I DON’T KNOW what I was expecting. Cheers. Shouts of joy. A group hug. Instead, Margo and Lamont just keep staring at me like I’m some alien creature. Margo won’t let go of the paper. She’s holding on to it for dear life.
“You must have wondered,” I say. “Why was I the one? Of all the people in the world, why was I picked to find you? Did you think it was some crazy coincidence? And my powers—mind control, invisibility. Did you think those were just learned skills? Something I picked up from a Shadow novel?”
Margo looks around the room. She’s still wobbly, but I can see her mind turning.
“Jessica…” she says to herself, like she’s trying to solve a riddle. “She was…?”
“Your great-great-granddaughter,” I say. “Making me your great-great-great-great-granddaughter.” I count out the “greats” on my fingers.
It’s hard for me to wrap my head around it. But for Margo, it’s too much. She stands up. She’s a little shaky on her feet, but her voice is clear.
“I need some air,” she says. “I need to think.”
She walks out through the living room. I hear the front door close behind her.
Lamont looks at me.
“Why didn’t you tell us?” he asks. “Why didn’t you say something as soon as you found that file? Why did you keep it to yourself?”
“Because it didn’t seem real,” I tell him. “I didn’t really believe it, until…”
“Until when?” asks Lamont.
“Until today,” I say. “Until just now. I had to hear Margo say it. About the beginning. About her secret. So did you.”
Lamont reaches over and hugs me. He knows I’m right.
We walk downstairs and find Margo sitting on the front steps of the building. The sun is getting low in the sky. This is the time of day when people usually start to take cover from TinGrin patrols. But today there aren’t any patrols. Now the TinGrins are the ones on the run. Up the street, a couple of kids are throwing stones at a video screen on a light pole.
I sit down next to Margo. She doesn’t say anything. She just slips her arm through mine and squeezes it tight.
“Somehow,” she says, “I never pictured myself as a great-great-great-great-grandmother.”
“I know,” I say. “They probably don’t even have cards for that.”
Lamont sits down on the other side of Margo. He puts his arm around both of us. This seems like the time to say something momentous about our family tree, but for some reason I feel more comfortable changing the subject. Moving things forward. Focusing on the future.
“We need someplace else to live,” I say. “This place is way too cramped for three grown humans.” What I don’t say is how much it depresses me to be here. There’s too much of my grandmother in those rooms.
“I hear there’s a mansion uptown that’s available,” says Margo. “The basement needs a little work.”
“Worst possible idea,” says Lamont. “That’s the first place he’ll look.”
Margo’s face tightens. “You think he’ll be back?” she asks.
“He always comes back,” says Lamont. “It’s just a matter of time.”
“How can you be so sure?” says Margo.
Lamont looks at me.
“Oh, go ahead,” I tell him. “Say it.”
So he does. With the whole deep voice and everything.
“The Shadow knows.”