THE NOSE AND HIS PERFUME

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven: An Unexpected Turn of Events

The following day, Mrs. V stayed home from work. She watched them like a hawk all morning, becoming teary when she thought no one was looking, dabbing at her eyes with the crumpled-up tissue she always kept up her sleeve. She refused to let them talk about the Nose and seemed abnormally distracted, making them spaghetti for lunch but forgetting the noodles. They dipped bread in the still delicious sauce without pointing it out to her. It was hours before Mrs. V was finally distracted by a phone call, and Bunny, Beau and Penny were able to slip away to Bunny’s room to talk. They crawled into Bunny’s tent, which blocked the sound of their voices somewhat, but mostly just felt more confidential inside.

“I can’t believe the Nose is actually extracting kids’ happiness,” Beau said.

“The Varshavskys and Basil will fix it. Everything’s going to be fine,” Bunny attempted to reassure Penny, who had an even more miserable look on her face.

“Usually when people say everything is going to be fine, it isn’t,” Penny said.

“Show Bunny what you found,” Beau said. “Everything’s been so crazy, I almost forgot—Penny found something when we snuck into the Nose’s workshop last night. I meant to show it to Basil. It’s a picture.”

Penny retrieved a photograph from the pocket of the hoodie she had been wearing the night before and handed it to Bunny. In the photo, the twins’ parents, the Varshavskys, Basil (in his fishbowl), two identical toddlers, and a baby were grouped together in front of a large brick archway. Bunny flipped the photograph over. Their names and the date it was taken were written on the back of it.

“Sparks, Varshavskys, Basil, Bunny, Beau, and Penny,” Bunny read aloud off of the back of the photo. “This was taken ten years ago. Why would the Nose have a picture of us?”

“Because he’s crazy?” Penny said.

“Someone probably gave it to him,” Beau said.

“Who cares where he got it from, Penny’s right, he’s deranged. I mean, who keeps family photos of strangers? It’s weird.”

Beau abruptly crawled out of the tent. Bunny and Penny followed him, as he went into his room and switched on his computer. As his computer warmed up, Beau started pulling books off of his shelf.

 “You know what else is weird?” Beau said. “XEssence doesn’t seem to have any effect on the Nose. Have you noticed that? Like when it snowed at the press conference. The Nose was the only one there who the smell of the perfume had no effect on.”

“What are you doing?” Bunny asked.

“I don’t know exactly what I’m looking for,” Beau said. “I want to know why XEssence has no effect on the Nose.”

Bunny stared harder at the photo, trying to recognize where it had been taken. Though she was sure she had never seen the room in the photo, there was something familiar about it.

“Do you recognize anything about this?” Bunny asked Penny.

Penny looked over Bunny’s shoulder.

“What does that say?” Penny asked, pointing to the photo. “It says something there above them.”

Beau abandoned what he was doing and took the photo from Bunny, putting it under the microscope on his desk. “It says, ‘Audentes fortuna iuvat.’ It said that above the door in the abandoned subway station.”

“It said it above the shipping tunnel too,” Penny said.

“You’re right.”

“What does it mean?”