The Book of Sight Read online

  Though he really wanted them to see it, he didn’t want to risk smuggling it out of the house and back in again. As long as it was in his room, his mom would never find it. Other than the occasional harangue about cleaning it up, she was too busy to bother much with his room, but in other places around the house she had a disturbing tendency to pop up when you least expected her. A sword wasn’t exactly something you could stick in a backpack or tuck out of sight under a sweatshirt, so they’d arranged for everyone to come by his house after meeting up at the Redoubt that morning.

  Right on time, the doorbell rang. Stashing the sword carefully under his bed, Adam ran down and opened the door. Then he stopped short.

  Instead of Alex, Logan and Eve, it was his best friend James waiting there. Adam quickly recovered.

  “Dude! You’re back!”

  James grinned and stepped inside. “Didn’t you get my text?”

  Adam shrugged, realizing that he hadn’t turned his phone on in days, and James laughed and headed automatically upstairs to Adam’s room. James and Adam had been best friends since they were in kindergarten. They played video games, traded books, and liked all the same movies. James was over at Adam’s house so much, he practically lived there.

  “Yeah, I should have known better. So, what have you been up to?”

  Adam didn’t even know where to start, but he was temporarily saved from the necessity when the doorbell rang again. This time it really was Alex, Eve, and Logan.

  “No one was there again,” said Alex. “I’m starting to think…” She broke off as she saw James over Adam’s shoulder.

  To cover the awkwardness, Adam quickly invited them all inside and started on the introductions. “This is my friend, James. He’s been on vacation the last couple of weeks in Florida. James, this is Alex and Logan and Eve.” James’s eyes registered their surprise at Eve’s name. “They’re…well, we just met a few weeks ago.” He glanced toward the family room where the television could be heard. “Let’s head up to my room, and I’ll tell you about it.”

  All the way up the stairs, Adam’s mind was racing. He had been looking forward to showing the Book of Sight to James and to having him read it. But now that the moment was here, he felt nervous. For the first time, it occurred to him that James might think he was a little crazy. He tried not to think about that. After all, James had been his friend forever, and they pretty much always agreed. He was bound to be excited about all the possibilities here. It was stupid to feel weird about it. Still, it would have been nice if he could have persuaded that twisting in his stomach to go away.

  Once they were all settled in Adam’s room and the door was closed, Adam turned to James. “So, this is pretty nuts,” he began, and he told James all about the man delivering the book and how it seemed like nonsense at first but eventually made sense. “These guys all got the same book on the same day, and since then there have been a lot of weird things happening.”

  He looked around at the other kids. Eve was fiddling with the zipper of her backpack, and Alex was staring at the floor. Logan was watching James, who wore a closed and guarded expression that made Adam nervous.

  “Just read the book,” Adam ended lamely. “It may take some time, but once you can read it, you’ll see what I mean.”

  James opened the book and studied the first page. He glanced back to Adam a second later. “Is this some kind of joke? It doesn’t make any sense.”

  “I know. That’s what I said. It’s like that at first, but then you’ll see it.”

  James just kept staring at him like someone waiting for a punchline.

  To Adam’s relief, Logan spoke up. “We know how it looks. It was like that for all of us at first. But Adam’s not lying, and this isn’t a joke. It’s a story, and you’re going to really like it.”

  His endorsement didn’t seem to help at all. If anything, James now looked more uncomfortable.

  After a pause, Adam said, “Um, so you guys want to see the sword?”

  There was a general motion of assent, but he still noticed that no one was really looking at anyone else. Even Logan shifted his gaze and was now staring out the window. Obviously it was going to take time for everyone to get used to each other. Determined to break through the tension in the room, he pulled the sword from its hiding place under the bed, talking all the while.

  “It took me forever to get all the rust off. It was in pretty bad shape. But I finally found this solution that worked really well. I was surprised how great it looked when I was done.”

  The complete lack of any response was beginning to get to him. Eve was nodding along a bit, and Alex and Logan were at least examining the sword, but James was actually looking away. Adam was irritated. Still, he carried on as if he hadn’t noticed. “I’ve checked out the style of the sword, and it seems to me like it’s a civil war era short sword. It looks almost exactly like the pictures I’ve seen, but they were all just drawings, so I can’t be sure. Plus, I don’t know if it is actually that old or if it’s some sort of remake, but it’s still pretty cool.”

  Abruptly, James broke in. “Hey man, I’ve got to go. I just came by to tell you I was home and see what was up. My mom’s expecting me to do some chores.”

  “Okay,” said Adam slowly, trying to ignore the wrench in his stomach and painfully aware that Logan was watching him again. “Well, take the book. We can talk when you’ve read it.” When you’ve figured it out, he was thinking. After all, it wasn’t fair to expect James to get it all yet. They had all had time to read the book and let it do its work.

  “Sure,” James said. “See you, everybody.”

  “Bye,” said Alex.

  “Nice to meet you,” added Eve.

  Once James was gone, the air in the room was ten times clearer. No one mentioned him, but they all were suddenly much more excited about the sword.

