by G. P. Ching
“I don’t even want it. You can have it,” he yelled after her. He could hear the click of her door locking behind her.
Jacob rubbed his eyes with the heels of his palms. It made sense. This was why he’d never in his life heard of the Laudners. In a numb fog, he dropped his hands and backed down the hall, never taking his eyes off of Katrina’s door until he was inside his own room. He collapsed onto his new comforter, bringing his knees to his chest. It wasn’t his choice to come here; it certainly wasn’t his choice to stay. At this point, he had very few choices.
Jacob had allowed himself to grow close to Uncle John these last couple of months. But now, now that he knew how twisted this family was, now that the evil of it was poured out at his feet, he knew for sure what he must do. He had to leave this place. He had to find his real family, the only real family he’d ever had. And, he had to do it soon. Because now that he knew how his uncle really felt about his mother, every minute here felt like a betrayal.
Chapter 26
Master Lee
The knuckles on Jacob’s right hand were pale from gripping his phone so tightly. He’d been in this position a couple of times, chickening out before he dialed the numbers. What would he say? He didn’t even know if he had the right place. But he wanted to try. He wanted to know why his mother had a box of knives among her things, and why she had so carefully kept it a secret.
Jacob took a deep breath and dialed. The sound of the phone ringing made him nervous and he was tempted to hang up again, but the call was answered before he could.
“Red Door Martial Arts,” a young female voice said into his ear.
“Hi … I mean, hello. I have a question about something that I think was purchased there?”
“Okay, what’s your question?”
“Well, I have this wood box that has knives in it and I was wondering if you sell many of those?”
“Not too many. Why?”
“Well, the key is missing and I was wondering if you can replace it. Your number was on the bottom of the box.”
“Sure, we should be able to do that. Is it the black one?”
“No, it’s a natural wood. Koa, I think.”
“Koa, really? And you’re sure you got it here?”
“Well, your number was on the bottom of the box. It has an engraving of a phoenix on the lid, if that helps.”
“A phoenix?” The girl paused. “What did you say your name was?”
“I didn’t, but it’s Jacob.”
“Hold on, I need to check something with the owner.”
Jacob heard the girl’s footsteps and then abrupt silence as if she’d muted the phone. A minute or two later the deep voice he’d heard on the answering machine came on the line.
“Hello, this is Master Lee. Who is this?”
“Um, my name’s Jacob.”
“Hi, Jacob. So, where did you find that box?”
“It was my mom’s.”
“And, where is your mom now?” The voice was calming, older, like a grandpa’s voice should sound.
He hesitated. “Did you know my mom?”
“Where is Lilly now, Jacob?” Master Lee said more firmly.
“How did you know my mom?”
“Jacob, that question isn’t easy to answer. If you bring the box to me, we can talk more. Can you come here?”
“I’m living on the mainland now. I don’t know when I’ll be back,” he said.
“Can you tell me, where is Lilly? Is she with you?”
“No. I don’t know where she is,” Jacob admitted. “Nobody knows.”
Master Lee made a sound like a sob. “We’d heard, but still we hoped. Jacob, this call isn’t about a key, is it?”
“No. The box is open. I know what’s inside. But I don’t understand why my mom had these. And, how did you know her?”
“I’m sorry, Jacob, but I can’t help you.”
Jacob heard a click and then a dial tone. He’d hung up. Still, he’d learned what he wanted to learn. His mother had known Master Lee. The box did come from the Red Door. And, when Jacob made it back to Oahu, he knew just whom he’d visit first. He’d find a way to visit Master Lee—in person. Then he would find his mom.
Chapter 27
The Search
“What the hell?” Jacob said, pulling the plate from the refrigerator. He’d eventually agreed to care for Gideon while Dr. Silva made her trip to St. Louis and was following the directions she’d left for him. The note on the plate said for Gideon in Dr. Silva’s tight scrawl but the food looked nothing like cat food. There was no meat. It was fresh peaches, cottage cheese, and a variety of fresh vegetables. Could a cat live on this? He placed the plate next to Gideon’s water. The big red cat came running and buried his face in the dish. Not the weirdest thing he’d seen since coming to Paris, but a vegetarian cat definitely made the top ten.
