you? I need to sleep, and it’s not logical to try to sleep with the light on.”
Eve knew she had been dismissed. Without ever getting any help or advice about the defaced book cover. She reached over and turned off the light, then she dropped the book on the floor and lay down in her bed. The moon cast silver stripes across the hardwood floor. They lay amid the clutter like an animal skin placed there to warm the feet on a cold winter night.
Eve lay on her side, staring at the moon-stripes. Andie was mad at her. And for what? For being “logical.” Andie had made that seem almost as bad as being a serial killer.
How could you live in the world without being logical?
Eve reached down to pull the bedspread up around her shoulders. If I believed in all that stuff in parapsychology class, she thought resentfully, I’d be terrified all the time. I don’t want people using their minds to read mine, or to send objects flying across the room or set buildings on fire or cast spells. I don’t want anyone in this world to have supernatural powers, not while I’m living in it. That is just too scary.
Of course none of it was true. None of it.
Then why was she so terrified? Why was her body trembling under the bedspread even though the temperature was a mild, balmy seventy degrees? Why were her fists clenched so tightly around the edge of the pillow? Why did her heart keep skipping a beat, and why did her feet feel like they were lying in a pool of ice water?
Because only the Eve she had become dismissed all of parapsychology as utter nonsense. Nell’s perfectly logical daughter would never give a second thought to the idea of the moon having any kind of supernatural power. But the other Eve, the one who had created images in the clouds overhead as she lay under the grape arbor as a child, the one who had made up stories about every person who passed by on the street, the one who, when she read a book or saw a movie with an unhappy ending, had easily changed the ending in her own mind to a more satisfying one, that Eve was the person trembling in her bed in Lester dorm. That Eve still believed that all things, even weird ones, were possible.
No wonder my mother set out to change me, Eve thought in disgust. This Eve is a helpless, cowering wuss. No one would be able to stand her. I can’t stand her! She certainly would never be elected to anything. She could sit for hours and daydream and draw and write stories and no one would care. No one would expect anything of her because they’d know she wasn’t efficient or organized or responsible or … logical enough to deliver.
Her final thought before her eyes closed was: But if I were that other Eve, maybe no one would be smashing mirrors in my face and taunting me in the dark and leaving ugly messages under my pillow.
She fell asleep with her head tilted on the pillow, her face upturned toward the window and the silvery rays of the moon.
Chapter 14
E VERYONE’S ASLEEP NOW. I’m out here all alone, just me, so I can talk to you in private. I love being out here alone at night, with nothing but your bright light leading the way. It’s so peaceful, so quiet, so private. I’d stay out here all night, but someone might catch me here and start asking questions.
Wasn’t the book cover a stroke of genius? I hope Eve understood my message. It’s hard, with narrow, closed minds like hers. Sometimes you just have to hammer them over the head to slip anything inside. Maybe my clever artwork was too subtle for her.
She can try to pass it off as a joke. But she can’t fool me. The power sees right through her. I know she’s really scared.
She’ll tell the others. She’ll show them the cover. She’ll laugh and try to make fun of it, but I’ll know what she’s really feeling. And they’re not as skeptical as she is. They’ll see the warning for what it is. That will take care of any remaining doubt she might have about whether it’s a serious message or not.
Eve knew she had been dismissed. Without ever getting any help or advice about the defaced book cover. She reached over and turned off the light, then she dropped the book on the floor and lay down in her bed. The moon cast silver stripes across the hardwood floor. They lay amid the clutter like an animal skin placed there to warm the feet on a cold winter night.
Eve lay on her side, staring at the moon-stripes. Andie was mad at her. And for what? For being “logical.” Andie had made that seem almost as bad as being a serial killer.
How could you live in the world without being logical?
Eve reached down to pull the bedspread up around her shoulders. If I believed in all that stuff in parapsychology class, she thought resentfully, I’d be terrified all the time. I don’t want people using their minds to read mine, or to send objects flying across the room or set buildings on fire or cast spells. I don’t want anyone in this world to have supernatural powers, not while I’m living in it. That is just too scary.
Of course none of it was true. None of it.
Then why was she so terrified? Why was her body trembling under the bedspread even though the temperature was a mild, balmy seventy degrees? Why were her fists clenched so tightly around the edge of the pillow? Why did her heart keep skipping a beat, and why did her feet feel like they were lying in a pool of ice water?
Because only the Eve she had become dismissed all of parapsychology as utter nonsense. Nell’s perfectly logical daughter would never give a second thought to the idea of the moon having any kind of supernatural power. But the other Eve, the one who had created images in the clouds overhead as she lay under the grape arbor as a child, the one who had made up stories about every person who passed by on the street, the one who, when she read a book or saw a movie with an unhappy ending, had easily changed the ending in her own mind to a more satisfying one, that Eve was the person trembling in her bed in Lester dorm. That Eve still believed that all things, even weird ones, were possible.
No wonder my mother set out to change me, Eve thought in disgust. This Eve is a helpless, cowering wuss. No one would be able to stand her. I can’t stand her! She certainly would never be elected to anything. She could sit for hours and daydream and draw and write stories and no one would care. No one would expect anything of her because they’d know she wasn’t efficient or organized or responsible or … logical enough to deliver.
Her final thought before her eyes closed was: But if I were that other Eve, maybe no one would be smashing mirrors in my face and taunting me in the dark and leaving ugly messages under my pillow.
She fell asleep with her head tilted on the pillow, her face upturned toward the window and the silvery rays of the moon.
Chapter 14
E VERYONE’S ASLEEP NOW. I’m out here all alone, just me, so I can talk to you in private. I love being out here alone at night, with nothing but your bright light leading the way. It’s so peaceful, so quiet, so private. I’d stay out here all night, but someone might catch me here and start asking questions.
Wasn’t the book cover a stroke of genius? I hope Eve understood my message. It’s hard, with narrow, closed minds like hers. Sometimes you just have to hammer them over the head to slip anything inside. Maybe my clever artwork was too subtle for her.
She can try to pass it off as a joke. But she can’t fool me. The power sees right through her. I know she’s really scared.
She’ll tell the others. She’ll show them the cover. She’ll laugh and try to make fun of it, but I’ll know what she’s really feeling. And they’re not as skeptical as she is. They’ll see the warning for what it is. That will take care of any remaining doubt she might have about whether it’s a serious message or not.
Similar Books
