L01-03. Lantern

by Chess Desalls

  When he slowed, Gelsey set a cloth-wrapped section of gingerbread, about the size of a small loaf, next to Graham’s plate. “Hand that to Machin on your way out. I’m not sure what plans he has for you two today, but I’m sure he’s thinking about that instead of his breakfast.”

  “Do you think he’ll let Evelyn stay—here with us at the cottage?”

  Evelyn’s heart dropped, and Gelsey frowned. Evelyn felt her lips go dry as she and Gelsey exchanged a glance.

  “Evelyn has a family to get back to,” said Gelsey. “I expect it’s difficult to be so far from home, isn’t it, dear?”

  “I have to admit, part of me thought I’d wake up in my own bed, with my sister and cousin at home. And that all this would have been a dream.”

  “See what I mean?” said Gelsey. After giving Graham a pointed look, she grabbed the empty kettle and disappeared into the bathroom-pantry.

  “Do you want to go? To leave us?” said Graham, frowning. The sadness from the night before returned to his eyes.

  Evelyn’s mouth opened and shut.

  “Suppose we could get you back to Erie,” continued Graham, “would you ever consider visitin’ us again? Would you ever come back?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Then, I want to go with you.”

  “To Erie? But why?” Her stomach twisted. She thought she knew why, but was afraid of hearing the truth and finding out she was wrong.

  “I thought more ’bout what you said…’bout afterward.”

  Evelyn’s eyes widened.

  “I ’preciate all Machin has done for me—Gelsey too,” Graham said, his eyes flickering in the direction of the bathroom-pantry. He lowered his voice. “But I don’t feel I’m being taught a trade here. Anyone can polish glass with a rag. Doesn’t take much skill.”

  “You’d be willing to leave Havenbrim?”

  “I’ve got no family here,” he said, shrugging.

  “What about Machin and Gelsey?”

  “They’re wonderful people, and they’ve become friends. In the short time I’ve been here, Machin’s taught me to read, to write, and he’s even taught me figures. But they don’t keep their ’prentices forever, Evelyn. By movin’ on, I’ll be makin’ room for someone else.”

  “Um… I’m not sure how my cousin, Carla, would feel about putting up another person. When Joyce goes to college she’ll be living on campus, so maybe you can have her room then. I don’t know about now. I was planning on starting school with her at the same time, and sharing a dorm room with her, so then I wouldn’t be around, either.”

  Evelyn pressed her lips shut. Graham’s eyes had glazed over, and he was frowning again.

  “I’ve lived on my own before,” he said. “Guess I could do it again.”

  “I suppose there’d be more opportunities there than in Havenbrim,” Evelyn mused. She tilted her head. “I certainly wouldn’t mind you being there with me. I’m still waiting to wake up and find out this has all been a strange dream.”

  “Bet it makes you ’preciate your life before more, though, doesn’t it?”

  Evelyn nodded. “In many ways it does. But if this turns out to be a dream, then that would mean you’d be gone, too.”

  A sad smile formed on Graham’s face. “Are you sayin’ you’d miss me?”

  Evelyn didn’t say anything. She didn’t need to. The rosiness of her cheeks said everything.

  Chapter 15

  Graham

  Graham stepped lightly around his master for the rest of that day.

  Machin kept to himself for the most part, not in a way that was unkind to his apprentice or to Evelyn; but he was more brooding and preoccupied than usual. He rarely left the furnace, where he already spent so much time, shaping bits of tektite into glass and fusing bits of metal together into various shapes.

  Graham chatted with Evelyn while keeping up with his tasks, all the time worrying he’d done something to offend his master, or that there was something wrong with Machin. He knew Machin had been hard at work trying to resolve Evelyn’s situation—whether she should return home to her family, and how to help get her there.

  The idea of Evelyn leaving twisted at his stomach, but he knew it wasn’t his choice. Still, somewhere deep inside, he hoped Machin wouldn’t be able to send her away.

