“Did you have a good time?” Linus heard Zoe ask him.
“I think I did,” Sal replied. “Mr. Baker helped me. He told me I can be scared, but to remember there’s more to me than that.” He sighed. “People can be rude, and they can think dumb things about me, but I have all of you, and that’s what’s most important. Right, Mr. Baker?”
Linus thought it was far too late to shield his heart.
* * *
The children blinked slowly as they woke when Arthur switched off the van in front of the house. Lucy yawned and stretched, accidentally hitting Talia in the face with his elbow. She shoved his arm away. “Sorry,” he said.
“Perhaps we’ll have dinner a little earlier tonight,” Arthur announced. “I don’t think some of us will last much longer after. Let’s go inside, and take your things. Make sure they’re put away safely. Talia, you may go to the gazebo if that’s where you’d like to store your new tools.”
She shook her head as Zoe slid the van door open. “I’m going to keep them with me tonight. It’s a Gnomish thing. The tools must be in my bed the first night so they know they’ll belong to me.”
Arthur flashed a smile. “Funny, I’ve never heard that before.”
“Very ancient gnomish tradition. Very secretive. You’re lucky I’m even telling you about it.”
“Is that right? I’ll remember that from this point on.” And with that, he opened his door and exited the van.
It took Linus a moment to realize he was the only one left. He startled when his door was jerked open. He looked out to find Zoe watching him. “Coming?”
He nodded, gripping the folder in his hands. He noticed she glanced down at it, and her brow furrowed slightly.
He got out of the van.
She closed the door behind him. “You were awfully quiet on the ride home.”
“Long day,” he said.
“Is that all?”
He nodded. “Not as young as I used to be.”
“No,” she said slowly. “I don’t suppose you are. Coming inside?”
He smiled weakly. “I should check on Calliope. Make sure she’s fed and watered. Give me a bit of peace and quiet before dinner.”
“Of course. I’ll send one of the children to fetch you when it’s time to eat.” She reached out and squeezed his arm. “You did well today, Linus. I don’t know that we could have done this without you. Thank you.”
For the first time since he arrived on the island, he wondered if he was being used.
It hurt more than he expected.
He smiled. “I don’t know if that’s true.”
She watched him for a moment. Then, “Are you sure you’re all right?”
“Just tired,” he said. “All that sunlight. I’m used to only rain.”
She looked as if she were going to say something more, but Phee called out to her, telling her it was her night to help with dinner, and she had some ideas.
Zoe left him standing by the van.
He watched them disappear in the house.
Arthur was the last. He looked back over his shoulder. “See you soon?”
Linus could only nod.
* * *
He paced in front of the bed, glancing every now and then at the file he’d placed there.
“It’s nothing, right?” he asked Calliope, who watched him from her perch on the windowsill. “Absolute rubbish, most likely. Why wouldn’t they have given me this information before, if it were so necessary? And they accused me of losing objectivity. Me, of all people! I’ve never heard of such a ridiculous notion. The nerve of those people, sitting all high and mighty.”
Calliope meowed at him.
“I know!” he exclaimed. “It’s preposterous. And even if it wasn’t, I can still appreciate the qualities of the people here. It doesn’t have to mean anything. It doesn’t mean anything.”
Calliope’s tail twitched.
“Precisely! And obviously Arthur has secrets. Everyone does! I have secrets.” He stopped pacing and frowned. “Well, that’s probably not true. Just because I haven’t said something doesn’t make it a secret. But I could have one! And it would be the most secret!”
Calliope yawned.
“You’re right,” Linus decided. “Why does it matter at all? It’s probably nothing. A scare tactic. And even if it’s not, it won’t change anything. I don’t have any untoward feelings about anyone, and in a week, we’ll leave this place, and in time, we’ll think back fondly about our stay here, and nothing more. We certainly won’t regret not saying anything to anyone about feelings that don’t exist!”
Calliope put her head on her paws and closed her eyes.
She had a good idea. Maybe Linus should sleep on it. A nap, perhaps. Or even ignore it until tomorrow. He hadn’t lied when he’d said it’d been a long day. He was tired. Many things had happened, and while not all of them had been good, it certainly hadn’t been a disaster that ended up with Lucy causing someone to explode or Talia braining another person with her new spade.
“Yes,” he said to himself. “A shower and then a nap. I might not even wake up until tomorrow. I can certainly miss a meal, especially after having cherry ice cream.” He paused, considering. “Which I didn’t even like!”
That was a lie. It’d been delicious. It’d tasted like childhood.
He turned to walk toward the bathroom.
Instead, his feet led him to the edge of the bed.
He looked down at the file. The key sat next to it.
He told himself to leave it alone.
That if there was anything to know, he could just ask.
He remembered the flash in Arthur’s eyes.
The way his skin had felt so hot.
He remembered the way Arthur smiled, the way he laughed, the way he existed here on this island as if he had everything in the world he could ever want. It pulled at him, and he thought of how his world had been cold and wet and gray until he’d come here. It felt like he was seeing in color for the first time.
“Don’t you wish you were here?” he whispered.
Oh yes. He thought he might wish that more than anything.
He had to stop it. Because he didn’t think he could take it if it all turned out to be a lie.
He opened the file. It began just as the previous one had.
NAME: ARTHUR PARNASSUS
AGE: FORTY-FIVE YEARS OLD
HAIR: BLOND
EYE COLOR: DARK BROWN
This was the same as the first file. The rest had been an outline of Arthur Parnassus, giving a vague idea of who he was and how long he’d been master of the Marsyas Orphanage.
This file, however, continued as the others had.
MOTHER: UNKNOWN (BELIEVED DECEASED)
FATHER: UNKNOWN (BELIEVED DECEASED)
What had Helen said?
It was my first job. I was seventeen. It was a different parlor back then, but I expect I still know how to work a scoop. It’s how I know Arthur here. He would come in here when he was a child.
And then he read the next line, the one that said SPECIES OF MAGICAL BEING, and everything changed.
* * *
Dinner was, in a word, awkward.