Chapter 2
Conversation with the Corpse
Sarah walked the half-block to Marshland Elementary School in a daze. She headed across the playground and in through the double doors at the back, the images of the car and the boy still flickering through her head. It only took her a few minutes to find her classroom at the end of the hall, since she’d been there last week for a meeting with her homeroom teacher that had included her father—the new divorcé. But she hadn’t met the students yet. It was a moment she dreaded.
So when she shuffled into the Grade Six classroom, where the desks were arranged in parallel lines like the bars of a prison cell, she was shocked again by the appearance of the boy. He’d shed his blue parka and toque and was leaning back in his desk, fingers laced behind his head, in a “nothing ever happens to me” attitude. Sarah was even more ruffled to find her desk was right in front of his.
She sank into it. “Hi,” she said.
He nodded, eyeing her from beneath hooded lids. He had tawny hair that drooped over his face and sleepy green eyes that made him look like a snoozing cat. Sarah wasn’t surprised when he yawned.
“Um,” she said, struggling for something to say.
“Name?” He saved her the trouble.
“Excuse me?”
“Do you have a name?” He flipped back a wisp of hair.
“Yeah. Sarah.”
“Good.”
“What?”
“Not a good name. Good that you have one. I’d hate to sit behind a ‘what’s her name.’”
Sarah frowned. “Smart aleck.”
“That’s me.” He smiled and it lit up his eyes.
“What’s your name?” she asked.
“Matt.”
“Good,” she said. “I’d hate to call you ‘that walking corpse.’”
Matt grinned. “Not bad.” He leaned forward, his pale face centimetres from her own. “Wait until you see my next trick.”
Sarah leaned back. “Can’t wait.”
They stared at each other as the rest of the class shuffled in. Sarah didn’t break eye contact with Matt until a tall boy with thick chestnut hair and a lopsided grin brushed past her.
“’Scuse me,” he said.
Sarah shrugged. “No skin off my nose.”
“Wouldn’t hurt none, though,” he chuckled.
Sarah’s hand flew to her nose. The hawkish protrusion was a sore point with her and it would figure that the first boy she met—well, second, considering the amazing Matt behind her—would make a nasty comment about its size. She looked around. Some students within earshot were smirking. She wondered how long it would be before they roasted her for the toasted tint of her skin or her coffee-coloured eyes. When she looked a little closer, though, she discovered that, just as in Toronto, the classroom was a mosaic of different cultures.
Matt startled her as he leaned forward again, even closer this time, and whispered, “Beaks add character. Do you see that scrawny thing across from us with the button nose? Boring. Nothing to tweak.”
Sarah nearly gaped at the boy. She didn’t know what to make of him. He was insulting, but somehow she thought the comment was supposed to make her feel better. She didn’t have time to ponder this, though, as Madame Leblanc entered the room.
First the teacher’s gaze swept over the students. Her eyes were twin olive beads set deep in her face between hilly cheeks, like the buttons of seat cushions. They settled on Matt, contracted, then flew past to land on her, and relaxed. The tension eased from Sarah’s shoulders. The teacher brushed her with a smile, squeezed past a student the same height as her and ambled to the front on squeaky loafers. A puff of dust shot into the air as she leaned against the front of her desk.
“Les amis,” she began. “We have a new student. Welcome, Sarah Sachs.”
The class murmured, “Bonjour.” A few people snickered at her name. Matt continued to stare at the back of her head as she faced the front of the class. She could feel the pressure like a drill.
“Don’t mind him,” whispered the button-nosed girl opposite her. “He’s weird.”
“You’re telling me,” Sarah whispered back. She looked up to see Madame Leblanc’s smile wither and turn frosty.
“No talking, Sarah,” said the teacher.
“Ou-Oui, Madame.” Some students giggled in the back of the room. Normally she was quite fluent in French. She’d been taking French Immersion since kindergarten. Why did she have to stumble over her words now?
“Ah,” said Madame. “We will not make fun of her language. After all, she is from Toronto.”
More people snickered. Even a chortle erupted behind her. Sarah was instantly offended. “Toronto is the hub of Canada.”
“And Ottawa is her wheels, cherie.”
Sarah’s face flushed. “Toronto is the centre of—of—”
“The universe,” Matt finished for her. Everyone laughed.
Sarah’s eyes ached. “It’s a wonderful city.”
“With wonderful people,” said Matt. “If they weren’t all snobs.”
Now her head was pounding. “You are a walking corpse,” she rasped at him.
“That’s quite enough,” said Madame, which was a little strange since she’d started mocking Toronto in the first place. By the way she glared at Matt, though, Sarah could tell there was something more to it.
“Matthew Barnes, your father should hear about your behaviour.”
“Yes, he should.” Matt held up a slim black cell phone. “Why don’t you call him?”
The class erupted in giggles.
Madame Leblanc’s rosy cheeks blanched. Her face scrunched up into an angry mask and she spat out, “You’re heading for a detention, Monsieur Barnes.”
“I’ll dial the number for you,” Matt continued as if he hadn’t heard her. “But I’ll bet he’s on safari or something again and can’t be reached.”
“I’ll see you after school, Monsieur Barnes, and you’ll give me that phone now.”
She walked over to him with her hand outstretched. Sarah watched in astonishment as Matt defied her, sneering. Madame Leblanc grabbed the phone. For a second Sarah thought Matt was going to hold on to it, but he finally let go.
“Your father would not be proud,” she said.
Matt rolled his eyes. “He doesn’t care.”
Madame Leblanc marched back to the front of the class. She didn’t hear him whisper at her back. Nobody seemed to hear except Sarah. “He never cared.”
