Just as a demon discovered him, Aeolus found the Rondure and encased it in the wind, snapping it back to his realm. As quick as lightning, the leaders of the gods surrounded it. At first they tried to release the darkness and refill it with the Spirit Light, but it didn’t work. Next, though it saddened them to do it, because of the Spirit Lights that would be lost, they tried to destroy it. It was all in vain. Their only option was to seal and hide it.
There was only one paragraph on the last page and it gave me a shiver: “To seal such a thing, the size be right, it must hold thy truth and thy strength. Take not lightly this duty, for it is with only thy vessel we have chosen, that thy catacomb will reveal.”
Slowly I closed the book. It was amazing. Then amazing turned into exhaustion when I looked at the time. It was two in the morning!
~ * ~
The morning came quickly and I dragged myself to school without breakfast, though Mom tried to shove food in me. Despite that, the closer school got, the better I felt.
The first ones I saw were Angie and Norma. I smiled and waved, but neither saw me. They were so tied up in each other’s faces they weren’t noticing anybody. My legs moved faster and the closer I got, the louder they seemed.
“Hey!” I said, approaching them.
They both snapped their heads in my direction, then faced each other again without even a nod in acknowledgement.
“You keep your hands off!” Angie threw at Norma, poking her in the chest.
“He doesn’t want you! He finds you boring!” Norma spat.
Angie scoffed, looking Norma up and down. “Why would he want that?”
Norma shoved her. “Because he does! He called me to meet him yesterday! Not you!”
Angie’s face was red hot when she grabbed Norma’s hair. “So, I was with him last night!”
My heart did a double take.
What?
I grabbed both of their shirts just as Becky ran up from the other side. “Stop it!” I screamed.
They both looked at me with really mean glares.
“What do you want?” Angie blared.
“For you to stop fighting!” I snipped right back.
“It’s none of your business, Saydi!” Norma spat.
“What do you mean, it’s not my business? Why are you two fighting?”
Angie looked Norma up and down again. “This geek decided she was going to go out with Job yesterday afternoon after he dropped me off.”
I turned to Norma. “Is that true?”
“He called me, because he said he was sick of Little Miss Perfect here!”
“Eww!” Angie lunged for her.
I threw myself between them. “Stop it! What’s gotten into you two?”
Becky gaped at me. “What happened?”
Shaking my head, I waved my hand. “Come on, don’t let him ruin your friendship.”
Then like out of a movie, they both turned on me, crossing their arms. Angie looked me up and down with a vicious grin on her face, although I didn’t even think it was a grin. “You just want him for yourself,” she spat.
I gulped. “What? Are you kidding me? I’m with Nathanael!”
“Yeah! Sure you do! Why not have two for the price of one?” Norma dripped with spite.
My throat tightened. “Norma!”
My two friends stared me down, making me feel like something I wasn’t.
Turning to Becky, I saw she was scrutinizing me as well, and I found myself fumbling to explain something I didn’t do. “You guys, I really like only Nathanael.”
Angie tapped Norma’s shoulder. “You were right...” Then she turned to me. “You do want Job for yourself!”
“No, I don’t! You’re all being stupid.” I pushed passed them. “Coming Becky?” She didn’t budge. Tears threatened to burn my eyes as I trundled forward down the hall. They weren’t listening to me—my friends were ganging up, making me sick to my stomach.
Angie didn’t show up to Social Studies and for the whole morning whenever my friends caught a glimpse of me, they turned away. It wasn’t only that, but the whole school seemed glum. No one was smiling and other kids were arguing, too. It seemed like the whole school was wrapped in a yucky cloud.
Then I saw Todd, Jimmy and Danny. At least Todd was still my friend.
“Hey, guys," I greeted.
Todd smiled. “Hey, Saydi.”
“Hi, Saydi,” both Danny and Jimmy chimed together.
“What’s up?” Todd asked.
“All the girls are mad at me.”
He took my hand and squeezed it. “What about?”
“Apparently Norma met with Job yesterday and Angie caught wind of it. They were fighting, then they all turned on me.”
“Wow!” Danny said. “Sounds like quite the soap opera.”
Todd tsked. “Doesn’t it?”
I don’t know why, but I felt the need to bring up something that was a sure fire way to get my last best friend pissed at me. “Todd, what happened between you and Norma at the party?”
His expression turned sour. “Nothing, why? Is she saying something happened?”
I looked at him through the corner of my eyes. “No, but that reaction tells me something did happen. I know you, Todd Lethars, and you’re hiding something.”
He shoved around me. “Mind your own business! Go nag Nathanael.”
Why not have everyone mad at me?
~ * ~
The rest of the day, including lunch, was crappy. I ended up eating by myself, and by the time the last bell rang, there was no need to go to Sloppy’s... I wasn’t ready to beg for forgiveness yet for something I didn’t do.
On the way home, a car I didn’t recognize passed by a half block away. Mom was in the passenger seat, and my first reaction was to wave and run toward it, but the fact that Mom was dabbing her eyes with Kleenex made me stop. The car disappeared behind the houses.
Mom crying only added to my already growing list of anxieties—the day sucked, but I thought it was about to change. A cherry red Mercedes was parked on the lot behind the church. A smile immediately came to my face and I ran up the front stairs, excited to see him. Just as I swung open the inside double doors, Nathanael’s voice boomed against the walls of the church. “How could you do that? That money was to be used for a specific reason! Don’t expect much from me again!” He turned on his heel, took one step and stalled when he spotted me.
They both looked angry, especially Nathanael, with his hands curled up in fists. When I looked at Father Lacombe, his face cleared and he smiled. “Ah, Miss Gardiner. What can I do for you?”
I darted an eye at Nathanael, unsure if I should be there. “Nothing, I just came in to see Nathanael. I saw his car out back.”
