“How is he really?”
Asher hesitated. “He worries, and he misses you.”
“Maybe he’s worried you’ll kill me temporarily,” she muttered, stealing a glance at him. His face fell momentarily, but she gave him a half-hearted grin, and his mouth twitched in relief.
She opened the note, smiling at the familiar scrawl.
Hailey pulled her chin back. Uncle Pix must've been in the whiskey before writing such a cryptic note.
“Do you know what this means?” She held the note out, but Asher shook his head.
“Perhaps he’s referring to how you dispatched Adalwolf. But,” he added, “he had been drinking with his brothers, and it was difficult to follow his thoughts.”
Asher waited patiently as Hailey read the note twice again, and then he stroked her arm. “Hailey, would you join me in the observatory tonight?”
“Sure,” she said still staring at her uncle’s letter. “What time?”
“After the sun sets. Before it risesagain.”
“Alright,” she chuckled. “I’ll see you then.”
Hugging her shoes, she left his home smiling. As she exited the ParaScience leaf, Fin caught up to her.
“I’ll take that,” he said, pulling her backpack off her shoulder.
“Thanks.”
“You’re welcome…and you know you’re not allowed to use those here.” He pointed to her hard shoes. Then he slapped her on the back. “Guess you’ve been to see Asher,” he said spitefully, and Hailey gave him a wry smile.
They walked half a block in silence before Fin blurted out, “I’m four hundred and sixty years old.”
Hailey stopped slacked-jawed.
“Been meaning to tell you,” he added over his shoulder, never breaking stride.
“How?” Hailey asked, running to catch up.
“Curse,” he said curtly. “Adalwolf.”
Hailey stared at the ground as they walked, not sure what to say or ask or think…or feel…
“I stole all your mail,” Fin said suddenly.
Hailey pressed her brow down and pulled her chin back. “What?”
“Yeah. Every day,” he confessed. “You actually got in to Harvard.”
Hailey’s jaw fell again, and Fin smiled mischievously.
“I had to get you here,” he said shrugging, “and there was no way you were coming to Bear Towne if you knew you could go to Harvard.”
“There were an awful lot of scholarships available for Bear Towne…”
“I know!” Fin said excitedly. “I wrote all of those and put them in your mailbox.”
“You what?”
“Some of them were pretty good, right?” He smiled proudly.
