This Broken Wondrous World (5 page)

“Vi?” I asked. “Does that sound like something you'd want?”

“What would I look like?” she asked.

Henri leaned in toward the laptop and gave her an extra helping of his sly grin. “My dearest Vi, you can look however you want.”

“Will you . . . help me decide? To make sure I look okay?”

“Of course! I am an artist, after all. I would be glad to give you my input.”

“That would make me very happy, Henri.”

Good Neighbor

V
I'S GIGANTIC PURPLE
eyes narrowed slightly beneath her pink-and-purple bangs. Her tiny mouth curled down into a pout.

“You don't like it?” she asked.

“You look like a manga character,” I told her.

She looked down at her cartoon body, complete with sleeveless button-up shirt, tie, short skirt, and thigh-high stockings. “Henri says when you try to make a digital image look too close to human, it starts to get creepy.”

“I understand the concept of the ‘uncanny valley,'” I said. “But I just feel like going in this direction is a little . . . uh, sexy, I guess.”

She put her hands on her hips and cocked her head to one side. She seemed to like that pose a lot. “What's wrong with that?”

“I want to make sure this is what
you
want, and not just what Henri wants.”

“I live in binary. I have no aesthetic opinions. He is an artist and I trust his designs.”

I sighed and shook my head.

“Resignation,” she said softly.

“Yeah. It's not my place to tell you what you should look like.”

“Boy, is everything okay?” She put her hands on her knees
and leaned forward. Her big anime eyes got even bigger. “Are you sad again?”

“No, I'm fine. I just . . . I've had a lot of homework lately. Probably need to get more sleep.”

The door flew open and Henri stepped into the room. I couldn't quite remember when it was he'd stopped bothering to knock. A month ago at least.

“There she is! My masterpiece!” he said.

“Henri!” She jumped up and down, clapping her hands.

“You know . . .” He pressed a finger to his lip as he examined her. “The bounce on those pigtails is pretty good, but I think we can make it better!”

“You bet we can!” she said, one foot kicked back artfully.

“I think I'm going to go study down by the lake,” I said.

“Of course, of course,” said Henri, nodding as he sat down at the laptop. “It is lovely outside. Vi and I will probably be cooped up in here all day. Someone should get to enjoy it.”

I headed downstairs. It wasn't that I regretted introducing Henri and Vi to each other. It was great to see Vi bonding with someone other than me. And this would help her work on nonverbal communication. Henri was clearly enjoying himself, too. It was like the art project of his dreams.

But I was pretty sure that he didn't see her as anything other than an art project. Which would be fine, I guess, except I was starting to get the feeling that Vi was developing a huge crush on him. And really, I couldn't see how that was going to end well.

“Good morning, Boy.”

I was passing through the main foyer when I heard William's voice. He and Elisa were sitting in the sunroom, reading newspapers and drinking coffee.

“Good morning,” I said. “How are you guys today?”

“Oh, fine, fine. Thanks for asking,” he said, and went back to his paper. I stood there for a second, but neither of them seemed interested in any more conversation, so I kept moving.

I stopped by the kitchen to grab a quick snack. The fridge was always crammed with food. It seemed like half of it usually ended up going bad. I wondered who actually did the grocery shopping. I'd never seen either William or Elisa do it. I thought maybe they hired someone, but it didn't seem polite to ask.

I grabbed a bunch of random stuff that looked like it wouldn't last much longer. Cheese, cured sausage of some kind, some carrots, and half a cucumber. I tossed it all on a plate and just started to eat it at the counter. After a few minutes, I realized that Giselle was watching me from the doorway.

“Hey,” I said.

“Hey.” She watched me eat for a moment, then asked, “What's Henri do up there in your room all day?”

“An art project,” I said. “I think for class or something.”

“Why does he have to do it in your room?”

“Oh, uh, because he's using this, um . . . software I made.”

“Like an app?” she asked.

“Yeah, sort of.”

“Oh.” Then she turned and left.

Four months, and she still hadn't warmed up to me. And while William and Elisa were still nice, they both seemed to have settled back into the routines they had before I arrived. Routines that didn't have a whole lot of room for me.

I liked school. After the first few weeks, I'd adjusted to the sheer volume of knowledge absorption, just like Henri said I would. The only problem now was that I hadn't really made any friends. I didn't know if that was because I wasn't good at
making new friends, or because I looked scary, or just because I was American. Maybe a combination.

When I let Henri in on the secret, I thought I'd feel less alone. But now that Vi and Henri had become obsessed with each other, I felt more alone than ever.

HENRI WAS RIGHT
about it being a nice day. Early winter in Geneva had been pretty dark and rainy. But today was bright and chilly, with hardly any clouds in the sky. It was clear enough that I could see the mountains on the far side, now with a lot more snow on top than when I'd first arrived.

I had planned to just sit down and study for my chem test by the lakeshore. But I had a sudden strong urge to be up there in those snow-covered peaks. William had taught me the basics of sailing—enough to get myself across the lake and back. I could study just as well over there. Maybe better, even.

I walked down to the dock and untied the boat from the cleat. I wasn't as fast a sailor as Henri or William, but I made it across to the far shore. Once there, I climbed up the mountain until I reached the same plateau where I'd seen the dwarf. It was covered with snow now, so I dusted off some rocks and sat down, the stone pleasantly chilled beneath me. More and more, I noticed that I craved the cold. I wasn't sure why. It just felt right, especially sitting up here, looking out over the lake. I could see the Villa Diodati on the far shore. I imagined Henri in my room, adding some new weird anime fetish to Vi's design.

