Another pause, then Raven breathed out heavily as if something Maxim had said had come as a disappointment.He’s lost in his own thoughts, clearly.Yet, I wonder what it was he didn’t like to hear me say.
“I just… There were so many new genres at the time.The big romances.Science fiction.”Raven opened his mouth, then closed it again, no doubt thinking about the Sherlock Holmes stories that had lured him.“Penny dreadfuls.”
“I suppose you could say many classics were written around the time, though it took a few decades.There was beautiful writing before then, too.”
Raven bobbed his head.“Yeah, I know that.”
Silence was threatening to descend on them again.Maxim wouldn’t have minded that.That light he’d seen in Raven’s eyes though, he wanted to keep it aflame.He put the book on the coffee table and straightened.
“How about we check whether I kept some of the copies?”
“What copies?”
Maxim forced himself to show Raven a toothy grin.“Of the books.The Vernes and the Austens.I did read Jane Austen, of course.And Dickens.I bet there are some still in the traveling trunks.”
“In the what?”
Maxim folded his hands in his lap.“Heath hired you, did he not?Well, I’d like to show you what your job might be, should you choose to accept it.”
“What do you mean, should I choose to accept it?I already did.”
Maxim rolled his eyes.“Oh, youth.”He stood.“Follow me, then.I’ll show you the trunks.I’ll have you know that I did travel in one once, but it was more or less an accident.I cannot recommend it at all.Mind the traveling trunks, Raven.They’re all mimics.”
“You traveled…in a trunk?”
Maxim smoothed his braid over his shoulder.“Yes.Like the vampires of human myths.Unlike them, I didn’t enjoy it.”
Raven gave Maxim a skeptical look.“What kind of trunk are we talking about?”
“Come along.I’ll show you.”
It didn’t take long for Raven to abandon his blood next to Maxim’s novel and follow him toward the elevator.And he looks excited.That’s good.Looking excited suits him.Umeboshi, roused from his relaxing nap and feel-good treatment, followed along as well.
The elevator opened for them, and Bryan made it go right to Maxim’s secret floor.
Maxim cleared his throat.“Please keep in mind that everything you’re about to see is a little bit like the pretty pens we talked about, in that it’s probably better to not mention it to Heath.”
Raven’s forehead wrinkled in confusion.“Doesn’t he know you have traveling trunks?”
Maxim laughed dryly just when the doors opened.“Oh, he knows.He’d just prefer I throw out all of the old things or burn them.He might not be aware of how full some of them are either, and there is absolutely no reason to tell him.”
The elevator came to a halt and the doors opened.Raven didn’t respond.He was taking in the single floor Maxim had claimed for things that had traveled with him, for things that had lived in the house but become obsolete over the years.Things he’d not seen a need to part with.
The sight of all the stuff had clearly dazzled Raven into open-mouthed speechlessness.Ah, now that’s rewarding.
Chapter 26
“I’mnotafraidtoadmit that I’m somewhat unsure about what to do with everything, but something should definitely be done with everything,” Maxim said.
“Uh-huh.”Raven lifted one of the tarps.There were several, both tarps and sheets, a dusty ocean of them covering… Raven wasn’t even sure how to categorize all the things he was seeing.It was a lot more than just the odd traveling trunk.Stuff was piled up and covered, and the path between everything was just about wide enough to allow him and Umeboshi to follow Maxim as he took them deeper into this wilderness of discarded things.
No, not discarded.It looks like he kept everything.But what on Earth is this?
Maxim turned and looked at what Raven had uncovered.“Oh!You found the phonograph.I wasn’t sure where it had gone, to be quite honest with you, but I’m sure you’ll be able to fix that.”
“The phonograph…like inDracula?”
Maxim nodded.Excitement was blooming in his eyes, an almost childlike glee.“Just so.Oh, this one traveled with us when we first came here, and we had it in the London house.I do believe I have some cylinders of Heath practicing his singing.”
