After fighting the bright sunlight that that managed to find its way through every little crack in my curtains, I decided sleeping in was not going to be a viable option for me, so I sat up and angrily threw my pillow across the room. It hit the shelf above my dresser, knocking several books and my collection of seashells onto both my dresser and the floor. “Argh!” I slammed backward against the mattress, and then I remembered the howling that happened outside my window. I thought about telling Aunt Bev everything that went on, but decided to wait until I went back to school. There was no reason to freak her out and ruin the rest of my weekend, because as soon as she found out, she’d probably lock me in my room until I turned like thirty.
Since my mom’s death two weeks ago, I’d hardly slept, which was probably why my temper had gotten so much worse lately. I thought about her all the time, wondering if I’d been home would I have been able to save her.
I put on a pair of baggy sweats and my mom’s old Bob Marley long sleeve tee-shirt. I stood in front of my bathroom mirror, staring at my face. My light blue eyes seemed to be getting darker and taking on a green hue. My hair was turning a deeper red as well. I knew that wasn’t really possible…or was it? I shrugged my shoulders, pulling my hair into a loose bun, brushed my teeth and headed down stairs.
Aunt Bev was not in the kitchen when I went down for breakfast. She had a pitcher of fresh orange juice on the table, and a plate with bacon and biscuits beside it. I went down the hallway and as I entered her room, I heard her shower running.
I scanned her bedroom admiringly how beautifully it was decorated. A large wrought Iron canopy bed covered the biggest part of one wall. Sheer curtains were twisted and draped through the top, and the bed was covered with an overly plush white down comforter trimmed in light blue with matching throw pillows of white and blue. There was a chocolate colored faux suede chaise facing a huge rock fireplace with a forty-two inch flat screen attached to the wall above it. I glanced at the antique dressing table and that’s when I noticed her cell phone sitting next to a picture of her and my mom.
I quietly crossed the room, and picked up her phone. My heart raced from the fear of being caught, but I just had to see who she had been on the phone with so late at night when I’d come home from the bonfire.
My heart all but stopped beating when I scrolled through her recent calls and found Miss Baylor’s name. Just then, the shower water stopped. I promptly closed the phone and ran from her room, not slowing down until I’d reached the kitchen. I tossed a biscuit onto my plate, shoved a piece of bacon in my mouth and poured some juice.
A few minutes later, Aunt Bev came into the kitchen. It didn’t take much to notice she was so totally not acting like herself.
“Good morning,” I said, forcing a smile.
She poured herself a cup of coffee as I watched, then reached into the cabinet and took out a tea bag and dropped it into her mug. “Good morning,” she replied, with a look of trepidation.
“Um…is everything all right?” I asked, furrowing my brow. Normally something like that would have been funny, but the way Aunt Bev had been acting lately told me something had her preoccupied.
She turned around to face me, and I could tell she was forcing herself to smile by the worried look on her face. “Of course. Why do you ask?”
“Oh, no reason….except you just put a tea bag in your cup of coffee.”
She stopped just before taking a sip, and looked down at her cup for a brief moment. She quietly chucked the contents into the sink, then just stared out the window.
“Are you sure there’s nothing wrong?” I asked, but I don’t think she even heard me because she didn’t bother to answer. “William and I are running away to get married because I’m pregnant,” I teased, trying to get a response from her…any response.
She was lost in her own world, not hearing a word I said. “Really? That sounds like fun.” She checked her watch, and then scooped up her purse from the desk. “I’ve got to run some errands. If you go somewhere before I get back, leave me a note.” She kissed the top of my head, then disappeared out the kitchen door.
Something wasn’t right with my aunt and I needed to find out what. I mean why would she have been on the phone after midnight with my school counselor. They certainly hadn’t been discussing my academic future.
After finishing breakfast I cleaned the kitchen, because Aunt Bev was a clean freak and would have had a meltdown if the kitchen wasn’t clean. I sure didn’t want to do anything to make her change her mind about letting me go out with William later.
I checked my phone like every five seconds but William hadn’t sent me a text message. I had no clue what time we were going out, but I didn’t want to get ready too early and have to just sit around and wait.
I wandered around the den peering at all of Aunt Bev’s pictures hanging on the wall, and sitting on top of the piano. I decided to try my hand at the piano, which I hadn’t played since we’d moved from Wyoming when I was eleven, and had to leave our piano behind because where we were moving was a much smaller house.
I opened the bench to find something I could play. When lifting some of the music sheets I found an old book beneath them. I got it out and carried it to the couch where I placed it in my lap. It appeared to be very old so I carefully open the cover, exposing pages so yellowed they were turning brown. It smelled of mold, and made me sneeze.
I quickly realized it wasn’t a music book, but an old book of legends. It had no title—which I found weird—but it did have a table of contents. I ran my finger down the page but found it hard to read because the words were so badly faded. I struggled to make out some of the headings and my jaw dropped open when I spotted something familiar. One of the headings said something about Adlet, which was the same name Miss Baylor had been talking about at the bonfire.
I was beginning to find the whole thing a bit too coincidental. I rushed through the pages until I reached the story “Searching for The Adlet Princess.” I read the first page which talked a lot about the Adlet woman who had fallen in love with a shape-shifter posing as a Russian. I turned the page and read through it. While reading the third page I suddenly froze when I saw the picture of a painting on the adjoining page. It was a young woman surrounded by a pack of giant wolves. The woman looked a great deal like my mom. My heart pounded in my ears. I slammed the book closed and returned it to the bench before rushing out of the room.
I didn’t know what to think. I fell back onto the couch and stared out the window, trying to take in everything I had just seen and read, along with what Miss Baylor had said the night before. There was something very familiar about the book, but I just couldn’t quite wrap my head around it.
“Oh God!” I threw my hand over my mouth. It had just dawned on me the reason the book seemed familiar. I had seen my mom reading the exact same book.