by Amy Ephron
There was a piece of hotel stationery on the table in front of him. And a fancy fountain pen. The stationery was embossed and it said SANBORN HOUSE at the top. Just that, no address, no phone number, no email. Tess had noticed this before and thought it was sort of cool, like a printed note card. The stationery was very white, almost like parchment paper. And Tess had seen the envelopes for it, just the right size, in the desk drawer. On the back of the envelope was the same embossed name SANBORN HOUSE, also with no address below it. Fancy.
But Tess wasn’t sure how she felt about Colin yet. He was sweet, interesting, polite, intriguing, for sure, but there was something sad about him that she couldn’t quite put her finger on, fragile somehow. She also thought it was very cheeky of Colin, rude in fact, and inappropriate to have let himself into their room.
And, she had to admit, it had sort of been her own fault. Tess had left the garden door unlocked that morning, when she’d poked her nose out to see how cold it was and discovered it was pouring buckets. Note to self: always lock the garden door. Even in the day-time.
But then Colin seemed so sad. “I’ve offended you,” he said. “I didn’t mean to,” he added. “Mother thought we could take the carriage out and I could show you around. If your aunt approved that is.”
Max’s eyes lit up. Maybe he was going to see the Changing of the Guard, after all. And it did look as though the sun was shining. Max set all the books down on the floor by the desk. “I’d like that, Tess,” he said and sat down next to Colin.
There was something strange about the way Max and Colin looked when Tess saw them sitting on the couch, right next to each other. It was as if they were in a different dimension from each other. Not exactly. They were sitting right next to each other, but it didn’t seem as though their arms were touching, even though they were so close to each other and Max had a habit of using hand gestures. It was weird. As Tess looked at them, from her vantage point, it seemed as if they’d both been in the same picture, in a magazine or something, or a photograph, but someone had ripped it and when they’d put it back together it didn’t look as if they (or the couch) were quite in sync or at the right angle. As if there was a distortion or a distance between them that couldn’t be bridged. Even though it looked as if they were sitting right next to each other. It was odd.
Tess shut her eyes for a moment because she knew she was imagining things. She remembered she’d had a headache that morning when she woke up so maybe her eyes were just tired. She hadn’t had a lot of sleep the night before.
But then she looked over at them and it got even stranger still. Colin was very pale. Almost paler by the moment. “Are you all right?” asked Tess.
The boy didn’t answer. He just got paler still. “Are you all right, Colin?”
Max reached out to touch him, but it was as if his hand seemed to go right through Colin’s arm. As if he had become transparent or he wasn’t really there, as if . . .
Max jumped up from the couch, scared, as if it was something he could catch. Frightened, as he felt a cold shiver of fear running up his spine.
Colin got paler still. More transparent, as if he was almost fading from view.
Max stepped back even further, as if he was trying to get away.
Colin stood up from the couch, so pale. Translucent, almost as if he was in a trance, smiling so strangely. He started to walk towards Max, purposefully, step by step, directly to him, almost as if Colin was playing chicken or else he wanted to whisper something to Max. That was the only thing Tess could figure out anyway, at first.
But then there was the most startled look on Max’s face . . . as Colin walked directly into him and simply disappeared.
Max felt really strange for a moment, as if he had a wrench in his stomach, as if he’d swallowed cold ice. He almost doubled over. Tess ran to his side.
There was no sign of Colin anywhere.
~ CHAPTER FIFTEEN ~
in which max has no idea what’s happened to him
Tess seemed to be yelling at him, “Max, Max! Are you okay?!” But he had absolutely no idea why she’d be yelling.
“Of course, I am, Tess,” he said. “Why would you think I wasn’t?”
Tess didn’t know how to explain this next part.
He was standing upright now, as if nothing whatsoever had happened to him.
Tess was frightened. She felt a tear run down her cheek.
“Oh, Tess. Don’t get upset. You know I can’t bear it when you’re upset. And we’re on vacation.” He smiled. His face looked softer somehow. As if he’d lost that growl he’d been wearing for the last few days, as if his crankiness had worn off.
Not outside though. It was suddenly gray again, amped up by a huge crack of lightning that lit up the sky, like a jagged streak, above the garden trees. She waited for Max to count which he didn’t. So Tess did, picking it up at two . . . three . . . four . . . five . . . And then finally the sound of thunder although it seemed to be faraway. The rain wasn’t. It was suddenly pouring again, like it had been in the morning.
“Colin,” said Tess. “Are you hiding?” She realized he really had disappeared.
“No,” said Max, “didn’t you hear him? He said he was going to ask his mother if we could take the carriage out which might be lovely, even if it is raining. We could put on galoshes and raincoats.”
Tess started laughing. Max looked at her puzzled. She’d never heard him use the word “galoshes” before. But Max clearly didn’t get the joke.
“I didn’t hear him say he was leaving to go and ask his mother,” said Tess.
“I did. Most definitely,” said Max sounding slightly British when he said it. Tess wondered if he was playing with her. Putting on a British accent.