  It became clear that something serious was up when Machin sat at the table for supper instead of grabbing the first edible item he could find and disappearing into the furnace room for another round of work before bedtime.

  Graham met Gelsey’s eyes. She shrugged slightly and fussed back and forth, seemingly unable to keep still, or sit down. Her face was flushed and she was smiling more than usual.

  His worries melted away when Evelyn entered the room.

  “Good afternoon,” she said to Machin before sitting down.

  “Yes it is, Evelyn Bowman.”

  “Goodness!” cried out Gelsey. A plate fell and cracked against the floor. “Goodness,” she said again, her smile fading into a frown. She disappeared behind the table to gather up the broken pieces.

  Machin cleared his throat. He sat back in his chair and untied a pouch from his belt. He slipped its contents into his palm, which he then raised to Evelyn.

  A tiny mariner’s compass shone white and gold; its magnetic needle matched the golden exterior, and its markings were in brown ink.

  “For me?”

  Machin’s lips stretched into a grin. He placed the tiny compass in her hand. “You’ll learn more about it when you read the attached message.”

  Graham stood, nearing Evelyn as she pulled at the paper tag attached to the compass. Peering over her shoulder, he read: May you find as much hope in Erie as the hope you brought with you to Havenbrim. I wish you the best, Machin.

  His stomach tightened.

  “This will send me home?” said Evelyn.

  Graham frowned at the excitement in her voice.

  “Follow where the needle points, and it will take care of the rest.” Machin stood from his seat, leaving his porridge untouched. “Farewell, Evelyn Bowman.”

  “Thank you,” she said, her eyes wide.

  He crooked his body into a slight bow, and left.

  “Thank you for letting me borrow this,” said Evelyn.

  Her outstretched arms were filled with fabric—the dress Gelsey had given her.

  Gelsey winced at Evelyn’s boots, jeans, and puffy jacket. “If I believed it would help where you’re going,” she said, “I would let you keep the dress.”

  “I wouldn’t want to ruin the dress while traveling. I have plenty of clothes at home.”

  Graham crossed his arms. “That’s assumin’ you’ll make it.”

  “We won’t know that until we try,” she replied in a small voice. She cupped the compass in her hands, bouncing it up and down. From where they stood in the kitchen, the needle pointed to the cottage’s front door.

  “See that,” she said, giving Graham a half grin. “It already knows which way to go.”

  He jammed his hands in his pockets and shook his head.

  “Well, I guess this is goodbye.”

  Her lips quivered. “Won’t you walk with me? At least as far as you can go?”

  “Was already plannin’ on it. You don’t know the forest the way I do.”

  “Thank you,” she whispered. “And thank you, too, Gelsey. For everything.”

  “We enjoyed having you, dear. You’re welcome anytime, though if you visit again, I hope you’ll find another way.”

  An unhappy chuckle escaped Graham’s lips.

  Evelyn ducked beneath his arm as he opened the door.

  Looking back over her shoulder, her eyes flickered to the lanterns one last time.

  “Goodbye.”

  She draped her arm through Graham’s as they walked outside and stepped into the forest.

  Graham whistled as they walked, and pointed out anything he could think of to keep the conversation going. Evelyn was leaving, and he intended to savor
every moment they had left.

  She held the compass in front of them. The needle twisted back and forth.

  The pressure of her arm in his tightened more than once, when the toe of her boot caught on tree roots that had grown aboveground.

  “You don’t have to watch the needle every second, Evelyn. You might want to watch where you’re walkin’.”

  “That’s why you’re here, isn’t it? To watch my step?”

  A smile played across his lips. “Is that why I’m here?”

  When she didn’t laugh, he was sure she understood what he’d meant by the question. She could have chosen to walk alone, to follow the path home without him. She could have asked Machin or Gelsey to accompany her, instead. But she’d asked him.

  “I don’t know,” she said, surprising him with her response. “Why are you here?”

