But Dex wasn’t going to lose this opportunity. He was going to figure out what this “dream” meant. If it were true, it was hard to believe. How in the world could his father wander into a random coffee house in Turkey and have some old geezer force a book on him that people had been chasing for millennia, only to wind up bringing it to another old geezer in Portland, Oregon, who wanted it to enslave the world? The coincidence was too much. He’d have to be some kind of—puppet.
Of course! Dex thought, jolted. He was a puppet. He wasn’t controlling his thoughts and actions! Someone else was—and there was no doubt in Dexter’s mind that this someone was Adem Tarik. Part of his dad knew it, Dex realized, and that’s why he’d been saying he wasn’t a bad man!
Dex concentrated for a moment on the screen, but almost instantly, the usual, crippling stress arose. It brought an acrid taste to his tongue and made him start to sweat. He glanced down at the keyboard, but the letters seemed to sway and blend, and now the screen shimmied in his vision.
Dex looked away, defeated that quickly. Furious, though not surprised, he pounded out some random letters and watched the meaningless symbols squirm across the screen. He could make out the large icon with an envelope halfway into a mailbox. Screw it, Dex fumed. He clicked it, sending off his jumbled letter.
“Dex!” someone called. It was Daphna, slipping into the room wearing a backpack and a strange, flushed look on her face.
Dexter jumped off the bed. His sister had obviously gone home to shower and change, which irritated him, but even so, he’d never been so happy to see her in his life.
“What happened?” he asked. “Did you find him? Did you get the books?”
“Coming through!” Evelyn appeared in the door at that moment, just ahead of Milton. “Daphna, darling!” she cried. Dex knew Evelyn thought Daphna was the world’s greatest kid for reading to the old folks.
“Hi, Evelyn,” Daphna said.
Evelyn grinned, but then turned back to her charge.
“Let’s get you back into bed,” she said, walking Milton slowly across the room. Halfway there, she looked at the twins and said, “Your father’s doing super! Far better than I expected at this point.”
Dex and Daphna smiled at this news.
“I’d love to stay and chat,” Evelyn told them when Milton was comfortable again, “but I’ve got to go deal with the police. I still can’t believe what happened! You two must be devastated. I know I said it before but, Daphna, your entire group murdered in cold blood!” Daphna nodded and looked away. She was devastated, even if she didn’t have two seconds to notice it.
“Anyway,” Evelyn continued, “I shudder to think what kind of mess the police made of the Records Room. This is all too bizarre and awful if you ask me. That Mrs. Scharlach! She seemed like such a nice old lady!” Evelyn offered a sympathetic smile and then left the room shaking her head.
The moment she’d gone, Dexter bugged his eyes at Daphna to let her know he wanted the news. She bugged her eyes back as she took the pack off her shoulder.
“Dad,” Daphna said, “remember that book we were telling you about, the really messed up one that makes no sense? The one you gave away and were trying to get back? Well, I just happened to find it. Here it is.” Daphna pulled the mangled, decrepit Book of Nonsense out and handed it over to her father. Dex looked on, amazed by his sister’s ability to get things done.
Blinking, Milton took the book and examined it carefully.
“You know what?” he said. “This looks like a book I picked up for your birthday, kids. Did you find it in the house?”
“Um, yeah, Dad. It was under your bed. I was vacuuming. I’m sorry if I ruined the surprise. Why did you get us such a crazy book?”
“No reason,” said Milton, though he looked rather unconvinced. “Just a curiosity. I seem to have ruined books on my mind—”
“Thanks, Dad,” Daphna sighed, taking the book back and trying not to sound disgusted. But it didn’t matter. Milton had drifted off to sleep.
Dex waited a moment, then turned to Daphna and asked, “Did you get the Ledger, too?”
Daphna didn’t respond at first. She seemed interested in something on the floor. Then she looked up, though not at Dex, and said, “No, Emmet told me he destroyed it. He died.”
“He died? That’s incredible!” Dex cried. “I don’t know how you do it!” He shared what he’d learned: his father’s “dream” and his theory that Adem Tarik was somehow still involved in all this, somehow controlling Milton.
