Napier's Bones by Derryl Murphy Page B

start
crying again, but she got a hold of herself and carried on. “The numbers spoke
to me, too, but I didn’t wander off and desert my father just because I could
see funny things floating through the air.”
    Dom
frowned. “Jenna, I’m not your mother.” She felt herself flinch at this, but he
pressed on before she could argue the point. “I can’t speak for her, but I
imagine that the lure of these numbers is more extreme for some of us than it
is for others.”
    “My mom, she was
pretty distant for a long time before she disappeared. I suppose when she did
go it didn’t come as much of a surprise, probably less to me even than to my
dad.” She bit her lower lip, thinking about those last days and remembering how
she blamed herself, but she blinked rapidly for a few seconds and carried on.
“I guess whatever numbers were speaking to her had her attention early on and
just needed some time to convince her to leave us behind.”
    Dom took another
bite of pizza, followed it with more beer. “Well, that’s exactly it, and I
can’t stress it enough; the numbers, they call me. Whether I’m awake or asleep,
it doesn’t matter. Hell, once I even paid someone to put me into one of those
sensory deprivation tanks. The numbers were fluttering around like moths, bumping
against the ceiling of the tank, aggravating the crap outta me.”
    “I see them all
the time, too.”
    He shook his
head. “No you don’t, Jenna, I can pretty much guarantee that. I’ve watched you,
awake, even asleep when we’ve been in the car. The numbers do just the opposite
with you. They’re willing to be manipulated by you, but first they try to stay
away from you. It’s the damndest thing I’ve ever seen, but we’ve been so busy I
really haven’t had time to think much about it.”
    “What do you
mean, stay away from me?” But even as she asked this she thought she knew the
answer.
    “I’ve seen
numbers come close to you, but unless you are planning on using them or if it’s
something like the search numbers that were sent after us, then they leave you
alone.” This was Billy talking. “It’s almost like there is a bubble around you,
and none of them want or are able to pass through it.”
    Dom nodded.
“Remember when I stuck you with the wire?” He pointed at the makeshift bracelet
on her wrist. “The numbers didn’t do what they were supposed to. Normally they
would’ve crawled right in, but instead we had to convince them to do so,
instead of them just melting off your skin.”
    Jenna stared
back at him, worried that he was trying to tell her that he couldn’t teach her
what she needed to know. Dom frowned at her, then turned and with a gesture of
his finger brought some numbers from the noisy family’s credit card down from
the ceiling. They coasted down, dropping momentarily near the floor before
rising again, behaving like a flock of ducks thinking about landing on the
water and searching for the best spot. They flew right at Jenna’s head, then
broke off in two directions while still several inches from her, some heading
back up to the ceiling, others fluttering around Dom’s head, some even slipping
in through his skin, just folding up and squeezing their way through the pores,
more random numbers to join in his blood.
    “I’ve . . . I’ve
never noticed that before.” She was watching the numbers that were back up by
the ceiling, eyes open wide.
    Not saying
anything, Dom pulled some more numbers from the air, but these ones he set in
place so that they hung in front of her. “Take them in,” he said.
    “What?”
    “Take them in.
Bring these numbers into your body.”
    Jenna was
confused. “How do I do that?”
    “I dunno.” Dom
shook his head. “Remember, everyone has a different style. Maybe you have to
grab them, maybe you have to lean over and swallow them. You have to experiment
a little, see what way is best for you.”
    “Why do I need
to learn how to bring numbers into my body?”
    “Every