  He blinked. She’d stopped to look up at him, dark eyes shining with moisture.

  “You know I don’t want you to go, Evelyn. But if you have to—then I want to see that you get there safely. The forest—”

  “It’s not the forest I’m worried about,” she said, smoothing her thumb along the compass’s edge. “I spent days inside a lantern, not fully sure whether I was alive or dead, asleep or awake. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous about Machin’s gift to me. I’d think all this was a joke if I hadn’t ended up in Havenbrim the way I did.”

  Graham exhaled slowly. “I see.”

  They walked a little more in silence. His shoulders slumped, and he’d stopped bringing anything of interest to her attention along the way. Nothing seemed interesting anymore.

  I don’t know how to make her feel better ’bout what will happen next, when we get to where the compass takes us. I’m not sure Machin knows exactly where it will go. Or what it will feel like. Or if it will work.

  When he pulled himself out of his thoughts, he frowned. They were nearing a section of forest he knew well, and if he squinted he could see pieces of cloth, their ragged ends twisted around the trunks of two trees. It was all there was left of his hammock.

  The stream next to where he’d made camp bent into view.

  He lowered his eyes to the compass, his lips parted in disbelief. As they approached the space he’d called his own—where he used to sleep under the trees—the needle bent to the left. Instead of passing through the edge of the forest into the village proper, the compass wanted them to go to the stream.

  “I hear water,” said Evelyn, looking up.

  Graham swallowed. “There’s a stream here. Crossing it leads deeper inside the forest, but back toward the cottage.”

  Their shoes made squirting sounds in the mud the closer they got to the stream’s edge.

  “How deep is the water?”

  “I don’t remember it ever floodin’ over like this, but it’s ’bout knee-deep if your feet miss the rocks.”

  Her nose crinkled. “It’s a good thing I gave Gelsey her dress back.”

  She stretched a leg forward; together they bent over the stream.

  The needle on the compass spun. Blue sparks crackled, spraying out the top of the compass’s center.

  Sucking in a breath, he tightened his grip on her arm. Her leg swung in midair.

  “Graham, what are you doing?”

  “Don’t you want to take your shoes off first?”

  Evelyn sighed. “If I do that, there’s no guarantee they’ll travel home with me.”

  “I’m sorry, Evelyn, but I don’t want to let you go.”

  She gave him a sideward glance. “So don’t let go.”

  Chapter 16

  Evelyn

  Graham didn’t let go.

  Evelyn grinned. Together, they stepped into the stream. Currents of water splashed past her ankles and bubbled up to her knees. The iciness of the water sent a chill up her spine.

  “Now what?”

  She bit her lip at how quickly the needle of the compass spun. The object warmed in her palm. Blue sparks sprayed in the air, tickling her hand as they fell back down, and sizzling when they disappeared into the water.

  The section of the stream that bubbled around them began to transform. The clear water bled ribbons of blue, bubbling and frothing until the spray of water matched the spray of sparks from the compass’s center.

  Trembling, Evelyn sucked in a breath.

  “Do you think we’ll get pulled under?”

  She gave his arm a squeeze.

  “Graham? Are you listening to me?”

  His breath came out in a whisper. “Is this what it felt like when you were sent here?”

  “No, not at all.”

  She twisted her head around, taking in the sprays of water and light swirling around them. Holding the compass securely in her palm, she pressed herself to Graham’s chest.

  “You should go back to the cottage,” she said. “I don’t want you to get hurt—what if we drown?”

  His lips were set. He worked his jaw before answering. “I promised I’d see you safely as far as I could, and right now I’m not convinced you’re safe.”

  Water droplets and beads of blue light brightened into a warm, eerie glow.

  Evelyn inhaled a humid lungful of air.

  Then, as if the stream finally decided it wanted its water back, all at once, the ground beneath them softened, sinking Evelyn and Graham until the current ran past their waists.

  With a sloshy, wet slurp, they, the compass, and the water were swallowed inside, followed by the light and their screams.

