Suspending Reality (84 page)

She held out her hand for a shake. “Pamela Joy, but you can call me Pam.”

“Uh…” I quickly wiped my hands on my clothes so I could shake her hand. “I’m Zoey.”

“Zoey, huh? My best friend has a Chihuahua named that.”

“Um…”

“Don’t worry. It’s not a bad thing. The Chihuahua is cute,” she said with a laugh. “Nice to meet you.”

“A pleasure,” I said.

Hunter turned to meet her gaze. “Hunter, and it’s nice to officially meet you. You were sitting at the table behind me.”

“Yeah, I heard you cracking all those jokes about the school food. Is that why you’re here? Were the powers-that-be offended that you were insulting their not-so-good eats?”

I cut in. “Nope. He’s here because he’s a squatter.”

“A what?”

“He tried to steal
my
room.”

Pam cocked a brow.

“I tried to tell the teacher it was a huge mistake and misunderstanding, but all that did was get me assigned to kitchen duty.”

Hunter chuckled. “Yeah, what she said. But what about you, Pam? To what do we owe the pleasure of your company on kitchen patrol?”

Pam rolled her eyes playfully. “I guess you could say I’m misunderstood. I didn’t know I wasn’t supposed to nibble on the M&Ms sitting on the coffee table. C’mon! I was starving after that long flight. The least they could have done was put out some chips or something.”

We all laughed.

Pam glanced at my teardrop-shaped pendant.
“C
ool necklace.” She peered closer. “Ooh…I love how it reflects the light, like it’s glowing or something.”

“Yeah, it’s super neat,” Hunter said, smiling. For a moment, I thought his eyes seemed to wander a bit lower than my pendant, but I couldn’t be sure.

“Thanks,” I said. “It’s an old heirloom that’s been in my family for generations.”

Pam let out a small giggle. “Super neat? What, did you take a time machine out of the seventies to come here, Greg Brady? Personally, I think it’s groovy.”

Hunter threw a soapy rag at her, and she caught it with one hand, and suds began to drip down her arm. She shot him a huge grin.

“Awesome reflexes,” he said.

For some reason, I felt slightly jealous about their obvious flirting, but I knew I had no right to and didn’t say anything about it. If I was going to have any friends in the place, they would be the closest thing to it, and I didn’t want to mess that up.

“I have lots of brothers,” she said with a smirk, rolling up her sleeves. She looked around at the Leaning Tower of Dishes and declared, “Man, this is gonna be a long night. I despise dishes.”

“You and me both,” Hunter complained.

Overhead, the lights flickered, prompting me to drop the wet sponge in my hand and look around. A black shadow, like a human shape in a black cloak, fell in front of me, not more than twenty feet away. My heart raced. “What the heck is that?” I yelled. It glided across the room, and when the lights flickered once more, it disappeared.

“What’s what?” Pam asked, glancing around.

“I don’t see anything,” Hunter said.

“
I
saw something,” I whispered, wiping my wet hands across my pants once again. I wondered if my eyes were playing tricks on me or if I was just suffering from a really bad case of jetlag and fatigue. I scanned the huge kitchen but saw nothing else out of the ordinary.

“It’s probably just the electricity,” Pam said. “This is an old place. I wonder if their Wi-Fi sucks too.”

I nodded in reluctant resignation to logical explanations. “Probably.”

“Just think,” she said, “we’re standing in the exact place where peasants made meals for the great king and queen hundreds of years ago. This castle’s bound to have a few kinks in the plumbing and wiring here and there.”

Hunter’s gaze met mine. He didn’t seem as if he wanted to drop the subject or explain it away like Pam had tried to do. “What did you see?”

I didn’t even want to think about ghosts, because I’d never been one to believe in that kind of thing, but I could have sworn some phantasmal Grim Reaper or something had just paid us a little visit. I shrugged in false denial. “Nothing—just shadows playing tricks on me,” I said.

Pam flicked water at me. “Well, c’mon, you two. These dishes aren’t gonna wash themselves.”

