She got up and went to the window. The woods were still bare. She traced the glass where she’d kissed it and taken a picture for Nick. It was so cold out. Was he out there freezing? Was Holmes?
She whirled around. “Ivy, I’m worried about Scapulus.”
“Me too. He should have surfaced by now.”
“You’ve tried to reach him?”
“We all have. Nothing.”
“You don’t think this has anything to do with his being Professor Redleaf’s son, do you?” said Amanda.
“Who can say?” said Ivy. “She was so secretive. Now I know where he gets it.”
“Yes,” said Amanda. “Like mother like son. I should have loved him. Better than I did.”
“Don’t start blaming yourself, Amanda. You can’t help who you love.”
“Maybe if Ramon and Clive get that psychic energy blocker going they can fix me too,” Amanda said wryly.
“And me,” said Ivy.
The two girls had got themselves in a right funk by the time Binnie came running in with news.
“Are you sitting down?” she said breathlessly.
Amanda gave her a look.
“Figure of speech,” said Binnie. “I can see you are. Anyway, guess what! Mrs. Sweetgum and Mrs. Wiffle have dropped the lawsuit! Thrillkill is back!”
Amanda and Ivy jumped up and started doing a happy dance. It was so much better than crying over Eustace. Binnie joined them.
“Hurray!” Amanda cheered.
“Yippee!” Ivy squealed.
“Yes,” said Binnie, panting. “And he wants to see you.”
The girls stopped dancing. “Both of us?” said Amanda.
“No, just you,” said Binnie looking at Amanda.
“What does he want?” she said.
“I have no idea,” said Binnie. “I was hoping you would tell us.”
“Did he look mad?” said Amanda.
“No, he looked downright happy,” said Binnie. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen him grin like that before.”
“Oh well, then,” said Ivy. “I’m sure it’s fine.”
Amanda wasn’t but she made herself go right away. She was actually thrilled that the old coot was back. Compared to Professor Buck he was an absolute puppy.
When the headmaster saw her he waved her into his office and gave her a piece of chocolate. A gift from Headmaster Thrillkill? He was in a good mood and rightly so. After all the angst with David and Editta’s mothers and cooling his heels in jail he was probably walking on air.
“Amanda,” he said as she sat down. “You’re looking taller.”
If that was the kind of compliment he felt he could give, she’d accept it.
“Thank you, Headmaster.”
He winked at her. This was definitely not typical Thrillkill behavior.
“I have news,” he said slyly.
Uh oh. Had he heard something about Nick? Holmes? Her mother?
“Your cousin Despina,” he said, grinning like the Cheshire cat.
Wait, Despina? What about her?
He rapped his knuckles on the desk. “She’s coming to Legatum. How do you like that?”
“Now?” said Amanda. Despina’s timing was always atrocious.
“Soon,” he said and winked again.
“That’s nice,” said Amanda. At least she didn’t have to face her cousin right this moment. “But why are you telling me?”
“Because you’re related to her,” he said.
“I don’t understand,” she said.
“No, I see that you don’t. Then let me congratulate you. We’re going to have two Lesters at Legatum. Despina has enrolled. She will be starting her first year next term.”
Amanda was stunned. Surely this wasn’t because of what she’d said to her cousin. All she’d meant to do when she suggested Despina enroll was distract her from Professor Kindseth and Charlotte. She’d never thought she’d actually go through with it.
“I must say I’m tickled,” said Thrillkill. “She’ll make quite a detective.”
This was not good news. Actually it was a disaster. Despina at Legatum? The very idea turned Amanda’s stomach. Her cousin’s heart was in the right place but she was the biggest meddler this side of the Greek gods. She and her friends would never have privacy again.
She swallowed hard. “Uh, is that it, sir?”
“No, that’s not it,” he said. “I want you to be her guide for the first few weeks. You know, the way you did for Mr. Holmes.”
