The Book of Sight Read online

  Adam’s brother, Brian, was only two years older but those two years might as well have been twenty for all that they had in common. Brian’s world was balls and bats, nightly sports broadcasts, and a string of beautiful but boring girlfriends.

  Adam’s world wasn’t even in the same universe. It was peopled mostly by the characters from the books he read, along with James and handful of other friends. As far as Adam could tell, Brian barely knew he existed, and Adam told himself he was just fine with that.

  In James, Adam had a friend that shared all of his interests. They’d known each other forever. They had discovered the Hardy Boys at the same time, had staged elaborate mock battles with their Star Wars action figures, and had camped out all night in each other’s back yards. Adam knew James’s top five movie moments, and James knew which of Piers Anthony’s novels was Adam’s favorite. They’d been using the words “best friend” since first grade, and it was an accurate description. Until this week, they’d never had a fight that was worth the name. If you had asked Adam before, he would have said that James was like a brother to him and he would have meant it.

  But that morning, sitting with Alex and Logan and Eve in the empty field where the Dund lived and reading together the second chapter of the Book of Sight, Adam felt like he understood the word brother for the first time. More than living near each other or sharing interests, being brothers was about having a shared identity. Adam hadn’t even known that was possible. Something had happened to each of them in these last weeks, and even though they had little in common, they were now all something different from everyone else. The weird thing was that Adam didn’t even know what that thing was. He just knew they were in it together.

  He and Alex had read the second chapter in what seemed like only minutes. Though neither was reading out loud, they both finished at the same moment and dropped the book in one shared motion. Adam’s mind was reeling, sorting through the flurry of emotions created by the story he’d just read, but on top of all that was a single urgent thought. We have to show this to the others. Somehow he knew that Alex was thinking the same thing.

  They had gone straight to Eve’s house. Adam had waited on the sidewalk while Alex tossed pieces of bark dust at Eve’s window. Eve finally appeared and was surprisingly eager to grab her book and climb down. It was clear that this wasn’t her first escape from the window. Alex hadn’t even needed to offer much explanation.

  The sun was barely coming up when they arrived at Logan’s trailer. No car was in the driveway, so they knew his mom hadn’t arrived home from her graveyard shift at the shoe factory. A few taps on the metal door brought Logan out, looking surprised and sleepy. When they told them why they’d come, the fog lifted immediately and he scrambled to find his copy of the book. Logan led them to a corner of the empty field where no one would bother them but where he could still see the trailer that held his sleeping little brother and sister. Then, sitting closely together, they opened all three books and, Adam looking over Alex’s shoulder, began to read. Adam heard Logan sigh and Eve gasp, and then he was lost again in the wonderful words before him.

  Once again, they all arrived at the end at the same time, and there was a universal shifting as they came back to themselves. Adam stretched and looked around.

  One glance at Logan’s face and Adam could see how deep the emotions went. He was pretty sure there were tears in Logan’s eyes. Out of common decency, he looked away.

  Instead, he focused on Eve and felt the last of his dislike for her (which had been slowly fading away anyway) disappear forever. She was glowing with a sort of internal radiance that made him feel like she might burst into flames right there on the spot. In a word, she was beautiful. Then she opened her mouth, and he thought she would ruin the moment with her usual thoughtless babble. But she didn’t. She laughed. Just exactly the sort of joyous and unplanned laughter that perfectly expressed how he felt. How could he have ever thought she was a hopeless waste? He wouldn’t have thought it possible, but this girl got it.

  Alex began to laugh along with her, and Adam saw that there were tears in her eyes, too. Soon they were all laughing, and that’s when Adam knew. He knew that whatever it was that they all were now, it was never going to go away.

  • • • • •

  By the time they were gathered later in the slightly musty smelling classroom in the library basement, their euphoria had settled down some. Adam could still feel the buzz of adrenalin coursing through his system, and judging from the way the others were fidgeting, he guessed they were feeling the same way. But at least they were calm enough to talk about things.

  The posters had advertised the meeting for 6:00, and as they talked Adam couldn’t keep himself from watching the clock and wondering. He didn’t want to think about how much he was counting on someone coming tonight.

  “So I tried to reread the story this afternoon,” said Eve.

  “And?”

  “Nope, it didn’t make sense. I mean, I remembered the story and could imagine it, but only as much as I could picture it without even looking at the book. Reading it was impossible.”

  “I told you,” said Adam. (5:55. It was too much to hope that anyone would come early, but that didn’t mean they weren’t coming.) “We can only read it when we’re together. I’ll bet you anything.”

  “I know,” said Eve, “but I couldn’t help wanting to find out for sure. You know me…or I mean, I guess you really don’t know me that well, but you could probably figure out by now that I have to learn things the hard way.”

  “Did you guys have any luck finding Adam’s book?” Alex asked.

  Adam just shook his head. That was one topic he didn’t feel like talking about.

  “Someone has to have taken it,” Logan said. “We tore that place apart this afternoon, and it’s not anywhere. And everyone in Adam’s family says they haven’t seen it.”

