“It’s silly, really. One of them that absolutely fills me with anxiety is a word I ran into quite by accident in my museum work. It’s the word palim… palim… I’m sorry, it’s very difficult for me to even say it. It is the word… palimpsests. How strange is that?” Juliet laughed nervously.
“Palimpsests? That’s the second time I’ve heard that word lately-where?” said Diane. Then she remembered, that’s why the alliteration of p’s kept tickling her brain. “I remember. The making of palimpsests was possible even with papyri.”
Juliet’s eyes grew round in a look of sheer terror; her face drained of color, she backed up against the wall and screamed before she slid down and held her knees, sobbing.
Chapter 40
“What in the world did you say to her?” said Mrs. Torkel as she hurried over to her granddaughter.
“I’m not sure,” said Diane. She knelt beside the stricken girl, who now seemed to have fallen into a trance or a seizure. “Juliet, can you hear me?” No response. Juliet was breathing very fast.
“My husband, God rest his soul, did this sometimes. It was after the war and I’d find him out in a field hiding from the enemy, he said. He’d pull me down with him and we’d both hide there in the weeds,” said Mrs. Torkel. “She’s having a flashback. That’s what it looks like to me. God in heaven, we thought she’d just forget and it would be all right.”
“Can we help?”
Diane glanced up briefly and several of the tourists were gathered around. She didn’t know which one had spoken.
“Thank you, but no. Please go ahead and enjoy your tour of the museum.”
Juliet sat there for several minutes with no change. Diane and Mrs. Torkel said nothing. Juliet’s breathing slowed and Diane thought she was coming around from wherever it was she had gone. After another couple of minutes, she tried to stand. Diane and Mrs. Torkel got on each side of her and helped her up and into the lab, away from the tourists. Mrs. Torkel, Diane noticed, elbowed a few of them out of the way.
The two of them guided Juliet to a chair where she sat and put her head down. Diane got her some water from the fountain in the corner. As she handed it to Juliet she caught sight of Whitney Lester in the doorway of her office with a satisfied smirk on her face.
“Don’t just stand there; call the nurse,” said Diane. Lester’s smile faded, and she disappeared into her office.
“What’s the matter, child?” said her grandmother. “Where were you?”
“I don’t know. I was just suddenly running through the brush and a man was chasing me to your house, Gramma. It was so real.”
Mrs. Pierce, one of the museum’s nurses, arrived quickly, and Diane explained what had happened. Mrs. Pierce had a motherly bedside manner with a knack for comforting hurt and sick children. She took Juliet’s pulse and felt her skin.
“Your pulse is a little rapid, but your skin isn’t clammy.” She shined a light in her eyes. “You’re OK. It looks like an anxiety attack. Have you had these before?” she asked.
Juliet nodded.
“Are you seeing someone about them?” she asked.
Again Juliet nodded.
“Good,” said Mrs. Pierce. “I recommend you take a rest for the remainder of the day. You’ll be fine. Be sure and call the person you’re seeing and tell him or her.”
“I will, thanks.”
“Thanks, Mrs. Pierce,” said Diane.
“That’s what you pay me for.” She smiled and left the aquatics lab.
“This is just so stupid of me,” said Juliet.
“No, it isn’t,” said Diane. “Can you answer some questions?”
“Sure.”
“Did you see what the man chasing you looked like?” asked Diane.
“He was mean. He had a black goatee of a beard and straight black hair.”
“Do you know why he was chasing you?” asked Diane.
“No. That thing you said, why did you say it to me?” She looked up at Diane in anguish, as if Diane had done it on purpose.
“You mean the sentence with the word you feared?” Diane was careful not to say the words again. “I heard it while I was looking for a friend in the library. Students were studying and it was just a phrase I heard. It stuck with me, I suppose because it was a kind of tongue twister. That word is so unusual, it was odd to hear it twice in so short a time. Why did that throw you into a flashback?”
“Flashback… like Grampa? I don’t know.” She looked confused. “The man said it,” said Juliet.
“To you?” Diane thought that would be an odd thing to say to a seven-year-old.
“No, but… I don’t know who he said it to. I just heard him say it. It was scary when he said it. I don’t remember anymore. I’m sorry,” said Juliet.
“Did he just say the word, or the whole phrase?” Diane thought that highly unlikely, but why did she freak out so when Diane repeated the sentence.
“The phrase. He said the whole thing the way you said it, and he was looking at me,” said Juliet.
“Looking at you? Directly at you?” asked Diane.
“No, I’m not sure…” Juliet looked like she might panic again.
“That’s all right. Why don’t you take your grandmother to the restaurant? Sit in a quiet booth, have something cool to drink, get some nourishment,” said Diane. “I’ll walk with the two of you.”
“I think we both could use some food,” said her grandmother. “I’ll bet you’ve been skipping meals, haven’t you, dear?”
Diane walked them to the elevators and they all went down to the restaurant. Diane told the hostess to seat them in her place, which was her code for the bill to be put on her tab as well.
“Have a good meal. When you finish I’ll have someone drive you home,” said Diane.
“I can drive. I’m fine, really,” said Juliet. “It’s just that darn word.” She tried to smile.
Ruby Torkel turned to Diane. “You keep the doll. Don’t let anybody take it away from you.”
“I won’t.”
Diane didn’t even try to explain to her that the security guard was just making sure that nothing dangerous was being brought into the museum.
“Is that the doll you said I stole?” asked Juliet. She touched the package with her fingertips. “I don’t even remember what it looks like.”
“Do you want to see it?” asked her grandmother.
Juliet grabbed her hand back as if the package had turned into a snake. “No… I think I’ve freaked everyone out enough for one day. Maybe when the museum is having a slow day.” She smiled again.
“Do you remember anything Juliet said when she showed you the doll?” Diane asked Mrs. Torkel.
“Oh, she didn’t show it to me. I found her playing with it. She said it had something… a secret, that’s what it was. You know how kids are, making stuff up. I asked her where she got it and she wouldn’t tell me; she just said it was a secret. I told her she had to give it back, but she said her friend gave it to her. That’s when I took it away and told her she couldn’t play with something that wasn’t hers and people just didn’t give away toys that nice.”
Juliet stood listening to her grandmother with a frown. “I don’t remember any of that.”
“Well, honey, you were seven,” said Mrs. Torkel.
“I’m going to leave the two of you to eat and catch up on news. Juliet, you can have the rest of the day off,” said Diane. “Oh, would you mind if I open the package in my office?”
“Go ahead,” said Juliet. “I don’t care.”
Diane left them and, carrying the package, went to her office.
“Hey, Andie. Anything going on?” asked Diane as she walked through Andie’s office.