Page 120 of Why Cheese?
Biting my lip, I bob my head and stare at my fingers.
“Your vault… I guess they found a way in,” I say. I didn’t stop to question the hired garbage collectors even though I should have. There were a lot of things I should have done.
I brace for Roq’s tongue-lashing, but he falls silent and turns away. Cam reaches over to hold my shoulder before he nods to me. “Then what? Were they the ones to empty this place?”
“They tried,” I mumble. “I…I wouldn’t let them. I shouted for them to stop, to-to bring back everything they put in the garbage.”
Cheddy looks around the empty floor. “They failed miserably.”
All I can do is shake my head. They didn’t fail. I did, like I always do.
“What of your mother?” Brie asks.
“Yes, what of that wicked witch? Is she yet lurking in the rafters of an abandoned belfry?” Cam doesn’t mince words.
“I…yelled at her.” My jaw locks and brace myself. “Told her I never want to see her again.”
The strangest thing happens. Three of them give a celebratory whoop. Cam smiles and shouts, “Finally,” while Roq and Brie both pat me on the back. Only Cheddy nervously chews on his nail and keeps quiet.
“So you had the cheese returned, but also believed we’d been consumed?” Roq asks.
“A man, one of the workers, he was eating cheese off of a piece of slate. That one.” I point to the charcuterie board like it’s to blame. “They said they just found the cheese and I…I was terrified it was you. I waited until nightfall. Sat there hoping I was wrong. Surely, you’d pop up and we’d all have a good laugh.”
My throat stuffs with brambles as the long horror of the past two weeks hits me. All the nightmares I had of them waking up with limbs missing, or half their body gone. The long, slow march of time never knowing if I’d see them again.
“You didn’t,” I squeak out.
“Violette,” Brie gasps.
“My lady.” Cam roves his palm over my cheek, then tucks me to his chest.
“Two weeks. Fifteen days, I waited, every night. I didn’t know what to do. All the cheese was…starting to stink and turn green. Moldy. And you weren’t here.”
People don’t come back from the dead. This is an illusion. You’ve lost your mind and you’re going to get committed.
Pleading, I stare up at Roq and beg, “How are you here?”
The happy smiles are gone, their faces pale. They keep glancing from the sides of their eyes, and their lips move without making a sound. Fifteen days they were eaten, someone’s lunch. Now they’re whole, a miracle I have to understand.
Cheddy pauses in rubbing my back. “I think I know.”
“You do?” Roq asks.
“How?” Cam adds.
He points behind the counter to the blue box. “We were in the safe.”
“The…?” I spin around to double-check that it is the same ornate box I dragged up here. “What safe?”
Cheddy clucks his tongue, then heaves the box onto the counter beside me. “When we’re in here…”
“Chedward,” Cam warns him with a glare.
To all of our surprise, Roq clasps a hand on Cam’s shoulder, then he nods to Cheddy. “Go ahead.”
“When we’re in here, we’re cheese. Years can pass without us knowing. We don’t age, we don’t get moldy or fall apart.”
“It’s like cryogenics?” I mumble to their confusion.
