The Black Book

  * * *

  “There! I guess it’s all over,” Matthew declared a few minutes later, snapping close the book with a sense of finality.

  “Can’t we bring back the soldiers, too?” Stephanie pleaded with him.

  “Those we met were bad, Steph,” he answered, “and we can’t bring back those we never met. Marcos said that, remember?”

  “Oh, have a heart, Matt,” Nora urged. “These people might have families, you know.” She turned to her foster brother’s Spiderman models.

  “And I don’t think they’re all bad like Owen,” Stephanie said. “Or One-eyed Shifty. Remember Liu Hang?”

  “I could have brought him back, but I think he’s . . . no more,” Matthew said, thoughtfully. “I don’t think we can bring him back like Marcos said.”

  Nora didn’t hear this. She was studying his Spiderman models.

  “So what are you gonna do with this book?” Stephanie asked Matthew.

  “I’ll give it back to the Booklords, I guess,” he replied.

  “You said something about Marcos saying we couldn’t bring back those we never met,” Nora began, “are you sure that was what he said?”

  “I—I think so . . . ,” Matthew said. “Why should I fault him?” But he wasn’t sure about this and followed his senior sister with his eyes as she walked over to his Spiderman models. “How did you two go to Washington?” he finally asked her.

  “Marcos and I?”

  “Uhuuuuuh.”

  “Well, we got to the train station and he asked me if I knew anyone who stays in Washington,” Nora began. “At first, I refused to tell him, but he threatened to kill me if I did not.”

  “So what happened?” Stephanie asked.

  “I told him about Georgina, my classmate in middle school who lives in the D.C. area, and do you know he asked me for her other names and surname?”

  This got Matthew’s head ringing. “But he could’ve just written out all the president’s names if that’s how it works,” he said. “There would’ve been no need for you two to go to Washington in that case, right?”

  “Maybe they went to get his other names?” Stephanie suggested and Nora stared at her, blankly.

  “We didn’t go to the White House to get names, Steph,” she denied. “We went to possess it.”

  “That’s it,” Matthew realized, opening the book again. “Either you know the person’s names or you personally know him on a first-name basis! So, although Marcos was right, he also knew there was another way.”

  “What do you mean, Matt?” Nora asked him.

  “Marcos was asking for your friend’s names because he wanted to use her to get to Washington, right?”

  “I—I never saw it that . . . way,” Nora said. “But you might be right. I was surprised to see Georgina as much as she was to see me.”

  “And you never wondered why she was present there?” Stephanie asked her senior sister. “You gave Marcos her names and you never wondered what he was going to do with it? And you never figured it out when she popped up from nowhere? Phew!”

  “Why should I?” Nora began, and then she realized her mistake. “I told her I was sorry, okay? Besides, we’re no longer friends?”

  Matthew sighed. Typical, selfish Nora! Of course, she’ll never change! “We’ll try that method now,” he told his foster sisters.

  “And we can use it to get back the soldiers, right?” Stephanie wanted to know, applauding.

  “Right,” Matthew agreed and flipped to page three. The names here were complete with military titles, other names and surnames, just as a captain would list them out if he’d been gathering information from his men. “We’ll have to write over our names on page four, though,” Matthew announced with regret, flipping the leaf back and forth.

  “Won’t that affect us?” Stephanie asked.

  “What if you use an empty ballpoint instead?” Nora suggested. “You can use that, right?”

  “It’s worth a try,” Matthew agreed, reaching for a drawer below his desk. “I think I have one here.”

  “You can bring them all back if you want to, can’t you?” Nora asked him.

  “Not the dead ones,” he said.

  “But Marcos said it’s possible,” she stressed. “Since they’re all under the spell, death will only speed up the reincarnation stuff.”

  “Are you sure about that?” Matthew asked her. He couldn’t deny he knew, but he just wasn’t sure that what the greedy priest had told them was the truth. It could contain another ‘Xerxes’ gimmick! “Maybe we should start with Sergeant Stephen, a.k.a. Owen, or Dr. Brooks, a.k.a. Shifty, first,” he suggested all the same. “They died, right?”

  “No, they’re bad people,” Stephanie objected. “Bring back only Liu Hang and the captain.”

  “Why the captain?” Nora asked her junior sister.

  “His name sounds good, so I think he’s a good man.”

  “But you haven’t met him.”

  “Nora? Nora! Where are you?” Mom called out from downstairs.

  “We’re all in Matthew’s room, Mom,” Nora replied, smiling. Mom’s voice had never sounded so sweet!

  Matthew was poised to write the reversed names. “So, we’ve decided to bring back Liu and the captain?” he asked them one last time.

  “And every other guy we didn’t meet,” Nora added.

  “Agreed,” Stephanie approved, and her brother started scribbling on the first page using the blank pen.

  Slowly, Matthew wrote out the soldiers’ names on page four using their positions on page three, which was the page with the captain’s list. It was painstaking work since he wasn’t seeing what he was doing, but he got some help from the light coming in through the window. He could hear Mom’s footsteps coming up the stairs. And someone else’s. “Done,” he finally announced and closed the book. “I think they’ll all be home now.”

  “Except Steve and Shifty, right?” Stephanie demanded.

  “Except Steve and Shifty,” Matthew agreed, grinning. It was like acting God!

  The room’s door opened and Mom came in with Dad and Gavin, the dog, which quickly ran to the children.

  “Mom, Mom,” Stephanie announced, bouncing on Matthew’s bed.

  “Where in the world have you all been?” Mrs. Quentin exclaimed, arms akimbo. “Do you know I’ve been searching for you guys since eight this morning?”

  “We even thought you’ve all disappeared, like Albert’s son,” Dad said behind her, glad to see them all together like this.

  “Linda’s been showing us her horse, Dad,” Nora lied for her siblings. “I’m sorry we forgot to tell you guys.” She took her mother’s hands.

  “Well,” Lora said, smiling, “I’m glad it was just that. God knows how I would have felt if it were something else. Poor Albert’s wife is still heartbroken.”

  “I knew it, Mom,” Stephanie cried, smiling.

  “Knew what, my dear?”

  “When you called us ‘guys’?” the little girl began. “I knew you weren’t angry at all.” Gavin had snuggled up close to her legs.

  “I was never angry,” Mrs. Quentin said, laughing. “You all just scared me to death. Come here, you bag of trouble.”

  “Catch me if you can!”

  And Lora moved to hug her younger daughter, who wriggled out of her reach, laughing, and drew back to Matthew’s only window, playfully trying to avoid her hands.

  Stephanie almost bumped into the man standing in the shadows beside the window blinds before her mother noticed him. This fellow stepped out from the blinds shielding him from the daylight and the others started, realizing he was the one their mother had seen.

  “Lora?” he calmly asked.

  “Father?” she whispered.