  “Well, we pretty much knew it was stolen, but I guess it’s always better to make sure,” said Alex.

  “I’m really sorry, Adam,” Eve said. “It must suck like crazy not to have your book, especially right now.”

  “Yeah,” and then realizing how rude that sounded, he added, “But as you were so happy to test for us, we can’t read the second story unless we’re together anyway, so sharing isn’t that big of a deal.”

  It felt like a big deal, though…a really big deal. Rational or not, he couldn’t help feeling like the Book of Sight was a valuable treasure that had been entrusted to him. And he had failed in that trust.

  Seriously though, he thought angrily in the general direction of whoever had sent that book, couldn’t you have just enclosed a little note letting us know that someone would be coming along wanting to steal the freaking thing? Some warning would have helped.

  “Well, at least now the rest of us know that we have to keep our books close. And we may still find out who took yours and have a chance to get it back,” said Alex.

  Adam nodded. (6:00. Still no one.) A longer than normal lull in conversation told Adam that he wasn’t the only one watching the clock.

  After a few minutes, Logan spoke up, “Now that we know there’s a thief, we may be able to catch him in the act. Adam and I talked about this a little bit this afternoon. Whoever it is, we’re assuming they’ll want to steal the other books, too. But if we were waiting for it, we could catch them. Or follow them. Or at least we’d see who it is.”

  “You mean use the books as bait,” said Alex.

  “I think that’s the plan that they always use in the movies, and then something goes seriously wrong,” Eve said.

  “Well, maybe someone will come who knows something and then we won’t have to worry about it,” said Adam, but he was thinking, 6:05...6:06...no one’s coming.

  “I sure hope so,” said Eve. “I don’t know about you guys, but I’m starting to feel like I have to know what’s up with this book. The last couple of weeks have been one crazy new thing after another, and it doesn’t seem like it
’s going to stop. I want to know what’s going on.”

  “But good crazy,” Logan said.

  “Definitely,” agreed Alex.

  “So are we ever going to talk about the second story?” asked Eve after a pause.

  “What’s there to say?” responded Alex.

  “Well, didn’t it seem to you that…” Adam broke off. 6:13. Was that someone in the hall?

  The door opened and a boy walked in. He stopped abruptly when he saw them, as if he was surprised to see them there. For a second Adam thought the new kid was going to just turn around and walk out without saying anything, but before he could, Eve stepped forward.

  “Are you here for the meeting?” She held up one of the flyers they had posted around town.

  The boy nodded slowly, glancing around the room as if looking for someone else to be there besides the four kids in front of him. Adam thought this kid couldn’t be too much older than they were, but he didn’t remember ever seeing him before. He was tall and had longish dark hair and brown skin. A Mexican, maybe? Most of the Mexicans lived south of town and didn’t mix much with everyone else. But where he came from wasn’t the question here.

  “So you got the book, too?” asked Adam.

  “Book?”

  “Yeah,” Adam held up Alex’s copy. “We all have it.”

  “Oh, sorry,” the kid looked embarrassed. “Is this some kind of book club? I didn’t know.” He looked toward the door like he was wishing he’d never walked through it.

  Adam was shaken. “No, it’s…you mean you haven’t read this book?”

  The kid shook his head.

  For a second no one said anything. Adam couldn’t think what to say. He should have realized that this could happen, that someone would just see the posters and come out of curiosity. It was stupid to feel so disappointed about it.

  “But how did you recognize the signs if you haven’t read the book?” asked Logan, and seeing the boys surprised glance, “Gendel Sea. You came because you recognized the words.” It wasn’t a question.

  “Yeah,” said the kid. “Um, those words are on a painting my grandmother has in her house.”

  Adam smiled. His previous doubts melted in the sudden flame of excitement in his chest.

  “How did you know about the words?” The kid was studying Logan with a hint of something in his eyes that could have been suspicion.

  Logan shrugged. “I just saw how you looked at the flyer when Eve showed it to you. I’m Logan, by the way.”

  “Dominic.”

  Adam stepped forward. “And I’m Adam. This is Alex and Eve. You said that your grandmother has a painting with the words gendel sea?”

  “Yeah, she’s had it hanging in the upstairs hall for as long as I can remember.”

  “What’s it like?”

  The boy shrugged. “It’s just this guy holding up a torch and looking down into a dark cave. And on the frame there’s a little metal thing with the words carved in it.”

  “And when you saw the flyers for the meeting you remembered the painting.”

  “Yeah, I always liked that painting.” As soon as he said it, he looked embarrassed, but he didn’t drop his eyes.

  “Do you know what gendel sea means, then?” asked Alex.

  “No, I figured maybe whatever this meeting was might explain more about it. That’s why I came. Though I sort of figured I could just sneak in the back and listen for a while.”

  “Instead here we were waiting for you,” said Eve. “Did your grandmother ever say where she got the painting?”

  “I think she brought it with her from Mexico when she married my grandfather.”

  “But she didn’t tell you what it means? Is it Spanish?” Adam asked.