“Maybe they would,” I said, “if we could get a hold of that pesky Fairy Godmother of yours. Can’t you text her or something?” I suggested with a smile.

She laughed. “You’re right. I’m gonna have to fire that woman.”

I grabbed the rag out of her hands while Hunter sprayed her, then me. I pushed the wet hair out of my eyes. “Hey! Payback time, mister!” I scooped up a handful of bubbles and plopped them on his head.

He retaliated by splashing me back, and within minutes, I was soaked and he had a soapy Santa Clause—without the bowlful-of-jelly physique, of course, because everything about his figure was perfect.

Apart from getting scared to death, washing dishes had never been so much fun.

* * *

And in no time, a week quickly passed by in the blink of an eye. I felt pretty settled in and was ready to face the school year head on. I changed into my nightgown and brushed my teeth. Jumping into bed felt wonderful. I turned off my bedside light, crawled into the soft covers, and drifted off to Dreamland.

A while later, with a huge effort, I pried my eyes open and scanned the room. My mind felt as though it was engulfed in a fog, and instrumental music, some distinctive melody with a particular musical structure and harmonic elements, echoed from the walls. I rubbed my eyes and sat up groggily, wondering why anyone would be having a classical music festival so late at night. I remembered going to bed, but my bedroom was simply gone, and I found myself standing in a large concert hall with marble floors and a glorious grand piano in the middle of the room.

As the fog lifted, I could make out tiny streams of moonlight creeping through a large bay window on my left. The branched candelabras cast a golden glow on the beautiful instrument before me. My fingers danced back and forth over the keys in an organized rhythmic pattern, gliding over the ivories as if I’d played a million times before.
How did I get here? What’s going on?
My brain had a thousand questions, yet I couldn’t focus on anything but the piano in front of me. I tried to stop my fingers from moving, but music continued to pour from my finger-play. It was such a beautiful tune. I had never learned the chords needed to create such beautiful music, and I couldn’t have even picked out “Mary Had a Little Lamb” on the piano to save my life. Yet there I was, playing like Chopin.

“Well-composed, spellbinding, and beautifully haunting. It’s extraordinary, isn’t it?” said a male voice in a Scottish accent, jerking me out of my confused thoughts.

I glanced up at a strikingly handsome, well-groomed man in his early twenties, dressed in cutaway tailored coat, over a waist-length satin waistcoat and dark breeches. He was wearing a brocade vest covered with a robin’s egg-blue coat, tan knickers, and white hose. His necktie was quite outdated and looked more like a wide scarf trimmed with lace.

With a grand movement, I played the last note, and then the music melted into an eerie quiet. Somewhere in the room, I could hear a clock ticking. I shuddered, pulling my white silk robe around me, and tied it tightly around my waist. “Who are you?” I asked in an accusatory tone. Part of me knew he was the reason I was there, but none of it made much sense. “How did I get here?”

He smiled. “How nice of you to wake up and join us.”

“
Us
?” I peered around me, more confused than before, because I only saw him. “What do you mean?” I pointed to the piano and behind it, into the corners that weren’t illuminated by the candelabras, but all I could make out was darkness.

“You must only close your eyes. When you do, if only for a minute, it shall be morning, and all will be back to normal, as you know it, milady.”

“But I-I don’t understand,” I whispered.

He gazed deeply into my eyes. “Victoria, you must hold the connection.”

“What?” I shook my head. “I’m not Victoria. My name is—”

“I’m not talking to you, Zoey.” His sharp tone and the fact that he somehow knew me took me by surprise.

“But you’re looking at me…and how do you know my name?”

“Reestablish the connection,” he ordered to some unseen entity, ignoring my question.

I opened my mouth to ask again what he was talking about, when a cold gush of air traveled up my body, making me shiver. For a moment, I closed my eyes to escape the freezing sensation, but when I opened them again, there was only darkness.

