The Night Strangers - Chris Bohjalian [118]
“I know. Sometimes I just can’t get warm in my room,” Garnet said.
“One more reason why you should accept the fact that, from now on, you’re Cali.”
“My room will suddenly warm up like yours?”
Her sister shrugged. “Everything is easier. Everything is better.”
Garnet tried to imagine a plant name she might like, but she could only come up with the names of ordinary vegetables and fruits and trees. And the women didn’t seem to use them very often. “There will still be that hole in the wall,” Garnet murmured. “The one that goes to the attic. There will still be that draft.”
“The door fits tight. There is no hole. There is no draft.”
She knew Hallie was right. But, still, her room always seemed chillier than her sister’s. “It scares me.”
“The little door? I think it’s cool. You know I’m jealous. Someday I think we should switch rooms.”
“Maybe,” Garnet said, but she knew in her heart that they never would. She understood that there was a certain amount of bluster to Hallie’s confidence. Her sister was frightened by the door, too. “When will you tell people at school?” she asked after a moment.
“You mean about my new name?”
“Uh-huh.”
“I don’t know. Anise says to wait until September. We just come back after the summer and tell everyone we want to be called by our new names. And we’ll have had some sort of cool naming ceremony in the summer—outdoors, when it’s warm.”
“Assuming Mom doesn’t mind.”
“Obviously.”
“And we’re still living here.”
“Which we will be.”
Garnet sighed unhappily. “Do they scare you?” she asked after a moment.
“The plant ladies? No. I can see why they might scare you—because you’re still being stubborn. But once you get over that stubbornness, you’ll see. They only want us to be happy.”
“I think there’s more to it than that.”
“Like what?”
“They need us.”
“They need us?” Hallie repeated, her tone incredulous and condescending.
The idea was vague and not wholly comprehensible to Garnet; she was still formulating the notion in her mind. Volume II. The Complete Book of Divination and Mediation with Animals and Humans. She had found nothing about it on the Internet. “Yes. I think they need us more than we need them.”
“Well, we need them a lot,” Hallie said. “I told you, they’re all we have.”
“Maybe. But do you see them spending time with any other kids? Wanting to give any other kids new names? I don’t.”
Hallie curled her knees up to her chest under the quilt and wrapped her arms around them. “So?”
“Why is that? Is it because we’re new and everyone else knows to stay away? Or is it because we’re twins? And, really, why do they want to rename us? You and me. Why do they want to teach us to make all those potions and teas and things?”
Outside, the rain continued to thwap against the window, and occasionally the glass rattled in its frame. Hallie seemed to consider this. “Mom said she might take a new name, too.”
“I know. It begins with a V.”
“You scared?”
“Sometimes. I wish we had houses nearby.”
“Like in West Chester.”
“Uh-huh.”
“You want to sleep in here tonight?” Hallie asked. And while this wasn’t why Garnet had come to her sister’s bedroom, she knew now that she did. And so she nodded and curled up under the sheets, and soon both girls were sound asleep.
Your plane is, finally, a triple-seven heavy. A Boeing 777. You know the flight deck, even if you have never flown one before. And you know this is a dream because you are alone as you do the preflight checklists from the captain’s seat and because this peculiar airport is in the middle of a harbor. Literally. All of the planes are floating on the water, a row of skyscrapers rising up from the ground along the edge of the surf in the distance. But the belly of the plane is also hooked on to a conveyor belt, and the belt runs on a track just beneath the surface of the water. It is like a train track. No, a roller-coaster track. Because a quarter mile to your right a camelback rises from the salt water, the track summiting higher than any roller coaster you have ever seen in your life—higher than any roller coaster ever built anywhere.