“Right,” I said. I shouldn’t have assumed. Just because a place felt so like it was Syd’s and mine didn’t mean other people didn’t know it.
The waitress, Colleen, stood over us, order pad already in hand. “Don’t tell me. You want the pancakes. Full stack.”
“Yes, please,” I said.
“Same,” Syd added.
“Me too,” Ella said.
Colleen sighed dramatically. “You girls outeat the Howell men’s hockey team,” she called over her shoulder as she walked away.
She told us that every time.
“Look.” Syd slapped down a small, green cloth-covered book on the table. An actual puff of dust rose up from it. “Look what I got.”
“Where on earth did that come from?” I asked.
“I put it in your glove compartment this morning when I got in the car,” Syd said. “I thought you saw me.”
“No, I mean originally,” I said. Something about it looked familiar. The coat of arms embossed on the cover, the Greek letters on the front...
“I took it from the chapter room at Alpha Kappa Sigma,” Syd said. “Don’t worry, I’ll take it back. Plus, I think Carl wanted us to find it.”
That cracked me up in spite of myself for a second. Carl was the name of the ghost we’d “summoned” when we’d broken into the fraternity house. Syd had given him a name, and we’d all come up with a backstory that was so ridiculous that even Sam had been adding to it by the end of the night.
“What is it?” Ella asked.
“It’s their secret book. With, like, their secret rules. They give it to the new pledges.”
I glanced around the diner. During the school year, lots of college guys, especially athletes, ate here. And some of them might be in town for summer training. “What if someone here is in that frat?”
“July,” Syd said, laughing. “Don’t be so paranoid.”
“I’m not paranoid,” I said. “Don’t you watch any movies? Haven’t you heard the stories?”
“Some of the stuff in here is hilarious,” Syd said. “It’s like, old-school. They have a chart that tells you how to set a formal table. There’s a whole section about manners.”
Ella had taken the book from Syd, was turning its pages.
“Thereissome secret-society stuff,” Syd said. “Secret signs. Ceremonies. But it’s pretty dorky.”
“And there’s a note at the front about how if you lose the book you’re going to die,” Ella added.
“That’s just posturing,” Syd said.
“You should take it back,” I said.
“We need to make something like this for the team,” Syd said.
“We’re not making a creepy frat book for the team.”
Syd took the book from Ella and leaned forward in her seat, flipping through the pages. “Not a whole book,” she said. “Only this part.” She’d landed on something. I peeked over but couldn’t see. Her eyes were intent on whatever the print on the page spelled out, her fingers tan against the green cloth cover. “A manifesto.”
46.
now
It could be the wind that slammed that door.
