blinks of the large brown eyes. Eve imagined that if he had hands, he would be wringing them about now.

  “I’m sure you have a family somewhere,” said Adam. “We keep our eyes open everywhere we go. Sooner or later we’ll find out where you came from.”

  Eve thought this promise was a bit overly confident, but the Dund seemed relieved.

  “That is such a comfort to me! True friends are hard to come by, but a friend in need is a friend indeed, and you have proven yourselves to be such friends. Who else would think it worth while to search for my family? Who else in all these years has come to keep me company at all?”

  “You know we love visiting you,” said Alex, “but we didn’t come just to keep company today. We have something we need to ask you about.”

  “Anything, anything,” said the Dund. “There are no secrets between friends. All that I have is yours. To tell the truth, I don’t have much of anything at all, but I do have a bit of knowledge, so that’s yours for the taking. Ask away!”

  Alex took out the bottle with the small black bug still crawling in circles on the bottom. In the afternoon sunlight, the small red spot on its back seemed to glow darkly. She held it up in front of the Dund, “Have you ever seen anything like this before?”

  The Dund let out a sound very like the whistling of a tea kettle. “Away! Away! Away!” His normally wheezy, high-pitched voice was now a positive shriek, and his eyes were blinking an insane rhythm. “Danger! Fear! Fire! Away! Away! Away!”

  Alex quickly stowed the bottle in her backpack, while Dominic stepped between her and the Dund, blocking even the backpack from view. Dominic’s voice was calm and reassuring. “It’s gone. It’s gone. It can’t hurt you. We won’t bring it out again. It’s gone. I promise.”

  The Dund’s shrieking trailed away, and he stood silent again, though his eyes did not stop their erratic movement. Eve wondered if the people in the trailer park had heard the screaming, and if so, what they thought of it. Then she remembered that probably no one but Logan would have even noticed the Dund’s voice, since no one else had read the Book of Sight. For the millionth time, she wondered how any of this was possible.

  “Sorry we scared you,” said Adam. “We didn’t know what the bug was. That’s why we came to you. We thought you might know something. And…you do. Can you tell us what it is?�
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  This question only made the Dund start muttering again, “Away, away, away…”

  Dominic grabbed Alex’s backpack, took a few steps and threw the whole thing as far out into the field as he could. The Dund seemed somewhat comforted. At least, his muttering stopped.

  Dominic’s steady voice broke the small silence, “You’re safe now. When you’re ready, can you tell us what you know?”

  The Dund just sat there blinking for a few minutes. Then he closed both eyes tight and opened his mouth, speaking in the monotone that Eve knew meant he was relaying an exact memory.

  “Red Spots are a scourge, a plague, the natural enemy of all things that live. Red Spots burn, Red Spots break, Red Spots burrow and uproot. Bursting forth from their mothers, Red Spots feast upon ashes, gorging their way deep into the earth. Long is their sleep, but not long enough. When the time is ripe, they emerge from their dens, seeking out life that can be destroyed. Large as they are, they cannot be seen. There is no warning at all until the earth is blasted, until all is ash for the children to feast again. Warn the others. Warn of the Red Spots. They are danger. They are fear. They are fire. Only firemallow can stand in their way.”

  The Dund opened his eyes, and a shudder ran through his whole trunk-like body. Eve thought about what it must be like to be rooted to the ground, unable to move, unable to run away even when your whole being wanted to. Something like horror rippled through her. She couldn’t help but lay a hand gently on the Dund’s back. She didn’t know if touch was comforting to a Dund or not, but she didn’t know how else to show him that she understood.

  Adam obviously didn’t share her thoughts. “These bugs are called Red Spots? How did you recognize it? Have you seen one before?”

  The Dund shuddered again. “Seeing is believing, they say, but I don’t know… I don’t…I’ve never seen one before, but I did believe, and I…well, you know how it is. You’d know that face anywhere. You could spot that Red Spot from a mile away,” He paused here to giggle nervously, then said more seriously, “though I wouldn’t touch it with a ten foot pole.”

  “So if you’ve never seen one before, someone must have described it to you. Who told you about Red Spots? We’ve never heard of them.”

  “Who told me? You know, I really can’t say. A little bird told me, I suppose. Heard it through the grape vine and all that. I don’t remember a face. I don’t remember a voice. Just words. Just the words. Too bad, really. A picture is worth a thousand words, you know. But no pictures, just words.”

  “Well, however you learned it, you do know about them, and they are obviously dangerous,” said Dominic. “I think it’s safe to say that they had something to do with that explosion, so the important thing is to figure out what we need to do next.”

  “You said something about only firemallow standing in their way?” asked Alex. “What is firemallow? Do you know how it stands in their way?”

  The Dund closed his eyes again, and they all waited breathlessly for the next revelation, but all he said was, “Red Spots are a scourge, a plague, the natural enemy of all things that live. Red Spots burn, Red Spots break, Red spots burrow and uproot. Bursting forth from their mothers, Red Spots feast upon ashes, gorging their way deep into the earth. Long is their sleep, but not long enough. When the time is ripe, they emerge from their dens, seeking out life that can be destroyed. Large as they are, they cannot be seen. There is no warning at all until the earth is blasted, until all is ash for the children to feast again. Warn the others. Warn of the Red Spots. They are danger. They are fear. They are fire. Only firemallow can stand in their way.”

  “Okay, so that’s all you know, then,” said Adam.

  “I sure don’t like the sound of all that burrowing and blasting and emerging from dens,” said Eve. “It gives me the creeps. It sounds like they’ll just keep growing and blowing more things up and having more babies who will blow more things up, unless we do something to stop them.”

