Scott Westerfeld - Blue Noon

Cassie Flinders looked her up and down, as if comparing her with some mental checklist.

“Hi,” Jessica squeaked, her voice gone all tinny and her mind racing.

Hadn’t Rex and Melissa gone back out to Jenks and dealt with Cassie’s memories? Wasn’t this kid supposed to have only the vaguest recollections of her moments in the blue time?

“I think we’ve met,” Cassie finally said.

“Really?” Mom said, all smiles. “Where was that?”

“Yeah, where?” Jessica said, taking her seat in front of the empty plate, trying to keep her voice normal and her expression only mildly puzzled instead of totally flabbergasted. “I don’t think I remember.”

“I don’t remember either, exactly.” Cassie’s eyes were still scanning Jessica’s face, as if recording her features in great detail. “But I drew a picture of you.”

“You did what?”

Cassie shrugged. “Drew a picture, with a pencil. The other day when I was sick.”

“Yeah,” Beth said. “And it’s a really good one. She brought it in to show around. You can really tell it’s you, Jess. Cassie draws all the time.”

“But you two don’t remember meeting?” Mom asked.

“No, not at all,” Jessica said. “I mean, I’ve never even been to Jenks.”

“Jenks?” Beth said, smiling radiantly. “How did you know Cassie lived out there?”

“I don’t know… how I knew that,” Jessica said slowly. Now even Mom and Dad were looking at her funny. She realized that it would be better if the conversation moved along. “So, um, are you a majorette too?”

“No. I play clarinet.”

“And she’s a really good artist,” Beth repeated.

“Yes,” Jessica said. “I got that.”

“She also has this other drawing of this guy,” Beth said. “What was the name you wrote on it? Jonath—”

“Oh, hang on!” Jessica said, playing the only card she could be certain would change the subject. “Aren’t you, like, Cassie Flinders?”

No one answered for a second, then Cassie nodded slowly.

“Now, Jess,” her mother said. “I’m sure Cassie doesn’t want to talk about that stuff last week, okay?”

“Sorry.” She shrugged. “But I mean, it was on the news and everything.”

“ Jessica.”

She didn’t say anything more, just let Beth serve the pasta, slithering spaghetti onto their plates and glopping sauce on top of it as the awkwardness stretched out.

Uncomfortable silences were fine with Jessica, definitely better than the uncomfortable noises coming out of Beth’s mouth. The pause in the conversation gave her a few minutes to figure out what had happened.

According to Rex, Melissa had checked Cassie’s brain to make sure she hadn’t spilled the beans. But maybe instead of blabbing about what she’d seen, she’d drawn it.

Jessica wondered what other pictures Cassie had made before her memory had been erased. One of Jonathan, apparently, and probably she’d sketched the other midnighters as well. And she might have written their names down too.

Had she drawn the black cat slither or the darkling she’d seen?

Everyone started eating, and soon Beth and Cassie were telling stories about how geeky the rest of the marching band was, acting like nothing weird or unexplained had been mentioned at the table.

Jessica wondered if the drawings would jog Cassie’s memories, pulling them out of whatever corner of her mind Melissa had stuffed them into. Or if seeing Jessica in person would make her recall more of what had happened that night.

Still, Cassie didn’t have much to go on—just a few names and half-remembered faces and maybe a black cat or monstrous spider straight out of a nightmare. She had no way to connect Jessica and Jonathan to the other midnighters, no more clues about what had really happened that day.

Cassie Flinders wasn’t really the problem.

As usual, Beth was.

She had already recognized Jonathan’s face and probably remembered from taking phone messages that Jessica had friends named Rex and Dess and Melissa. Worst of all, Beth knew that Jessica liked to sneak out at midnight—the time when the growing rip in Jenks was at its most dangerous.

And—as Jessica knew from long experience—if anyone could turn a small amount of information into a big pain in the ass, Beth could.

Jessica wondered about Rex’s new policy against mindcasting. He hadn’t let Melissa mess with Angie’s brain, but Angie had known all about the secret hour for years. This was a different matter entirely. If rumors started to spread around Bixby Junior High that weird things happened near the Jenks railroad line at midnight, Rex might make an exception for little sisters.

Jessica decided not to mention any of this to him or even think about it too hard around Melissa. A quick look into Beth’s brain would reveal that she knew more about midnight than was safe.

Way more, now that she was friends with Cassie Flinders.

Jessica kept eating, trying to enjoy the mingled tastes of long-simmered tomatoes, number 18 spaghetti, and almost-too-many reduced onions. But as dinner continued—Beth glancing at Jessica knowingly whenever she got a chance—the familiar flavors turned bitter in her mouth.

“Mom?” Beth said as the meal drew to a close.

“Yeah?”

“Can I go spend the night with Cassie sometime?”

Jessica watched as her parents’ faces broke into smiles. Marching band had paid off, big time. Beth had finally made a friend here in the new town. Everything would be much easier from now on.

“Of course you can,” Mom said.

Beth smiled, and her gaze turned to her older sister, making sure to show that she knew there were more clues to find, more trouble to make, out there in Jenks.

Jessica tried to put on an innocent expression, as if nothing tonight had disturbed her, but she felt the smile wither on her face.

It was just too depressing. Even Beth Spaghetti Night had been touched by the blue time.

“Give it one more chance, Loverboy. Please.”

Rex didn’t answer, didn’t even stop climbing the stairs toward the attic. His expression didn’t change, as if he hadn’t heard her plea at all. Not that she’d expected him to sit down for a chat about it. Since that night in the desert, Rex put up a normal front for the others, but around Melissa he often let his not-so-human side show.

Even here in Madeleine’s house Melissa could taste the darklings inside him, as dry as a mouthful of chalk dust leeching the moisture from her tongue. Might as well talk to the desert sand as try to reach that part of him.

But this was Rex, after all. She wasn’t letting go that easy.

Melissa dashed after him, far enough up the stairs to grab his left ankle from below. She sank her nails into the leg of his jeans, bringing him to a halt with all her strength.

“Wait a damn second, Rex!”

He turned, looking down at her, emotionless. His eyes flashed in that creepy new way they did, somehow catching the dark moon’s light even in normal time.

His lips curled away from his teeth, and for a horrible moment Melissa thought she’d gone too far. He would turn into a beast once and for all and devour her right there, leaving Madeleine’s staircase littered with her bones.

But then the expression on his face turned into a wry smile.

“What’s the matter, Cowgirl?” he said. “Jealous?”

“Just wait a minute, Rex. Please?”

He looked down at his captive boot and raised one eyebrow.

Melissa turned his ankle loose, realizing that she was half kneeling on the stairs, like some drunk trying to crawl up to bed. She took a deep breath to calm herself and turned away from Rex, sitting down on the steps. Then she pointed one black fingernail at the spot next to her.