“All right, I’ll stop torturing you,” Alex hums to himself after Gilda checks off Team Yellow on a clipboard and we go on our merry way. “I know the answer to number four.”
“Yeah, so do I.”
He continues as though I hadn’t spoken. “Bring a flower of the gods to the ghost of Downigan. Obviously, the ghost of Downigan is referring to Downigan Cemetery, and that one lady from back in the day.”
“Lovisa Coe, who haunts the town.”
“She doesn’t, because there’s no such thing as ghosts, but anyway, that’s the spot. The first half of the clue was easy to figure out. Just popped it into Google, which says thatflower of the godsis the symbolism for dianthus flowers.”
I laugh. “You are so off track.”
He determinedly heads to Budding Romance, anyway. In his mind, there is no way he could be wrong. This is going to be delightful.
“Dianthus, please!” he booms as soon as we get inside the flower shop. I poke him.
“Calm down.”
“Calm down? Did you hear Gilda?It’s about time. We’re going to lose, Tempest!”
“We’re going to lose because you’re wrong. You won’t even consider the possibility that you’re wrong.”
“It’s statistically unlikely that I would be wrong.”
My eyes roll for eternity.
He gets his dianthus, and we amble on our way to the cemetery. We’ve been dawdling so long that the sun’s run all the way across the sky, and it strikes me that we probably could have won this if he’d been more forthcoming about clue number three, and if I’d been more forthcoming about clue number four, but there you have it. Neither of us can pass up the opportunity to make the other one flail.
Gilda’s daughter, Millicent, is dressed in an old white Victorian gown, waiting for us next to Lovisa Coe’s weathered tombstone. I don’t care what Alex says; that woman (Lovisa, not Millicent) has been banging cupboards and opening locked doors all around town since 1885.
Alex proudly presents his dianthus to Millicent, who shakes her head.
“This is for the scavenger hunt,” Alex tells her, as if she might be here for some other reason. Which, honestly, she might. We get a lot of cosplaying ghost hunters in these parts.
“Thaaaat’s not the ooone,” she responds in a ghostly wail. “Tryyyy agaaaiiin.”
Everything that Alex thinks he knows explodes. His brain shorts. He stares at me, takes in my smile, and my pupils that are hopefully not doing anything untoward. Sighs.
“All right. Just tell me.”
I tip up my chin, skipping around him. “No, I think I’ll let you run in circles for a while.”
“Oh, come on.”
“But you were sosureyou were right,” I sing. “How can I, a mere squirrel, know the answer when you, All-Knowing Wizard, do not? How can this be?”
He crosses his arms, mouth flat. When I still do not give in, he starts walking again (in the wrong direction, I might add) and motions for me to hurry up. “Fine. You can lord your secrets over me while we get something to eat.”
Chapter Ten
HYDRANGEA:
Why are you so fickle?
Mozzi’s Pizza doesn’t have any empty tables, so we take our food to go and stop at a campsite area, four logs situated around the charred remnants of a fire. “So,” he says, seating himself on one, patting the spot at his side. I opt for my own log. “Why fortune-flower-thingies?”
“Why roofing?”
He huffs a laugh, picking at his extra-mushroom pizza. “Why defensive?”
