“Auntie Jo,” I said. “Nobody called her Josephine.”
“Were you close to Jack’s Auntie Jo?”
Ms. Leech nodded. “We were like sisters at one time, then we weren’t. It was better that we weren’t.”
“Did something happen?”
She grew pale at this. “Something always happens. How is your tea?”
“Wonderful.” Gerdy smiled, although I don’t think she drank any. “Did you have some kind of falling out?”
If the table between us offered some kind of concealment, I probably would have kicked Gerdy beneath it. Unfortunately, this table did not, so all I could do was frown at her. This was none of our business. I was beginning to wonder exactly why we came here. Gerdy smiled back at me. This time she did take a sip of her tea, then returned her gaze to Ms. Leech. “To take on the guardianship of a child is such a huge responsibility, particularly if you aren’t close. That’s why I asked.”
“We are all guardians of each other on some level.”
Gerdy sneezed again. Her eyes were red and puffy. “Allergies.”
Ms. Leech plucked a tissue from the box beside her and handed it to Gerdy. “I had a cat once. She ran away the day the bad people came.”
Gerdy wiped her nose. “The men who hurt you?”
“The people in white, yes.”
I nearly dropped my tea at this. “People in white?”
“They bring nothing but pain.” She looked to the side, her thoughts lost. “My cat’s name was Bumkins. I set food out for him every day, but he never did come back. Horrible, horrible time.”
“Who are the people in white?” Gerdy asked.
“Starkist tuna, not even that brought him back. Not even his favorite. My wonderful Bumkins.”
Gerdy was about to say something else. I silenced her with a glance, then set my teacup down on the table. “Ms. Leech? Who are the people in white?”
Ms. Leech set her tea down on the table and looked down at her hands, twisting her fingers together. “I have something for you, something you should see, something you should know. Something Jo gave me to hold and protect.” She bent her fingers so far back, I thought for sure one would snap. “The wordsomethingover and over again. Repeated. A pattern. Patterns are bad. Patterns get you caught. Must keep them guessing. Always guessing. Random. Different. The unexpected.” Her words trailed off as she continued to mumble to herself, the two of us lost to her.
“Ms. Leech?” I clapped my hands loudly and she startled, her eyes finding focus.
She looked at me, her lips pursed. “I don’t talk about the people in white. Never. It’s best none of us speak of them, I think. I do have something for you, though. I suppose I should give that to you.”
She stood and left the room, disappearing among the stacks of newspapers.
The box?
I thought of the box from my dream. The box my father had given Auntie Jo.
Had she hidden it with Ms. Leech all these years?
I had torn our apartment up looking for it. Year after year, always searching for this box I could never find. Could it really have been right here, across the hall, the entire time?
My palms grew sweaty.
Gerdy eyed me nervously, sipping at her tea.
In the fireplace, a plump spider crept over the wood and around the back of the topmost log.
From one of the bedrooms came the sound of shuffling, followed by a minor crash, and I could only imagine the woman moving through clutter not unlike the mess out here but ages older. She didn’t return for nearly five minutes, and when she did, she held an envelope, yellow with age.
Not the box.
