“Got you!” Miss Hardwick said to the book she lifted off the floor. It was a copy of Grace Paley’s short stories Enormous Changes at the Last Minute.
“It’s Gideon,” Kylie said. “He’s in the hospital and I think you know why.”
Sally had the sight despite herself and now a vision flashed as if she herself had stood on Brattle Street in the pouring rain. There was the slick pavement, and the muffled sounds of speeding cars, and Gideon dashing out, grinning when he spied yellow flowers in the window of the florist shop.
“Gideon?” Sally asked. “Your friend?”
“Mother, don’t be an idiot.”
They looked at one another. Was that the way it was?
Sally felt a stab of fear. “It can’t be,” she said.
“Well, it is,” Kylie told her mother. She seemed much older than her age. All of a sudden she had revealed herself to be someone Sally hadn’t imagined her to be. A woman in love, held hostage by the curse.
“You didn’t tell us about the curse,” Kylie cried. Of course she knew they were different, some people crossed the street when the members of the Owens family passed by, but now she understood there were dark secrets that hadn’t been shared.
“I intended to.” Someday, of course, when it seemed necessary, when she was ready to break their hearts and divulge the Owens family history.
“When? At Gideon’s funeral?”
“That’s not fair.” Sally was shivering, though she wore one of Jet’s old sweaters, gray lambswool with pearl buttons, carefully stored in the bureau, wrapped in tissue with a note that read R holiday gift 1983.
“I need the book,” Kylie said.
“The book is where it always is. In the greenhouse, where it belongs.”
“You know what I mean. The Book of the Raven.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Sally truly didn’t understand.
“You don’t know anything about The Book of the Raven?” Kylie asked.
Sally piled up the bills in a messy tower, too concerned to finish her chore. “Let me close up and get my coat. We’ll have dinner, then I’ll go with you to the hospital in Boston.”
Kylie glared at her mother.
“Wait here,” Sally said.
Kylie remained where she was, unsure of what to do next. She wasn’t about to eat dinner or go to Boston with her mother. There was something here that she was meant to find.
“Oh, Jetty,” she moaned softly. “Tell me what to do.”
Kylie looked around, and when she did she finally noticed Miss Hardwick, who, due to the day of the week, was wearing a dowdy old-fashioned dress with a blue bodice, along with a bonnet made of straw and ribbon. The librarian played the part of Marmee from Little Women every Thursday at the children’s story hour and as usual she hadn’t bothered to change her clothes. People at the Black Rabbit enjoyed seeing her in her costume on Thursday evenings. “Where’s Jo?” they would call. “Amy’s been asking for you,” they would tease, which was all fine and good, for these jokers usually picked up the tab for her drink.
“I didn’t realize you were here,” Kylie said, embarrassed that Miss Hardwick had seen her outburst when she confronted her mother.
“I’m here all right, just as I was when Jet brought the book in.” Kylie looked at her openmouthed, so Miss Hardwick went on. “The one about the raven that you mentioned. Jet said it was too special to be listed in the catalogue, so she put it on the magic shelf. I’m the only one who knows where it is.”