With Gideon distracted, Jacob wasted no time. The relationship between Dr. Silva and her cat was something he hadn’t figured out yet, but he had a gut feeling it was better if Gideon didn’t know what he was about to do. Quietly, he walked toward the door and then veered left to the staircase.
Even with Gideon occupied, everywhere Jacob moved in the house, thousands of eyes followed him. Dr. Silva had a penchant for Victorian decorating and every conceivable type of angel could be found in her furnishings. There were statues and paintings; even the newel post was carved into the image of an angel. Creepy.
Jacob climbed the stairs two at a time. Instructions for navigating through Oswald were written in years and years of charts Dr. Silva had kept on her travels. She’d mentioned them to Jacob when he’d first asked her how she knew where the tree would take them. These notes were the key to going home and starting the search for his mom. He planned to return to the spot where she was last seen, Manoa Falls. It seemed like the best place to start, not to mention on Oahu where the Red Door was located. They might not give him answers over the phone but they wouldn’t deny him in person. If Dr. Silva wouldn’t help him, he would help himself.
The landing at the top of the stairs was a library. Shelves of books stretched from floor to ceiling in a three-sided square around several leather recliners and a large empty table. Against a window overlooking the backyard a huge book rested on a wooden stand. He walked over to it but was disappointed to find it was the Oxford International Dictionary. Of course it wasn’t going to be that easy.
He perused the books on the shelves. There was a complete wall of volumes on exotic plants. Another shelf housed information on herbs, gardens, and landscaping. There was a shelf of botany textbooks that appeared to be written by Dr. Silva herself, and a row of organic gardening magazines.
Once it was obvious that the library didn’t contain what he was looking for, he headed down the hall, opening doors as he went. There were six bedrooms filled with furniture covered in white sheets. Of course, none of these rooms would get any use; Dr. Silva lived alone and as far as Jacob knew had never had a guest. There were two bathrooms, as empty and unused as any of the other rooms.
At the very end of the hall, he opened the door to the master bedroom. This room looked lived in, or maybe a better description would be died in. Dr. Silva’s bedroom was black—black walls, a black comforter, and wrought-iron fixtures. The only color in the room came from red candles whose wax had dripped in various patterns on the lacquer and the large stained glass window Jacob realized was the repaired version of the one he’d broken.
Malini was right about the black. It did look like a cave. He entered the room and was swallowed by the darkness. He wondered how it must feel at night, devoid of even the light that streamed through the stained glass window. Like everything else in her house, the image in the window was of angels, two reaching for each other. The background looked like the Garden of Eden, complete with snake and apple tree. The first angel, a glorious vision of blue and white, was depicted reaching down from the heavens above the tree in the garden. From the roots of the tree, the second
angel was reaching up, the hand emerging from the slate depths. The wings were leathery black like a bat’s, the body humanoid but with serpent skin and vertical slit yellow pupils. This was a dark angel, crawling from the depths of hell. What had Dr. Silva called it? A Watcher.
“Creepy. Who the hell would want that in their house?” Jacob said. He turned his attention back to his quest. “Where is it?” he whispered to himself. Opening drawers and digging through shelves, he searched for the notebooks without success, careful to replace everything exactly the way he’d found it.
When he was sure the notebooks weren’t in her bedroom, he descended the stairs and opened the front door to leave. Taking one last look up toward the landing, he thought about places he could search the next day. Gideon was looking down at him, tail twitching.
“How long have you been there?” Jacob wondered out loud.
The cat answered with a menacing growl.
Chapter 28
Independence Day
On the fourth of July, Jacob rushed through his chores at Dr. Silva’s in order to join Malini and her family to celebrate. Although he’d searched every part of the Victorian, he hadn’t found any clues to where the notebooks were hidden. He decided taking the day off to have some fun with Malini wasn’t a bad idea.
