Light as a Feather, Silent as the Grave

Chapter 13

Pedro says it’s getting late. It’s time to go home.  It was the same phrase that Violet’s spirits had used to terrify us back in January when Trey and I had no choice but to get ourselves locked into a library overnight in Michigan to avoid freezing to death outside. I stole once last glance at the boy on the bed who looked oblivious as to the significance of the phrase.  Sensing that if I didn’t leave the room with Trey-disguised-as-Laura right then and there, Esther was going to suspect that something was going on, I admitted to myself that I had no choice but to trust that the real Laura couldn’t have possibly known anything about that night in the library when the language lab tapes had switched themselves on at top volume.

As soon as we stepped into the hallway, the door to the bedroom closed behind us, locked, and when I looked over my shoulder at it, it ceased to exist. It had been covered over instantaneously with floral wallpaper. Since I’d been unconscious when I was brought into the room, I had no memory of the rest of the house that I must have passed through at some point. I followed Laura along a carpeted balcony overlooking a parlor and realized that I was on the second floor of the house, vaguely remembering the view of the parlor I’d gotten when we’d first stepped inside the previous night.

We descended the long staircase, and Laura (or Trey as Laura) nodded at the pair of shoes I’d left on the mat near the front door. “Shoes on, please. And don’t get any bright ideas about trying to make a run for it out the front door.”

She crossed her arms over her chest while I bent over to shove my feet into my sneakers and lace them up. In my peripheral vision, I saw movement in the kitchen and guessed that Esther was already up and about. I wondered if Trey actually felt like Laura, like if he could feel her soft bosom beneath his crossed arms, and how totally freaky that must have been if it were the case. Oddly, I noticed that the shoes Trey had been wearing when we arrived at Esther’s, which had been positioned alongside mine on the mat, were now missing.

“Come on. You should eat something before we head out.” Emotionlessly, Laura waved her hand for me to follow her into the kitchen. I hesitated, not seeing the point in facing Esther again and risking being caught if we were about to leave anyway. But it was too late to protest, Laura was already stepping into the kitchen.

“Well, I hope you had a nice rest,” Esther greeted me cheerfully. Once again, she was dressed in a cashmere sweater with a sophisticated designer silk scarf knotted at her neck. She looked more like she was going to spend her day sitting in the corner office of a corporate publicity firm than at a dingy occult book store on the North Side, and it occurred to me for the first time that she’d probably cast a glamour on herself and I was perceiving her appearance as she wanted me to rather than as she actually looked. A tea kettle was whistling on the stovetop, and the dog that had greeted us yesterday was nowhere to be found. “Please have a seat and eat something before you leave,” Esther said, nodding at the table in the dining area of the enormous room, on which bowls of oatmeal with fruit had been placed.

Standing next to one of the chairs at the table, I regarded the oatmeal with skepticism and strongly preferred to just leave the house instead. I didn’t trust Esther one bit, and for all I knew there was some kind of truth-telling spell on the oatmeal that would have gotten me to blurt out Father Fahey’s name and confess that Trey and Laura had swapped appearances. “I’m not hungry. I don’t feel well,” I lied. The truth was, I was famished and I had to concentrate to prevent my stomach from growling. I hadn’t eaten since we’d stopped for hamburgers on the drive to Esther’s from the airport the previous afternoon.

“Suit yourself,” Esther said with a nonchalant shrug. “Now, to reiterate your assignment, you and Laura will board a train this morning bound for California. Laura can book a return trip for you once you’ve convinced your gymnast friend to join you, since obviously traveling by air may be a little problematic, considering your situation. You will come immediately back here with your friend, and then you and your little boyfriend will be free to go on your merry ways wherever you’d like.”