Jill’s eyes went wide. “Yes! Totally! It’s like the shape inthe stained-glass window, except with a woman’s face.” She leaned closer to Una. “Does Iceland have a story about a sea monster with a woman’s face?”
It was Svana’s face Una thought of now. Svana disappearing into that dark, roiling sea.
In Una’s memories, there had only been Svana’s face and those black holes for eyes staring out from just below her.
But last night, she’d dreamed of the thing in the water. She’d seen details that had caused her to bolt awake, drowning in sweat. She’d seen a creature with ropy arms and spear-point teeth.
Rippling shadows in the water had surrounded Svana’s body. Were they eels? Or...
“Tentacles,” she whispered.
Jill waited for her to elaborate, but at that moment, Mrs. Stapleton appeared at the end of the stacks, a patron in tow.
“We’re finishing up here,” Una told the librarian. To Jill, she said, “Give me the books you want to check out and put the rest back. I’m driving you home.”
Jill did as she was told. A few minutes later, she and Una ran out to her little yellow car.
“What about my bike?” asked Jill.
“One of your parents will have to pick it up. You can’t ride home in this weather. With library books and only one good hand? It would be a disaster.”
Jill’s face fell. “Mom’s showing a house. I can ask Dad, but he’ll be mad that I went out.”
Una wiped a stray raindrop off Jill’s cheek. “I need to stop at Rudy’s Market on the way home. I’m going to make bread today, but I don’t think I have enough flour. Why don’t you come in with me, and we’ll see if he has any sprinkle cookies left? I think cookies taste better on rainy days, don’t you?”
Ten minutes later, Jill followed Una into the little shop and held the shopping basket while Una filled it with eggs, flour, and two cookies. Then they stood outside under the awning and ate their cookies, marveling over how the sprinkles turned their rain-damp fingertips green, yellow, and blue.
Back in the car, they stuck out their tongues and laughed at the streaks of color covering the pink flesh.
Jill seemed more relaxed now than she’d been at the library, but as soon as Una turned onto her street and slowly traversed the descending curves, she went quiet again.
“Would you do me a favor?” Una asked.
“Sure.”
“Will you soak your hand as soon as you get home?”
Jill glanced at her bandaged palm. “Okay.”
“But show it to your dad first. Tell him it’s why I wouldn’t let you ride your bike.”
Jill picked at a curled corner of the Band-Aid. “He doesn’t know I went to the library. He thinks I went to Heather’s.”
Una sighed. Everyone kept secrets. Told white lies. It was part of being human, but she wished Jill could be more honest with her parents. Her fear of disapproval had her constantly saying things she later regretted.
“Why? Don’t you think he’d understand why you went to the library today?”
Jill shook her head.
“I’m not sure I do, either. You want to know more about the face you found in the garden, right? And the scale, too. But why today? Why not wait until the storm passed?”
By this point, they’d reached the cul-de-sac. Instead of going down Jill’s driveway, Una pulled over next to the Bernsteins’ mailbox.
Jill’s gaze was immediately snared by Mrs. Smith’s house.She raised her eyes to the roof and stared, even though there was nothing to see. Both the widow’s walk and attic windows were shrouded in mist.
“Is it the regatta?” Una whispered.
Jill’s eyes drifted to the Bernsteins’ house. “I don’t think it was a propeller. I think it was... something else.”
