Finders Reapers

by Anna Staniszewski

She expected to be upset at the thought of the show happening without her, but the truth was she’d never really felt like part of the play. She hadn’t let herself be part of it. As much as she’d disagreed with Mr. Jackson’s methods, she’d never even tried to trust the process. And so far, the show seemed to be going well. She’d been worried for nothing.

  As she painted the last letter, Lena finally relaxed a little. She’d done it! And she hadn’t died! She started to hoist herself back up, but then she noticed an odd silence on the stage. The scene wasn’t over, but no one was speaking. She realized that Emery’s line was next. He must have forgotten it!

  Her mind raced, trying to think what to do. Emery was probably only a couple feet below her, perched on a platform painted to look like an oversized tree branch. If she could lean in and whisper his line to him through the curtain, maybe he’d hear her.

  Abigail repeated her line, as if trying to prompt Emery. “How do you know I’m mad?”

  But there was only more silence.

  “You must be or you wouldn’t have come here,” Lena whispered into the curtain.

  “Huh?” she heard Emery say.

  Lena repeated the line, louder, but it was clear Emery still couldn’t hear her. She had to get closer. She grabbed on to the rope more tightly and pushed off the back wall with her legs so that she’d swing a little closer to the curtain. But she pushed off too hard, and—oh no!—started to swing through the curtain!

  Before she could even think about jumping off—crack!—something above her snapped. She barely had time to scream before she burst through the curtain and hurtled toward the stage.

  Chapter 37

  This was it. Lena was about to die. Would another soul collector guide her soul to the After? Or would she be expected to get there by herself? She didn’t know whether to find that hilarious or horrible.

  But the crash never came. Instead, something yanked her upward, like a giant rubber band. She opened her eyes to find herself dangling about six feet above the stage. Somehow she’d managed to grab the end of the rope, which was still magically attached to the half-broken rafter. Now that it was in pieces, she saw just how wet and spongy the wooden rafter was. It was a miracle she hadn’t fallen sooner.

  As her eyes focused on the stage below her, the first face she saw was Marcus’s. He was standing below her, staring up with a look of shock. She couldn’t help noticing that his clothes were wet and smeared with green.

  “Are you okay?” he called up to her. Lena realized that there were other people around him. Lots of them. And they all looked as stunned as he did.

  “Don’t move!” Mr. Jackson said. “We’ll get you down from there. Someone get a ladder!”

  “I thought you were a piñata dropping from the ceiling,” Abigail said. Abigail who was playing the lead in the play. The play that Lena had just accidentally ruined. Oops. Though, to be fair, it had already been at a pretty big standstill.

  Lena glanced out at the audience and saw people staring at her with rapt expressions on their faces. At least they were enjoying the show, even if it wasn’t the one they’d paid to watch.

  “What were you doing up there?” Marcus called.

  Lena let out a dry laugh as she tried to grip the rope more tightly, but her hands were getting tired and sweaty. “My big romantic gesture.”

  “Huh?” Marcus said.

  “Check behind the back curtain.”

  Marcus looked at her like she was delirious, but when she insisted, he walked over and threw aside the edge of the curtain. Then he smiled and pulled it open the rest of the way. There, in big red letters that were a little sloppier than Lena had been hoping for, she’d written: I’m sorry, Marcus. And then, in small letters underneath, she’d added: PS Look down.

  At the foot of the wall, she’d placed the two models that she’d managed to get back from Caspar.

  “How did you get these?” Marcus cried, scooping up the models, his face glowing with happiness. Then he seemed to snap back to reality, and he marched back over to her. “Are you crazy? Why would you risk your life to do that?”

  “Because I…because you’re my soul mate,” she said. Even though it was cheesy and even though Lena wasn’t sure she actually believed in soul mates, that didn’t matter. Because at that moment, it felt absolutely true. Mr. Watts had told her to “find her fun.” But she didn’t need to find it. She already had it.

