Jamb: (15 page)

“
I think she was shocked, but I don’t think she’s trying to shut you out,”  Garrett says.  I see the alarm in his eyes, like he is trying to snuff the burning end of Sean’s worry before it snakes back to the source and explodes in full-blown anger.  Garrett’s told me how Sean had once felt alienated because he was the oldest and the only brother who ended up being Simple.  This Addoship meant that Sean had finally found a way to fit into the Ianua for real and when his mother closed the door on him and his new wife, I think it put Sean right back where he was before.  “She’s just trying to be safe and get things back on track.”

“Safe.  Because she can’t trust me,” Teagan says.  “I’m Simple.  What does she think I could do to her?”

It’s not an attack, but a sincere question.  And it’s one with an answer that will still sound like an attack, no matter how it is explained.  I look across the table at Garrett.  He pushes away his oatmeal and although his face doesn’t show what’s happening in his head, his eyes give him away to me.  He’s struggling to give Teagan an answer too.

“She’s just freaked out,” I say and Teagan’s eyes dart to me.

“Because of me?  Because I married Sean or because we have a baby?”

“No, no,” I say softly.  “I don’t think it’s anything to do with you at all
.  She just lost her husband and one of her boys is missing and one of them came back a mess.  It’s a lot to handle.  And you know how bad things are…your dad is a Procella…everyone’s being careful.”

“
The Curas are falling apart, and this is why,” Teagan says just as softly.  She pats the baby as she speaks.  “We need to trust one another. I’m her family now.  If anyone needs to bond together, it’s family.”

“
Exactly,” Sean says and I’m a little surprised.  Sean’s the Fort Knox of common sense and what’s he saying makes it sound like his bank’s been cleaned right out.  The truth is, Teagan’s been
family
for less than 24 hours.  I don’t think Mrs. Reese has even had time to process the shock that her oldest is now married and that she’s a grandma, let alone throw open the doors on the Ianua’s vault of secrets.

Garrett
says it first, in his thick, gentle voice that rubs your back as it says what you don’t want to hear.  “I don’t think it’s got anything to do with whether or not you’re family, Teagan.  I think it has to do with you being Simple.”

“I’m Simple,” Sean shrugs and for the first time in history, I see
a flash of anger dart across his face.  He struggles to keep it from spreading.  “I’m Simple and I’m training to be your Addo.”

“You are,” Garrett nods, trying to contain his
own flash.  “But your wife isn’t and you know the Simple are usually kept out of most of the community business.  You know it’s not an insult.  It’s just to minimize risks to everyone.”

“There aren’t any rules for Simple Addos with Simple wives, because it’s never happened before,” Sean counters.  “So there needs to be new rules.  Teagan is my wife and she’s right. 
Our community needs to bond with us, not treat us like outcasts.”

“She’s been your wife for a day.”

“And I’ve known her for years.”

“It was a long distance relationship.  On the computer.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Yeah, what does that mean?” Teagan
says, her eyelashes pressed closed.  Garrett ignores her.

“Come on, Sean.  You know I
’m not trying to kick dirt on you.  All I’m saying is that a long distance relationship isn’t the same as…”

“As what you and Nalena have?  The perfect world of m
atching tea leaves and black eyes?”  Unlike Garrett, Sean’s body doesn’t relax when he’s getting worked up. Instead, Sean sits on the edge of his chair, muscles tense and the little zip line of rope hisses between he and Teagan as he folds his hands tightly in front of him.  “You’re right, Garrett, I’m not Ianua.  I’ve actually got to figure out who my perfect match is all on my own. And what’s really disgusting is that I
have
figured it out, but since there aren’t any tea leaves to prove it, it can’t be real to any of
you
.”

“
No one’s saying that.”

“No, what
everyone is saying is that I can be trusted to be the next Addo, but I can’t be trusted to choose a decent wife.”  Sean’s eyes swing to Teagan.  “And you are more than decent.  You are absolutely amazing.”