At the shrill sound of my alarm clock, I bolted up and peered at my bedside table. It was six a.m. Streams of sunlight hit my face through the window, and I blinked. I jumped out of bed, threw on my slippers, grabbed my robe, and wrapped it around me. I had no idea how I’d gotten out of bed and back. In fact, my memories were too hazy and incoherent for me to really remember anything. I brushed my teeth and threw my hair up in a ponytail, then sped out of my bedroom and down the spiral staircase, through the corridors, straight to the music room.

I yanked the door open and stepped into the vast hall, then peered around me. I didn’t remember entering the room before, but I recognized everything, from the marble floor to the heavy furniture and large candelabra. The beautiful grand piano stood in the middle of the room, its lid securely shut, even though I didn’t remember closing it when I was somehow there before. I spun in a circle, confused, and took in several new details. There was a glass door that led to what looked like a back yard, something I hadn’t noticed before. A large painting hung on the wall to my right, and I was sure I couldn’t have simply missed it in my strange dream. I knew I needed to calm down and think for a minute. I scooted into the window seat to look out the bay window. It was the perfect place to curl up with a book or take a nap in the sun. I looked at the shrubs swaying in the wind.
Maybe I was dreaming…but it felt so real. I swear I could feel the keys underneath my fingers.
My gaze drifted back over to the grand piano.

I knew I wasn’t supposed to mess with the expensive instrument, but my curiosity overwhelmed me. I rushed over to the black-lacquered piano and propped open the enormous lid. I gazed down at the horizontal strings and laughed. I knew there was no way I could play any kind of song on that thing. I lowered myself onto the piano bench, then shook out my hands like some brilliant concert pianist, trying to relax myself before a performance. In the dream, I’d had no sheet music, so I assumed I’d been playing from memory. I clumsily pecked at the black and white keys, playing three notes that didn’t seem to go together at all.
Da-da-dum-dum, dum-dum-ding.
I then ran my hands up the scale and cringed: Even that was off key.

Just as I was trying again, Pam walked in, carrying a cup of tea. “Ouch,” she said. “I wondered who was playing in here.” Her long, wet hair hung in blonde curls. She had a romantic Bohemian about her and had paired a ruffled blouse with a black tiered, pleated skirt. Her style was simple and understated, yet incredibly classy.

I stood and brushed my hands over my humble and dull robe, suddenly embarrassed. “Well, I guess I’m no Mozart.”

She let out a small giggle. Her makeup looked perfect, so natural, giving a glow to her flawless skin. Her blue eyes twinkled in the bright rays of sun. “Maybe the piano isn’t tuned,” she said, trying to cheer me up. “Why are you down here anyway?”

“I had the weirdest dream. I dreamt I was in this very room, playing this think like some concert pianist.”

“Hmm. Well, I hope you gave a better performance than that ear-splitting screech I just heard,” she joked.

“In my dream, I played one of the most beautiful, eerie, and haunting songs I’ve ever heard,” I said.

“Sounds romantic.” She nodded. “Way better than the boring dream I had the other night. My hands were all caked with gray goop, and I was sculpting some ancient Greek statue.” She pointed to the floor. “Hey, I think you dropped something.”

Silver glittered off to the left of the foot pedals, and I reached down and picked up my silver locket. “Hmm. That’s weird.”

She sipped her tea. “What?”

I rolled the jewelry in my hand, regarding it intently. “I only came down here a minute ago. I’m sure I would have noticed if it fell off, especially since everything echoes in here. Maybe I really
was
in here last night and dropped it then.”

“Sleep-walk much?” she teased.

I dangled the necklace in my hands. “I suppose that could have been it, but that doesn’t explain the strange guy.”

“Strange…or hot?” She laughed. “If you are seeing hot guys in your dreams, girl, you’re definitely dreaming. How hot are we talking anyway? Like…Johnny Depp hot or Taylor Lautner hot?”

“Drop-dead gorgeous, but way too old for me—like…ancient. He was dressed in medieval-looking clothes, and he sounded like that one guy on those old
Star Trek
reruns that’s always beaming people up.”