Daphna, whose face had uncharacteristically dimmed in the face of her brother’s praise, lit up again with all this new information.
“Dex,” she said, “Emmet told me that Rash ranted about Adem Tarik every day, about what a loser he was for wanting to create Heaven on Earth. Do you see?”
“He was the Teacher!” Dex cried. “He recruited the thirty-six kids to learn the First Tongue! But—but, why would he call Mom and send her into those caves? It was his book. Why wouldn’t he get it himself if he knew where it was?”
“I don’t know,” Daphna replied. “Maybe it was too risky. But don’t you see, that does explain why Mom would have gone on such a dangerous trip after she’d quit the search! Even if she’d already sold the store!”
“Yes,” Dexter agreed. “She would’ve thought the search might end once and for all. Did Emmet tell you anything else about Adem Tarik?”
“No, nothing,” Daphna admitted. “We’ve got nothing to go on.”
“Not completely nothing,” Dex said. He’d forgotten to mention that Milton had found a website for the coffee shop he’d dreamed about.
“I sent that Fikret guy an e-mail,” Dex said after explaining. “But it made no sense. I was mad and just pounded on the keys. You could write, though, and ask him about Dad’s visit.”
“That’s great,” Daphna said, brightening up further. “I’ll do that later tonight.”
Milton stirred in his bed just then. “I—not a bad man,” he said. “Adem Tarik—I—I—”
The twins waited him out, and when he seemed done, Dex said, “Okay, but there’s something we’d better do ASAP.”
“What’s that?”
“We need to destroy that book. Finish the job for the Council once and for all.”
Daphna hesitated. “Are you sure, Dex?” she asked, surprising him. “I’ve been thinking it over. I know people misused the First Tongue when they knew it, but does that mean people would misuse it again? Aren’t we much more civilized now? Think of the power, Dex. Think of all the problems that could be solved. Think of the justice that could be served. If I learned it, I could teach it to you.”
Dex was impressed by Daphna’s enthusiasm, but any second thoughts she might have stirred just got wiped out. He’d been feeling a lot less angry at her since he spilled the beans about not being able to read, but the thought of her, already Miss Overachiever of the Universe, teaching him like a toddler—well, that just wasn’t going to happen, not in this lifetime. Dex was sure he’d never be able to learn it, anyway.
“No,” he insisted, “don’t you think the Council considered that? If they didn’t want it around when they were the only ones who knew it, it must be bad news. People aren’t meant to have that kind of power. Look what Picker was doing with it! I think we should burn it.”
“I don’t know,” Daphna replied. A pained look crossed her face. “I don’t think I could do it.”
The thought of burning a book, rare or not, magical or mystical or otherwise, didn’t phase Dex. But he knew Daphna could barely stomach seeing a dog-eared page in a worn-out paperback she didn’t even like.
“Daphna,” he persisted, “Mrs. Tapi was trying to burn the book when Emmet got her, remember? That’s what the Council wanted. For crying out loud, you’re standing there holding a book that supposedly belonged to God. Do you think you’re meant to drag it around like some overdue library book?”
“You’re right,” Daphna conceded. “You’re right.” Then she loo
ked down at the book in her hands.
“By the way,” she said, “the pages are all changing. They’re blurry. At least they were. Maybe they stopped, or maybe Dad’s just too whacked out to know the difference. I almost puked looking at them.”
“So?”
“So, I was wondering if this is what it looks like to you when you read regular books.” Daphna held the book out for Dex, who took it with mild curiosity. He opened to the middle somewhere and looked down at a page. Immediately, his eyes dilated into two spotted green moons. He snapped the book shut.
Daphna was genuinely hoping to get some insight into what Dex had to deal with, but he was staring down at the book’s tattered cover, his mind suddenly somewhere else.
“Am I right?” she asked. “Are they moving again?”
“Yeah,” Dex muttered, not lifting his eyes from the book.
Daphna looked at her brother. His cheeks, crimson when she’d come in, had gone a deeper red, and he looked almost clammy. “Are you okay?” she asked.