The Guptas had a cottage on Lake Stelton, a relatively small natural body of water just under an hour from Paris. Homey vacation cottages lined the shore. The Guptas’ place was one of the largest: a cedar two-story nestled in the pine trees with a gigantic wrap-around porch and a slip where Jim Gupta docked his ski boat during the summer. Jacob had never skied before but Malini swore it was a blast, so he promised to give it a try.
“I’ll go first, so you can watch how it’s done, right?” Malini said with a wink. She pulled her white cover-up off. Jacob pretended not to notice how unbelievably beautiful she was in her aqua-blue bikini. Her parents seemed completely oblivious to their daughter’s level of attractiveness and he didn’t want to be the one to draw their attention to it.
She donned a life jacket and climbed into the water. Mrs. Gupta handed her a ski and Malini leaned back in the gentle waves to get her foot into the boot. Once she was positioned, Jacob tossed her the rope. The boat idled against her weight.
“Hit it!” she yelled, and Jim Gupta threw the throttle forward. Malini popped out of the water and swung out to the side of the boat before the wake could meet her ski. She stayed out there for a while, getting comfortable, and then cut deep on her left edge, stretching her body out almost parallel to the surface of the water. Cutting in, she jumped the wake, catching air before landing on the other side and leaning on her right edge. After a few more passes and a lap around the lake, she let go of the rope and sank gracefully into the water.
“So that’s how it’s done, huh?” Jacob said, helping her up the ladder. “Something tells me you’ve done this before.”
“Oh just about four hundred times,” she laughed.
He donned a larger life vest that Mrs. Gupta handed him and climbed into the water. The sensation was remarkable. He’d grown up near the ocean and had always been at home in the water. But this was the first time he’d been submerged since he’d discovered his gift. This wasn’t like the rain or a shower; he was surrounded by it. Like before, the individual molecules of water hummed to him but now they also buzzed against his skin. Over the last few weeks, as he’d continued to train with Dr. Silva, the power had grown stronger and more predictable. Maybe it was experience or that he had learned to listen more intently for the hum. But whatever the reason, today the whole lake felt like an extension of himself.
“Earth to Jacob?” Malini was holding out a pair of skis to him.
“Why two? You only used one.” Jacob willed the sensation away and the hum stopped. He’d try this the old-fashioned way. A normal boy, who just happened to be a Soulkeeper, out skiing with his girlfriend.
“It’s easier to learn with two.”
“I think I’d like to give one a try,” he said.
“Really, Jake, it’s nearly impossible your first time. I’ve had loads of practice. You should start with two.”
“One,” he insisted, taking the one with the toe strap on the back from her hand. She pulled the other back into the boat.
“Suit yourself,” she laughed, raising her eyebrows.
Jacob leaned back and put the ski on his right foot, sliding his other toe through the strap in the rear. He could do this. How hard could it be? The rope plopped down in the water in front of him and the boat trolled away. He bent his knees like Malini had and gripped the handle firmly, feeling the gentle tug. When he felt himself balanced over the ski, he yelled, “Hit it.”
The boat lurched. Jacob overcompensated by bending at the middle. Big mistake. His bodyweight spilled frontward, the ski slid back and he skipped across the water like a stone, face first, before letting go of the rope and sinking into the lake.
“Owww,” he said as the sound of the boat and Malini’s laughter approached.
“Are you okay?” she yelled.
Mrs. Gupta tugged at Malini’s elbow, looking concerned.
“Fine. I’m fine, Mrs. Gupta. I’m good. Let’s try again.”
“Are you sure you don’t want the other ski?” Malini said.
“Positive.” He readjusted in the water and grabbed the rope again.
“Just remember to lean back, bend your knees, and tighten your abs,” she called.
The boat dragged him along in the water and he shifted his weight so he was almost sitting on the back of the ski. “Hit it!” he called.