But in her mind, all she could think was that she hadn’t seen Colin leave. All she’d witnessed was Colin get unbelievably pale, almost translucently pale. She’d seen Max get up from the couch and move away, as if he was oddly frightened and needed to get away. She’d watched as Colin got up and walked towards Max and . . . She had to be imagining things.
“I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night,” Tess said out loud. “My head hurts. I had a strange dream last night.”
“I hate strange dreams,” said Max. “I wish they were something you could wish away. Or rather, wish not to have.” This last sentence was said with a lot of enunciation between the words, spaces between the last four: wish not to have.
Tess looked at him strangely. Max didn’t usually say “Or rather.” That wasn’t one of his expressions. It was that weird British tone again. She’d also never heard Max say he believed if you wished not to have something, it might have an effect. Max believed in more logical things. Tess looked curiously at Max.
“Are you feeling all right?” asked Tess.
“Yes, quite,” he said, sounding even more British when he said this. And Tess couldn’t help it, partly out of stress, she started laughing.
Max laughed, too, although he wasn’t at all sure why they were laughing.
~ CHAPTER SIXTEEN ~
max
Tess shut her eyes and saw spots, bright colored spots, pink, yellow, blue, almost like bubbles.
Is that what a migraine was? Their mom’s best friend Franny got migraines and had to lie down in the dark because she said she saw spots in front of her eyes.
Tess wasn’t certain that was what it was, as Franny said she saw them when her eyes were open.
When she opened her eyes, Max was sitting on the floor, his legs crossed in an almost yoga-like position. Max didn’t usually sit on the floor, not unless they were playing a board game or something. Tess had never seen him sit cross-legged. It, too, was like something Franny would do, and she would probably have a name for it, like the lotus position. That was what it was. But Max didn’t do that. Max sat in chairs or stood up, or if he was on the floor, he would be s
prawled out, at least one leg behind the other and one elbow down, never cross-legged.
Tess shut her eyes again. The spots were still there, pink, blue, orange, almost like confetti, except confetti dropped like waterfalls and these were stationary, as if they were floating in the air, fixed in the black three- dimensional space that presented itself when her eyes were closed, wherever that was . . .
Tess quickly opened her eyes again.
Max was still sitting on the floor cross-legged. Really cross-legged like his right leg was resting on his left thigh and vice versa, like a full-out yoga position. Lotus, for sure.
“I’ve never seen you sit like that,” said Tess.
“You haven’t?” said Max as if he was surprised by the question. “I sit this way sometimes. I think it’s very—” he hesitated, looking for the right word, “—relaxing.”
Tess wondered if Max had taken up meditation, too.
Their dad sometimes meditated. Tess understood that. Their dad’s job could be difficult. He had to maintain an aura of calm during his research and on camera. Tess imagined it could be very stressful to be imbedded with the troops in foreign countries and that he had to appear externally at ease and ready to act at any moment. She realized “act” had two meanings: “to act” as in to do something, and “to act” as in to play a part.
And it occurred to Tess, although she couldn’t exactly explain why, that Max might actually be acting.
There was a knock on the door.
Before Tess could start to walk over to answer it, Max said, in a very British accent, softly and matter-of-factly, “No one will ever believe you, you know. If I were you, I wouldn’t say anything, at all.”
~ CHAPTER SEVENTEEN ~
an inside-out afternoon
As Tess neared the door, she turned back to glance at Max who was now standing up and looking as normal as could be. She hesitated at the door, unsure of who might be on the other side. But then she heard Aunt Evie call, “Yoo hoo!”
Tess tentatively opened the door.
Tess wasn’t entirely sure what she was afraid of but Max or “the person who used to be Max” which is what she was going to call him from now on or at least until she could figure out how to undo this . . . (whatever this was) was absolutely right. There was no way she could tell anyone what she thought had happened because nobody would believe her. At least not anybody she could think of at the moment, who was anywhere around. . . . Except Colin who at this moment in time, she decided she didn’t like very much. Why would Colin want to betray her that way? Why would he have wanted . . . She couldn’t even think about what she thought had happened. All she wanted to do was scream out, “Max!!” and hope that somebody answered her.
“Yoo hoo, yourself,” said Tess to Aunt Evie, trying to sound cheery. Evie was wearing her boots and coat.
“You won’t believe it,” Aunt Evie announced, “the hotel just called. They didn’t want us sitting around all day, so they’ve given us the house car and we can go anywhere we want.”
“The carriage?” asked Tess.
“No, not the carriage. An actual car and driver. The concierge said he hoped we had an excellent adventure.”
Tess hoped so, too, as she realized, that even though Aunt Evie didn’t know this, that the adventure had already started.
Almost in a nanosecond, Max put on his boots, his ski hat, his down coat, and gloves.
Tess hadn’t even made it to the closet yet, let alone her bedroom to the drawer where she usually kept her gloves, except that they weren’t where she usually put them.
Max blinked at her as she raced around, actually unable to find her gloves. “I think they’re under the sofa,” said Max, brightly, as if he was trying to be helpful.
Tess gave him a dirty look. But he was right. They were, in fact, under the sofa. “Thanks,” she managed.
