The next day, Sierra, Dominic, Jack, and I had nothing better to do with our weekend than to let Dr. Reed know that we weren't happy with the way she made us talk to a weirdo and essentially abandoned us there, as Dominic put it.
"It sure is lucky that this is the only bottle that didn't break," Sierra said with it in her hands. It was the same one she showed me and said she wanted back at Butterfly's shop, and she and I both knew that wasn't just luck.
If her hands were occupied with the bottle of the unknown liquid, then she couldn't take my stuff, so I wasn't going to say anything if she continued to carry it everywhere like a kid and their favorite stuffed animal. It fixed one of my problems for me.
I would be spending my weekends in Sherwood for the foreseeable future, and the thought was enough to bring an empty feeling in my chest. That was my only time to decompress from the academic week, and it was gone.
I smiled. I couldn't even take myself seriously about the stress. I didn't care enough to stress, no matter what Dominic had said to me the afternoon before.
After we arrived at Dr. Reed's house, which wasn't far from campus, I knocked on the door twice, and after a moment, Dr. Reed answered in a robe and pajama pants.
"An email? You abandoned us with an email?" Sierra said.
Dr. Reed crossed her arms. "Abandoned you? What the hell are you talking about?"
It was almost noon, and she was obviously feeling the consequences of her choices from the day before. Her hair stuck out in every direction, and she had a sallow look about her without any makeup.
"You know exactly what we're talking about," Dominic said.
"What the hell do you want from me? An apology? My nephew passed away yesterday morning." Dr. Reed looked over her shoulder back into the house. "Can you believe the shit I have to put up with, Stephanie?"
My mouth fell open. It was a good thing I didn't tell her that I was originally mad about her not coming to Sherwood like she said she would.
"Oh my god," Sierra said. "I'm—I'm so sorry."
"Poor kid was thirteen years old. Didn't do shit to deserve that," Dr. Reed said. "This damn world is a mess that it's him that ends up with cancer and not someone like me."
What was I supposed to say to her?
"I'm so sorry. It really isn't fair at all," Jack said.
I nodded. That sounded pretty good. Jack was always better with kind words and sympathy than I was.
"Now leave me and my sister alone. She just lost her son." Dr. Reed shut the door on us, and I couldn't blame her.
"Wow, guys. Now we look like assholes," Dominic said.
I nodded. "Well, you guys do. I didn't say anything."
"That also makes you look like an asshole, Lindsay."
I took in a breath and didn't bother responding to Dominic.
Sierra sighed and looked at the ground. "How were we supposed to know her nephew had cancer? It's completely like her to never show up without a reason, and so we assumed that's what happened."
"We should buy her a casserole or something. You shouldn't have to worry about food when you lose someone like that. It's already hard enough," Jack said.
I nodded. "It's the least we could do, really."
Was there anything I thought that the talisman could have taken the wrong way and made this happen? Was it somehow my fault?
As I went over the passing thoughts and comments I could remember, none of which seemed bad enough to kill a kid with cancer, we picked up a casserole and a cake with the least fun and festive frosting we could find. On the way back, there still wasn't much to say to each other, until Dominic finally spoke up.
"I can't believe I forgot to mention this before, but what the hell was up with that second talisman thing yesterday?" Dominic asked.
"Sierra and I found it," I said. Did I do something on that day?
"And you didn't feel like sharing that information with the rest of the group?" he asked.
"Nope, not really."
"Wow." He shook his head. "That's bullshit."
"What does it matter to you? It's gone now, and there's nothing you or I can do about it."
"There's no way in hell you just dug up something that looks almost exactly like the talisman as a coincidence. That can't be possible."
"I know that, but what was I supposed to do? Give my proven talisman away?"
"It's not proven. All it does is ruin everything."
And for some reason, I kept that one instead of the one that seemed to be an anti-tracking device. What was I thinking? "I really don't want to talk about this right now. I'm already mad enough that I have to get up at five-thirty on the weekends now in order to make it to Sherwood by eight."