At recess, Sarah talked to a few students. Even fewer talked back to her. She stood in a corner of the yard, which was basically an island of ice and slush in an ocean of snow. Only a narrow strip of asphalt peered from the drifts, a half-buried basketball court where the nets slapped against their poles in the wind. Sarah scuffed her boots idly on the ice. What a typical winter playground this was; nothing to do but stand and watch. One boy drew her gaze more than any of the others.
Matthew Barnes gleefully tossed snowballs over a fort onto some younger kids’ heads. He went on to smooth the snow on an icy patch and watched while people slipped and fell. Then he ambled over to a tree and shook the snow off the branches to bury the kids underneath. No one joined him in his antics; he was a loner.
“Why are you watching him?” asked Chelsea, the button-nosed girl from her class. “He’s a jerk.”
“Who is he, really?” asked Sarah, shifting her gaze to Chelsea. The girl had an autumn blaze of red hair and a sprinkling of freckles all over her face. Her neck was long and slender, like a giraffe’s, and her green eyes sparkled with flecks of gold. She could have been pretty if she didn’t look down her tiny nose all the time.
“Nathan Barnes’s son,” said Chelsea. “Never know it, would you?”
“Nathan Barnes,” said Sarah. “The Nathan Barnes?”
“The one and only,” said Chelsea. “Explorer, scientist, archaeologist extraordinaire. And he’s cute, too. Ever seen his picture in Science Digest?”
“
Science Digest? You read Science Digest?”
“Doesn’t everybody?”
“Not exactly,” said Sarah. “But I read other things. I’ve definitely heard of Nathan Barnes, but I never knew he had a son.”
“He probably doesn’t want to admit it. Look at how messed up his kid is.”
Sarah pondered Chelsea’s words as she watched Matt, a cross between class clown and class criminal. It didn’t seem possible that he was the son of such a brilliant man. “I see your point. But maybe there’s more to him than what we’re looking at right now. After all, Dr. Barnes has made some amazing discoveries.”
“Yes, he has,” said Chelsea. “New tombs in Egypt, undiscovered First Nations villages. Even some new evidence of Atlantis.”
Sarah turned back to Chelsea. “Have you ever met him?”
Chelsea shook her head. “He’s not around here much. His assistant looks after Matt. Sort of like a godmother, I guess. He hates her, too. I think he hates just about everyone and everything.”
“Chip on his shoulder,” said Sarah. “I can relate.”
“I wouldn’t bother relating,” said Chelsea. “It’s not worth it.”
Sarah took a deep breath. Should she pursue the subject of the incredible death-defying boy with a girl she’d just met? She’d probably look like an idiot, but curiosity was clawing at her, and besides, she didn’t really like this girl. She had to know. “Have you ever heard of anything weird about him?”
“What do you mean?” asked Chelsea. “The guy is totally weird.”
Sarah looked off over the grounds, avoiding Chelsea’s gaze. “I don’t know. Just different, unexplainable stuff.”
“Like what?”
“Oh, nothing,” said Sarah quickly. How could she explain the impossible? “I wonder if he’d introduce me to his dad.”
“Don’t bother,” said Chelsea. “He’d rather toss you in a snow bank than do something nice.”
“How do you know? Have you ever asked?”
Chelsea snorted. “Like I would even talk to the toad.”
“Then you don’t know,” said Sarah. She turned her back on Chelsea and marched in the direction of the Barnes boy.
“Don’t hold your breath,” Chelsea called after her.
As Sarah approached Matt, her courage seemed to fail. Her boots plodded through the thick snow; her breathing quickened until she was panting. She was almost ready to turn around and walk the other way when he looked up and saw her.
“Well, if it isn’t the new girl.”
“Sarah,” she said.
“That’s right. You have a name.” He winked and let a slight smirk escape.
At least he contained a glimmer of warmth. Maybe if she brought up his father, he would open up to her. “I heard your dad is Dr. Nathan Barnes, the explorer.”
Matt’s half-grin became a sneer. “Yeah, what of it?”
“That’s cool,” said Sarah. “Really cool . . .” She ran out of words.
“How would you know?” he asked
“I wouldn’t, really. But I would if I met him.”
Matt’s pale face flushed and darkened. Maybe she was being too pushy.
“Are you trying to get an invite? To see the great Houdini?”
Sarah frowned. “I don’t understand.”
“No, you wouldn’t.”
“Well, I just wondered . . . I’ve read so much about his adventures. Maybe you could tell me some stories.”
Matt’s eyes crimped and his lips pinched together. “Stories. I could tell stories all right.”
She smiled encouragingly, trying her best to ignore the spitting-cobra look. “I’d love to hear them. Maybe I could come over sometime. I moved into the new subdivision down Cattail Street.”
“I know where you live,” said Matt.
“How do you know?”
“Because I saw the moving truck. I saw them build your house. I live at the other end of your street.”
She beamed. “Wow, that’s great. We’re neighbours. Maybe we could hang out sometime.”
“Forget it.” Matt scowled. “I don’t want to hang out. I don’t want to be friends. And you’re not going to meet the great Dr. Barnes. So, get lost.”
Sarah felt as if he’d slapped her. Her hands curled into fists. “Chelsea’s right,” she said. “You are a jerk.”
Matt looked skyward and waved his hand as if to dismiss her just as the discordant clang of the school bell jolted through the yard. Sarah glanced at the cluster of kids lining up at the door to get in. She knew she had to go but her feet were locked. She looked Matt up and down. “Who would want to be friends with you?” she said.
He shrugged. “Should I care?”
“Yeah. You should.”
Sarah spun around and stormed off towards the school. Matt lingered, then eventually sauntered in the door behind her. She turned around once to scowl at him, but she stopped halfway between a grimace and a snarl. His body was suddenly hazy and blurred. An aura surrounded him like an explosion of northern lights. What was going on here?