“There it is. I told you.” She held up a photo. “Guillaume, make it so she can see the photo.”
He held it up to the camera so I was unable to see anything but the photograph. It was sepia and faded, but the grounds of the college were clear—the garden, the lake in the background—and on a bench sat a mustachioed man with a little girl on his lap. So she’d been telling the truth.
“Very nice,” I said. “That’s definitely Clark Gable.”
I’d been intending to ask more about the woman at Hildegard with whom Sabine had been in contact, but when Guillaume moved the photo, I was shocked to see that Jeanne’s expression had changed markedly. Instead of the bright-eyed, ruby-cheeked old woman I’d met a few moments earlier, my computer screen showed a stunned-looking creature, her skin suddenly pallid beneath the vast quantities of rouge. She looked like a completely different person—upset, horrified even.
She whispered something to Guillaume and then pushed herself up out of the chair.
He looked at me, stunned. “We must go,” he said. “Grand-mère is feeling unwell. We must go.”
“Now!” Jeanne snapped from somewhere off-screen.
“Can we speak again?” I asked quickly, but Guillaume’s window suddenly winked out, and I was left staring at my own confused face.
3.2REVENANTS
It is the question of ghosts.
—JACQUESDERRIDA
My Zoom with Guillaume had left me unsettled, so I tried to distract myself with some light reading. I curled up on the couch with a book, and soon the light through my French doors began to fade. When the time came, I walked down to the beach and found the boat tied up at the dock, just as Aspen had said it would be. Standing there and staring out over that strange blue water, I shivered just a little, but this time it was with a sense of excitement and infinite possibilities. I felt like I truly was on the verge of uncovering something important whether they wanted me to or not. Sometimes we disclose more by actively trying to hide the truth than if we’d just left things well enough alone, and that, I hoped, would be to my benefit. I untied the boat, climbed in, and started rowing. As it glided over the water, I tried to see if I could make out any hint of the metal grate, but the water was too dark to see.
At seven-fifteen, I knocked on the door to the office, and was mildly amused to find them all there. Finn opened the door and the others waved from where they were spread out around the room. Each was sipping from a red party cup.
Finn handed me one. “Drink up,” he said with a mischievous grin.
“What is it?” I asked, staring into the pungent liquid.
“Aspen made it. That’s all you need to know.”
Despite my reticence, I had to admit there was something vaguely magical about the atmosphere in the room.
I set the drink down and sat facing them. “Okay, I came all the way out here. What gives? Is this about the relic?”
“Good God,” said Aspen. “What is it with you and this relic of yours?”
“I don’t think you understand,” I said. “I have to find it.”
“You’re right,” she said with a hint of an eye roll. “We don’t understand.”
I felt like I was on the verge of losing my mind. I needed them to understand why I needed it so badly, and yet in quiet moments, I had to ask myself the question: Why exactly did I need it so badly? It was true that I wanted to make my mark on the world. I was so close to accomplishing things I’d once only dreamed of, but there was somehow more to it than that. Could it really all go back to Charles? Was everything I did somehow a one-sided competition with him, a silent conversation held just inside my mind?
“Forget about the relic for a second,” Aspen continued. “You wanted to know what this place really is and what we really do, right?”
“I do,” I said, absently running my hand along the edge of the blue rug at the center of the room.
“First, we need you to clear your mind and open it completely. Can you do that, Robin?”
“I can try.”
“Okay, please, drink,” she said, motioning to the cup.
“What is it?”
“Medicine,” said Finn quickly.
“But what’s in it?”
