I said nothing. At that moment it was hard enough to breathe.
“What do you think is more likely? That a system that has been in place without a single hitch since the dawn of time has suddenly gone haywire, or that you, someone who has existed in this realm for less than a gnat’s blink, has made an error in judgment?” Her lips curled into something that resembled a smile but felt more like a threat. “What do you say, Ms. Miller? What’s your hypothesis?”
My whole body shook under her scrutiny as she looked me slowly up and down. I clamped my teeth together and held my tongue.
“That’s what I thought,” she said smugly.
“Look, we all know something’s off,” Joaquin said calmly, patiently. “Flowers and animals dying, leaves changing, hornet stings… Did you know Kevin found a nest of worms in his yard this morning? And there are spiders and flies and—”
“I’m well aware of what’s going on, Mr. Marquez,” the mayor said tensely. “I don’t need you of all people coming in here to tell me.”
“So you won’t even listen to what we have to say?” Joaquin asked. “You won’t even consider the possibility that people are being misplaced?”
She lifted her head and looked at Joaquin and Tristan. “I think you’ve wasted enough of my time. I’d like you to leave now,” she said, striding back toward her office, back to whomever was waiting in that chair. She paused next to Tristan and looked down her nose at him. “All of you.”
Next to me, Krista made a sound somewhere between a squeak and a squeal.
“Let’s go,” Tristan said to the rest of us. He walked over to the door and held it open. Krista was the first one through, fluttering like a startled butterfly. Joaquin hesitated for just a moment but eventually tromped out.
I was just passing by Tristan when the mayor’s voice stopped me.
“Oh, and Ms. Miller?”
I stopped and looked at her. In the shadows cast by the curtained window next to her, her face looked like a skull.
“Don’t come back without an appointment.”
Then she walked into her office and slammed the door.
Outside, Joaquin flung Tristan’s arm off his and stormed to the edge of the bluff. In the distance, storm clouds gathered, lightning flashing deep within the dark gray cover. I took in a deep breath and tried to relax, but the mayor’s last words to me still rang in my ears. In two short days, I’d gone from being a “distinct pleasure” to being someone who needed an appointment. Someone who got the door slammed in her face. Was it just because I was siding with Joaquin, or was it something more?
“What is the matter with you?” Tristan demanded, charging after Joaquin. A gust of wind blasted his hair back from his face as they neared the drop-off. “You know she hates it when we just barge in.”
“Do you really think I give a shit?” Joaquin asked, whirling to face Tristan. “Something’s going on around here, Tristan. Something bigger than the random shriveled magnolia or the centipede you found at the gazebo. Don’t you feel it? Because I do. I can feel it in every inch of my body.”
Tristan scoffed. “You’re so melodramatic.”
&
nbsp; Krista and I hovered a safe distance away as the boys faced off. I could feel the mayor watching us through her office windows, but I refused to turn. Krista, however, kept glancing furtively back at the house. Along the front of the porch, the garden that had once been bursting with daisies was now a square of dry brown thatch.
“What if she never lets us back in?” she whispered, biting her bottom lip.
“I’m sure she will. It’s your home,” I replied.
“Yeah, but not really,” Krista said. “It’s not like she’s really my mother. And I’ve never seen her that angry before.”
Krista toyed with her bracelet, looking at the ground.
“We can’t keep letting this happen!” Joaquin shouted, the veins in his neck bulging. “You know the weather vane has been pointing south a lot more often than usual. If people are being sent to the wrong place, then what’s the point of all this? What’s the point of our existence?”
Another cold wind whooshed in off the ocean, leaving me momentarily breathless. The clouds were moving in at a fast clip; they were an ominous shade of steel gray. Krista took a few steps back toward the porch and away from the drop-off.
“People aren’t getting sent to the wrong place,” Tristan replied stubbornly. “The system works, Joaquin. It’s always worked.”
“Always?” Joaquin asked, raising his eyebrows.
Something passed between them. Some unspoken communication. Tristan stood, stock-still and silent, as if weighing his response. I smoothed my braid. Was Joaquin talking about Jessica, or was there something else going on?