No, no, no! This was the worst thing to happen since she’d thrown up on Simon’s jacket. OMG, he wasn’t going to make her room with Despina too, was he?
“Yes, sir,” she squeaked. “Um, will she be living on campus?”
“Despina?” said Thrillkill. “I don’t think that would be suitable, do you? You’d never get any work done. No, she and Hillary have taken a place in town. She will be a day student.”
Thank goodness for small favors, Amanda thought.
“But she will be taking her evening meal with us,” he said. She quite likes Mr. Peeson’s cooking.”
Amanda supposed there were worse problems than Despina being at Legatum. Still she was dreading the next term and all that might happen with her cousin around. She could just see it: Despina snooping into Ivy and Simon’s love lives, giving unwanted advice to her and her friends, telling the teachers how they should be conducting their classes, and OMG, trying to fix up Professor Kindseth and Charlotte again. Her presence would be marginally less upsetting than having Lila back, but only marginally.
There might be a last minute reprieve though. Perhaps Despina would change her mind, come to her senses. Or Hill might not go for the move. Or her cousin Jeffrey might try to discourage her. He was certainly good at being a party pooper. There was always hope.
There was one thing she needn’t have worried about though. As she was going to the lab she ran into Professor Kindseth. She hadn’t seen him for a while so he proposed they go to the dining room for a cup of tea and a chat.
“How’s things?” he said glumly as he stirred a massive amount of sugar into his tea.
“How’s things with you?” she said. “You seem down. I guess you’ve heard.”
“Heard what?” he said. He waved his hand at the tea table.
“About my cousin Despina.”
He took a sip, shook his head, and put the cup down. His hand was shaking. “That she’s going to matriculate?” he said. “Yes. But it won’t matter.”
“What do you mean?” she said.
“It’s over. Charlotte and me.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry.”
“You did know we got back together?”
“No!” So Despina’s plot to reunite them had worked.
“Yes. Your cousin finagled that quite well. We met on her art site and fell in love all over again. Then Charlotte decided the wretches needed her more than I did and she left. I begged her to stay but she wouldn’t hear it.”
“You didn’t want to go with her?”
“Me with those crazies? Never.”
“I’m so sorry, Professor.”
“Oh well. What’s love without angst?” he said wryly. “I suppose I’ll have to tell Despina.”
“She doesn’t know?”
“Well, she knew we’d got back together but no, she doesn’t know the end of the story. When I told her the good news she regaled me with stories of how she and Hill met. I guess they were exploring some cave with a group of spelunkers and he saved her life or something. You know how she garbles things. Something about her getting stuck in a tunnel and him pulling her out. Very romantic, she said.”
“It sounds like Despina,” said Amanda, attempting to picture her overweight cousins doing something so athletic. She couldn’t.
“Yes. Doesn’t it?” he said.
On the way back from her talk with Professor Kindseth Amanda ran into Ivy and Nigel in the hall.
“I’ve been a delinquent,” Ivy said, rubbin
g Amanda’s good shoulder.
“What are you talking about?” said Amanda. “You couldn’t be a delinquent if you tried.”
“Do you remember when we went to see Sasha and Basilica and I was studying my Russian?”
“Sure,” said Amanda. “How’s it going?”
“Hopelessly,” said Ivy. “But that’s not what I’m talking about. I was going to tell you how I lost my eyesight.”
Amanda froze. She’d hoped Ivy had forgotten all about that awkward subject. “You don’t have to tell me. Really.”
“I want to,” said Ivy. “It’s not that I’ve been hiding it but I’ve sort of been reluctant to talk about it. I’m okay with it now.”
Amanda couldn’t imagine how that would be possible. “Are you sure?”
Ivy smiled. “I’m sure. Come on, let’s go sit down.”
They sauntered down the hall. Amanda felt as if she were walking the green mile. When they had settled in the common room Ivy began her story.
“There isn’t really much to tell. I got sick when I was six. Well, not exactly sick because I never felt anything. I got juvenile glaucoma. It’s pretty rare.”
