Change Places with Me(47)

She looked at Mr. Moore’s painting, propped up on her bureau, and also out the window, at Belle Heights Tower, where Kim lived.

She got up and left the room.

Evelyn always slept with the door wide open and the curtains apart. In the almost-full moon, the girl could clearly see Evelyn’s desk with her laptop, her tall mahogany bureau, and her bookshelf, where Clara had leafed through books by experts. Evelyn’s bed was near the window, open just a crack. Her dark hair was spread across her pillow, and the gold necklace around her throat caught a glint of light. She was wearing a pale nightgown with a scoop neck that exposed one shoulder. A flowery kimono was draped over the foot of the bed.

The girl walked over to Evelyn, who smelled like lavender. She leaned down and gently nudged Evelyn’s shoulder.

“Oh—” Evelyn stiffened and looked around urgently. “What—what time is it?”

“Late. Early.”

Evelyn blinked to get used to the semidarkness. “Give me a minute. I’ll get up.”

“You don’t have to.” The girl hadn’t realized she’d brought the bald elephant with her until she put it down on the bed. “I just want to say . . . I made you worry last week, when I stayed out so long. Before I went to Forget-Me-Not. I’m really sorry.”

Evelyn seemed relieved—no emergency, apparently. “I didn’t know what to think. If you were all right, if you were running away. . . . I tried to find you. I looked in the school directory and called your friends.”

“You mean Kim and Cooper?”

“The ones you had lunch with. Selena Kearn and Astrid Mills.”

But they weren’t her friends. They weren’t even each other’s friends. The girl decided right then she would ask Mr. Slocum to switch her to different lab partners. Though he’d never done this before, she knew he would do it for her.

“I had to leave a message for Astrid, but Selena picked up,” Evelyn said. “She told me you were with them at brunch and then you left. She also said something about a party here this Saturday—?”

The girl shook her head. “No, that’s not happening.” Astrid and Selena would definitely not be pleased that she was canceling it the day before it was supposed to happen. She could picture Selena, face burning behind her freckles, bitterly complaining she’d already promised everybody a DJ. She could even hear Astrid saying beneath her breath, “We were nice to you. You blew it.”

“Evelyn,” the girl said, “I should probably let you get back to sleep.”

“That’s okay. I’m awake.” She sat up and leaned her back against the headboard.

“I always wondered.” The girl hesitated. “I hope you don’t mind my asking . . . why do you look in the mirror so much?”

Evelyn smiled a little. “My mother died quite young of skin cancer. I always have to look for moles, and keep at it, too. The cells in the body replace themselves so rapidly. Every seven years you have a whole new body.”

Seven years—the amount of time Clara had spent in the glass coffin. “So I have a whole new body since Dad died.”

“As do I.” Evelyn nodded, taking this in. “It hasn’t been so easy for us, has it?”

Evelyn had Sad Blue eyes, too.

“You tried telling me about your parents, once,” the girl said. But Rose had had her mind on other things. “Could you tell me, again? I’m listening now.”

“Well, my father was a drunk,” Evelyn said matter-of-factly.

“And your mom?”

“Pretended he wasn’t one. I grew up with . . . lies. They were everywhere, in every corner of every room. It was as if there was a terrible storm outside, and my parents kept looking out the window and declaring, ‘It’s a beautiful sunny day!’ There were times I thought I was the crazy one. When my mother asked me a simple question—‘How are you?’—I saw fear in her eyes. She didn’t want the real answer. So I would say, ‘Fine, just fine.’ See why I never wanted to get married?”

“Except you did.”

“It took me completely by surprise. Phil was always so honest. My father thought that promising something was the same thing as doing it. Phil kept his promises.”

“But he didn’t!” the girl said sharply. “He promised to keep me safe and sound.”

“He kept that promise, too. You’re here with me.”

In fairy tales, the girl thought, the good parents died and the evil ones lived. But the fact that Evelyn had outlived her dad hadn’t turned her into Evil Lynn. It just made her a single mom. The girl looked down, feeling something on her hand. Evelyn had taken hold of it for a few moments. It didn’t feel like dead man’s finger.

“I’m canceling it,” the girl said.

“Yes, the party.” Evelyn leaned back again.

“I don’t mean that. I mean Forget-Me-Not.”

Moonlight played on Evelyn’s face. Her eyes widened.

There were only about thirty-five hours to go before this thing the girl had wanted so desperately.

“I’m shocked, too,” the girl said.

“But I’m glad,” Evelyn said.





CHAPTER 31


“Then,” the girl began, “why didn’t you stop me the first time?”