"And whose fault is that?"
"Yours. I was trying to keep you away from my crazy mom." I shook my head and looked up to Jack in the driver's seat. "Are you mad about this too, Jack?"
Jack didn't look away from the road. "Not mad. Just disappointed."
"See? You don't need your real mom when you have Jack," Sierra said.
I forced out a laugh. It wasn't that funny, but it was better than no response at all.
We pulled back into Dr. Reed's driveway with the food, but the car that was there before, probably her sister's, was gone. I looked at the casserole. It would be a lot for just Dr. Reed, but at least she wouldn't have to worry for a while.
As soon as we knocked on the door again, Dr. Reed's voice rang out from inside. "Go away. I know that's you four."
"We brought you some food. We're not entirely sure what we're supposed to do in this situation, but Jack figured we should try to help somehow," I said.
A moment passed, and she opened up the door.
"Thank you for your kindness. Now leave me alone." She took the casserole from Jack and went to shut the door again, but Dominic spoke up before she could.
"Sierra, give her the cake too."
Sierra hesitated for a moment before handing it to Dr. Reed without saying anything.
Dr. Reed let out a long breath. "I really don't need this. Why don't you come in and eat it for me?"
Sierra smiled. "You mean that?"
"Obviously you want it. Come on. Get in here before I change my mind." Dr. Reed waved us into her home, and Sierra followed her in.
A kid was dead, and she was concerned about the cake. And somehow I was the mean one.
Before I took a seat anywhere, I headed over to the Kaya family from Turkey or Iran or wherever they were from. The little stone figures somehow seemed more human than most people I knew, and even though I wanted to pick one up and take it with me, I kept my hands to myself.
"You know, Brandon always liked those too," Dr. Reed said. "My nephew, that is. He liked everything I brought home. He said he wanted to be like me when he grew up."
I looked up at her. "Anthropology is awesome. There's always something new to learn about."
She nodded. "I don't know what the hell I should do now with my life. I spent most of it doing my work in Titris Hoyuk and whatever other excavations I could get involved with without having to help write the papers. The only reason I took up teaching here was to help Stephanie out with Brandon."
That made sense. She never seemed into her job as a professor (at all), and I never did understand why she bothered with it in the first place.
Maybe I had Dr. Reed all wrong just like I did with Dominic. In my head, she was a negative, lazy person who happened to know some answers and have access to resources I needed, but it seemed that she was willing to be unhappy to make her nephew happy, and he was gone.
I usually was smart enough to figure out who people were quickly. And either she and Dominic were both masters of manipulating who they seemed to be in others' eyes, or I wasn't nearly as good at reading people as I thought.
Sierra looked up from the cake on the table. "Do you want to talk about it? We'll listen."
I raised an eyebrow. Did Sierra get us into Dr. Reed's house by playing dumb on purpose?
Dominic was always telling me that she was smarter than people gave her credit for, and that was a damn chess move if she meant to do that.
"What's there to talk about? He was the closest thing I'll ever get to a kid of my own," she said. "He was so fascinated by everything I snuck out of a site. Smart kid."
She really didn't need a child of her own, though. That poor kid would have no chance in life.
"You stole artifacts for him?" Sierra asked.
"Kind of. He loved them and appreciated them just as much as I do. Hell, there's a whole room upstairs with his favorites," Dr. Reed said.
A whole room?
"So where were you before you came to Tillamook to be with your sister and nephew?" Sierra asked.
She really did get Dr. Reed to talk on purpose. Incredible.
"Just about everywhere between the Tigris and Euphrates. Whether I was the head bitch in charge or dusting someone else's grids millimeter by millimeter, I was always there. Nobody goes into anthropology just to teach. Everybody wants to have the next groundbreaking discovery, and I had to leave that to help my sister make ends meet after her bastard of a husband left," she continued.