“Oh Ivy, that sounds terrible.” Amanda took her hand.
“It was. Very scary.”
“You don’t have to go on if you don’t want to. This must be so upsetting for you.”
“I’m okay. It was a long time ago.”
Yes, but, Amanda thought. Look what happened. She realized she wasn’t breathing and exhaled.
“I started having problems with light sensitivity and my corneas clouded up. I went to the doctor and they found a lot of pressure in my eyes. It progressed so fast that the optic nerves were damaged in no time.”
“It sounds terrible,” said Amanda. Ivy’s description was making her queasy.
“It was. I had one surgery after another but nothing helped. And before you say anything, my parents jumped right on it. There was no delay. It was just a really weird case.”
“Is it inherited?” said Amanda, who was getting closer and closer to tears.
“It can be, but it doesn’t seem that mine was. Honestly, it’s the biggest mystery of my life. I doubt I’ll ever know why it happened.”
The dam burst and Amanda yelped. She threw herself on her friend and hugged her tight. Nigel came over and licked her in the nose.
Suddenly Ivy was sobbing and Amanda thought she would die. She kept whispering, “It’s okay, it’s okay, I’ll fix it, we’ll fix it,” until she realized she could do no such thing no matter how much she wanted to.
Finally Ivy was able to speak. “I never had a chance, Amanda.”
“And there’s no way . . .” Amanda blubbered.
“No,” said Ivy. “We’ve tried everything.”
“What about a transplant?”
“There is no such thing,” said Ivy. “You can only do corneas.”
“And that wouldn’t . . .”
“No. I’d need whole eyes.”
Amanda was devastated. What terrible, terrible luck Ivy had had. It wasn’t fair.
“But I’m okay now,” said Ivy. “You know I am. Better than okay. Look at how keen my other senses are. And I’m happy. I have a wonderful family, friends I love, and a calling I adore. And Nigel.” She reached for her dog. “What else could I want?”
Amanda pulled out of their hug and looked at Ivy’s beautiful face. She was the most remarkable person she’d ever known. Most people would be paralyzed by what had happened to her but she always made lemonade. She truly was amazing.
“What else indeed,” she said, and kissed her cheek.
Suddenly an alert sounded on her phone—a text. She was going to ignore it but Ivy said, “I’m all right. Just get your text. It could be important.” She pressed her Messages icon and was shocked to see that it was from Rhys Cowsill. She’d completely forgotten about him.
“Guess I’m not going to be a star after all,” he said. “Didn’t get the part. Would you like to have coffee some time?”
She read the message three times, then put her phone back in her bag. She couldn’t understand why she was shaking.
“Everything okay?” said Ivy.
“Uh, yeah,” said Amanda. “Just spam.”
28
The End of Everything
When Simon returned from his travels Thrillkill told him that he and David had been reinstated. Jubilant, he decided the time had come to bestow the ivy-forte on his lady love. This would be the make or break moment. If she loved it she might love him. If not then he was done. He couldn’t think of another way to win her heart.
He climbed the stairs to his room and imagined what he would say to her. Flowery or simple? Dramatic or matter of fact?
“Ivy, my darling, a gift from my heart to yours.” No, that was over the top. She’d think he’d lost his mind. “Here, Ivy. I made this for you.” Too plain. “I have devised this ivy-forte for you. Perhaps you would grace me with a song?” Oh brother. It all sounded so dumb. Oh well, he’d have to wing it. Speaking spontaneously would be the most natural thing to do anyway. She’d appreciate that.
As he was making his way down the hall with his precious cargo he ran into Dreidel Pomfritter. He remembered Ivy’s text saying that she liked both boys and pretended not to see him. But Dreidel seemed to want to talk.
“Simon,” he said with a wave. “Can I have a word?”
Simon looked around. “Who, me?”
