She pressed her lips together. “I’ll consider it.”
“Thank you,” I said, relieved, and gave her an impulsive hug. She was clearly startled, frozen for a moment before tentatively patting my back.
Daziel came up to us, smiling. He swept an elaborate bow, thekind that spoke of years of training plus a natural elegance. “Councilor Bat Tovah,” he said. “May I have this dance?”
Her brows went up. “Are you a charmer or a politician?”
“I am a dancer,” he said, offering my aunt his hand. Shaking her head ruefully, she allowed herself to be led onto the dance floor.
They floated around the floor, talking but not seriously, based on their expressions. Daziel twirled my aunt, and she laughed, something I hadn’t heard before.
Daziel was as strange and unpredictable as the winds, infuriating and engaging and amusing. Nothing like I’d expected when he’d first arrived. I would never have expected him to apologize. To empathize. Tocare.
I watched them dance for another song, and then I went over to join in.
Eleven
When I went into theliving room the next morning, Daziel was already awake. A pot of coffee steamed on the narrow counter, and a plate piled high with fluffy pancakes stood beside fig jam and ricotta cheese.
“Wow.” I sank onto one of the counter stools, admiring a new plant, a strange spiky red thing with a white flower blooming out of it. Did this flower look like it could kill me? Maybe! I decided to ignore it and inhaled the buttery scent of the freshly made pancakes. “This smells delicious.”
Daziel looked nervous. “I have never made pancakes before. But your aunt’s housekeeper gave me the recipe, and I think they came out all right.”
“You asked my aunt’s housekeeper for a pancake recipe?” I echoed, baffled. “When?”
He looked down. “When you were in the restroom. I wanted to make up for showing up at your aunt’s unannounced.”
I was startled and touched. I hadn’t expected another apology after last night—I hadn’t needed one—but I appreciated it. “Thanks. I guess I don’t mind if I get pancakes out of it.” I pulled several of the steaming flapjacks onto a plate and covered them in the ricotta and fig jam. The combination of sweet and savory onthe buttery pancakes were decadent. “It tastesamazing. Do you cook at home?”
Daziel laughed, louder than usual, seeming relieved I’d liked them. “No. Maybe I’ll try more when I return.” Relaxed now, he tried his own bite. His eyes widened. “Thesearegood.”
We ate and drank our coffee companionably. I gazed out the window, at the blue wind flag indicating an eastern breeze, before my attention dipped to my living room, which now hosted a veritable forest along with new mirrors, paintings, and what I suspected was the beginning of a rock garden in the corner.
“Are those new cushions?” I asked, noticing the velvet pillows tucked into Daziel’s blanket nest: deep-jewel-toned with buttons, nothing like the faded old things I’d owned.
“Hm?” He glanced over at his nest. “Oh. No. I just encouraged them to be their best self.”
I raised my brows. “What?”
He shrugged, feeding Paz a tiny square of pancake. “You know. I asked what they wanted to be.”
“I do not know. Are you saying those are my old cushions? What did you do to them?”
“I told them to be what they desired.” He picked up my empty coffee mug. “This mug, for example, wants to hold lots of coffee and be a soothing shape.”
Before my eyes, the coffee mug doubled in size. It bulged in the middle, forming a pleasing round body, and its handle developed a pretty little flourish. The chip in the lip disappeared.
“There,” Daziel said, sounding satisfied.
I stared at the mug, astonished, then at the beautiful couch pillows. I didn’t know inanimate objects had opinions. “Do all inanimate objects have shapes they want to be?”
“To a degree.”
My mind ran wild. Did my bed yearn to be elegant, or my rug brighter and thicker?
Or…
I caught my breath. Could Daziel ask the scroll fragments to be what they wanted? “Do you know in advance what form they’ll take?”
