7: Purloin

A few days later...

“Can we go on a walk today?”

Ayva looked up at me from the table, where I’d once again made her eggs. So far, she hadn’t shown any of the oddities that I noticed yesterday. Just like the previous morning, she was simply a cute, little girl. I wondered if yesterday had been an anomaly, or a pattern I should expect.

“Why?” I asked.

“I wanna meet somebody.”

I glanced around making sure my aunt wasn’t in the kitchen. “Who are you gonna meet?”  I whispered.

She looked at me curiously. “Meet somebody? Why would I meet somebody?”

“You just said you were?”

She shook her head as she stuffed another forkful of eggs into her mouth.

“Yeah you did!” I said.

Ayva shrugged, the same one-shouldered thing. “Sometimes I think you hear things.”

“I was gonna say the same about you.”

She frowned at me, her adorable, brown eyes taking on a sad appearance. “Are you mad at me?”

“No, no. Of course not,” I answered hurriedly.

She smiled.

“Want anymore eggs?”

After that, our conversation turned to eggs. I was glad the course of it had changed. Some of the things she said gave me a frozen, uncomfortable feeling in my stomach, like worms made of ice crawling around.

Despite my attempts to dissuade her, she still wanted to go on a walk that afternoon when we had cleaned up lunch. I looked to my aunt, hoping she would say we couldn’t.

The coincidence was too much to overlook. First, Damian said he wanted to meet her and then the very next day she asked to go on a walk to “meet somebody.” I wasn’t sure what it meant, or even where she wanted to go. Something seemed off, though.

“I think that’d be a great idea!” said my aunt with joy. I felt anything but happy.

“Um…” I racked my brain. “But wouldn’t you rather me stay here and clean with you?”

“No, no. You two go on. I need to clean some, but I can do it by myself.”

“Are you sure?”

She smiled and ushered us out of the house. A short walk later, we were standing on the sidewalk of the main road. Around and in front of us was the busy town. People bustled in and out of doors, cars zoomed past on the street, and Ayva leaned closer to me.

“I don’t like all the people,” she whispered. Her tone was somewhere between lovable and blood-curdling.

“Why not?” I asked, bending down to hear her better.

She put her mouth next to my ear so I could feel her breath. “Too much noise.” Ayva shivered. “I don’t like it.”

“Isn’t it loud at your house? I thought you had brothers and sisters?”

She looked up at me. “Do I?”

“I mean… I don’t know. I thought you did.”

“I don’t remember.” Ayva took my hand and led me over to a bench. “Can we sit here? I like it better. Not moving.”

“Um, sure.” We sat down. She wrapped both her arms around one of mine like a small koala. “What did you mean you don’t remember?” I asked.

“It means I forget.” She giggled. “Don’t you know that?”

“Yeah, I know what it means. I just don’t understand. How do you not know if you have siblings? Like, at all?”

“Do you remember if you have any?” she asked, not looking up from the ground.

“Yeah. I don’t have any.”

“But how do you know? Your mom might have more kids now. And your dad could, too. So you could have siblings. You don’t really know, do you?”

“That’s a very smart thing to think of,” I said. “You sure you’re only six?”

“I’m seven, thank you very much.” She snapped her fingers through the air and burst out laughing. I couldn’t help but join in.

“That’s totally different, though?” I said, pushing the topic further. “You still live with your mom and dad. So you should know.”

“It’s very different,” she said.

“I know. So then, you agree?”

She sighed. “So it’s the exact same.”

“How?”

“Just is.”

I leaned my head back but with a grin on my face. “You wear me out, little miss.”

“Does that make you big miss?” she asked seriously.

I shook my head, feeling thrilled that we were having a normal, non-creepy conversation. And a fun one. “No. I’m big sir.”

“Okay, big sir. I’m little miss. Remember?”

I nodded, my smile as wide as it could go. “Yes, I remember. I just said that.”

“No you didn’t.”

I looked at her anxiously.