  “I can’t believe it’s the same one you found in the woods,” said Alex. “You must have done so much work to get it looking like this.”

  “It would be awesome if was some kind of antique,” Eve said. “I wonder if we can find someone who knows about stuff like that to take it to.”

  Logan lifted the sword and admired the way the light from the window seemed to leap off its smooth surface.

  Adam felt his frustration with James fading in the light of their enthusiasm. They spent some time speculating on where it might have come from and how it might have ended up in the junk pile.

  “There’s something about the sword that just adds to the storybook feeling, you know?” said Alex once they finally gave up trying to figure it out. “I mean, our lives have turned into some sort of fairytale: a group of friends, strange new creatures, and now a mysterious sword. Sometimes I feel like I’m just going to wake up and find out that I’m actually sitting in fourth period math and this was all an elaborate daydream.”

  “But wouldn’t a day dream have hotter guys in it?” Eve flipped.

  “Ouch,” said Logan, and Adam rolled his eyes, trying not to feel real resentment.

  True, Eve had turned out to not be as bad as he had thought, but she still had this way of making him feel like he was way out of his league. And who was she to think she was all that? She might be some sort of queen at school, but this wasn’t school. This was real life. And while he’d been discovering swords and organizing their explorations, what had she done?

  That thought reminded him of what he’d planned to do today. “I’m thinking it’s time to see if there’s some other way to find people who have read the book. The Gylf and the Dund obviously don’t know too much, and nothing new has turned up. If we’re ever going to get to the bottom of what this book is and where it came from, we need to find people who know something. We’ve been waiting at the redoubt for two weeks and no one else has showed. Maybe we need to go looking.”

  “Sure, but how do we do that?” asked Eve. “It’s not like people who have read the book have some kind of mark on their foreheads.”

  “Obv
iously,” said Adam. “But I was thinking about it. Maybe we need to post some signs. Something that only someone who had read the book would understand.”

  “You mean like advertise or something?” Alex asked.

  “Yeah, something like that.”

  “It’s not a bad idea,” Eve said. “We could make it an invitation to a meeting.”

  “Gendel sea,” said Logan. “Put that on a sign and anyone who knows the story will be interested.”

  “That’s perfect,” said Alex. “And then under that just the place and the time with no information, so no one who didn’t recognize it would see any reason to show up. I can’t believe we didn’t think of this before.”

  It was like magic, Adam thought, feeling the energy of an idea taking life of its own. More and more lately, they all seemed to be building off of each others thoughts.

  “Yeah,” Eve added. “We don’t want to have to explain ourselves to a bunch of people unless it’s absolutely necessary.”

  Adam stiffened, and a silence fell as everyone was obviously thinking about James. Why did Eve always have to rub the joy off of everything? Was she doing it on purpose, or was she just a colossal idiot?

  “Where should we have the meeting?” Logan broke the silence.

  Eve was ready with the suggestion that she would reserve a classroom in the basement of the library. They settled it that Logan would make the signs, and they’d all hang them the next day. Alex had some great ideas about where to post them.

  They decided the meeting would be the following Saturday, and then they all sat back and smiled at each other. This little plan they created was not particularly exciting or brilliant, but everyone in the room felt its rightness. Other than a few visits to the Dund and the Gylf, most of the last couple of weeks had been spent hanging around at the Redoubt, not doing much.

  Now, for the first time they were actively trying to make something happen, and they all felt the difference.

  9

  In the Hall of a Once Beautiful Home

  Walking away from Adam’s house, Eve cursed herself for her stupid comment about not wanting to explain themselves. She hadn’t even been thinking about his friend until it came out, but she had seen how it offended him. Why, oh why was she always opening her big mouth without pausing to think first? She didn’t want to make him feel bad. Adam could be condescending, and he obviously liked to be in charge of things, but overall she really liked him. He was smart, smarter than most. His idea about posting signs was pure genius. It was definitely time to make some new progress on figuring out this craziness.

  As she headed toward the library, she said a prayer that the excitement of finding others who had read the book would help Adam deal with his friend’s reaction. It was pretty obvious where that one was going.

  Sure enough, the next morning when Adam arrived at the Redoubt, there was no mistaking his glowering look. He responded to Eve’s good morning with a grunt, and slapped his backpack down next to Alex like it was a mouthy little sister.

  After rummaging through it for a couple of minutes with increasing frustration, he swore. “I can’t believe I left the stupid book on the table at home.”

  “You’re looking a little tense there, Adam,” Eve commented.

  “Very observant, as always,” he snapped.

  Eve was glad he didn’t choose to be mean too often. He was quite good at it.

  “Did something happen?” she asked.

  “James brought your book back, didn’t he?” said Logan from behind her. Eve hadn’t even noticed that he’d arrived.

  “Yeah,” said Adam.

  “It didn’t go well?” asked Alex.

  Adam shrugged, but it was an angry motion. “Yeah, he was just…I don’t know. Whatever.”

  They waited.