“No one’s saying she’s not,” Garrett insists.  “Just give it a second to sink in.”

Teagan smiles stiffly at Sean as the baby stirs and whimpers.  She glances down as she kisses the top of Grace’s head, and then her lashes slide up and she’s watching Garrett, her lips still on the soft spot of the baby’s skull.

“I
really don’t want to start a family fight,” Teagan says.  “But just so you guys know, I
am
amazing, and I’d appreciate the chance to prove it.”

CHAPTER NINE

Only six days pass and hotel life starts to feel like I’m living inside a tight sweater.

Brandon is pretty much healed, but
he’s different.  He stays in his mom’s suite unless she kicks him out, and then he walks the perimeter of the courtyard like he’s prowling for a missing limb.  There’s been no sign of Mark.

Zaneen decided to come and stay in my suite because it was a drag staying with her dad.  It’s
okay, having her stay with me, but it’s still a little awkward.  We don’t have a lot to talk about, so we usually end up talking about what happened with Addo Chad.  Sometimes Milo.  We stay away from talking about Garrett completely.

Iris comes to play whenever Mrs. Reese isn’t guarding or sleeping and Garrett stays late and shows up early
, so he can get away from Milo.  I like it because this way, Garrett’s only gone while I’m sleeping.  Deeta is like a sheep herder, tracking Milo whenever he shows his face in the courtyard and trying to get him off in her room, alone, “to write
”
.

Uh huh.

Milo spends a lot of time hiding from Deeta.

I’ve been on guard for the Addo twice, but guarding the Addo is more like
hanging out at the neighborhood Kool Aid house.  Instead of going through the courtyard door that the Addo used for the Totus, we get to him by using the conjoined doors that allow movement from suite to suite without ever entering the courtyard.  We go from my suite, through Sean and Teagan’s, pass through Mrs. Reese’s and into Freddie’s room.  Although we pass through everyone’s hallways, locking the doors behind us as we go, it’s still creepy and feels like we’re criminals, scuttling through.  We mainly try to stay hidden just because we don’t want to get stuck talking to Sean and Teagan.  They’re still grumpy and Grace is still adorable.

Once we make it to Freddie’s, it’s just hallways to the Addo’s door. 
Garrett and I sit with the Addo when it’s our turn to be on watch.  It’s not like we get to be alone, together.  Addo wants to hear gossip and eat cookies.

And
, Sean’s hope that my Tralate abilities would tell us something doesn’t work either.  We keep a dictionary open on the coffee table in Freddie’s living room and a smaller one in the Addo’s apartment.  No one attacks and the words stay on the page.

Mrs. Reese doesn’t look any better, maybe even a little worse, with rings of darkness that never fade anymore from beneath her eyes.  We only see Freddie when he reports to Mrs. Reese.  There’s been no word
about Nok or Trig or Van, but the Curas have finally begun to settle a tiny bit.  I’ve talked to a few Contego in the gym, but it’s only
hellos
or
Was that your floor cooking whatever I smelled in the courtyard this morning? 
There’s a lot of talk about food, but at least the Curas are starting to talk.  Only once or twice has there been the polite inquiry of
how is your floor doing?
And it is always met with the same, stiff answer:
fine.
I stick with the food questions, myself.

Sean and Teagan and the baby stay
in their suite.  We hardly see them, but tomorrow is their wedding ceremony and tonight we are having a pre-party for them in my suite, even though they said they couldn’t make it because the baby is fussy.  But we all know the baby is never fussy.  I’ve stopped trying to remember Grace’s other name and I’ve started to see what everyone meant about Teagan keeping Sean to herself.

I put a plate of veggies on the table.

“We needed a party,” Zane sighs, dunking a pita chip into a bowl of hummus. “Too bad Sean and Teagan are missing it.”

“Did you invite the outer Curas?”
Milo asks.  Deeta is hanging close to his elbow and Zaneen seems to rotate, each time Milo moves closer to her, to the farthest point in the room from him.