“Just kidding!” she burst out. Between fits of laughter she said, “You really should be less gullible.”

“You really should be less cute.” I thought for a minute. “That’s a big word that you used.”

“What is?”

“Gullible.”

She made a humming noise like a bee. “I didn’t say that. I said sad.”

“I should be less sad?”

“Mmhm.”

“I’m not sad,” I said.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure.”

She looked at me suspiciously. “I don’t think you’re sure.”

“Don’t argue with her,” I heard a voice say from behind me.

I knew the voice and cursed in my head. “So you decided to come out into the sun? Doesn’t it hurt your skin or something?” I turned around.

Damian narrowed his eyes. In the daylight, his skin was even more pale and his eyes seemed thinner. His eyebrows were nearly nonexistent and I could tell how wispy his hair was. Instead of Michael Jackson, he looked like a vampire without a haircut.

“What do you mean by that?” he asked.

“Nevermind.”

Ayva turned to see who I was talking to. Instead of being afraid when she saw Damian, as I had expected, she appeared relaxed and more at ease.

“Oh, hi,” she said.

I turned to stare at her. “Do you know him?”

“I don’t know Damian.”

They both smiled in sync. I glanced at them warily.

“So this is Ayva.” he said. It wasn’t a question.

“What’s your name?” she asked him.

“Wait. You just said it?” I interrupted.

“No, I didn’t.”

“Yes, you did!”

Damian looked at me curiously. “I think you’re hearing things.”

“I think you should-”

He snapped his fingers and interrupted me. “Don’t say bad things in front of the little miss.” He shook his head teasingly. "Wouldn’t want to corrupt her pure mind, now would you?”

“Get away,” I growled.

“I want him to stay!” said Ayva.

I looked at her. “Why?”

“Because I like Damian.”

“How do you know his name?” I asked again.

“Don’t sweat the small stuff, man,” said Damian, gesturing around at the sky. “Isn’t the world beautiful today?”

“It’d be more beautiful if I couldn’t see you. So leave.”

Ayva smiled and held out her arms to Damian. He came over and picked her up. She sat on his hip. She was so big and he looked so weak it didn’t make any sense to me. Nothing did.

“I think the world’s very beautiful,” she said, grinning at Damian.

I felt a pang of jealousy. Every time I met him, I liked him less and hated him more.

“I think we need to get going,” I said to Ayva.

She gave me her best pouty face. “Why?”

“Tracy wants me to pick up some things from the grocery store,” I lied.

“How do you know?” asked Damian.

“She… texted me.”

“I’ll come with,” said Damian as he put Ayva down. She began to walk along the sidewalk, expecting us to come along.

“If you follow us, I’ll break your nose.”

With that final warning given, I followed her, half hoping he would try to come too. His nose looked very fragile.

<><><><><>

It was later that day, and I was playing games on my phone as Ayva sat on my bed, holding a stuffed animal in each hand. I had found them in my closet a few days ago, buried memories of my childhood. She enjoyed them more than I ever had: the old, haggard bear that was missing patches of fur and the gray dog missing one eye.

“Did you sleep with Mr. Cuddles like I told you to last night?” she asked me, crossing her arms sternly. “He told me that he really misses cuddling with you.”

“I didn’t sleep with either of them. I haven’t for years.”

“Do you like Mr. Cuddles or Woofsie better?”

“Um, the bear I guess.”

She looked at me curiously. “Mr. Cuddles? Then why didn’t you sleep with him?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. There’s… not enough room on my bed. I think. And the bear probably has fleas.”

“He doesn’t have fleas! He would tell me. And you’re bed’s eighty miles big. It’s definitely enough for him.”

“Why are they both boys?” I asked.

“Because they’re both not girls.”

“Makes sense.” I smiled.

“What time is it?” she asked, holding the dog’s paws and making him dance around my bed.

“You leave in twenty minutes.”

“Aww. Already?” She frowned. “I don’t wanna go. It’s fun here.”

“You’ll be back tomorrow.”

“But I won’t always come back.”