  “No, it’s not Spanish. When I asked her about it when I was little, she just shrugged.” Dominic looked around at them all. “But don’t you guys know what it means? You wrote it on flyers and put them up all over town.”

  This made them all pause and look at each other. Finally Alex said, “We think we know what it means. It’s a really important part of this book.”

  Dominic looked at them expectantly, but no one said anything, so finally he came out and asked, “So, what does it mean?”

  Each of them paused, waiting for someone else to answer, and then when it seemed that no one else would, they all answered at the same time.

  “Together,” said Eve.

  “Courage,” said Adam.

  “Light,” said Logan.

  Only Alex didn’t say anything.

  Dominic raised one eyebrow. “It sounds like you don’t quite agree about what it means.”

  Adam immediately felt defensive, but before he could think of a good response, Alex spoke up.

  “It means all of those things, and… and more. You can’t put it into words. You just feel it. That’s the way the stuff in the book is. You don’t understand because you haven’t read it.”

  Dominic accepted this without responding.

  “So I guess the obvious question is if you want to read it now,” said Eve. “So far no one we’ve talked to has been very…um…interested in reading the book. But then, none of them would have come here tonight, either.”

  “I’m interested,” Dominic said, and Eve handed him the book.

  They all waited, watching with great interest as he began to read the first page. Adam didn’t know if he was more expecting this kid to stop after the first few nonsense words as James had done or to make them wait an hour as he lost himself in the story. As it turned out, neither of those things happened.

  Dominic read the first two pages and then looked up in surprise, “I know this story. My grandmother used to tell it to me at bedtime when I was little. This is a lot more… you know…but it’s definitely the same story.”

  A huge smile lit Adam’s face. He couldn’t help it. He could feel some answers on their way. Maybe this Dominic kid didn’t know too much, but the grandmother obviously knew something.

  “So you didn’t have any trouble understanding it?” Alex asked.

  “No, I recognized it right away.”

  They looked at each other with a mixture of amazement and excitement.

  “And, um, have you ever seen anything that you would say really shouldn’t be there?” asked Adam.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Just things that you can see that maybe no one else can see,” explained Eve.

  A hard, closed look came into Dominic’s dark eyes. “Maybe.”

  “So maybe it isn’t just the book. Maybe it’s the stories,” said Adam to the others.

  “What are you guys talking about?” asked Dominic, that suspicious tone back in his voice.

  “We have a story to tell you that might be interesting to you,” said Alex.

  “And maybe you can help us figure out what comes next,” added Adam.

  12

  Distant and Alive

  Everyone was already at Alex’s house when Dominic showed up the next day. They had agreed to meet at ten, and Alex knew he would come, to return her book if nothing else. She got the distinct feeling that this was a guy who always showed up when he said he would.

  He did, though not until he was late enough to make Adam start asking nervous questions. Dominic’s face was impassive, but the look in his eyes said clearly that he had read the first chapter. Without anyone needing to say anything, they knew he was one of them now.

  Not that a lack of need was going to hinder Adam from saying something. Or Eve, for that matter.

  “You read it?” asked Adam.

  “Yeah.”

  “And what did you think?”

  Dominic shrugged. “It was my grandmother’s story. But, you know…”

  “And did you read the second one, too?” Eve asked.

  “It didn’t make any sense. None of the other stories did.” And when they all shared a knowing look. “What? Is there something you didn’t tell me?”

  “We just wanted to see if it
would be the same with you,” Alex explained. “We have only been able to read the first two stories. But the second one we can only read when we’re together.”

  “You mean you read it to each other?”

  “Not necessarily. We just have to be with each other when we’re reading it or else we don’t understand the words.”

  Dominic gave her a skeptical look that made Alex briefly wish she had the Mist’s flame throwing ability, but then he shrugged and took out the book. Flipping to the second chapter he began to read. Two lines in, he glanced up in surprise. Alex smiled as he dropped his head again and kept on reading.

  Adam flashed Alex a conspiratorial grin and picked up Eve’s book off the bed. Very quietly, Logan took his book out, too, and they all began to read.

  Dominic finished first. Alex heard his book snap shut, but she didn’t stop reading until she came to the end of the story. When she finally looked up, she saw that he was staring out the window, dry-eyed and motionless. Adam caught her eye again with a questioning look. Alex shrugged.

  “I could read that a thousand times and never get tired of it,” Eve’s voice broke in. Dominic seemed to come back from far away.

  “Believe us now?” Alex couldn’t help but ask.

  “It’s the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen,” said Dominic.

  “Yeah, tell us about it,” said Adam. “We were hoping maybe your grandmother would know something about all this. Did you tell her about the book?”

  “She was asleep when I got home last night and in her garden when I left this morning. But I really don’t think she has seen a book like this. She told me that story was one her father used to tell her.”

  “Still,” said Adam. “It’s worth asking, isn’t it? If she knows anything at all, that’ll be more than we know now. All this weird stuff keeps happening to us, but we don’t seem to get any closer to figuring out how or why.”

  Dominic nodded. “We can go and talk to her. But like I said, I’m pretty sure that she hasn’t read this book. She doesn’t even speak much English.”