Within Reach

Originally written Saturday, January 7, 2006 (cont.)

He answered with a look again, a variation on the glare, but without the bitterness.

“There’s another one.” I pushed my sleeve up my arm to show him the rose quartz. “Another two, actually. We think the third belongs to your friend Kay.”

He shook his head. “These two were talking about that name before, but I don’t know who that is.”

“The woman who took you away, what was it, three weeks ago now? You said her name when you saw her. Or maybe it’s not her name, maybe you meant the letter K. But that’s what you said right before she took me out.”

Patrick backed him up and said, “Yeah, he must’ve already been zoning when he saw her. We’ve already been over this.”

This time, I rolled my eyes underneath the lids. “OK, so what’s the next step?” I asked the room in general. Just then, my cell phone gave a brief chirp. “2 New Voicemails,” it read. Of course, there’s no reception underground, but for whatever reason, voicemails still register. I excused myself from the group and ascended to listen to my messages. The tunnel access point closest to Trudy’s living space is through the library. The library itself is as old as the hills, though, with stone walls several feet thick, and I needed to head all the way outside to get a reliable signal.

The first was from Dennis, asking where Patrick and I were. It hadn’t occurred to me that he might not know; if I’d thought about it I probably would have assumed Patrick had contacted him. Even magically bound to Moshe, could he really not have found a moment to emerge long enough to phone his boyfriend?

The second was from Richard. I’d forgotten to return his previous calls. Now that Moshe was back, I was curious to know what happened when they’d met. The vampire surely wouldn’t remember.

I called Dennis first; it wouldn’t take long for him to join us, since he had Patrick’s van. This meant Patrick must have taken the bus to join Trudy on Wednesday night. This also meant that I could conveniently return Richard’s call while waiting outside the library for Dennis.

He sounded unusually relaxed over the phone. I couldn’t remember a time since we saw the Jane Austen movie when he wasn’t an anxious wreck. But now, his words sounded almost buttery in their smoothness, as if I were the one needing my nerves massaged. “I know I’ve been hard to talk to lately,” he said. “I’ve been up to here with everything going on. But I have news. I know where the third charm is.”

My mind went completely nonverbal, filling only with images of exclamation points. I had to develop a response before delivering one, uncertain whether to answer as if I’d been truthful to him up to this point or to confess my mendacities in the face of this stunning information. My silent pause must have communicated enough, though, since he went on:

“And I have a feeling I know what they’re for.”

The events of this day to be continued...