“None of them woul
d come,” Garrett says.  We tried this afternoon to invite them.  It was the weirdest thing, going up to the different floors.  Most of the Contego bristled at us just stepping off the elevator, even though all the Procella seemed fine with it.  We asked the Procella’s permission to invite their Curas first, but it didn’t matter.  We got a couple reluctant
maybe
s, but none of them were
yes definitely
s and it was pretty obvious, by the time we got back to our floor, that no one was going to show up but our regular gang.

“Teagan did say she was going to invite some of her Cura personally,” Garrett says.

“So that should be miserable,” Robin adds.  “At least it’s not those two other Moxes.  Anka and what was her name?  Valencia?”

“Val-en-tina,” Zaneen pronounces the name slowly, rolling it around her mouth
like sour candy.

“
She’s my uncle’s brother-in-law’s cousin,” Carducci says.  “She’s always been the best at everything.  At least, she thinks so.”

“By the way, where’s Sasu tonight?
” Zane asks.  “I can’t remember the last time I saw one of you without the other one.  I got to say, though, it is a little less gruesome for me this way.”

“You’re such a jack monkey,” Carducci says, with a little laugh.  Then he levels out and looks out the sliding door into the courtyard, as if looking will bring Sasu quicker.  “She’s supposed to be here.  She was going up to visit with her sister-in-law’s family
and then she was coming straight here.”

“Her s
ister-in-law’s family?” Robin asks.  “Why would she want to visit them?  That’s not even real family.”

“
Everyone’s family to Sas,” Carducci complains.  “She’s been visiting every night.  I hardly get to see her, but you know how she is.  She knows everybody and she wants to keep in touch with all of them.”

Deeta breaks a chip off in the dip and frowns. 
“Why don’t you go with her?”

“I did—
the first week.  Up to the sixth Cura’s floor, to visit one of her old friends.  That was awkward.  Everyone was nice, but you know.  They all watched me like I was there spying. I’m sure things have changed now that we’ve had the Totus, but still.  It’s just creepy.”

“We have to start trusting each other,” Deeta sing-songs, fishing out her chip.

“Sasu’s up there trying to be the good will ambassador,” Carducci sing-songs back, although it’s a sour tune, and Robin grunts her disapproval.

A little later two more Alo show up—Harmon, a guy who I remember from my science class.  He spent most of his time in class with his face down, writing in his notebook.  Maybe he was recording Memories, but the way he keeps track of Deeta, I suspect he was busy writing “Mr. De
eta Houle” with hearts around his fantasy name.  He glues himself to the couch and picks at his thumbnail whenever he’s not looking at her.

The other
Alo is a little younger than us.  Bruce.  After grabbing a handful of carob trail mix, he fastens himself onto the cushion beside Harmon.  I get the feeling that they know each other, but don’t really hit it off.  Once Bruce’s trail mix is gone, he looks miserable.  I suspect his parents made him come.

“Why aren’t there more
people our age?” I whisper to Garrett when we are both in the kitchen, getting drinks.

“There are,” he says.  “
They’re just not all in the hotel.  Only the Procella and their inner circle people can bring their families into the hotel.”

That’s right.  It’s only the highest ranking in the Ianua that get a room in the hotel.  It seems like
who gets a room would be determined by the usual survival-of-the-fittest rules, but looking at Bruce and Harmon slumped on the couch, it’s obvious that’s not the whole deal.  It’s a mix of loyalty and dedication that lands positions at the top, but what landed Bruce and Harmon on my couch is simply that they were born into those families.

Even so, I’m starting to be able to identify the certain look of the Alo
, and these two are a great example of it.  They are both a little hunchy, from spending hours recording memories, bent over stacks of paper.  They both squint when they need to see across the room and when they make eye contact, real eye contact—where they have to actually talking directly to me or just look right at me—it sends a shiver through me like they are reading the highlighted words I’ve written on my own soul.  Words that will be my own Memory one day.
I hope it will be a hundred years before I have to choose which of my Memories an Alo will record, but sometimes when Bruce and Harmon and Deeta look at me, it’s like they already know.