Nathanael shook his head and stormed toward me. “Saydi, what are you doing here?” He turned back to Father Lacombe and snapped, “Thank you, Father.”
There was no reply.
Nathanael took my arm a little harshly and led me out the doors and down the steps. It was starting to give me a complex having everyone mad at me for no reason—everything was a great big giant puzzle and I had no pieces.
Pushing his hand off me, I talked through my teeth. “Sorry! I saw your car and thought it would be nice to see a face that wasn’t crabby, angry or pissed at me for no reason!”
I whirled around and started to stomp away, adding, “But I guess I was wrong!” Throwing my hands up in the air, I continued, “Yet again! Eww! What is wrong with everyone today?”
Footsteps came up from behind me. He spun me around. “Saydi, what are you babbling about?”
The tears that had been on the cusp all day finally started to fall, and words spilled out so fast he actually tilted his head and squinted his eyes in an attempt to catch it all.
“Angie and Norma were fighting, and I told them Job wasn’t worth their friendship. Then they all got mad at me and said I wanted him for myself.”
He nodded quickly, darting his eyes back and forth in an attempt to keep up.
“Then every time they saw me, they ran away. I asked Todd about what happened with Norma, then he got mad at me too and told me it was none of my business! Then I saw Mom in some strange car and she was crying. Why would they think I would want one of your stinky brothers?” Nathanael smiled at my description of his brother. “Everyone’s fighting, being mean or...” I took a deep breath, “Just plain ol’ mad. Even Father Lacombe is mad. Then you bark at me, making me feel even worse, just when I was happy to see someone who wasn’t mad at me. But you are, too!” I crossed my arms in completion of my venting.
Nathanael raised an eyebrow and ran his fingers through his hair. “Whoa! That’s quite the day.”
“Ya think? Good bye!” I briskly turned and jogged away...slowly, hoping he’d stop me. I smiled when he did.
“Wait a minute!” He chuckled, stepping in front of me. “You tell me the sky is falling, then run off—if you want to call that running.” He tweaked my nose.
“It was jogging.” I pouted and crossed my arms again to give effect.
Puckering his lips, a smile played. “Okay, I’ll let you have that one.” Then he looked at me sadly. “Saydi, I’m not mad at you. Father Lacombe and I had a disagreement, and as for everyone else today, I feel it too. It’s a bad air.”
He started to lean in, but stopped himself as his eyes glazed over. “I have to get back to work. We have a bit of a crisis on our hands. I’ll call you later, okay?”
Before I could answer, he turned and walked quickly away.
Talk about feeling empty. When I walked into the house, I had no friends, the guy I liked pretty much gagged when he went to kiss me, and Mom was crying. Not much more could go wrong, except what did.
“Hi Mom,” I greeted her. She didn’t reply, because she was on the phone.
“I know, Andrea, it’s just sickening. It’s like an epidemic... Yes, that’s true...Okay, we’ll talk to you later. Bye.”
Mom shook her head in despair. “Hi, honey.”
“What’s wrong?” I asked, noticing that she seemed off in space, somewhere else.
“Mom?”
“Oh, I’m sorry, honey. It’s just sad.”
“What is?”
She gave me a tight smile. “Three separations over the weekend.”
“Who?”
“Set the table, please. Carson and Mary, Jack and Louise, and Mike and Carmen. Apparently, all were quite physical and nasty.” She shook her head and muttered under her breath, “They were the happiest of all our friends.”
“That is strange,” I mumbled as I put the knives and forks beside the plates. “Why are we eating so early?”
“Hmm.”
The way she was acting was weird, like she wasn’t even there.
“Mom?”
“Huh?”
“Are you okay?”
She nodded, again muttering under her breath, “Two more murder/suicides.”
“Mom! What are you talking about?” She was scaring me.
“Oh, I’m sorry! It’s so hard to hear all the horrible news that happened over one weekend.”
“What? The break ups?”
“Yes that, but there were two more murder/suicides in the same neighborhood as Lilly and Ted.”
A shiver ran down my spine. “Really?”
“Mm-hm.” Mom put the casserole on the table and seemed to snap out of it. “Come on, dig in. Now, how was your day?”
Just like that, my mom acted as if she was half loony, then was fine. I shrugged without answering.
“That good, huh?”
“Yeah, everyone’s mad at me.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. It’s been a crazy day. It seems like everyone’s angry.”
She creased her forehead. “It’ll be better soon, honey.”
The food on my plate wasn’t appealing to me, and instead of eating, I picked at it.
Mom reached over and patted my hand. “I’m sorry, Saydi, for the other night. I had no right to act like that.”
Her eyes were moist and she was still struggling with it, I could tell. “Mom, what’s the big deal?”
She shrugged. “You know me. I got a bad vibe from that book and it took me off kilter.”
“All that for a bad vibe?” I asked, already knowing the answer.
“It seems funny, but you know I take those feelings seriously.”
“Well, if it makes you feel any better, I’ve finished the book. I’m going to take it back after we eat. But why did you freak out about the Braxtons?”
The look on her face told me she was trying to figure out an answer to my question. “It was just that they were connected to it. You know, it gives me bad vibes, so the owners do too.”
“You know, Mom, you’re weird.” I laughed. As much as I wanted to ask her about her drive, I didn’t, fearing it would upset her again. A later time would probably be best.
“This I already knew.” Her laugh was tight.
~ * ~
It was a good thing we ate early, because there was enough daylight left to get to Nathanael’s and, hopefully, he’d drive me home. I bundled up and put the book in a bag, just in case, and clutched it to my chest. By the way the wind was whistling through the windows at home, I thought it was going to be especially harsh. But it wasn’t so bad. It was tolerable.