“That’s—that’s exactly it,” Dex explained, massaging his forehead now. After a moment, he looked up, though there was no focus to his vision. “Only—it’s a lot worse,” he added. “I feel kinda sick now.”
“Sorry,” said Daphna, taking the book back, “it did the same thing to me. So, when do you want to do it?”
“What?”
“Burn it. If we do it here, we’ll probably set off the alarm and Evelyn will have pandemonium on her hands again.”
“Speaking of Evelyn,” Dex said, regaining his focus, “I just got an idea. She said something about a Records Room, right? Maybe we can get in there and read up on all those old people in your group. They were all taught by Adem Tarik, right? Maybe we can find some clues.”
“Great idea!” Daphna said.
Dex had to force himself not to look pleased.
“But,” Daphna said, “let’s go and do our own things for a while.”
Dex looked skeptical, so she explained. “Look, first of all I’m starving. And, anyway, if we suddenly seem like we’re best friends, Latty’s eventually going to think something is up. I know, we’ll tell Latty we want to stay overnight with Dad. They have cots here. On the way over, we’ll burn the book. Then, when everyone’s asleep, we’ll break into the Records Room. All the night nurses are on the second floor.”
“Okay,” Dex agreed, but then, with a trace of challenge in his voice, he said, “How ’bout I hold on to the book until then—so you won’t get too attached.”
Daphna’s reply came after only a moment’s hesitation. “I suppose that’s reasonable,” she said and then handed the book over.
Dex received it with no small measure of surprise. He felt guilty for the surge of suspicion he’d felt, but forgot about it in a sudden rush to get going. He considered the incredible, fragile old book for a few seconds, then turned and left the room, too swept up in his own swirling imagination even to think of saying good-bye.
Daphna, distracted by her own considerations, thought nothing of her brother’s hasty departure. In fact, she was pleased to have a chance to make sure the Ledger was still secure in her bag. She felt sorry for lying. She hadn’t planned to do it, just like she hadn’t planned to flirt with Emmet or use that Word to choke Wren and Teal. It all just happened. Things were just happening, and the best she could do was react.
The point is, Daphna told herself as she re-zipped her bag, there’s no use worrying about it. In fact, she realized, if Emmet was right, there was no use worrying about anything. If events repeated themselves ten trillion times, she was just doing whatever she happened to be doing this time around. It seemed like the only rational thing to do was just to go with the flow.
Besides, if she told Dex the truth now, he’d stop trusting her altogether. There’d be a screaming match, for sure. And what was the point of asking for trouble before it was due?
CHAPTER 8
burning desires
Everything went according to plan. Latty, who’d seen the news about a “bizarre incident” at the dump, was reluctant to let the kids leave after dinner. But she was touched that they wanted to stay by Milton’s side.
After what appeared to be a rather tormented internal debate, she sent them off with a container of Min-hun-t’ang soup and several pleas to do anything and everything they could to make sure their father didn’t think about what happened in those caves.
“And don’t worry,” Daphna teased, putting her backpack over a shoulder at the door, “we’ll protect him from that woman!”
Latty smiled, accepting the gibe, and waved her off.
Daphna turned to leave and saw that Dex was already hurrying down the road. He also had his backpack over a shoulder and was carrying a large tin can. She rushed after him as best she could carrying the soup.
“Slow down, Dex!” Daphna hollered as her brother turned into an alley up ahead. When she rounded the corner, she saw him at the far end, stooping over the can, which he’d set on the ground.
“I said wait up, Dexter!” Daphna protested, reaching him at last. Dex lit a match and dropped it into the can. Instantly, multi-colored flames leapt up. Daphna jumped back. “What’s going on? Why’s it burning like that?”
“Lighter fluid,” Dex answered. “I’m sorry I didn’t wait Daphna, but I had this huge feeling you were going to try to talk me out of it.”
Daphna looked cross, so Dexter added, “You’re good at that. I didn’t want to give you the chance,” which took the teeth out of her glare. Brother and sister watched the flames transform the book into a pile of layered black tissue. It didn’t take long.