When the lurching came, he was ready. He leaned back against the rope, arms straight, abs tight. The water flowed over his body as he straightened his knees to get above it. But then the wake of the boat knocked into him, the ski slipped forward and Jacob went rolling across the water again, the ski popping off his foot and clipping him in the shoulder before he sank. He grabbed it before it could float away.
“Jacob, stop being stubborn and just try the second ski. That was a really good try, but trust me you are not getting up on this ski today.” Malini smiled but there was a note of frustration in her voice. Mrs. Gupta frowned over the side of the boat.
He was testing their patience but, for reasons he didn’t fully understand, proving to Malini he could do this was important to him. He wanted to show her he was strong, she could trust him, and he could protect her. Maybe it was a childish thing to do, but he couldn’t stop himself. He wanted to impress her.
“One more time. I’m fine, really!” Jacob said and then closed his eyes and called the water. The hum started again and the feeling of vibration on his skin. Malini threw the rope and he snatched it out of the air with one hand. His ski back on, he willed the water steady beneath him. Once the rope was taut, it was less like being dragged than standing on an underwater conveyor belt that was moving at the same speed as the boat. Everything became clear. He could feel the water and everything in it. He was the water.
“Hit it!” he yelled, and couldn’t help remembering the day in Dr. Silva’s garden when he’d thrown the bowl of water on the dirt. If I’m a Soulkeeper, shouldn’t I be able to walk on this stuff, he’d said. Today, he was about to find out.
The boat lurched forward and he concentrated on keeping his body straight. Only now it was not only his muscles that did the work but also the water around him. One thousand hands lifted him to standing. When the wake hit, it didn’t knock him down like the last time. It flowed around a patch of smooth water the exact size of his ski that carried him forward as if he were coasting across glass.
Jacob decided to push his luck and swing out to the side of the boat. There was a moment of panic as he jumped the wake and lost contact with the water, but when he landed the water adjusted, steadying the ski. He stole a glance toward Malini. She was facing him in the spotter’s position, her mouth hanging open. One more lap around the lake and he felt like he’d proved his point. He let go of th
e rope and willed himself to sink.
The boat circled to him and the Guptas gave him a round of applause before helping him up the ladder.
“That was amazing!” Malini said. Her eyes twinkled, flecks of gold and red breaking up the chocolate brown in the light reflected off the water.
“I had a good teacher,” he replied, placing an arm around her waist.
“Have you kids had enough?” Mr. Gupta asked, reaching for the rope in such a way as to wedge his body between them.
“Yeah, I’m through,” Jacob said.
Malini nodded.
Once everything was safely stowed, Mr. Gupta sped toward the cedar cottage. He was talking about dinner, something about hamburgers on the grill, but Jacob was hardly listening. He was watching the way Malini’s hair flew back from her face in the speed-driven wind. The sun was a red ball of fire surrounded by streaks of pinks and purples behind her. She smiled and, in that moment, there was not a thing that he wanted or needed in the world. He had everything.
Chapter 29
Fire and Ice
The sand in front of the Guptas’ cottage was dark and coarse, littered with clamshells and stones. It wasn’t the type of beach Jacob was used to, not an ocean beach, but as he lit the pile of driftwood under the starry sky and saw the gold in Malini’s eyes spark in the glow of the fire, he could think of nowhere he would rather be. She spread a blanket a few feet from the blaze. Sparks floated into the night sky.
Mr. and Mrs. Gupta sat on the balcony of the cottage having an after-dinner cup of coffee. The path from the beach to the cedar steps of the balcony was sufficiently wooded to give Jacob the privacy he wanted to tell Malini what he needed to tell her. He’d been thinking about it for a long time, rolling it around in his brain. If his plan had any chance of working, she had to understand what she meant to him.
He took Malini’s hand and sat down with her on the blanket. His arm wrapped around her back in a way that was instinctual for him now. She was a puzzle piece, fitting into his side where there had always been an empty space.