  “And you’re mine,” Marcus said without hesitation. As if he knew it with every inch of his being.

  Lena felt her chest filling with warmth, but suddenly she realized her hands were cramping up. “I don’t think I can hold on for much longer.”

  “Where is that ladder?” Mr. Jackson hollered.

  “Marcus, I’m going to fall!” she cried.

  “We’ll catch you!” He grabbed the other kids onstage and had them join arms until they were a human net underneath her. “Okay, jump.”

  Lena closed her eyes. “No way. I’ll die.” Knowing there was an After was comforting when it came to other people’s demises, but Lena wasn’t ready to see the afterlife yet, not for a long while.

  “Come on!” Marcus said. “It’s okay. We’ll catch you. I promise.”

  Lena opened one eye, but her entire body was pounding with panic. What if they dropped her the way she’d accidentally dropped Connie? She’d been trying to help her, but what if it all went wrong again?

  “Jump!” Abigail said. “Come on!”

  “Lena,” Marcus said, looking her right in the eye. “You’ll be fine. Trust me.”

  And she realized in that moment that she did trust him. Totally and completely. So she closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and let go of the rope.

  • • •

  When Lena was on solid ground again, Marcus threw his arms around her. It felt so good to hug her that he didn’t want to let go.

  Just then, someone ran onto the stage holding a ladder, and Mr. Jackson turned to the audience and said, “We’ll take a short intermission and get the show going again soon.” Then he shooed everyone off the stage, and Marcus heard him say to Lena, “I’ll deal with you later.”

  “If that fall didn’t kill me, I’m pretty sure Mr. Jackson will,” Lena said to Marcus, but she was laughing.

  He realized suddenly that Lena’s stunt must have been the “ruined by red” that Natalie had foreseen. But the play hadn’t been ruined, only disrupted. So the future wasn’t set after all. That meant Marcus and Lena being apart didn’t have to happen either.

  Marcus grabbed Lena’s hand and pulled her away from the stage. “I need to talk to you,” he said.

  “You smell different,” she said as she followed him down the hallway.

  “I do?” Then he realized. “Oh, I stopped wearing my dad’s cologne. I know you liked it and everything, but—”

  “No,” she said. “It’s a good different. You smell more like…well, like you.”

  As they went into the band room, which was empty except for a few oversized instruments in the back, Marcus tried to think of what to say. He needed to tell her that he was done trying to make their relationship perfect, and that even if it meant never using his powers again, he wanted to be with her.

  Before he could say a word though, she said, “Marcus, I don’t want us to be broken up. I was scared. I guess it’s been hard for me to trust anybody ever since my mom left, but I want to trust you. I do trust you. And I swear I won’t keep things from you ever again, okay?”

  Marcus couldn’t help himself. He grabbed her and kissed her right there in front of the tuba. The minute their lips touched, he felt a static shock race through his entire body. And there was a feeling he couldn’t quite describe, something that told him that everything was right, as if the world had clicked into focus around him.

  “Wow,” he said when they finally broke apart. “Lena�
��”

  But she cut him off. “Marcus, look!”

  He glanced down and gasped. The air around their feet seemed to be glowing.

  “That means we’re back to normal, doesn’t it?” Lena asked.

  “But what about our emotions?” he asked. “Won’t everything get messed up again because of the connection between us?”

  Lena shook her head. “I don’t think so, not if we’re careful. Eddie said we have to be in sync with each other, that’s all. I thought we were, but…”

  “But we were fooling ourselves,” Marcus said, remembering how convinced he’d been that their relationship was perfect. Maybe that was what that feeling during their kiss meant, that they were finally on the same frequency. And this time, he had a feeling they’d stay that way, like two radios, side by side, playing the same tune.

  Chapter 38

  Lena took Marcus’s hand, and together they stood in the wings watching the rest of the play. She had to admit that it was great. Emery stammered on a few of his lines, and a couple of entrances were off, but everyone seemed to really know their characters. And best of all, they were clearly having fun. Maybe Mr. Jackson’s methods weren’t so terrible after all.