I got out my chem books and started studying, keeping an eye out in case the dwarf showed up. I kind of hoped he would. But I guess my need wasn't “dire” enough yet, because I stayed up
there all afternoon studying and I never saw him.

I didn't want to go back too late, because I didn't feel comfortable sailing in the dark. Of course, I didn't want to get back too early, either, and have to sit through Henri and Vi telling each other how awesome they were. So I got back in the boat just as the sky began to turn a pinkish gold and a streak of red from the setting sun rimmed the mountaintops. It reminded me of one of William's little boating rhymes:
Red sky at night, sailor's delight. Red sky at morning, sailors take warning
. I think it was supposed to be some weather indicator, but the way he said it felt more like a fortune-telling tool. I kind of hoped it was, because I could use a delightful night.

But it got dark a lot faster than I expected. I was only about halfway across the lake when night fell. I looked around in the boat for a flashlight or something. I found a small electric lantern, but it wasn't very bright. It was probably more to make sure people could see me than to light my way. Fortunately, the Villa Diodati's dock was brightly lit, so at least I could see where I needed to go.

I was still about fifty yards from the dock when something scraped across the bottom of the hull. Something big. It was still pretty deep this far out, so I thought I might have run over a log or something. I let out the sail to slow down and scanned the surface of the dark water.

Something thumped against the side of the boat, causing it to seesaw roughly. Then I heard a splash close by.

“Hello?” I called out. William has said that the fish in the lake were all pretty small, so I figured this had to be the mermaid.

There was no response.

“Don't worry, I won't hurt you,” I said.

Silence, except the sound of water lapping quietly against the
boat.

“I'm not really human,” I said. “It's okay. You can show yourself to me.”

A head slowly emerged from the water about twenty feet away. I couldn't make out a lot of details, but the moonlight glinted wetly off the faint outline of long hair, eyes, nose, and mouth, all very human looking.

“Hey,” I said. “I'm Boy. Why don't you come a little closer? My night vision sucks.”

She didn't move.

I leaned over the side of the boat to try to see her better. Maybe if I could see her expression, I'd be able to see if she was scared of me. But between the dark and the long, wet hair in her face, I couldn't make anything out.

“I swear, I'm not going to hurt you. Honestly, I've been hanging out with humans so much lately, it's great to meet another monster.”

She still didn't come any closer. Maybe she only spoke French. Or German.

“Uh,
polly vu frances
?
Spreken ze deutch
?” Not that I could speak either of those languages, but maybe it would at least get her talking. Or maybe she didn't speak at all. I really didn't know anything about mermaids.

I leaned over the side as far as I could and reached out my hand.

“I am a friend,” I said.

Then I heard something rise up out of the water behind me. I turned just in time to see a giant tentacle bearing down on me. I dove sideways into the stern of the boat. The tentacle slammed into the boat, nearly tipping it over, then disappeared beneath the surface.

“What . . .” I gasped.

The mermaid slowly rose up out of the water. In the moonlight I could see her wet, human-shaped torso. But as she continued to rise higher, I saw that instead of a fish tail, her lower body was just a white stalk. Attached to the other end of the stalk was a massive creature that looked like a giant angler fish, with faintly luminous white eyes and a gaping maw of needle-sharp teeth. It had long tentacles that writhed fitfully in the water. The “mermaid” dangled lifelessly from the stalk on the creature's head. She was nothing more than a lure. And apparently, I was the catch.

“This is a mermaid?” I muttered to myself. I knew Ruthven had a mermaid in The Show for a while, but I never saw it. I wondered how he even fit it in the theater.

Another tentacle came whistling through the air. I dodged it again, but this time the impact took out a huge chunk of the hull. The boat was taking on water quick, and the dock was still about fifty yards away.

I took a deep breath and belly flopped into the water, the shock of cold hitting me so hard every muscle in my body clenched up. I wasn't a very good swimmer, and my wet clothes were dragging me down as I flailed around, trying to move toward the safety of the shore.

In the distance, I heard someone scream. Then something grabbed my ankle and yanked me under.

I could hardly see anything in the dark water. But I felt tentacles wrap around my legs and chest as it dragged me down deeper. Then I saw the glowing eyes and the faint glint of its teeth coming at me. The tentacles had grabbed my right arm, but not my left. Punching was out of the question underwater, so I just reached out, grabbed the eye, and squeezed as hard as
I could. I could feel it burst in my hand and the mermaid shuddered. I jammed my fist as hard as I could into its ruined eye socket and it shuddered again. It pulled me down even deeper into the dark water, but its grip began to loosen and I was able to get my other arm free. As its jaws opened wide and came at me, I grabbed the top and bottom of its mouth. Razor teeth cut into my hands, but I didn't let go. Instead, I slowly pried the mouth open wider and wider, until I felt its jaw hinge give way with a sharp snap. The mermaid shuddered violently, then released me and disappeared.

My lungs were screaming for air by this point and the weight of my wet clothes felt like chains. My limbs were numb and I felt truly cold for the first time in my life.

I struggled toward the surface but it was a lot farther away than I thought. My vision was beginning to dim. My body was sending crazy signals to my brain to gasp for air even though there wasn't any. I clenched my teeth to keep my mouth shut but I didn't think I could hold on any longer.