Page 57 of The Whispering Night
Cute. But money doesn’t grow on trees, kid
Winnie, 4:24P.M.
It does n Brazil forest
Predatory tree w bark made of pure gold
Francesca Wednesday, 4:24P.M.
Welp, you’ve proven your identity
When will you be home tonight, Winnebago?
I have an early shift at the Daughter tomorrow
Daughter with a g and an (a?) h
Winnie, 4:25P.M.
B home after safari
Francesca Wednesday, 4:25P.M.
Okay, sounds good. Have fun.
I LOVE YOU FOREVER AND THEN SOME
But really, I do.
And thanks for sharing what you shared last night. We’ll figure it all out, okay?
Winnie, 4:26P.M.
Ok, Mom
Love u 2 4ever
CHAPTER
24
Obviously given the choice between an after-party or a nightmare “safari,” Winnie will always choose the safari. Not merely because it allows her to wear her combat boots while the other requires “cocktail/ fancy attire,” but also because this will give her a chance to talk to Mario Monday.
Alone.
Or so Winnie thinks until she steps onto the bus that will carry her and twenty-three other nightmare wonks into the forest. As soon as she climbs aboard, she is pounced upon.
“Oh, Winnie!” Professor Funday declares, leaping up from her seat in the back row. “Oh, sit with me, sit with me!”
Seeing little alternative, Winnie obeys. Which is fine; she genuinely likes the woman. And for the first time probablyever,the librarian is not dressed like a coral reef vomited onto her, but rather like a forest did. Nottheforest of Hemlock Falls, of course. This is more Disney forest with bright, rapturous shades of green ranging from summer pine to bursting meadow. Even her boots have been painted (yes, painted) the shade of a fir tree in winter. Her silver hair is tucked beneath a beanie that skews neon, and her eyeliner sweeps out from her eyes in sharp branches.
It’s a lot.
“Winnie,” Funday says, almost breathlessly, “I’ve been trying to find you since last week, but with visitors arriving and the Sunday floats to prepare—I do most of the decorating you know—”
Winnie did not know, but that tracks.
“—I’ve just not had a moment to reach out. But that book I ordered from Italy finally came in. The one on moon and stars symbology. You remember it?”
