Page 30 of Stone
Chapter 16
Breakfast
Brielle was reaching inside her fridge for the milk when an immense, dark shadow blocked the sunlight streaming through the kitchen window. Alarmed, she ducked behind the bar. Slowly making her way to the corner, she peered around it. She’d left her phone on the dinette table, but with a little luck, she might be able to reach it and call 9-1-1 beforewhoever was outside on her fire escape could…
“Wait a minute,” she whispered. “The fire escape is outside the bedroom. There’s no ladder outside the kitchen. In fact, there’s nothing outside that window but…nothing.”
The figure crossed the window again. Plunking the quart of milk on the bar, she ran over to the window and stared outside.Garenthwas winging between the kitchen and the bedroom,going back and forth like a trapeze act. Without the trapeze.
Rushing to the bedroom, she quickly unlocked the window leading to the fire escape and threw up the sash, sticking her head outside as the winged man flew toward her. Waving at him frantically, she called to him even though she knew he wouldn’t understand what she was saying.
“Get in here! What do you think you’re doing? Whatif somebody sees you?”
She kept gesturing for him to follow her and withdrew inside.Garenthapparently understood and climbed into the bedroom. After closing the window behind him, she returned to the kitchen. As she hoped, he followed her. Grabbing her phone, she opened the translation app and spoke into it. “What were you doing out there?”
After hearing the question, he stared at her ashe responded. “Protect you.”
“Protecting me? How long have you been out there?”
“The night.” He settled himself on the floor, half-crouching, half-sitting in that way he’d done on the roof.
She grabbed the milk and took it over to the table where she’d set her bowl and box of cereal as he watched her. After she fixed her breakfast, she returned the milk to the fridge, snatching up the phoneon the way.
Using the app was cumbersome. She had to physically change its setting to interpret her English to Arabic, then reverse its setting so that his Arabic could be translated. On top of that, much of what he said couldn’t be deciphered. ButIrminewas right. It was better than nothing. She dreaded to think how lost they’d both be if they’d been forced to communicate via hand signalsand drawing pictures.
Garentheyed the room and spoke. “This is where you live.”
“Yes. It’s my home.”
“It is...different.” He gazed at her. “This place is different.”
The sound of wonder in his voice made her smile. “I bet it’s very different from when you were alive.” Recalling whatIrmineinitially told her, she paused in her eating. “Garenth, why aren’t you going after the mother idol?”
“You touch her. You have her on you.”
She glanced at her hands and remembered when the head popped off the figurine. Getting up from her chair, she hurried into the bathroom and dug her jeans out of the laundry basket to take them back into the kitchen.Garenth’seyes widened as she approached, and she’d swear she saw his nostrils flare. Handing him the jeans, she picked up the phone to explain.
“The mother idol you’re looking for is a vial, isn’t it? It held some kind of substance or liquid, didn’t it?”
“The mother idol is crucial to my existence.”
She watched as he turned the jeans over in his hands until he found the front of them. She wasn’t surprised when he lifted the fabric to his nose and sniffed between the thighs. Adjusting the pants, he sniffed again, this time over oneleg.
“The top of the mother idol came off and landed on my leg,” she explained. “That’s what you’re sniffing. It fell into my lap.”
He smelled her jeans again. “Your nearness confusing me.”
“How? Because it’s keeping you from detecting the idol itself?”
“Yes.”
She perched on the edge of her chair. “What can I do to help?”
“I go back to the temple and find scent again.”
The temple.He probably meant the museum.
“You can do that? I mean, that idol could be miles away from here by now.”
