my face was
partially coming from my eyes.
Chapter Sixteen
At lunch, Becky waved me over to her
table. She’d saved a seat and I was relieved. The cheerleading thing was cool,
but I wasn’t ready to actually socialize with any of them. I needed Becky and
her weirdness to calm me down. I knew it was okay to just be myself with her
because even if I had a slip with my attitude, she’d cut me short. The first
half of the day hadn’t been easy because it felt like I was bumping into Alex
and Kailey around every corner.
“What are you reading?” I stuck my
head over Becky’s shoulder, looking at her iPhone screen. I stuffed half of a
Snickers bar in my mouth. I couldn’t get those overseas, at least not the
places my mom and I travelled to. When I was in the states, I couldn’t eat
enough. I gained a few pounds every summer just from the Snickers.
“TIME’s mobile app. Science news.”
She shrugged. “I think it’s interesting.” Becky scrolled through the headlines.
A flash of red caught my eye. I
grabbed Becky’s hand. “Stop!”
“What?”
I grabbed the phone out of her hand.
“What are you doing? I don’t care if
you want to look at something, but at least ask me first! Jeesh, Tabs!”
I didn’t respond. I couldn’t. Words
could not describe what I was seeing. A red-haired woman, only caught in
profile on the edge of the picture, shattered the truth into a million pieces.
Her head turned partly away from the camera, but I knew without a doubt that it
was her. I double tapped the picture, making it even bigger. No mistaking it.
My mom was caught up in something big and she’d mailed me the item in question.
“Tabitha?”
“My mom.” I pointed at the screen.
“That’s my mom.”
Becky squinted and pushed her glasses
up her nose. “How can you tell? It’s so small and blurry.”
“It’s my mom. I’d know her anywhere.”
“So what? She’s an archaeologist.
It’s not a big surprise she’d be in the science news, right?”
“No, but look at the headline.”
“Japanese Museum Missing Important
Artifact.” Becky was almost out of breath, grasping at every word like she was
hanging off the edge of a cliff. We read the article together.
It went on to detail how the dogu in
their museum was one of the only ones in the world totally intact and a
Japanese National Treasure. They were preparing to loan it to a prominent
businessman as a token of respect. His wife had proved to be infertile, but she
didn’t want to go through infertility treatments. She’d begged her husband to
procure the dogu, which was believed to have magical healing powers when it
came to feminine issues. Because of his prominence in the business world and
donations, the museum saw it as a token of gratitude to loan the dogu to him
and his wife for a period of thirty days.
The day after the public transfer,
the dogu went missing. No one had any idea who had stolen it. The security
systems had been taken offline, so there was no proof. No fingerprints.
Nothing. It was as if the dogu had disappeared into thin air.
I sat back in my chair, the metal dug
into my back, but I only pushed back harder. I needed something to ground me,
help me make sense of what was in front of me.
“You said that thing your mom sent
you is just a reproduction.”
“It should be. She’d never send me
anything real like that. My mom’s a professional archaeologist. Haven’t you
ever seen Indiana Jones? That whole ‘it belongs in a museum’ quote isn’t a
joke. It’s almost more important than the Hippocratic oath for doctors. My mom
would never in a million years send me an important artifact to keep on a
bookshelf.”
So why was she in the picture next to
the Japanese businessman while he spoke angrily with the museum directors? What
was she doing involved in the theft of a dogu?
“I don’t understand.” I gave Becky
her phone back. “I mean, why would my mom steal this artifact? And why the hell
would she send
partially coming from my eyes.
Chapter Sixteen
At lunch, Becky waved me over to her
table. She’d saved a seat and I was relieved. The cheerleading thing was cool,
but I wasn’t ready to actually socialize with any of them. I needed Becky and
her weirdness to calm me down. I knew it was okay to just be myself with her
because even if I had a slip with my attitude, she’d cut me short. The first
half of the day hadn’t been easy because it felt like I was bumping into Alex
and Kailey around every corner.
“What are you reading?” I stuck my
head over Becky’s shoulder, looking at her iPhone screen. I stuffed half of a
Snickers bar in my mouth. I couldn’t get those overseas, at least not the
places my mom and I travelled to. When I was in the states, I couldn’t eat
enough. I gained a few pounds every summer just from the Snickers.
“TIME’s mobile app. Science news.”
She shrugged. “I think it’s interesting.” Becky scrolled through the headlines.
A flash of red caught my eye. I
grabbed Becky’s hand. “Stop!”
“What?”
I grabbed the phone out of her hand.
“What are you doing? I don’t care if
you want to look at something, but at least ask me first! Jeesh, Tabs!”
I didn’t respond. I couldn’t. Words
could not describe what I was seeing. A red-haired woman, only caught in
profile on the edge of the picture, shattered the truth into a million pieces.
Her head turned partly away from the camera, but I knew without a doubt that it
was her. I double tapped the picture, making it even bigger. No mistaking it.
My mom was caught up in something big and she’d mailed me the item in question.
“Tabitha?”
“My mom.” I pointed at the screen.
“That’s my mom.”
Becky squinted and pushed her glasses
up her nose. “How can you tell? It’s so small and blurry.”
“It’s my mom. I’d know her anywhere.”
“So what? She’s an archaeologist.
It’s not a big surprise she’d be in the science news, right?”
“No, but look at the headline.”
“Japanese Museum Missing Important
Artifact.” Becky was almost out of breath, grasping at every word like she was
hanging off the edge of a cliff. We read the article together.
It went on to detail how the dogu in
their museum was one of the only ones in the world totally intact and a
Japanese National Treasure. They were preparing to loan it to a prominent
businessman as a token of respect. His wife had proved to be infertile, but she
didn’t want to go through infertility treatments. She’d begged her husband to
procure the dogu, which was believed to have magical healing powers when it
came to feminine issues. Because of his prominence in the business world and
donations, the museum saw it as a token of gratitude to loan the dogu to him
and his wife for a period of thirty days.
The day after the public transfer,
the dogu went missing. No one had any idea who had stolen it. The security
systems had been taken offline, so there was no proof. No fingerprints.
Nothing. It was as if the dogu had disappeared into thin air.
I sat back in my chair, the metal dug
into my back, but I only pushed back harder. I needed something to ground me,
help me make sense of what was in front of me.
“You said that thing your mom sent
you is just a reproduction.”
“It should be. She’d never send me
anything real like that. My mom’s a professional archaeologist. Haven’t you
ever seen Indiana Jones? That whole ‘it belongs in a museum’ quote isn’t a
joke. It’s almost more important than the Hippocratic oath for doctors. My mom
would never in a million years send me an important artifact to keep on a
bookshelf.”
So why was she in the picture next to
the Japanese businessman while he spoke angrily with the museum directors? What
was she doing involved in the theft of a dogu?
“I don’t understand.” I gave Becky
her phone back. “I mean, why would my mom steal this artifact? And why the hell
would she send
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