The Doll's Eye by Marina Cohen

Author:Marina Cohen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press

Eighteen

“Puce, often misspelled as P-U-S-E or P-E-U-S-E, is French for flea,” said Gabe. “A bedbug is a kind of flea.

“Are you even listening to a word I’m saying?”

Hadley sat on a giant rock that jutted out over the ravine. She held the eye in her hand, turning it over and over between her tingling fingers.

Gabe was hoisting up an old log. He wore a yellow plastic hard hat with a light, like he was some kind of miner. He was looking for slaters—commonly known as pill bugs—and which he happily informed Hadley were, in fact, crustaceans.

“Anyway, my walls are now puce,” she said. “And not because I asked for them to be—because at first I thought I might have—but now I’m sure I didn’t. They’re puce because I wished it. And there’s more—”

“The color puce is not actually named after the insect, but the rust-colored stains left on bed linens after the bedbug has been squashed.”

Hadley waved her hands in frustration. “That’s disgusting! And totally irrelevant!” She sighed and leaned back onto the rock. “Gabe. Listen to me. Please.”

Gabe stopped. He looked at Hadley, his headlight glaring in her eyes. He let the log fall, turned off the light, and joined her on the rock.

Other than the buzzing flies, the woods were quiet. Hadley inhaled the fresh scent of the wild plants and mossy trees.

A billion questions torpedoed through her mind—and Gabe was the first person she could aim them at. Did he remember Ed and Isaac? What did he think happened to them? Where did they go? Did he believe wishes could be granted? If so, how? Did he think she was crazy?

A chorus of birds chirped loudly.

“Gabe, I…”

“They’re attracted to the insects.” He pointed to the trees. “All those birds.”

Hadley nodded. “Great. Listen, Gabe…”

“It’s not time for them to migrate, so I couldn’t figure out why so many are gathered, but I think it’s the insects. The flies,” he continued.

Hadley sighed. Gabe was now a bird expert as well.

“The insects attract birds and rodents. The birds and rodents attract snakes. It’s like a strange micro ecosystem just beyond your house. Only I can’t figure out what the flesh flies are attracted to. They usually lay their eggs in rotting flesh. That, or dung.”

“Gabe!” Hadley shouted. “Will you listen to me? Ed and Isaac—my stepdad and stepbrother. Do you remember them?”

The tiniest of glimmers lit in the far depths of Gabe’s green eyes, and for a moment Hadley was sure he remembered. Then his expression clouded over and his thoughts seemed to drift backward, disappearing into themselves. “Who?”

Tears prickled at the backs of Hadley’s eyes. “Please, Gabe. Try and remember. Isaac? The boy who sprained his ankle? You carried him up the ravine?”

Any spark of recognition had been extinguished. Gabe shrugged and shook his head.

Hadley dropped the eye. She let her head fall into her hands. How could this be happening? Was she losing her mind? She glanced over her shoulder. The house’s Cyclops eye was staring at her.

“Gabe—who lived in the house before me?”

He thought about it for a moment.

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