Chapter 6
Dream #19: I’m in homeroom. It’s morning. All the desks have names on them, like Mom has on her desk at work. But the kids are sitting in different places from where they regularly sit, and when I go to my desk a girl is already there and her name is on the desk too. I check all the desks and my name isn’t on any of them. I think I’ve been expelled, then a kid tells me that my new place is at the front of the classroom so I go look at the teacher’s desk and my name is on it.
Friday. My only chance to get back inside the ToT apartment and see this crazy-ass pyramid for myself. Over breakfast I could hardly contain myself. I was itching to crawl down the tunnel (though I couldn’t have imagined myself feeling that way a few weeks earlier) and I think Mom could sense my antsy-ness, but I passed it off as Christmastime excitement. She smiled at me like I was her cute little pumpkin again. I swear she almost pinched my cheeks. Oh wait – there was going to be plenty of that down in Florida on the weekend.
She closed the front door behind her and I looked at the time on my phone. Give it two minutes, I thought, just in case she’s forgotten something and comes back to get it. A buzz. George had responded to my FB friend request so I sent him the photo of the page filled with Greek text and asked him if it was a big deal to translate it for me. Then I went into the tunnel, armed with the screwdriver and an insane confidence that I was going to get to the bottom of all this insane stuff.
When I reached the grille I listened intently for a while. The last thing I wanted was to get caught. But there was no sign of life in there. I removed the grille quickly and crawled through into the musty dining room. Looking at the table and thinking back to the first time I saw the Temple of Truth members sitting around it holding hands in the middle of the night, something struck me. It was hard to put my finger on it. Although it looked like a dining room, it didn’t feel like one. I went into the kitchen, opening cupboards and drawers. They were all empty. So was the fridge. What’s more, it wasn’t even switched on. The under-sink garbage was pristine. Whoever “lived” here certainly didn’t eat here. Ever.
This was bizarre enough in itself, but it wasn’t why I was here, so I made my way carefully along the hallway past the identical bedrooms. The front door beckoned up ahead. If it opened now and someone came in, I’d be screwed.
Keep it together, Kari...
I reached the door to the pyramid room and turned the handle. Suddenly my phone beeped loudly. It was a Facebook message. Oh-em-gee, Kari – you frickin idiot! Why didn’t you put it on vibrate? I scrambled to get it out of my jeans pocket. As I was muting it, I saw that it was George replying to my translation question. I glanced at the front door. It wasn’t exactly the ideal time to read s