“So it’s done,” said Daphna when the last glowing red sliver faded to gray.
“Finally,” Dex sighed. There was a dumpster in the alley, so when the can cooled enough, Dex tossed the whole thing in.
“It sort of feels anticlimactic, though, doesn’t it?” Daphna said when it thunked inside.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean it all seems too easy. We got the book and burned it. After all the Council went through—and for so long. It feels weird.”
“We went through a lot, too, Daphna. I don’t how you can say it was easy. We were almost killed, like two hundred times.”
“I know. Believe me, I know. I just meant it seemed too easy to destroy. I mean, doesn’t it blow you away to think that book might really have belonged to God?”
“Yeah. I guess,” said Dex.
“You guess?”
Dex ignored his sister’s tone. He’d never thought seriously about the idea of God. The few times he’d tried, it felt not unlike looking at the pages of a book—dizzying and pointless. Anyway, this was hardly the moment to start contemplating the subject again.
“So, what have you been doing all day?” he asked.
Daphna considered pressing her point. It seemed important that Dex understand the incredible significance of what they’d just done. But then she thought, Why? He either appreciated it or he didn’t.
Again, trying to avoid thinking the worst about her brother, it occurred to Daphna that though he’d been totally absorbed in the search for answers about the various mysteries surrounding the book, he hadn’t expressed much fascination with the book itself. And why would he if he couldn’t read it? A book that belonged to God would be nothing but the ultimate cruel joke to him.
“I just kind of hung out in my room,” Daphna said, attempting to sound warmer. “I really needed some time to think about everything that’s happened. I wanted to think about the Dwarves. It’s all been too much. We’ve seen people die, Dexter. The whole world seems like it flipped upside down since we turned thirteen. What did you do?”
“Oh, I just hung out in my room, too, with an ice pack. My face is still killing me. Of course,” Dex added, “yours is killing me worse.”
“Ha ha. Never heard that one before.”
“Let’s go,” Dex said with a renewed sense of urgency. “We’ve got to figure
out a way to break into that room.”
Daphna smiled, wryly. “Oh, that,” she said. “I’m not worried about that at all.”
“Why not?”
Daphna smiled again. “Trust me,” she said, then walked swiftly out of the alley. This time Dex had to hurry to catch up to her.
“Daphna!” Someone had dashed out of a restaurant as the twins hurried by. “Daphna!” she called again. The twins stopped and turned. Daphna saw who it was and couldn’t speak.
“Hey, Wren,” said Dex.
“Ah, hi,” Wren replied, giving him a dismissive once-over. Dex knew she hadn’t the slightest idea who he was.
“Anyway,” she said, turning away from him, “Daphna, I’m glad I ran into you. How are you?”
“Um, I’m—I’m good. Thanks,” Daphna stuttered. “We’re kind of in a hurry, though.”
“That’s cool,” Wren said. “I just wanted to let you know I’m having a party next Sunday night. A week from today. Just for fun you know, the last hurrah and all that before school starts. Just us girls. I’d love you to come. Around seven?”
Since he was basically invisible to her, Dex watched Wren closely as she spoke. Something was clearly not right. Aside from the obvious, that his sister was being invited to a Pop party, there was something about the indifferent tone Wren was affecting. It was covering something up. Something—he didn’t know the word—predatory? It was there in her cool expression as well. But that’s how Pops always seemed. He’d just never gotten this close to one before.
Daphna didn’t seem able to hold up her end of the conversation. She was probably speechless now that her fondest dream was actually coming true.
“She’d love to,” he said for her, but not without bitterness. Why did everyone have to keep mentioning that school was starting up again?
“Great!” Wren chirped, though she gave Dex a look that made him feel like he was a repellent species with which she was only passingly familiar. “By the way, cute bag!” she added, then disappeared back into the restaurant.
The twins looked through the front window and saw Teal at a table with some other Pops. She smiled and waved, though her smile looked oddly anxious to Dex.
Book of Knowledge Page 6