Dvorak: An Interactive Adventure

Chapter 9

Carissa felt her blood run cold, especially when she saw the small apple drawn at the lower right hand corner of the page. How had the lady gotten this to her? Probably the same way she had changed the train on her yesterday: magic, or something like it.

“That has got to be the most detailed and yet the most creepy drawing I have ever seen in my entire life.” And before she knew what was happening, someone from behind Carissa took the sheet of paper from her and looked at it. Carissa whipped around and was surprised and glad to find Mac there.

“Dios mio,” she muttered. “If it had been anybody else...”

“Where did you find this?” Mac asked as he sat it down on the table and sat across from Carissa and Isabel, where there was plenty of space for him.

Carissa blushed. “Under my seat, in science class.”

“Under your seat?” Mac put the piece of paper down and pulled out a sandwich from seemingly nowhere. “Why was it there, of all places?”

“Don’t know. But it’s clearly for me, and you, as you can see by the message.” Carissa was surprised that she was so excited to have Mac here. Now, at least, she could try to sort out this entire mess with someone who knew and believed the entire story --

“Do you believe this crazy stuff my spirit sister is making up, or are you just saying you do to get in good with her?” That came straight from Isabel’s mouth as she grinned.

Carissa rolled her eyes. “Isabel, don’t do this.”

“¿Hace qué?”

“And don’t speak in Spanish when you know Mac probably can’t understand you. Heck, I can’t understand you when you go on sometimes.” Carissa turned to Mac. “Do I have that right? I didn’t want to assume.”

“It’s okay. I took French, so you assumed right. I know more Russian than Spanish, from living near Brighton Beach, but I’m not conversational in either. Do you both live in the same neighborhood?”

Isabel nodded. “I’m Dominican. This Boricua and I have been spirit sisters long before we were even born. Our grandmothers met in the market in the Heights years and years ago, shortly after my grandparents got off the boat.”

Mac looked at Carissa. “Your grandparents came here from Puerto Rico?”

Carissa nodded. “It was some time before a lot of people started coming from that area, from what they used to tell me. They died a few years ago, and I still live in their apartment from all the way back then.”

Mac seemed in shock; he pulled himself together the best he could and unwrapped his sandwich, which was clearly from the deli on the corner. “So you’ve been telling your friend all about our adventures?” he asked, completely changing the subject. “Your...what did you call her...”

“Spirit sister. Isabel, this is Mac Taggart, better known as that kid you noticed in class one day. Mac, this is Isabel Louisa Maria Gonzalez.”

Isabel grinned. “I remember. The geek.”

Carissa ate a bite of her chicken sandwich before she said anything that she would later regret. Mac nodded. “I’ll admit, I’m a bit of a geek. But that doesn’t mean I’m stereotypical.”

“Prove it,” Isabel said as she stole a fry from Carissa’s tray.

Mac smiled and stole a fry as well. “I’m sitting here, aren’t I?”

Carissa gave Mac and Isabel a cross look. “Seriously, guys. Those are mine.”

“Whatever.” Isabel stole one more fry. “So, you two are serious about this changing reality thing or what not?”

“Precisely,” Mac said. “We were the only ones who were witness to something. Several things, at this point.”

“And you remember when we talked to Peter,” Carissa noted to Isabel. “Which, by the way, Peter remembers nothing about the roof or my house. Your detention notice is also invalid, by the way. So don’t go. There’s no record of it in the book.”

“Oh. That’s weird.”

“Yeah. When I asked them about it, they couldn’t find it, but since I still had a slip they made me go. It wasn’t so bad, though, because Isabel was there too.”

Isabel smiled. “So wait, this means that things you thought were real actually aren’t.”

Mac gave Carissa a strange look. “It’s actually the opposite, where we know it’s real but everyone else --”

“So that means it’s possible that there are things in my own life that aren’t real, either. Like me sneezing in the teacher’s face the other day. Or when I tried to tumble dry my high heels at the laundromat. Or when I accidentally measured wrong in chemistry class --”

“All of those things were real,” Carissa said. “This all started when I went to Saint Arbucks on Monday morning and that guy -- the one who died -- gave me my duffel back. Before then, reality is fine. After, though...I’ll admit it’s kind of gotten to be a mess.”

“A very interesting mess,” Mac noted.

Carissa sighed. “I wish I had a chai.”

“Oh! Want to go to Saint Arbucks to get one after school?” Isabel asked.

Carissa peered at Isabel. “After what that note said? And how the creepy lady is always there? I’ll pass.”

“Maybe,” Mac said, a smile now on his face. “But I do know of at least one other place you can get chai, even if it’s out of the way.”

Carissa smiled as she remembered. “That’s true. Hey, Isabel, you mind taking the 2 train down to Borough Hall after school today?”