  “He didn’t get it. He said he tried to read it, and it was complete gibberish. But he couldn’t have tried that hard, could he? I mean, you guys saw how he was yesterday. He kept looking at me like I was crazy and he didn’t even seem to want to listen. If he’d really tried, he’d have been able to understand it. I mean, I figured it out, and he’s probably smarter than me. We’ve been doing all the same things since kindergarten. He’s just being intentionally stupid about this. Anyway, I think he realized that I was thinking that, and he started getting all ticked off. He said a bunch of stuff…that I was a jerk if I thought this was a funny joke. But when I tried to say again that I wasn’t playing around and told him a little bit about what’s happened, he just got more insulting, saying that if I really believe all that stuff I must be losing touch with reality, that I’ve read too many sci-fi books, that you guys…well, you get the idea. It was pretty nasty. I was so mad that I couldn’t even say anything, so he left the book and took off. I’ve thought of a few things to say to him since then, though.”

  “I’m sorry,” Eve said. “That sucks.”

  “It’s weird that he would get that upset about it,” said Alex. “I know it’s hard to believe all this, but even if you were making it up, it’s not really worth freaking out about, is it?”

  Adam nodded. “That’s the thing. It totally surprised me. I just figured that if he had time, he’d see what we all saw. I guess I’m a moron. But even so, it’s not like him to act like that. He’s usually pretty laid-back about things. I’ve never seen him yell like he did today.”

  “Well, maybe it’s like we were saying before, and you can’t understand the book unless it was sent to you,” suggested Alex.

  “Maybe,” Adam was looking glum. “I guess I didn’t want to believe that because…well, it just makes the whole question of who sent the books all the weirder, you know? I mean, who could possibly know who would and wouldn’t be able to understand the book? It would have to be someone who knows all of us, and that doesn’t seem possible. No, to me it seems more likely that James is just being dense for some reason. I just can’t figure out why.”

  “He was scared. Yesterday, at your house, he was really bothered by seeing all of us there with you like we’d known you forever.”

  Everyone turned to stare at Logan. He didn’t look up from the grass he was picking apart.

  “That would make sense,” said Alex. “You could tell he was surprised when we showed up. If he was jealous, he wouldn’t really want to believe that all this stuff that’s happened was real, would he?”

  “But he doesn’t need to be jealous of you,” protested Adam. “It’s not like you guys wouldn’t like him or like I’d be any less friends with him just because I hang out with you.”

  “No, but he’s been your best friend forever, and now all of a sudden you have these other friends who are in on something that he’s not even a part of. Anyone would feel a little worried.”

  Adam nodded and shrugged at the same time. “I guess.”

  Eve was still watching Logan. That had been pretty perceptive of him to figure out what was bothering James. Logan was a strange kid. He didn’t say much, but she’d seen the way he watched everything so closely. Apparently he was seeing stuff that other people missed. She sure hadn’t picked up on James being scared. She had just figured that anyone would have a hard time buying a story like the one Adam had told him.

  Logan glanced up, saw her looking at him, and ducked his head again. He definitely didn’t like attention, which, as far as Eve was concerned, was the weirdest thing about him.

  “Did you?” asked Adam.

  “Huh? Did I what?” Eve realized that the conversation had moved on while she’d been in her own world.

  “Did you get the room reserved?”

  “Oh, yeah, no problem. Six o-clock on Saturday night. We have to set up the chairs ourselves and put everything back when we’re done.”

  “Did they ask you what it was for?” asked Alex.

  “You just have to fill out this reservation sheet, and under ‘Purpose’ I put book club,” Eve smiled. “Close enough, right?”

  “Great,” said Adam. He was being very business-li
ke again, clearly wanting to move on from the James issue. “Do you have the flyer, Logan?”

  Logan started to pull a notepad out of his backpack, but Alex stopped him.

  “Wait. I think there’s someone here.”

  They all looked around.

  “I don’t see anyone,” said Eve.

  But Alex was shaking her head. “Someone is watching us.”

  “But…” Eve began, but Adam silenced her with a wave.

  He slowly walked around the entire circle, looking up in the branches and behind each tree trunk. Eventually he came back to where they were standing. He shook his head apologetically, “Sorry, Alex, but I don’t see anyone.”

  “I know,” she said. “But… I’m sure there’s something…I don’t know. Can we maybe go somewhere else to talk about this? Maybe your house, Eve?”

  Eve thought that was taking it a little too far. It’s one thing to have a creepy feeling or want to be cautious, but it was another thing to want to hang out at her house when her mother was home. You think someone’s watching us here, Alex? You haven’t met Snoopy Spymaster at my house.

  Out loud she said, “We can if you really want, but there’s no one here but us. And it’s not like we’re telling any big secrets.”

  Eve had been able to keep things offhand when she introduced the other kids that first day, but there had already been one interrogation since then about why she was spending so much time with these new friends. Eve was pretty good at deflecting questions with a well-designed alibi. But if they were all in her house, her mom would not be able to resist trying to find out more about them and what they were doing. That could be disastrous if anything like the truth came out. Eve saw a string of little white pills and child-friendly therapists in her future.