“Well, come along then,” said Aunt Evie. “If we hurry we can hear Big Ben.”
“I’d like that,” said Max, “I hear the Gothic architecture is amazing.”
“Yes, I’m sure you would,” said Tess. “But don’t you remember Max, we looked this up on your computer at school, as you were interested in the clock, too? Big Ben’s closed for renovation. The building’s closed and the bells will be silent until sometime in the 2020’s when the renovation is done.”
“The person who used to be Max” gave her a surprised look. Tess could play, too. In fact, that’s what she thought to herself, Game on.
“Of course,” he said instantly. “I’d forgotten that.”
~ CHAPTER EIGHTEEN ~
in which princess pays a visit
Max was being sweet as pie. He was lying on top of the covers on the rollaway bed. He’d even taken his boots off, lying flat on his back with his feet crossed, strangely at rest, and acting extremely un-Max-like. Tess was almost beyond cranky. It had rained the whole time they’d been out in the car. They’d stopped at the big department store Harrods, but it was so crowded with holiday shoppers that it wasn’t fun either. Finally, Aunt Evie decided they should all go home and have a nap. Max turned and gave Tess a sweet, slightly sarcastic smile. She almost wanted to slap him.
It occurred to her that she should go for a walk and calm down. It was still raining. But she’d promised her mom that she and Max wouldn’t fight. That didn’t necessarily apply to “the person who used to be Max” but she wasn’t sure her mom would agree.
Then the idea that she had to leave the room upset her. It was Tess’s hotel room, too, and what she referred to as “the person who used to be Max” was lying self-satisfied on the cot, weirdly reading The Encyclopedia of Birds, a subject that had never interested Max. His fake smiling at her was making her so irritated that she felt she had to leave her own room.
She was frightened she might snap at him, have an encounter with him, and she didn’t know where that could lead. . . . The truth is, she was a little frightened of him. Frightened and confused. And hurt and betrayed.
As if in punctuation, “the person who used to be Max” gave her another sweet, treacly smile, strangely evil, that almost did make her want to slap him. She wondered if that would work. If she slapped him, if Max would come back.
And then, she heard a knock at the door. It was probably Aunt Evie.
As Tess neared the door, she realized it sounded more like a scratching than a knock.
“Who’s there?” she called out, but nobody answered. Then the scratching noise shifted into a funny tapping noise outside the door. Tess hesitated.
The tapping kept on. There was definitely someone at the door. . . .
She called out again, “Who’s there?” But again, nobody answered.
Tess grabbed the fire poker, just in case . . . Not that she had any idea what she was going to do with it, but she wasn’t certain “the person who used to be Max” would come to her aid, if she needed him.
She glanced back at him lying so quietly, almost still, on the cot.
The tapping continued.
Tess looked at the door and shook her head. Everything was so messed up already, at least in her mind. How much more trouble could they get into if she opened the door?
In this case, it was sort of a relief, as she didn’t see anything at first and then she felt something jostle her feet and she was very happy the funny white terrier Princess had decided to pay a visit.
Tess didn’t have to ask her in, as Princess scampered through the doorway and rolled over on the carpet.
Tess laughed and said to Max or to “the person who used to be Max,” “It’s that sweet terrier I met yesterday.”
Was it only yesterday, maybe it was the day before?
Princess still had the pink satin bow tied into a lock of her hair at the top of her head, like a tiny ponytail sticking straight up.
Tess bent down to pet her, but as she did, the
terrier Princess disappeared. Vanished? That was probably the right word. Morphed. It wasn’t like there was a “poof” or anything, just gone. And Adele the psychic was standing in front of her.
Ignoring her own rule that it was never a good idea to be rude to a psychic, Tess said, “Is that the custom around here? Really? I do think that people should ask to be invited into a room. I don’t even mean that. Doesn’t anyone ever call before they stop by?” she added. There was a lot of attitude in Tess’s voice.
“I do like to make an entrance,” said Adele.
Tess didn’t respond to that. She was startled by the way Adele had “appeared” and she realized there was no sign of Princess anywhere in the room . . .
Tess was worried about Max or “the person who used to be Max.” And she didn’t know exactly what Adele’s purpose or motive might be. She tried to remember her dad’s advice. “Keep a calm surface,” he’d say, “as if you’re relaxed. But always be aware and ready to act at any moment.” Tess realized this was one of those moments.
“I’m so happy to see you,” Tess said, changing her tone. “You simply startled me. I wasn’t expecting to see you again, Adele. It’s such a nice surprise. I think the rain has put me out of sorts. I don’t have much to offer you,” she said. “I have a bag of licorice though. You don’t like red?”
“You’re quite right,” said Adele, ignoring the licorice question. “But I didn’t want anyone to see me. You can understand that, can’t you?”
Tess nodded.
“And,” Adele added, “it was very rude of me to drop in this way. Would you like me to leave?”
“Not really,” said Tess. “I’m—I’m glad you stopped by.”
It wasn’t the first time Tess had seen anybody morph although it hadn’t occurred to her that Adele and the terrier Princess were the same being. She wondered what else Adele could do.