Bending Light

15~Some Answers

"You'll have to pardon Miss Bloom," Miss P. said as we reached the sitting room. "She has a certain flair for the dramatic."

"So I've noticed," Jake answered as (Y/N) nodded her head in agreement.

  "And, Mr. Nullings, I would like to inform you that polite persons do not eavesdrop on the conversations of others!" This made (Y/N) struggle to hold in a snicker.

  "I only came to inquire if you should like to have some tea," Millard explained. (Y/N) rolled her eyes and could not refrain from giggling. Suck up, she thought.

  "We should not, thank you," Miss Peregrine answered. The door shut and (Y/N) heard Millard's receding footfalls announcing his departure.

   "I would ask you to sit," Miss P. told Jake. "But you appear to be encrusted with filth." So he knelt on the floor looking around confusedly at everything, especially (Y/N). He opened his mouth to speak-probably to ask (Y/N) why she was there—but Miss P. had already begun to speak.

   "You say you've been on the island for several days now," she said, causing (Y/N)'s mouth to drop open. Several days!? she wondered in surprise. "Why have you dawdled so long before paying us a visit?" Miss P. continued.

   "I didn't know you were here," he said, then glanced at (Y/N). "Or you."

   "Well, I didn't see you on the island," (Y/N) replied. "And I've been here for longer than a week, though most of it I've spent here, I suppose. And anyhow, my parents haven't been here since the second day. Do you happen to know anything about that?"

   "Yes," he answered. "They were at Grandpa Portman's funeral. They came back with me and my father"

   (Y/N)'s eyes widened. "He's dead?" So the dream was true, after all. She had pushed it away during her time studying and had almost convinced herself it wasn't real. Almost. Jake nodded.

  Her surprise quickly turned to anger. "You mean to say that they knew all along, even attended his funeral, without telling me a thing? And what, they expected to get away with it?" The chandelier flickered above them.

  "Miss (Y/L/N), please calm down. You can converse with your parents about their decisions later. Right now, we have some questions that need answering," she turned to Jake. Oh, I have a few questions to ask them, (Y/N) thought.

  "Now, what on earth were you searching for in that depressing old wreck of a house?" Miss P. continued. What house?  (Y/N) wondered.

"You," Jake replied, causing Miss Peregrine's eyes to widen. So you search in a wrecked house? (Y/N) mentally laughed. "I didn't know where to find you. I only figured out yesterday that you were all-" he paused. "I didn't realize you were all dead."

  And it all clicked for (Y/N). She had never questioned why Miss P. would ever need to create a loop in the first place. Whatever had caused her to must have been tragic. Jake must have searched the remains of the house for someone, or what used to be a someone, to give him answers. That would be how Emma found him. He seemed to be slightly less clueless than (Y/N) about these peculiars to have known where to look for them, but he certainly didn't know what a loop was.

   "Mr. Portman, do I look dead to you?" Miss Peregrine asked in a deadpan while (Y/N) held back a giggle.

   "W-well, no, but you c-can't have survived after a...a bomb." Jake stuttered, looking baffled. "Everyone I t-talked to s-said there was only one survivor—my grandfather!"

   "My goodness, hasn't your grandfather told you anything  about his old friends?" she and (Y/N) laughed.

   "Some things. But for a long time I thought they were fairytales." The memories all came flooding back to (Y/N). Of course, how could she have forgotten? The children's home! Millard the invisible boy, who could tell you exactly what you had done that day, even when you thought nobody was there. Hugh, who had bees living in his stomach, and Claire, with her backmouth. Fairytales come to life.

   "Except they weren't fairytales," (Y/N) realized. She turned to Miss Peregrine. "And you, you're the Headmistress, the bird who smoked a pipe!"

   "Yes," she smiled. "I am The Bird." That earned an even wider-eyed look from Jake. "An ymbryne. I can assume the shape of a bird, more specifically a Peregrine Falcon. Additionally, I can create time loops," she said, her eyes twinkling. Jake seemed to recognize the word loop, just not the concept.

   "Well, I'm not surprised you thought of us that way. It is how we prefer to be thought of—it keeps people from seeking us out," she continued. "What I want to know is when you realized Abraham was telling you the truth."

   "I guess I'm just realizing it now," he answered, staring at the carpet.

   "Oh my, I see," her demeanor sank a little and she became silent.

   "I think he wanted to explain everything, but he waited too long. He sent me here to find you instead," Jake said, producing a piece of crumpled paper from his jacket and handed it to Miss P. "This is yours. It's what brought me here."

  She smoothed it out and read it, her lips moving as she went. (Y/N) was good enough at lip reading to figure out that it was one of the letters that had brought hers and Jake's family to think that Abe was cheating.

  Miss Peregrine mumbled wistfully about how stubborn Grandpa Portman was and how they had always awaited news from him once he left the loop, how stubborn he was. "How did he die?" she asked, suddenly fearful. Jake told some story about him getting eaten by wild animals during a drought and she relaxed. (Y/N) didn't think it sounded very believable, and Jake didn't really seem to, either. But if it made Miss P. feel better...

   "We still mustn't let the children know, it would upset them greatly," she stated and both Jake and (Y/N) agreed.

   "Well," she said. "I believe that you have been adequately interrogated. You must have questions of your own," she told Jake.

  "Only about a thousand," he answered.

  After she checked for ample time, Miss P. agreed that there was time before supper, but then cocked her head and opened the door to find Emma crying on the other side. She had heard everything.