Page 135 of The Whispering Night
“Okay, okay,” L.A. shouts into the mic. “We get it: you love us. But before we begin, we do have to give a special shout-out to a girl who—I can’t believe I’m saying this—actually deserves all the hype.”
Oh, awesome,Winnie thinks as a spotlight now locks onto her. She grimaces. The entirety of the ball starts screaming. Her friends are loudest of all, and as they boogie up right next to Winnie, the only one who looks even a little apologetic—and only alittle—is Erica.
Winnie’s family also claps and hoots nearby. There’s Darian, dressed as a spidrin with eight spindly legs—and with Andrew as his silk-spun prey (honestly, he looks more like a mummy). There’s Ms. Morgan and Mason, dressed as matching ghost-deer with antlers and white face paint.
Oh, and there’s Funday too, festooned as the most colorful harpy that ever was. More like a parrot, really, than a nightmare. She beams at Winnie—and winks.
And you know what? Fine. Winnie is going to let her friends and family have this. Her fellow students, too. Even Casey. Even Peter. Even Dante and Marcus and everyone else she so bitterly resented for the last month.
She’s done being a line. She’s ready to embrace the fractal.
Winnie grits out a smile. Muscles out a wave. Thenfinallythe light snaps off her and hundreds of rapt Luminaries rocket their attention back to the stage.
“Winnie Wednesday, this song is for you,” L.A. declares. “It’s a new composition I think you’re going to like called ‘Wolf Girl’—”
“No.” Jay lurches toward L.A. His head is wagging. “No, you said we wouldn’t do this one, L.A.”
“Shut up.” L.A. tries to elbow him aside.
“Oh my god, Win.” Jay finds her in the crowd. His eyes are nearly as white as the spotlight. “I’m sorry. I told her we shouldn’t do this one—”
“Enough.” L.A. full-on shoves him. “You’re just the boyfriend, and no one cares what you think. We don’t, right?”
“NOOOOO!”the audience roars.
“That’s what I thought. Trevor? Give me that beat.”
Rocking with laughter, Trevor complies. He shoves a boot heel onto his drum machine. A raucous rhythm blasts out, sending the pitch of the crowd toward feverish. Until even Winnie finds she’s laughing just as much as everyone around her.
Oh, there’s a Wolf Girl,
(Heroooo! Herooooo!)
She jumps off of waterfalls
(Don’t you know? The heroooo!)
She saves our town!
(Heroooo! Herooooo!)
The lyrics continue on in similarly absurd fashion, but Winnie can’t deny the tune is catchy. Before she knows it, she’s howlingHeroooo! Heroooo!along with all the rest of the ball. And when the song ends, she claps so hard her hands hurt.
Then it’s on to the next song—about a siren—and Winnie loses herself to the darkness, darkness, light. To the heat and the joy. To the complex geometry unfolding around her. Ghosts might float forever below the surface, but thatiswhat makes these moments so lucent. So alive.
Winnie do-si-dos with Bretta, she hops around with Emma, and at one point, she and Erica twirl like ballroom dancers. Mom, meanwhile, bounces with Dad the whole time—even when she is dripping sweat and has to peel off the top half of her bear costume.
Winnie’s favorite part comes halfway into the show when the Forgotten perform “Backlit.” Jay doesn’t sing this time, instead letting L.A. keep the limelight. But he does find Winnie in the crowd, he does watch her while his fingers move over the bass and his body sways.
His gunmetal-gray eyes grow hard, intense in that way only he can manage, and by the second verse, Winnie stops dancing. By the third verse, Jay does too. His body tightens, tightens, like he is a bow being aimed. Only his fingers keep moving.
He does not blink. And Winnie wonders when the bowstring will finally snap.
Never surprise a nightmare,she thinks. Then she smiles because she can’t help it. It’s Jay. The Friday sparrow she trusts completely. “I love you,” she mouths at him—because she hasn’t actually said that to him yet. She hasn’t shared this final truth.
And it would seem that was the trigger he needed. Suddenly he has slung off his bass and is shoving it into L.A.’s hands. He leaps off the stage and strides right up to Winnie. He lifts her off her feet, which jostles the leatherjacket off her waist. Then while hundreds upon hundreds of Luminaries shriek their heads off, he kisses her.
I miss you more now,L.A. keeps singing.Now that it’s been so long.
