A Quill Ladder (21 page)

“
No. Phi. The Golden Ratio. In math, two numbers are in the golden ratio if their ratio is the same as the ratio of their sum to the larger of the two quantities.
”

“
Like that makes any sense.
”

“
It does. It
’
s used in architecture and design and music and it
’
s
—”
Abbey said hotly. But Caleb held up his hand.

“
Don
’
t bother, Ab, I
’
ll never get it. What exactly do you see?
”

“
I told you, phi.
”

“
No. Read to me exactly what it says.
”

“
It says 1.61803398875 dot dot dot.
”

Caleb smirked a little.
“
You can
’
t read anything else?
”

Abbey gave an exasperated sigh.
“
Is this another one of those clear your mind things where there
’
s hidden script that apparently only I can
’
t read?
”

Caleb shrugged, unaffected by the anger in her tone.
“
It would seem so. You should really learn to clear your mind, Ab.
”

She glared at him.
“
I think that
’
s easier for some people than others.
”

Caleb ignored the dig.
“
Well, there
’
s more written there. A bunch of other numbers in a series underneath the number that you just said. I think they
’
re important, but I think you need to be able to see them yourself to figure it out.
”

“
What? Why? Just tell me what the numbers are.
”

“
I don
’
t think I
’
m supposed to. There
’
s some instructions written above the phi number. I think they
’
re saying that you need to be able to read the numbers yourself. Just try to clear your mind and then look at it.
”

Abbey stared at the cream card, her eyes tracing the black curves of the numbers of the golden ratio, but the rest of the card was infuriatingly blank. She closed her eyes and tried to imagine blackness, just blackness, nothingness. But in physics there was debate as to whether nothing even existed, if anything could be
nothing
, that even empty space, devoid of all particles, was
not
nothing, because it still had shape and was a physical object. But then there were debates about a deeper nothing, with no space, time, particles, or laws of nature. Theoretical physicists hadn
’
t resolved this of course and
…

Abbey blinked her eyes open to realize that Caleb still stared at her hopefully and that the card remained completely cream, save for the single number in its center. She ground her teeth together in frustration. She was completely incapable of thinking of nothing, clearly. Or incapable of thinking of nothing in a nothingy sort of way.

“
I still can
’
t see anything,
”
she said.

“
Keep working on it. I
’
ve made another list.
”

“
Of course you have,
”
Abbey said.

Caleb spread a folded piece of paper on her desk.
“
Okay, so it seems to me that a lot of the dates on the list in your phone were quite a ways in the future, in the spring and summer. So, it strikes me that right now we need to focus on the most promising ones that we can address now.
”

Abbey peered at the list.

Russell Andrews/ALICE

Sam

Mom
’
s files

Quentin Steinam

“
The Matrix guys
—
Nathaniel and Damian
—
kept grilling Sylvain about files. Maybe they
’
re talking about Mom
’
s files. I think we need to conduct a search of the house, especially the basement.
”

“
Fine,
”
Abbey said, suppressing a faint smile at Caleb
’
s reference to the two men
’
s style of dress.
“
But
…
remember that night a few weeks ago, when we went and used the stones, and Dad found the basement door open? I know I closed it.
”

“
You
’
re thinking someone broke in?
”

Abbey nodded.
“
So, if there
’
s something to be found here, maybe someone
’
s already been looking for it. Maybe someone
’
s already taken it.
”

Caleb pulled his hand through his hair.
“
Hmm. Well, still worth a search, as soon as Mom and Dad head off to get Simon tomorrow morning. I wonder who
’
s going to be our babysitter this time.
”

“
Let
’
s just hope its not Nathaniel and Damian.
”

Caleb chuckled.
“
You know what, Ab? You
’
re becoming funnier.
”

“
I guess stress turns people into a real laugh a minute,
”
Abbey mumbled under her breath.

Caleb ignored her.
“
Okay: Russell Andrews, that
’
s easy. I
’
ll start following him at school. I never liked the look of him anyway.
”

“
He
’
s the one that put Simon up to hacking into the city computer system.
”

“
What?
”
Caleb
’
s eyes got really wide, and then suddenly narrowed, as if he was once again evaluating how much Abbey knew and hadn
’
t told him.

