Arnie nodded. “I assume she’s been away from the magic too long, and now it’s reclaiming her.”
Stella reopened the book and flipped through the pages. “But her story is disappearing.”
“Which means she can never come back, even if she wants to,” Jack said.
“That’s my belief too,” Arnie said.
“Is the magic reclaiming her? Is she dying?” Stella asked.
Arnie shook his head. “Could be either. Or both.”
Jack shook his head. “Then I can’t stay away from the library.”
Stella’s head jerked up and she gaped at Jack. “Why not?”
He pointed at Maria’s book. “Because I’ll disappear. Forever.”
Stellaknewhe was right, but she refused to agree. “Not right away. Maria’s been gone twenty-four years.”
“There’s no way to know how fastI’dgo,” Jack argued. “I don’t want to lose you forever. Coming out once a year is safer.”
“But even if I bring you out once a year, I’ll grow older and you won’t!” Stella yelled. Then she threw Maria’s book across the room, and it slammed into the lower kitchen cabinets. “This isn’t fair! My awful fictional mother gets to spend the last twenty-four years chasing her ridiculous dream in New York, but I can’t have mine?”
“Stella,” Jack said, reaching for her hand.
Stella jerked away. “I need some air.”
Arnie pulled her into a quick hug, and she stiffened in his arms. Stella released him and flung open the front door, then slammed it behind her. She stomped across the library grounds, trapped between the urge to cry and the desire to rip something to shreds. She walked, sweating profusely in the heat, until her erratic emotions settled to something almost tamable.
If Jack refused to leave the library, to moveanywhere elsewith her, what were their other options? She imagined all sorts of ridiculous scenarios: holding on to Jack when he started to disappear, sprinkling the glittering potion over her head like a baptism, even stamping Arnie’s copy ofBeyond the Southern Horizonagain with the magic ink just to see if it would extend Jack’s stay. None of her ideas seemed plausible, but she was willing to give any—or all—of them a try.
A half hour later Jack found Stella on the library grounds. At first they walked in silence while Jack held her hand and led her into the shade scattered around the wide lawn. Still her mind labored over harebrained ideas that might allow Jack to stay—or could she go with him? Could she mix the potion into milk and cocoa powder like an enchanted hot chocolate or drink it straight like Alice did in Wonderland? The ideas grew increasingly absurd in her rising desperation.
Stella sensed the awareness of time so profoundly that it felt like another person following her around all day, reminding her, whispering in her ear, counting down the hours, minutes, seconds until Jack would be gone.
Finally, after they’d walked the day away, the sun dipped low, turning the sky the color of pink cotton candy. Stella stood at thelong windows inside the library with Jack as they stared at the sunset. He reached over and grabbed her hand, and she stepped closer to him, leaning her head against his arm. She tried to etch every second with him into her mind—the way it felt to be near him, his warmth, the way his cheek dimpled when he smiled at her.
He leaned down and kissed the top of her head. “I wish I could bring you with me to my Blue Sky Valley,” he said.
She closed her eyes and nodded against his arm. A bolt of electricity exploded from her heart, traveling all the way to her feet. She gasped and dropped Jack’s hand.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
Tangled midnight-blue words floated all around Jack before circling him, faster and faster, until she and Jack were enclosed in a tornado of phrases. Stella couldn’t read all of them, and when she opened her mouth to speak, nothing would come out. It was as if all the words she wanted to say were flying around them. She reached out her hand and four words crashed into her palm.This is your life.She and Jack both looked at the crumpled words in her hand. Stella closed her fingers, and the words melted into her skin.
“I need to talk to Arnie,” she said, grabbing Jack’s hand and pulling him behind her while she ran toward the back entrance of the library.
Stella shoved both hands against the door, slamming it open, and jumped down the stairs. Then she ran across the lawn toward Arnie’s cottage with Jack close behind. She knocked on the back door and waited a few seconds before calling Arnie’s name and knocking again.
Arnie opened the door, looking slightly disheveled and sleepy. He gazed at her with a confused expression marred with worry. “What’s wrong?”
“The extra magical potion,” Stella said, sucking in gulps of air.She squeezed a cramp in her side. “Where is it? You said it was in the archives somewhere. But where?”
Arnie pushed his glasses up on his nose. He glanced between her and Jack. “Why?”
Stella bounced on her toes. “Where is it?”
“It’s in a box behind the first four books on Blue Sky Valley’s earliest history, those leather-bound monsters held together by goodwill and deteriorating threads.”