“Yes.” Dreidel smiled. Simon wanted to pop him. “Do you have a moment?”
“Uh sure,” said Simon grudgingly. What could the guy possibly want with him?
Dreidel moved in and lowered his voice. “You know Ivy pretty well, don’t you—Ivy Halpin? I see you two together a lot.”
“Yes,” said Simon. Of course he’d seen them together. They were meant to be that way.
“Good,” said Dreidel with a light in his eyes. “I was wondering. Do you know if she’s seeing anyone?”
Simon froze. “Why?”
Dreidel smiled. Simon thought he’d never seen so many teeth. “I thought I might ask her out.”
For a moment Simon just stood there. Then the ivy-forte slipped out of his hands and crashed to the floor. He stared down at his broken creation, then up at Dreidel, and ran for the front door. His life at Legatum was over.
Nick liked living on the canal. He would wake up in the morning, gaze out at the water, and revel in the serenity. Perhaps in time he would forget he even had a sister. People who did what he did shouldn’t be tied down anyway. It was too dangerous for their families.
He wished he could bring Amanda here though. She’d like the little boat he’d fixed up. It was amazing how much you could fit in a small space if you organized it right. Not that he needed much—just a place to lay his head and enough room for his disguises. He was proud of his collection. All those wigs and outfits were coming in handy.
He figured he’d saved at least a dozen people already. Not that he was counting, and not that there weren’t always more who needed him. But at least he was doing something useful, probably more than if he’d got into Legatum. You didn’t need to be official to prevent crimes—or avenge them. You just needed the strength and the will, and he had those, oh how he had them.
He had to admit he did like the avenging part. Not that he did it often. Mostly his work consisted of prevention: heading the bad guys off at the pass, so to speak. But occasionally, just every once in a while, he got the satisfaction of meting out a bit of justice. Like the time that man had taken advantage of the boy with Down syndrome. He’d nearly got himself killed but it had been worth it to see the look on that jerk’s face when he’d found his bank account empty. He hoped the charity he’d given the money to would use it well.
He wasn’t sure when he’d realized the nightmares weren’t occurring as often. It might have been the day he got his green belt. It was the first time in ages he hadn’t fought against sleep. Before that he’d dreaded letting go beca
use he knew what was coming, but now he didn’t struggle so much and they came less often.
He found his dreams of Amanda had changed as well. He had always dreamt of her, of course, but much of the time the movies in his head had been nightmares: Blixus threatening her, Waltz killing her, him losing her to another boy. But now they were together and he would hold her, disappearing into the soft forest of her hair until dawn when it would melt away softly in the sunlight.
He missed her so much. He wanted to hold her again, run his fingers through that beautiful hair and tell her how he loved her. Sometimes he thought he was almost ready to go back and find her, but then he’d remember how he let her down and felt too ashamed to face her.
No, the idea that Nick Muffet could live a normal life was a fantasy. He wasn’t entitled or suited to having a girlfriend, a mother, a sister, or even a brother like David. He was too damaged, too flawed, and too dangerous. It was right that he should live apart. He would still do what he could to atone for his sins, but it would never be enough. He wouldn’t stop trying though.
At least he had Amanda’s texts. He couldn’t believe she hadn’t given up on him. They came often and were still filled with love. Of course he never answered. How could he? He couldn’t get her hopes up. It was better this way. Perhaps someday she’d forget him, maybe go back to Holmes. He’d always been more suitable for her anyway.
She was looking more beautiful than ever. All those pictures she sent him: her with Ivy, with Nigel, with Clive and Binnie. It was too bad about Simon but he’d get over it. A guy like that would always land on his feet. Eventually he’d see that he didn’t need Legatum anyway, or even Ivy, as amazing as she was. It was funny how your perspective could change without you even realizing it. At least David was back. He might even have a chance at a normal life. Nick wished his brother well, even though he knew they would never see each other again.
Amanda Lester and the Gold Spectacles Surprise Page 28