| |
DURING THE drive down to the harbor, I thought more about Edgar’s work on the youth elixir. If he was middle-aged in the 1930s then he had to be at least 120 years old now. Old Edgar certainly didn’t look very youthful, but maybe the elixir he’d been able to develop was able to extend his life. Knowing Edgar, he was probably still trying to perfect the elixir. No wonder he was all alone. Maybe his wife and daughter were “gone now” because he’d outlived them. What I still didn’t get was why his workshop was now in the middle of the woods rather than at the Halls’ estate.
Shirlyn’s laughter shattered my thoughts. I looked over to find Romaso leaning halfway out of one of the windows, trying to get a good look at the wheels.
“The driver just explained how the brakes worked and so now Romaso is trying to find them,” Shirlyn said as I helped her pull Romaso back into the vehicle.
We were nearing the harbor. I scanned the water, trying to find the black cruise liner. It wasn’t there. The driver parked the car at a private area of the harbor where the Halls kept their vessels. Shirlyn pointed out a small motorboat. It was white and tan, with “Pipette” painted in script across the side. I smiled. There was no doubt in my mind that Edgar had named the motorboat. The Halls’ driver helped each of us out of the vehicle and onto the Pipette. Shirlyn positioned herself in front of the steering wheel, with Romaso at her side. I sat in a second row of seats behind them.
Shirlyn surprised me by being skillful at driving the motorboat. As she masterfully guided the boat through the water, I mentally rehearsed how I was going to bring up the subject of the travel glasses. My plan was to tell Shirlyn that I knew of another way to travel. Romaso, who probably wouldn’t remember the travel glasses being used for the gondola ride to England, would likely have no idea what I was talking about. When we returned to the harbor, I intended to ask Shirlyn if I could borrow the motorboat so that I could visit Valcas. She could think that I liked him or whatever. I didn’t care. I just wanted to make sure that both Shirlyn and Romaso were off of the motorboat when I left.
I relaxed and looked around me. The sun shone brightly, high up in the sky, its beams reflecting off of the rippling water. I reached into my backpack for something to shade my eyes from the sharp glare coming off of the water. I felt instant relief after putting on the travel glasses. A sharp pang of regret struck me a split second later when I heard a familiar voice call out to me.
“Is the water so bright, Calla?” Valcas sounded pleased, victorious.
“What the? How the? How can you see where I am?” I shouted at Valcas’ image.
He was facing me, in a seated position, against an all-white background. His fists were tightly clenched in front of him, his hair blowing back wildly.
“Look out, dearest.” Valcas’ laughter rang out in stereo, resonating from the outside as well as from within the glasses.
I ripped the glasses off of my face in time to see a larger motorboat heading straight toward us. The motorboat was painted in Valcas’ signature yellow and black. I was really starting to hate those colors. I gritted my teeth, angry with myself for mindlessly putting on the glasses. I hadn’t even tried to block out Valcas. Not that it would have mattered. He must have been at the harbor already. How long had he been there waiting for me? I didn’t know, and I wasn’t going to wait around to find out.
“Hurry, Shirlyn! Watch out! He’s coming straight toward us. We need to turn around. Now!”
Shirlyn and Romaso gasped in unity. Shirlyn jerked the steering wheel to the right. The Pipette, now traveling perpendicular to the dock, jetted forward. I watched to the left where I could see the yellow and black motorboat advancing toward us. Water sprayed in every direction.
“Faster, Shirlyn! He’s going to catch—uh, crash—into us!”
Shirlyn increased the small boat’s speed. “This is as fast as it can go. What now?”
The motorboat violently shook under the pressure of reaching and maintaining its maximum capacity for speed. I held my breath as I put the travel glasses back on my face. I had to somehow block out Valcas, the one chasing close behind me, while searching for a past version of Valcas who’d existed in his parents’ world of make-believe. I hesitated. This was getting too complicated.
“Calla? We’re getting too far away from the harbor. We’ll, we’ll be swept out to sea—”
“Please keep going, Shirlyn,” I begged. I focused on my search.
The world became still and quiet. All I could hear was the sound of my own breath. I removed the travel glasses and looked around me. The sky was cloudy and gray. Shirlyn, Romaso and I sat above a still pool of silver water. The motorboat had stopped moving and was floating there, unchanged. This couldn’t be right. Where were the moons from the photos? The white tower? The purple-red terrain?
Romaso and Shirlyn eyed me suspiciously.
“I, uh, found a way to travel without the yacht,” I stuttered lamely, ashamed that I’d pulled Romaso and Shirlyn into the chase. “I think there were too many distractions. Too much was happening at the same time. We ended up somewhere else. I need to try again.”
“Where are you taking us?” asked Shirlyn, her nose twitching.
“I wanted to go to the place in the colored photographs that you showed us this morning, the world where Valcas grew up.”
“The paintings?” asked Romaso. “How do we go inside the paintings? This makes no sense.”
“Well, first, we need to get the boat moving again.”
“That won’t be difficult,” said Shirlyn, guarded. “What next?”
“Then I put on these glasses and tell them where I want to go.” I looked thoughtfully at the travel glasses. “Usually they listen.”
“Who was it, the driver of the other motorboat?”
“Shirlyn, I’m so sorry to drag you and Romaso into all of this. Remember this morning when I told you Valcas was chasing me?”
“Yes, go on.”
“That was Valcas in the other boat.”
Shirlyn’s eyes widened. “I see. What have you done to my cousin to make him so upset with you?”
“It’s a really long story, but I think if I can just find out more, learn more from where he grew up, that it will help me. Maybe it will help Valcas too.”
“All right,” said Shirlyn. “I’ll start the engine.”
“Actually, on second thought, Shirlyn, let’s switch places. I should be in the driver’s seat for this. Just tell me what to do.”
With the Pipette once again in motion, I focused more carefully on a version of Valcas with blazing green eyes until everything around us went white.