My eyes settle on Milo and his eyes flash right to me, as if they were just waiting for me to catch up.  For an instant, there is something there, something that sinks into me like a familiar fish hook, but then it is gone. 
It’s not like how the Alo look at me.  Milo’s gaze doesn’t make me feel like he can read the highlighted words.  It makes me feel like he can read
all
the words, probably because my father taught half of them to him.

Deeta catches Milo looking at me
, and me looking away, and when she finally corners my gaze, I think I can actually read some of her highlights too.  Her vibe says:
please, please stay away from him. 
It spills all around her like exhaust fumes and I just want to wrap my arms around her and reassure her until it’s embarrassing that she sooo does not need to worry about anything like that from me.  While I can understand that Milo is clearly the best catch in the Alo line-up tonight, with all his muscles and proud posture and surfer-boy looks, Deeta doesn’t have to worry one iota that I might ever pull a Zaneen.  Milo’s not only Alo—he’s also completely not Garrett.

I take glasses of
water with lime juice ice cubes, tea, and water with cucumber slices floating in them, into the living room.  Milo takes the water with cucumber slices.

“Who thought this would be good, huh?” he says as he sips it.
I feel Deeta’s stare boring into the back of my head.  But Milo keeps talking instead of just letting me get away.  “You ever miss having a Coke?”

“Not really,” I say.

He laughs, looking into his glass.  “I do.”

Standing beside him, I get that feeling again, like I’m being pulled in.  It’s got to be that he’s Alo and I’m wired to protect him, but why would it be kicking in now?  Instinctively, my eyes quickly comb the room for a threat and I see
only two.  One is Deeta, his stalker who is currently trying to resurrect the shaky ends of her smile, and Garrett, who is leaning on the wide doorframe to the kitchen and drilling Milo with a stare over the top of a glass of lime water.  Milo will have to go those two on his own.  I pull away just as Sasu drags open the sliding glass door.  She is panting as she jumps inside. 

“Alo,
out
!” she commands.  Everyone who wasn’t looking at her, looks up at her then and she growls, with a swing of her finger toward the courtyard, “Out now!”

Carducci is
immediately by her side, his hands on her forearms and his broad shoulders curving down over her like a hulking umbrella.  She rises up on tiptoe and whispers in his ear.  The concern flashes across his face and then he turns back to the two Alo on the couch, as well as Deeta and Milo.

“
Okay, there’s a big back up on Memories,” he says, his voice all lilty and overly-calm.  Sasu is rubbing her arms like a ghost just walked across her grave. “The Alo have been asked to take care of it.”

“A bigger back up than there has been?”  Milo asks.  He gets a collective scowl from Garrett, Zane, and Robin that he ignores.

“No, not bigger,” Carducci says, running a hand over his face.  “But the Addo’s asking for the Alo to get on the pile up and take care of it.  Party’s over for tonight.”

“We have been trying to take care of it,” Deeta says.

“Well, I guess he wants you to try harder.  Time to go.”

Ha
rmon gets off the couch first.

“You know, you guys aren’
t the bosses of us,” he says as he slinks toward the door.  Bruce springs up behind him.

“This party stunk anyway,”
he says.  Deeta hovers by the door, half in and half out, waiting for Milo to cross the room.  He takes his time, leaving his glass in the sink.  She leans back in and whispers to Carducci, “Hey, what’s really going on?”

But
Carducci just rolls his eyes.  “Goodnight, Deeta.”

“Fine,” she says, as Milo finally steps out into the courtyard with her.  Carducci gives them a wave
, locking the door behind them and snapping the blinds shut.

“So?” Robin says
from the kitchen counter.  “Where’s the fire, Sas?”

“
Here.  Tomorrow.  Sean and Teagan’s wedding.  We’re about to be ambushed,” she says.