  Though she trembled all over, Evelyn’s eyelids were stiff as ice, framing her open eyes. But she couldn’t see past swirls of blue.

  The chill numbed her arms and fingertips.

  She couldn’t tell whether Graham was still there.

  Her lungs burned for air. Just as she was about to gulp in a mouthful of liquid, her head broke the water’s surface.

  She choked and coughed. Her head fell under again, but now she knew there was air above her. She let herself float. This time when she surfaced, she relaxed her breathing and moved her arms back and forth. Though her feet and legs were heavy, weighed down by wet boots and jeans, she kicked until she was gently treading water.

  “Graham?” she whispered.

  Droplets rolled across her lips. The water didn’t taste salty like she’d been used to at the Jersey shore. Freshwater. Are we back at Lake Erie? She twisted around where, instead of waves, she saw a flat structure that stretched across the lake. A pier.

  And a body floating on the water.

  “Graham!”

  She swam to him. His lips held a slight sheen of blue.

  Wrapping an arm around his chest, she half swam, half dragged him through the water to the edge of the pier. Her breath came and went in heavy gasps as she grabbed onto the landing.

  “Come on, Graham, wake up,” she said. “We have to get out of the water. I’m not sure I can lift you.”

  Her arm ached with the strain of keeping his head above the waves.

  She pressed her cheek to his. Her heart sped when a puff of air passed through his nose.

  “You’re breathing. Okay, good. Can you hear me at all?”

  His eyelids fluttered open; he coughed up water.

  “Graham?”

  When his gaze focused on her voice, then her face, his eyes widened.

  “We transported?”

  She nodded, shivering, and pressed one of his hands to the edge of the landing.

  “We need to climb out. Now.”

  Evelyn had never been so happy to reach the front door of Carla’s house.

  She knocked, huddling close to Graham beneath the blanket wrapped around them and their damp clothing.

  The man who had seen them struggling at the pier’s landing and helped fish them out of the water waited inside his parked car.

  “Are you kids going to be okay?” he called out.

  “Yes, thank you so much! Did you want your blanket back?”

  “No need.”


  When the front door finally opened and Joyce’s head popped out, the man told them to take care, and drove away.

  “Evelyn, who was that?”

  She cringed as her sister took in her shivering frown of apology and her new friend.

  “Get inside first, then tell me everything. Carla’s been worrying like crazy.” She held the door open for them to step inside. “Is he okay?”

  Graham stood there, stunned. He hadn’t spoken much during the car ride. There’s going to be so much to explain. The thought of Graham having to adapt to her life was every bit as terrifying as if she would have been stuck in Havenbrim.

  “No,” said Evelyn, answering her sister’s question. “He’s far from home—definitely not okay.”

  Evelyn shivered as she removed her boots and wet socks. She’d dreamed of a hot shower and a change of clothes during the entire drive.

  Carla’s form appeared in the doorway. “Where have you been all night?”

  “All night?”

  “Joyce said she couldn’t find you on her way back from the party last night, and you never came home. Until now.”

  Evelyn’s jaw dropped. I thought I’d been in Havenbrim for days.

  “Halloween was last night?”

  Carla exchanged a glance with Joyce before setting her eyes upon Graham. “He’s still wearing his costume, isn’t he? Is that who you’ve been out with all night?”

  “What? No—I mean…” Evelyn exhaled.

  She’d wanted to wait until she was alone with Joyce to explain how they’d gotten separated, where she’d gone, and how she’d gotten home. If it wasn’t for Graham standing right there, she wouldn’t have believed it herself.

  “He’s in trouble,” she said, finally.

  “I can see that.”

  Evelyn’s eyes filled with tears; she turned to Joyce. “His name is Graham, and he’s lost his parents, like us.” She’d artfully kept out the part about how long ago his mother and father passed away, and no one interrupted her, so it was a start. “He’s here by himself with no family.”