The Soulkeepers

by G. P. Ching

  Chapter 16

  Oswald’s Rules

  While the hope of finding his mother comforted Jacob, he was disappointed to learn he’d have to be patient for his journey to meet the medicine woman. Dr. Silva explained certain locations were possible only on certain dates. The next time the tree was connected to the South American Amazon was June 10th, the day after Jacob’s sixteenth birthday, and two months away.

  Later that night, he lay on the pink bed thinking about what Dr. Silva had told him about his blood. There was no way Jacob believed it. It didn’t make any sense. Still, he was sure that what happened with the tree was not a hallucination. The hardest part would be keeping it all from Malini. Ever since the incident with Dane, she had desperately jumped at any clue to what had happened that day. He cared deeply for her but he knew if he told her what Dr. Silva had said, she would believe every word. The last thing Jacob wanted was any more pressure to believe the impossible.

  Plunk

  Something skimmed across his window. He glanced at the clock: 11:30 PM. He cringed when he thought of Dr. Silva visiting his window weeks ago and hoped it wasn’t her.

  Cachink

  A stone skipped across the glass and he decided it was more human than anything he’d expect from Dr. Silva. It was, after all, a stone and not the glowing skull of a dead husband. He stood up and looked out into the front yard. Malini was waving from the lawn, her hand full of rocks. Jacob opened the window.

  “I need to talk to you,” she whispered.

  He pointed to the rose lattice on the side of the house. She scaled it with ease and he reached out to help her inside.

  “Nice room,” she said with a grin.

  Jacob had never hated the pink room more.

  “Long story.” He closed the window behind her. “How did you get here?”

  “Drove.” She held up a set of keys. “I know I won’t be legal until September but all those driving lessons should count for something. I had to see you.”

  “It’s great to see you too, but what’s going on?”

  She leaned against the floral wingback. A sigh escaped her lips. “I just needed to talk to someone.”

  “Why? What happened?”

  “We were sitting at home tonight. I was just watching TV, you know; it’s not like there’s a ton to do in Paris on a weeknight.”

  “Right.”

  “Well, the doorbell rang and my dad answered it. It was a deliveryman from Paris Pizza. Jacob, they sent ten pizzas to my house.”

  “Who?”

  “I can only guess it was Amy or Jessica.”

  Amy was Dane’s girlfriend and Jacob suspected the reason for the prank. Although his lip and eye had healed, the animosity had not. None of them ever talked about what actually happened that day at Westcott’s grocery, but everyone at school knew there was something. Only, somehow, all of the speculation had Dane coming out on top.

  “Dane. Dane was behind this,” Jacob said.

  “What makes you so sure?”

  “I just know. Tell me what happened next.”

  “My dad just shook his head and said we didn’t order any pizzas. The driver said that Malini Gupta ordered them. So, my dad calls me to the door, right in front of this man, and asks me why I ordered the pizza. I tell him that I didn’t. But my dad keeps asking me over and over, ‘Why are there ten pizzas here?’ Meanwhile, the driver is looking for his money. He says we owe like a hundred dollars. My dad is having a fit and finally, I say to him, ‘Dad, I think this is a prank, the girls from school, again.’”

  “So what did he do?”

  “It was the weirdest thing, Jacob. He reached into his wallet and paid the man. After the driver had delivered all ten pizzas to our kitchen counter, my dad turned to me, looked me straight in the eye, and said, ‘Tomorrow, you tell the girls thank you for the pizza. You all laugh and try to be friends.’”

  “What?”

  “He just doesn’t get it. He thinks this is all normal hazing, that it will somehow get better once people get to know me. We’ve been here two years. They hate me. They will always hate me.” Malini’s warm chocolate eyes glistened wet in the moonlight.

  Jacob moved in close and kissed the top of her head. “Bastards.” He took her hand and led her to sit on the edge of the bed.

  “You’re the only one who understands, Jake. I don’t know what I would do without you.”

  He swallowed hard and looked at the floor.

  “What was that? What were you thinking about just then?” Malini asked.

  “Nothing.”

  “You’re keeping something from me.”

  “I…” He searched for the right words. “Malini, if I could figure out a way to get us out of here—out of this town—would you come with me?”

  “You mean, like, permanently?”

  “Yes.”

  “That’s it, then. That’s what you’ve been hiding. You’re thinking of running away.”

  He nodded. It wasn’t really a lie. He was just leaving out some information about using a tree that grew out of a dead guy to get there.

  “You can’t go.” Malini’s arms crossed over her chest. “I can’t go. We’re fifteen, Jake. How would we survive? I mean, believe me I know, I want to go as much as you do, but this is temporary. We just need to graduate from high school first and then we can go to some college somewhere and leave this town in our dust. It’s the only way that makes sense.”

  Her hand was so small in his. He rubbed her knuckle with his thumb and thought about leaving without her. Could life get any harder than this? And then, as if in answer to his question, her lips were on his, her fingers were in his hair, and he was falling back on the pink comforter, her full weight stretched out on top of him.

  “Don’t leave me,” she whispered into his ear.

  Jacob kissed her cheek, breathing in the clean smell of her skin. Then he met her lips again.

  She was the only girl he’d ever kissed, and the experience was still new. He didn’t think he would ever grow tired of the softness of her lips or the way her hair fell against his face. Before he could really think about what he was saying, he replied, “I won’t.”

  “Good,” she said and crawled off the bed. He grabbed her thigh and looked up into her eyes, the moon reflecting yellow circles in the brown.

  “So that was it? All you wanted from me was a promise to not leave you in Paris by yourself?”

  “No,” she said, a smile creeping impishly across her face. “I also wanted the kiss.”

  “Lucky me.”

  “I better get back.” She walked toward the window and then suddenly turned toward the box that sat on his desk.

  “What’s that?”

  “A jewelry box. It used to belong to my mom. I haven’t been able to get it open though. It’s locked.”

  Her fingers found her hair and pulled out the bobby pin that was holding her bangs back. She reached for the box as a chunk of hair fell over her right eye.

  “You don’t have to do that,” he began, but before he finished his sentence the box was open. Without looking under the lid, she handed it back to him.

  “You should do the honors,” she said.

  He took the box and peeked inside. The blood rushed from his face and Jacob felt his hands grow cold. The box snapped shut between his fingers.

  “This must be hard for you,” she said. “You miss your mom. Do you want me to leave you to your thoughts?”

  He nodded. Jacob set the box down and moved with Malini toward the window. With his hand under her elbow, he helped her climb out.

  “McNulty’s tomorrow after school?” she asked.

  “Sure.”

  She was down the lattice and smiling back at him from the yard in a few lithe moves. He waved as she moved toward her car.

  When she was out of sight, he returned to the box on the bed and lifted the lid. It was not a jewelry box at all. Inside there were three indentations in blue velvet. The first two were filled with
knives. Double-sided blades with polished bone hilts glinted ominously in the moonlight.

  The last indentation was empty.