  When the final curtain closed and the lights came back on, the cast let out a collective cheer. Then everyone started hugging and laughing. Lena stood back and watched the merriment, happy for them and a little sad for herself. But there would be other plays. If she’d gotten into this one, she could get into those too.

  “Lena! What were you thinking, nearly killing yourself on my stage?” Mr. Jackson demanded, marching over to her.

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “I don’t know what I was thinking.”

  He sighed. “Okay, well don’t let it happen again.” Then he gave her a wink. “But you sure know how to liven up a production!” Then he bustled off to congratulate the members of the cast.

  Hayleigh emerged from the crowd, and she and Abigail stared at one other for a long moment. Lena held her breath, afraid they might start trying to rip each other’s hair out. Then Lena noticed something. The sparks around them seemed to be gone. Maybe the whole mess with Emery was finally over!

  Instead of starting another argument, Hayleigh burst into tears and ran over to give Abigail a monstrous hug. “I’m so sorry!” she said in between sobs. “I don’t know what I was thinking!”

  Abigail was crying too. “It’s okay. I don’t know what I was thinking either. But we’re okay now, aren’t we?” Then she glanced at Lena. “All three of us?” Hayleigh nodded and pulled Lena into the hug too.

  As her friends went off to find their families, Lena heard Marcus calling her name. “Look at Emery,” he said.

  Lena peered at him across the stage, expecting to see the sparks were gone around him too. But they weren’t.

  “Oh no,” she said. “Does that mean he’s still into one of my friends?” The fighting would continue after all.

  Marcus grinned and pointed to Justin Alvarez.

  Lena squinted. When she looked closer, she realized that the light wasn’t between Emery and Abigail or Emery and Hayleigh. The sparks were bouncing around between Emery and Justin!

  “The day I zapped them at lunch, Justin was there too, sitting next to Emery,” Marcus whispered. “I think they were supposed to be the ones matched all along.”

  Lena shook her head in wonder, hoping that the sparks between them were strong enough to survive. Maybe this time, things would finally work out the way they were meant to.

  She turned to Marcus and took his hand in hers, but then she noticed her mom standing at the foot of the stage.

  “Mom, what are you doing here?”

  “I couldn’t miss your big acting debut, could I?” She laughed lightly. “I didn’t know you were going to be the star of the show.”

  With everything that had happened, Lena realized she’d never told her mom that she wasn’t in the play anymore. “But aren’t you supposed to be in Arizona?” Lena asked. “What about your job?”

  “I realized I didn’t want to go back, not without you. Not even for a few weeks. And if you decide you never want to go to Arizona, then I’ll find a way to move back here.”

  Lena could only stare for a minute. Her mom was going to give up her new life, the life she’d worked so hard for, for her?

  “Now that I have you back, Lena, I’m not letting you go,” her mom added. “Trust me.”

  For the first time in years, Lena had the urge to throw her arms around her mom and give her a giant hug. And even though she felt awkward at first, she did just that. As her mom wrapped her arms around her, Lena felt déjà vu sweep through her body. She’d forgotten—or hadn’t wanted to remember—how safe and warm her mom’s hugs had always been, and how right they felt. But she wasn’t going to forget again.

  “So that means you’ll be here for Christmas?” Lena asked.

  “As long as that’s okay with you,” her mom said.

  Lena smiled. She couldn’t wait to give her mom the quilt she’d made. Somehow, it felt like the perfect way to start things over between them.

  “You know, Eddie could be wrong,” Marcus said after Lena had seen her mom off. “We thought our powers were back to normal before, and they weren’t.”

  “We’ll figure it out. We always do.” Lena felt sure of it.

  Marcus nodded. “And when you go to Arizona during winter vacation, we’ll figure that out too.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Natalie said that in the future, you and I would be apart. I thought that meant we were going to break up, but now I think maybe it means we’re going to be in different places. At least for a little while.”

