“The window was locked, wasn’t it?”

“That’s true, but it seemed very important.”

“So you let her in.”

You nod reluctantly.

At this point, I’m at a loss as to what I should do next. Give you a good talking-to? Go find Tom and see if he’ll give you a psychiatric examination on the spot? Pack everything up and leave? Instead, I do what I’ve always done.

“What happened, Pearl? What did she tell you?”

A subtle relief relaxes your face. This is what you tell me.

New Developments

At first, when I opened the window, she looked like a shadow, and I thought it had only been my imagination. Had I really seen her through the glass? Had I really heard her tapping? But she shifted from side to side, and I knew it was really her, and it made me scared and glad at the same time. I told her she got me in a lot of trouble, and why shouldn’t I close the window on her right there and go back to bed? I was very stern with her, Grampy. You would have been proud of me.

But she said there were “new developments.” That’s what she called them. “New developments.” She said there were pressing issues. Her words, not mine, Grampy. Pressing issues. She asked if I had the map with me, the one I had drawn.

I said that was fine, but why couldn’t we do all of this during the day? She laughed at that, not a nice laugh, and said that she didn’t do things during the day. That was no time at all to do the kinds of things she needed to do.

When she laughed like that, it was the first time I was afraid of her. I told her, fine, come in, but if she started making a mess like last time, I was going to run and get you, Grampy, and that would be the end of all this. She nodded and acted sad about it, but I knew she didn’t really care.

That’s what scares me the most about her, Grampy. She doesn’t seem to care at all about the things we care about. When I saw her in the city, she seemed nothing but kind, but now I’m not so sure. Here, closer to this thing she needs to find, she seems kind of desperate.

I pointed at the small table not far from the window. My map was there—I had been working on it after you said good night to me. She bent over and stared at it like she was looking for something, and she laughed a loud “Ha!” and pointed at the cabin and the red X. She asked me in a quiet voice when I had added that, and I told her I thought she had added it yesterday.

She leaned in over the map. “Interesting,” she said in a whisper. “Maybe I did.”

She told me again that she needed my help, that there was something she had lost a long time ago. I told her I wasn’t so sure that I could help, that I’m only a girl and most people call me flighty. A lot of people don’t believe I see the things I see. I told her all of this.