“For heaven’s sake,” I sigh. “Where’s Edgar?”
“Don’t know, Ollie. I haven’t seen him at all today.”
“Then who’s running the book?”
Socks whinnies. “I guess nobody,” he says. “Since Frump disappeared, everyone’s been left to his own devices.”
Frump barks at the book, drawing Socks’s attention. “Hey!” he cries. “You look really great. I guess it’s not true what they say, how the outside world puts on ten pounds. . . .”
“Socks, where can I find Orville?” I ask.
“Oh, he’s getting his teeth cleaned,” Socks says.
“Thanks,” I say. “Hold on to your horses.” Humphrey wraps his paws around Socks’s hindquarters as I flip through the book to page thirty-seven, where Captain Crabbe leans over Orvilleas he reclines in the commander seat of a space shuttle. “Hello, laddie,” Captain Crabbe says from behind a paper surgical mask.
Orville tries to speak but has a mess of instruments in his mouth.
“One wee moment, now. All right. Spit,” Captain Crabbe orders, holding up a cup for Orville, who then reveals a blinding white smile. “Ye’re missing out, Oliver. These new space chairs are so much more comfortable than the old braw ones on the pirate ship.”
“Orville,” Delilah asks, “have you had any luck?”
Orville shakes his head. “This is the first free moment I’ve had since you last opened the book—and I’ve already rescheduled twice. There have been more pressing matters.” He exchanges a look with Captain Crabbe. “The book’s not reacting well to all these changes,” he confesses. “It’s in a stage of degradation.”
Captain Crabbe interrupts. “He means to say it’s fallin’ apart at the seams.”
“How?” I ask.
Orville sits up, ripping the paper bib from around his neck. “A sinkhole’s opened on Everafter Beach that’s pulling trees from the Enchanted Forest into its depths. It’s already taken out five fairy huts.”
“Part of Pyro’s cave collapsed yesterday. Thank goodness he was out when it happened.”
“Isn’t the book fixing itself like it usually does?”
“That’s the problem, laddie,” Captain Crabbe says. “It hasna responded that way since Frump left.”
“It’s as if the book has lost so much,” Orville muses, “that it’s just given up.”
“Who are you guys talking to?”
Delilah and I freeze at the sound of Jules’s voice. She’s come into the bedroom, wearing Chris’s jacket. On the page, Orville and Captain Crabbe look at each other, panicked, unsure what to do. Usually when a new Reader arrives, there’s a cue—the opening of the book, and Frump’s orders—but in this case, no one is in their correct place to act out the story.
“It’s okay,” Delilah says to them, and she lifts the book to her chest. “Jules, remember when I told you that the characters in the fairy tale I read over and over were talking back to me?”
She narrows her eyes. “Yes.”
“You said you believed me, back then.”
“Yeah . . . but that’s what you always say to your best friend,” Jules points out. “If you told me you were going to vacation on the moon, I would have nodded along too.”
“Well, the thing is,” Delilah says, “I wasn’t lying.” She turns the book so that the pictures are facing Jules. Captain Crabbe and Orville awkwardly wave.
Jules grabs the book from Delilah’s hands. “This is insane,” she murmurs, turning it over and shaking it.
“Please stop!” Orville yelps.
“Where are the batteries?” Jules asks, peering at the endpapers. “Is this like the next-generation e-reader or something?”
She turns the book upright; Orville and Captain Crabbe are tangled in a heap at the bottom corner.