  “But what about A Midsummer Night’s Dream? You went to so much trouble for those tickets!” She gave him a little nudge with her elbow. “If you still want to go with me, that is.”

  “Of course I do,” he said. “But we can switch the tickets for another date. You need to go be with your mom.”

  “What about my dad? I can’t leave him here alone,” Lena started to protest, but she knew that wasn’t an excuse. Her dad had Viv now. If Lena left, he’d miss her, but he’d be fine. “I…I don’t know if I can survive without you there,” she finally admitted. “What if it’s too awkward, or what if I hate it there, or what if…” She sighed. “What if I love it and I want to stay? What will we do then?”

  Marcus smiled and squeezed her hand. “It won’t be perfect, but we’ll make it work. We always do.”

  Epilogue

  Eddie stood in the shadows of the nearly empty auditorium.

  “Yes, ma’am,” he said into his phone. “The chain reaction has finally stopped. Since the assignment was successful, I was hoping my daughter could stay on as my assistant.”

  He glanced at Natalie, who was slumped in a nearby seat. Eddie had never thought he could feel responsible for another person like he had since she’d come into his life, although in truth, he’d already had a little practice. Over the past few months, he’d found himself thinking of Lena and Marcus as his own special assignments.

  “Thank you, ma’am. Natalie will be glad to hear it.” He listened for a long time, nodding. “I know Lena and Marcus have caused more trouble than you expected, but everything should be back to normal now, shouldn’t it?”

  As he listened, his face tightened. He glanced at Lena and Marcus, who were walking, hand in hand, across the stage. They looked so happy. He hated the thought of them having to face anything else, but if what the boss lady said was true, then the future was as uncertain as ever.

  “I understand, ma’am,” Eddie said finally. “I’ll do what I can to prepare them, but the rest will be up to them.”

  Acknowledgments

  It turns out writing a novel with a newborn baby in the house is hard! My thanks to Babcia Kamila and Grandma
Mary for watching the wee one while I hid away with my laptop. Eternal thanks to Ammi-Joan Paquette and Aubrey Poole for spot-on feedback and guidance, and to my family and friends for always cheering me on. Thank you to Heather Kelly for helping me with pesky world-building stuff and to Ray Brierly for lending me his brain when mine wasn’t working.

  About the Author

  Anna Staniszewski was a Writer-in-Residence at the Boston Public Library and a winner of the PEN New England Discovery Award. She lives outside Boston with her family and teaches at Simmons College. When she’s not writing, Anna reads as much as she can, takes the dog for long walks, and tries to keep her magical powers under wraps. Visit her at www.annastan.com.

  THE DIRT DIARY SERIES

  Anna Staniszewski

  The Dirt Diary

  Eighth grade never smelled so bad.

  Rachel Lee didn’t think anything could be worse than her parents splitting up. She was wrong. Working for her mom’s new house-cleaning business puts Rachel in the dirty bathrooms of the most popular kids in the eighth grade. Which does not help her already loser-ish reputation. But her new job has surprising perks: enough dirt on the in-crowd to fill up her (until recently) boring diary. She never intended to reveal her secrets, but when the hottest guy in school pays her to spy on his girlfriend, Rachel decides to get her hands dirty.

  THE DIRT DIARY SERIES

  Anna Staniszewski

  The Prank List

  To save her mom’s cleaning business, Rachel’s about to get her hands dirty—again.

  Rachel Lee is having the best summer ever taking a baking class and flirting with her almost-sort-of-boyfriend Evan—until a rival cleaning business swoops into town, stealing her mom’s clients. Rachel never thought she’d fight for the right to clean toilets, but she has to save her mom’s business. Nothing can distract her from her mission…except maybe Whit, the cute new guy in cooking class. Then she discovers something about Whit that could change everything. After destroying her Dirt Diary, Rachel thought she was done with secrets, but to save her family’s business, Rachel’s going to have to get her hands dirty. Again.