  “We have to figure out what this ‘firemallow’ is,” said Alex. “It must be a way of killing them or stopping their explosions or something.”

  “If the Dund doesn’t know anything about it, maybe the Gylf will,” said Adam.

  “I’m truly sorry I couldn’t be more help,” said the Dund miserably. “I live to serve, you know, to lend a helping hand. But I don’t have hands. And I don’t know what to tell you.”

  “You’ve been a huge help,” said Eve. “You can’t possibly know everything. That’s not your fault. Still, without you, we wouldn’t even know what the bug was called or what it does or the name of the thing we’re looking for. You did great.”

  “Yeah,” said Adam. “No one’s blaming you. I can’t believe all the stuff you can remember. Even stuff like this that you don’t know how you ever found out. We’re just worried, that’s all. It seems like for everything we learn, there’s always ten more things we don’t know.”

  “Well, live and learn, they say,” said the Dund, sounding more like his usual self. “You’ve learned so much already. Keep living and you’ll keep learning more. Of course, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, you know. You may know about these…” apparently he couldn’t bring himself to say the name again. “…but you need to stay away. Only firemallow can stand in their way, you know, and you aren’t firemallow. At least I don’t think you are firemallow. Are you firemallow? No? No, I didn’t think you were firemallow. So yes, you know that much now, and knowing is half the battle.”

  “We promise to be careful,” said Eve. “But we can’t just stand by and let these things blow stuff up again. People might get hurt.”

  “And if we don’t do something,” said Alex, “no one will. We’re the only ones who can see them.”

  • • • • •

  “So he didn’t have any idea what this firemallow thing is?” asked Logan a little while later.

  He and Eve were standing outside his trailer, and Logan had his back firmly against the door. It was the only way to be sure Darcy wouldn’t interrupt.

  “Yeah,” said Eve. “We stuck around and talked with him for a little while, but he really didn’t know anything more. That’s why the others decided to go straight over to see the Gylf tonight. Well, Alex and Dom went, at least. When I left, Adam was still trying to decide if his mom would freak out if he got home after dark. Anyway, they’re going to see if the Gylf know about the Red Spots or about firemallow or anything helpful.”

  “You could have gone with them, you know. You didn’t have to come back here just to report to me.”

  “Hey, I promised I would bring this back, didn’t I?” She held up the empty glass.

  “Oh yeah, right. Did the Dund tell you what that flower was?”

  “No, he’d never seen anything like it. I sent it with Alex to see if the Gylf know anything.”

  “That’s what I mean,” said Logan. “You should have gone with them, so you could ask for yourself.”

  “It’s no big deal. Alex will tell me all about it. I didn’t want you to have to wait all night to find out what’s up. Anyway, there’s no way I could have gone all the way to the Gylf’s forest tonight. I get home late, and my mom locks me inside for the rest of the summer.”

  Logan was gazing off at something just behind her. “So much for us all sticking together, huh?”

  “That’s life, I guess. We all have parents, families. We can’t do everything together all the time. Someone had to go. We don’t know how soon these bugs could cause another explosion. We can’t really afford to wait around. And they totally promised not to try anything dangerous without us. They’re just asking questions.”

  “Yeah, I know.” Logan kicked the ground softly. “Ignore me. I just get a little crazy being stuck here all the time.”

  “You want me to come in and hang out for a while?” asked Eve. “We could play Monopoly with the kids or something.”

  “Nah, you don’t have to do that. I don’t want you to get in trouble for being late.”
r />   “Maybe just a round of Uno, then, instead of Monopoly?”

  Logan’s laugh ended abruptly at the sound of an enormous crash that echoed out from the trailer next door followed by some equally loud curses.

  “I’d better go make sure she’s okay,” said Logan. It was about five steps across the gravel to the neighbor’s door, but Logan crossed them in one leap and knocked loudly.

  “Come in, but only if you’re wearing shoes.”

  Logan opened the door. A pretty twenty-something with a blonde ponytail was sitting on the floor surrounded by bits of broken glass and pottery and a mostly empty cardboard box on its side.

  “Logan!” she said. “I was finally unpacking the last boxes and I slipped. I guess you heard the crash. Sorry about whatever else you may have heard.” Her laugh sounded forced.

  “Oh man, are you hurt?” Logan asked as he helped her up.

  “I’d say I’m going to have a pretty big bruise on my butt, but I’m fine. It’s just all this…stupid…glass and…stuff. I could clean this up all night, and I’ll probably still step on a piece of glass in the morning. I can never get every bit of glass up when it breaks. Not to mention that I’ll be drinking out of Dixie cups for the next month. Eating, too, probably.” She laughed again. “Oh well. Thanks for checking up on me.”

  “Let us help you clean up,” offered Eve.

  “Oh that’s okay, you don’t need to, honey. There’s only one broom anyway. You’re one of Logan’s friends?”

  “This is Eve,” said Logan. “Eve, this is our new neighbor, Candace.”

  “Nice to meet you,” said Eve, taking the broom out of the woman’s hands. “Seriously, I’ll sweep up. You should find something soft to sit on. Logan can help me with the big pieces.”

  “Well, aren’t you sweet? It’s nice to meet you, too, Eve.” Candace smiled brightly. “I’ll see if I can find some cans of pop. We won’t need glasses with those, at least.” She rummaged in the fridge for a few minutes, finally emerging with two Dr. Peppers and a Mountain Dew. “Are you the Eve from Logan’s book club? He told me all about it. It sounds so cool.”