That was definitely a lot more complicated than any sort of explanation I ever made for her.
Sierra didn't ask another question, and maybe she was waiting for one of the rest of us to, but we didn't. The past few days had been a little bit of an information overload.
***
After we all left Dr. Reed with a casserole and what Sierra hadn't eaten of the cake, I headed to the pond to be by myself in the fall air.
Out of all of my thoughts and passing comments, none of them seemed like they could be taken out of context by the talisman like all the other ones did, but I also broke half of a store just by shouting, so I very well could have been losing control with every passing second.
Without my silver new coin thing, it was only a matter of time before a certain someone found me, and as leaves crunched under someone's footsteps, I realized my time was over.
I looked up. Why did I give that anti-Dominic charm up?
"I'm sure you're surprised that it's me," he said when he got close enough for a conversation.
"Absolutely shocked," I said and turned back to the pond. He stood beside me.
"What are you doing out here?"
The water in the pond was still enough to see a clear reflection of the moon. I pulled my jacket closed.
"You don't think I could have had something to do with that whole thing with Dr. Reed's nephew, do you?" I asked.
"Lindsay, there's no way in hell any of your thoughts would kill a kid. Life is just unfair like that."
"It seemed to bother Jack a lot. He usually would find something to criticize about me not having much to say to Dr. Reed," I said.
I knew he didn't like to talk that much about anything besides rocks, the band, and me, so maybe there was something there. Or not. It wasn't like I was a genius at figuring shit out. I would have already learned everything about the talisman by now if that were the case.
"Hm. I didn't notice," Dominic said.
Maybe my people-reading skills were semi-intact then. Excellent.
Although there wasn't much to read into with Dominic besides his relationship with the talisman, he seemed a little less hostile since he told me about his hearing situation. As far as I knew, he still hated me, and I was fine with that.
"So where did you find that second talisman?" Dominic changed the subject.
"Somewhere in the woods." I pointed to the area across the pond. "Sierra and I found it buried over there somewhere. It's really not far from the original talisman."
He nodded. "And why did you give it up to Butterfly? God, I can't believe I'm calling her that."
"What was I supposed to do? If my parents won't pay for my school, I'm not gonna let them get me out of trouble with the talisman. My future's mine now. They've given up, and they've given up on the talisman too, even though they don't know about it."
"You never told them about it?"
I shook my head. "And I'm glad I didn't. Makes it that much sweeter."
Neither one of us spoke for a moment, and I took a glance over at Dominic. He looked away, even though I knew he was partly relying on reading my lips to figure out what I was saying, even if we were standing right next to each other.
If it were anyone else, I would have pretended I didn't notice and let it go. But not Dominic.
"You don't have to look away like that," I said.
He turned back to me and shook his head. "You don't have to call me out like that."
"I wasn't—"
"You were," he said. "I was just thinking about how we need to get that other talisman-like object back. I don't trust anyone who calls herself Butterfly, especially in Sherwood."
"Well, what else did you want me to do?"
He shook his head. "Not a damn thing. You didn't do anything wrong with that except not telling me."
"Then why are you bringing it up?"
"Because I'm gonna head back there tomorrow and get it with all my negative energy. You're more than welcome to come if you want."
"Don't you have Monday classes?" I asked.
He nodded.
"So you're skipping them to go to Sherwood?"
He nodded again.
I smiled. "It's a fun way to live, isn't it?"
"You have no idea how much I hate myself for it."
Even if he didn't ask me to come, I would've invited myself. Sure, I hated Sherwood and everyone in it, but I hated giving up that talisman even more.
And who would have thought Dominic had it in him to skip?
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Hello, and thank you so much for reading!
For today's question, I feel like asking a fun one. Do you prefer drinking coffee, tea, or cocoa?
I feel like mine is fairly obvious. I am 100% a coffee girl. Am I slightly addicted? Yes. Am I proud of that? Absolutely yes.