“
Russell gave Simon the passwords. His cousin works at City Hall. He told Simon the other councilors were working against Mom. That
’
s why Simon did it. He didn
’
t just do it for fun. But I think Russell was lying because Simon didn
’
t find anything. Maybe it had something to do with his aunt, Gretchen Leer, who
’
s now on council too. But I don
’
t know what. And then when we were in the future, your
—
future
…”
Abbey stumbled because she had almost said your
first
future.
“
Dr. Ford said something about that Andrews character, like Russell had been using the stones too.
”

“
So why doesn
’
t Simon just turn in Russell and his cousin?
”

“
I don
’
t know. He still did it. He
’
s still the one who hacked.
”

Farley erupted into a cacophony of wild barks in the living room. This was not an uncommon occurrence. Farley often growled and barked at even the slightest movement on their street, but still, a slight tremor descended Abbey
’
s spine, and she looked over her shoulder at her drawn blinds. She could hear her father speaking soothingly to Farley.

“
All right, well I
’
ll follow Russell for sure then. You do some research on him online. See if you can figure anything out.
”

“
His dad owns a mining company,
”
Abbey said.

“
What? Ab, how much are you not telling me? Can we agree to share everything from here on?
”

“
Well, you haven
’
t told me anything about your trips to the future with Mom.
”

Farley sounded like he was going berserk, and Abbey wondered if she should go out and see what her parents were doing, who might be passing by the house, what was going on, but she felt strangely reticent around her parents now. Like they were keeping secrets and didn
’
t want their children involved. Like questions were no longer allowed.

Caleb looked over his shoulder at the door to Abbey
’
s room, as if he was thinking the same thing.
“
I did tell you. We were just wandering around. It was weird. I have no idea what we were looking for, and Mom wouldn
’
t answer any questions.
”

Abbey again tried to quell the terrible feeling that perhaps these trips meant that her mother feared the future Caleb dead. She tried to focus on what Caleb was saying.

“
So, a mining company
…”
Caleb continued.
“
Do you think it has something to do with Aluminum Ice?
”

“
Maybe. I don
’
t know anything about aluminum mining though,
”
Abbey said.

“
Look it up then. I
’
ll do some research on Quentin Steinam. I know we thought he was Sylvain at first, but now I
’
m not so sure.
”
Farley finally quieted down.
“
The only one I can
’
t make heads or tails out of is this Sam reference.
”

Abbey sighed.
“
I think I know who that is. Sam Livingstone is a physicist. He was one of the counselors at science camp last year.
”

“
Sam Livingstone
…
Livingstone Labs
…
Dr. A. Livingstone,
”
Caleb said slowly as if he was making all the connections.
“
You don
’
t think...
”

“
I don
’
t know. It seems too weird. He
’
s like, way older than me.
”

“
It says he can help.
”

Footsteps moved past Abbey
’
s room, and Abbey heard a bedroom door closing. She wanted her dad to remain in the living room, to be on alert for whoever might be upsetting Farley.

“
What am I going to do?
”
Abbey said.
“
Email him and say:
‘
Hi, how
’
s it going? By the way I
’
m a witch, and I
’
ve found some stones that go to the future.
’”

“
I don
’
t know, but whoever wrote this list clearly thought he could help.
”

“
Who do you think wrote the list?
”

“
Well, it says it was from you.
”

“
Yes, but anyone who had the phone could text the phone itself. It could be from someone trying to lead us astray.
”
Except that the future Caleb told me where to find it
, Abbey thought.

A door opened, and footsteps made their way back up the hall. They paused for a few seconds outside Abbey
’
s room.

Caleb dropped his voice to a whisper.
“
It
’
s all we
’
ve got right now, and investigating the four priority items isn
’
t going to do any harm. I better go to bed. You keep working on trying to see the other writing on the card. And in the morning, you need to tell me what happened in my future.
”

Caleb slipped out of her bedroom, and Abbey retreated to her bed, card in hand. Try as she might though, she could not turn the cream paper into anything but cream paper, and she eventually fell asleep with the card on her chest and dreamed of infinite parallel universes lying atop one another in membranes like the pages of a newspaper. Except someone had cut a hole in the page that their universe occupied, and people and things were dropping through to the page below.