I answered hesitantly. “Well... yeah, of course not. You’ll go to school or something or summer camp and you won’t come here anymore.”

“I won’t come here next month,” she said darkly.

“Why not?”

She shrugged and smiled again. “Don’t know.”

“No, what did you mean? Why won’t you come here? Where will you go?”

“I’ll go nowhere to somewhere.”

“That doesn’t make sense.”

I saw the dog fly across my room and slam into the wall. When I looked up, she was leaning back against my pillow.

“Did you just throw that?”

“Throw what?”

I sighed in frustration. “The dog.”

“Nope.”

“Then how’d it fly across the room?”

She winked at me. “Because we threw it.”

“Who?” I glanced around the room. “Me? I didn’t throw it.”

“My other friends. The ones that never leave. We did.”

At that moment, my phone rang with a number I couldn’t identify.

“Who’s that?” asked Ayva as I put it to my ear.

I put a finger over my lips to quiet her. “Hello?” I said into the phone. “This is Caleb.”

“It’s Xavier’s mom,” answered back the familiar voice. “We had waffles yesterday, remember?”

“Yeah, I know. Why are you calling me?”

Ayva asked, “Who is it?” again, this time in a whisper voice. I ignored her.

“I’m calling because I need to talk to you,” Xavier’s mom said. “Is there somewhere we can meet? Somewhere quiet, but not too quiet?”

“Um…” I racked my brain for a few minutes. “There’s a coffee shop. I can give you directions if you want to meet. I go there a lot.”

“How busy is it?”

“Today? Probably not very.”

She didn’t answer right away. I figured she was thinking. “That seems fine. Meet me there in twenty minutes?”

“Half an hour.”

“Deal.” With that, she hung up the phone.

“Who was that?” asked Ayva again.

“Just a person.”

“With a name?”

“Do most people have names?” I asked.

She shrugged. “I suppose. My friends-”

“Are they people?” I interrupted.

“They have names.” She winked.

<><><><><>

When I walked into the coffee shop, I didn’t immediately see Xavier’s mom. There was a much busier atmosphere inside than I had anticipated. A large group of senior citizens took up half of the shop, and the available staff were occupied refilling their waters or trying to sell them more coffee. It was noisier, hotter, and more uncomfortable than I’d ever seen it, especially around dinner.

“Caleb.”

I spun to my left and saw her sitting in the booth. There was a coffee cup in front of her, but it looked empty. I wondered how long she had been waiting there. I was only late by a few minutes.

“Hey,” I said, sliding into the seat across from her.

She grunted.

“So… you wanted to tell me something?”

“Yes. Have you seen Abigail lately?”

“That’s a question.”

She gave me a stern look. “I know.”

“Well, no. I guess I haven’t seen her. She’s still with her grandparents or something like that. I was gonna see if she was back after I leave here.”

“Don’t.”

“Why not?” I asked.

“You don’t think it’s odd at all that both Xavier and Abigail are gone?”

I shrugged. “Lots of people go places over Summer Break.”

“True. But have you heard from either of them? Has she been texting you?”

I shook my head.

“I didn’t think so. And I know that you’re curious. How could you not be?”

“I met this kid who told me to ask about their past. That’s what started my curiosity. And they both have this memory loss thing, but for different reasons. I’ve just accepted it. But he-”

Her eyes widened. “What was that kid’s name?”

“Damian.”

Xavier’s mom held her breath for a minute and then began to shudder. In a low whisper, she asked, “What’d you say?”

“His name is Damian.” I glanced around to see if anyone noticed her strange behavior. “Why’s that matter?”

“D- Damian. I know him.”

“You do?” I folded my arms on the table. Leaning forward, I whispered, “How?”

She shook her head violently. “No. No, no no. Just stay away from him. I’ll explain everything.”

“Go ahead then.”

“You might not know it, but all three of them are connected. Xavier, Damian, Abigail. They’re all connected.”

“But they don’t know each other?” I said.

“Exactly.”