Edgewater by Courtney Sheinmel

Author:Courtney Sheinmel
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Abrams
Published: 2015-07-14T16:00:00+00:00

16

GHOST EYES

HOURS LATER I PUSHED OPEN THE FRONT DOOR AT Edgewater, accidentally knocking it into Prince Valiant, a geriatric, one-eyed orange tabby. “Sorry, old guy,” I said. I reached down to pick him up, something I rarely did with my sister’s creatures, and stroked his fur. Prince Valiant slowly blinked his remaining eye, which Susannah had once told me was a sign that he liked me. A kitty kiss.

I walked to the floor lamp in the corner, but when I turned the switch, it didn’t go on. I hoped we had extra bulbs, though I suspected not. But I could always switch it out with a lightbulb from a less important lamp in a less important room. I moved deeper into the house, flipping light switches along the way. But the house remained dark.

I found Gigi in the library at the end of the hall, sitting in a club chair by one of Edgewater’s nine nonworking fireplaces. The room smelled the way just about every other room in the house did. But different, as if each room had been sprayed with a different scent of a line of perfumes. Eau de Decay, I’d call the line. Here in the library you could get a whiff of Decay Number Five: Book Mold.

I flipped one last switch, by the door. Nothing happened.

“Gigi,” I said.

At the sound of my raised voice, Prince Valiant clawed to be put down, and when I did so, he tore out of the room. My aunt turned to me. Above her hung an oil painting of my mother as a child. My grandfather had commissioned somber-looking portraits of all the family members. They were hung around the room in custom-made gilt frames, each under its own spotlight. In the darkness Mom’s childhood brown eyes looked like holes cut out of the portrait. It might as well have been a portrait of a ghost.

“Oh, Lorrie,” Gigi said. “I thought you were out with Susannah and Brian.”

“When have I ever been out with Susannah and Brian?”

“They said they were going to a carnival. I remember taking you when you were small. You insisted on playing ring toss until you’d won enough times to trade up for the exact prize you wanted. Now I bet you don’t even know where that stuffed unicorn is, but I do.”

“You’ve got to tell me where the money is, Gigi. We’ve got to take care of these bills.”

“Look at what’s out there.” Gigi stood and stepped toward a window. Her voice was soft, as if it was coming from across a distance.

“What?”

“A hundred years ago, we would’ve been living off the fruits of our land. No reason we can’t do it now. We have everything we need right in front of us.”

“Listen to yourself,” I said. “You sound crazy. This isn’t a hundred years ago, and nothing grows on our land besides dandelions.”

“I do love a good gazpacho,” she said. “I’ll plant some bell peppers—red or yellow ones but not green.”

“Of course not green,” I said.

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