âWeâd never say youâre crazy.â She paused, as if considering something. âNot to your face, anyway.â
âAnd even if you are crazy,â Callie assured me, âthat doesnât mean we canât still be friends. We can totally visit you in the asylum.â She was smiling, which made me smile, too.
âAlways good to know Iâll have company on visitorâs day.â I slapped my hands on my jeans to prepare myself. âBecause what Iâm about to tell you is pretty much the weirdest thing Iâve ever seen.â
I explained about the list Iâd found on Thornhillâs computer, naming all the people I thought Iâd seen on it. Nia looked pale when I told her about her parents, and Callieâs mouth opened into a wide O at the news that her motherâs name had been on it. âThere must have been, I donât know, a hundred names,â I finished. âMaybe two hundred.â Thinking of the difference between how many names Iâd seen and how few I actually remembered made me sick.
âAnd youâre sure Amandaâs name wasnât there?â Nia asked.
I shook my head and corrected her. âIâm sure I didnât see her name on it.â I put my thumb and index finger a centimeter apart and held my hand in front of my face. âThe font was this big. Plus, Iâm pretty sure there were other pages I didnât get a chance to look at. Maybe I even saw it, only I didnât recognize it because I still thought Amanda Valentino was her real name.â
Callie and Nia looked at each other, and Nia must have asked Callie a silent question because Callie just shrugged and shook her head.
Was this how people acted right before they call the men in little white coats to come and take you away?
I opened my mouth to defend my sanity, but before I could say anything, someone else spoke.
âYou kids find the box?â I turned around. Behind me, Louise was standing on a ladder fishing what looked like a thousand pieces of yarn out of a white plastic bag jammed onto a shelf. She shook the yarn out in front of her and it revealed itself to be a vest.
âCool,â Nia observed.
â1965,â Louise said, her appreciation for Niaâs appreciation evident in her voice.
âUm, did you say something about a box?â Nia asked, and I wondered if sheâd really liked the yarn-vest or if sheâd been buttering up Louise.
âI might have,â Louise acknowledged. âAnd if I were you, Iâd likely look for it over there.â She gestured just beyond the coatrack, which might have been helpful if the small area that sheâd pointed to hadnât been crammed with about a thousand items piled together.
Nia headed toward it, pausing at an old-fashioned vanity table to lift a beautiful silver mirror from it. As she did, her face took on such a strange expression that I asked if she was okay.
âWhat?â She shook her head, almost as if she were emerging from a dream.
âI said, are you okay?â
âI just . . .â Her voice was soft and thoughtful. Extremely un-Nia. âThereâs so much sadness in this gift.â She was still staring off into the distance, the mirror pressed to her chest.
Callie came up to Nia from around the other side of the coatrack. âWhatâs that?â She reached for the mirror and took it from Nia, examining it closely. As soon as the mirror was out of her hand, Niaâs face lost its dreamy look and went back to its more familiar semi-scowl.
ââTo my dearest Fran on our wedding dayâI will love you forever. George. October 4, 1917.ââ Callie looked up, confused. âThatâs not sad, itâs happy.â
Nia rolled her eyes, then turned away from us and pushed her way deeper in the direction Louise had indicated we were to go. âWhatever,â she mumbled.
âWhy did you say it was
Piper Vaughn & Kenzie Cade