Winterfolk by Janel Kolby

Author:Janel Kolby
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2017-12-04T00:00:00+00:00

16

“WE CAN TRY YOUR friend again in the morning,” Kerry says as the big one, Carter, comes out of the bathroom. He’s in a white tank top and pajama bottoms with cartoons. He folds his tanned, muscled arms casually and sits on the couch. His bed for the night.

How’d I get here?

My bed is as tall as in The Princess and the Pea. I’m going to need a ladder.

The walls have thin red stripes, peeled from a candy cane, on top of thick cream.

Carpet. I remember that one. My feet sink and leave footprints with their pressing. Takes a vacuum to wipe them.

Lots of drawers to hold lots of stuff.

A TV blares. I remember that, too. Doryn turned it to the loonies. Pictures with noise. The cat swings a hammer at a mouse. I should tell him the story about the tobacco man and the rat. But Doryn laughs, and I want him to keep laughing.

Doryn and the mom go to the bathroom to brush their teeth.

They’re from California, Sacre-men-toe, sacred toes of men. Just visiting. They step lightly. The vacuum will take their marks away.

Why am I here?

She said we’d figure things out in the morning. We. Would there be a we if she’d found King? Or Jessiebel? Probably not.

In the morning, we’ll talk. I’ll tell her about me and the Winterfolk. She gave me a pink toothbrush cuz I didn’t have one. She seems like the type of person who’d know what to do.

Carter adjusts on the couch as if it’s uncomfortable. Three cushions’ and six pillows’ worth of uncomfortable. I wonder what his real bed is like. Ten pillows, maybe. His tank top hugs the muscles that saved me.

I keep my eyes on the TV.

She led me into this building. We went into a box called an elevator to lift us off the ground, and then she unlocked this room. Doryn and his mom will take one bed, and I’m going to sleep on the other. I think she knows I don’t sleep on a bed like this.

Doryn and the mom come out of the bathroom at the same time, both in pajamas. How does that happen? The mom carries a white robe.

She smiles. “The bathroom’s all yours. You can take a shower if you’d like.” She hands me the robe. “You can sleep in this.”

It feels like a towel.

Doryn smiles, then sticks his eyes to the TV. He makes his way to the bed and climbs.

Carter fluffs a pillow and lays down his head. Locks of blond cover the green silk pillowcase. He smiles at me, too, and I smile back. I’d sleep on the couch, but they didn’t ask me.

I go to the bathroom and close the door. It’s bigger than the one at the laundry. The counter’s made of polished rock with polished silver handles at the sink. Has both a bathtub and a shower. But not better than my present from this morning. Nothing could be. I touch a piece of pink soap carved into a rose.

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