𝐕𝐨𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐁𝐞𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐲.

When is my son coming home?

"Come in!" she insisted. "I have your lunch ready!"

She ushered them inside. The living room was even weirder than the front lawn. Mirrors and candles filled every available space. Above the mantel, a little bronze Hermes flew around the second hand of a ticking clock.

Lilia noticed the framed picture on the mantel, and she froze-Luke around nine years old, with blonde hair and a big smile and two missing teeth. The lack of a scar on his face made him look like a different person— carefree and happy.

"This way, my dear!" Ms. Castellan steered me toward the back of the house. "Oh, I told them you would come back. I knew it!"

She sat them down at the kitchen table. Stacked on the counter were hundreds—actually hundreds of Tupperware boxes with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches inside. The ones on the bottom were green and fuzzy, like they'd been there for a long time.

On top of the oven was a stack of cookie sheets. Each one had a dozen burned cookies on it. In the sink was a mountain of empty plastic Kool-Aid pitchers. A beanbag Medusa sat by the faucet like she was guarding the mess.

Ms. Castellan started humming as she got out peanut butter and jelly and started making a new sandwich. Something was burning in the oven. Lilia got the feeling more cookies were on the way.

Above the sink, taped all around the window, were dozens of little pictures cut from magazines and newspaper ads pictures of Hermes from the FTD Flowers logo and Quickie Cleaners, pictures of the caduceus from medical ads.

Lilia's heart sank. She wanted to get out of that room, but Ms. Castellan kept smiling at themas she made the sandwich, like she was making sure they didn't bolt.

Nico coughed. "Urm, Ms. Castellan?"

"Mm?"

"We need to ask you about your son."

"Oh, yes! They told me he would never come back. But I knew better." She patted Percy's cheek affectionately, giving him peanut butter racing stripes.

"When did you last see him?" Nico asked.

Her eyes lost focus.

"He was so young when he left," she said wistfully. "Third grade. That's too young to run away! He said he'd be back for lunch. And I waited. He likes peanut butter sandwiches and cookies and Kool-Aid. He'll be back for lunch very soon..."

Lilia stared sadly at the woman.

Then she looked at Percy and smiled. "Why, Luke, there you are! You look so handsome. You have your father's eyes."

She turned toward the pictures of Hermes above the sink. "Now, there's a good man. Yes, indeed. He comes to visit me, you know."

The clock kept ticking in the other room. Lilia looked at the two boys pleadingly, trying to ask, 'now do you see why we shouldn't have come?'

"Ma'am," Nico said. "What, uh ... what happened to your eyes?"

Her gaze seemed fractured — like she was trying to focus on him through a kaleidoscope. "Why, Luke, you know the story. It was right before you were born, wasn't it? I'd always been special, able to see through the .... whatever-they-call-it."

"The Mist?" Percy said.

"Yes, dear." She nodded encouragingly. "And they offered me an important job. That's how special I was!"

The two boys glanced at Lilia in confusion.

"What sort of job?" Percy asked. "What happened?"

Ms. Castellan frowned. Her knife hovered over the sandwich bread. "Dear me, it didn't work out, did it? Your father warned me not to try. He said it was too dangerous. But I had to. It was my destiny! And now ... I still can't get the images out of my head. They make everything seem so fuzzy. Would you like some cookies?"