A golden Lab’s head came over the top of the couch to nuzzle Ford’s leg, and Sadie had the impossible thought that the dog had spoken. Then Cali shifted and Sadie saw that a little girl had come in and curled herself into the far corner of the sofa.
She was as blond as Ford was dark, but had the same firm chin, the same stubborn mouth. The same very blue, very serious eyes.
Ford laughed. “Sorry to disturb you, Princess Lulu.” He glanced at his Mickey Mouse watch. “Weren’t you supposed to be in bed half an hour ago?”
Lulu pulled herself up to her whole four-foot height and said, “I don’t think I’m the one who needs to get a room.”
“Is that really how you want to talk to your older brother?” Ford asked, a threat rumbling in his tone.
Lulu put her hands on her hips. “Yes.”
“Your strong, ferocious older brother?” he went on, narrowing his eyes.
Lulu snorted. “Oh, right.”
Sadie didn’t detect the kind of anger she’d felt at the Castle, but Ford’s tone was definitely menacing as he said, “You asked for it,” and lunged for the little girl.
Stop him, Sadie wanted to yell at Cali. Don’t let him hurt—
Ford snatched Lulu into his arms and started tickling her ribs. “Help!” Lulu cried through her giggles.
Sadie was fascinated. Ford’s mindscape was radically changed from the windy place it had been at the Castle, the sounds in a completely different register and somehow slower, simpler. As if his thoughts and feelings for his sister were uncomplicated, Sadie noted.
The dustiness of his conversation with Cali vanished as well, and instead of images the points of color were moving around freely, like people at a station waiting for their train to be called. His mind seemed pliant, flexible. Playful, Sadie thought, although that didn’t sound very scientific. She’d have to think of a better way to describe it when she was in front of the Committee.
He lifted Lulu up and swung her over his shoulder. Sadie found herself laughing as Lulu protested, “That’s not fair, you’re bigger than I am, so you shouldn’t be able to use your arms, next time you can only use your feet, or maybe what if you just don’t bend your elbows and—”
He paused to give Cali a kiss and said, “I’ll be right back.”
“No he won’t,” Lulu told her from behind Ford’s back as he carried her to the hallway. “I’m going to get him for this, I’m going to—”
She went silent as they approached a partially open door on the left, and Ford’s mind filled with static that didn’t subside until they got to the door at the end of the hallway with a purple marker sign taped to it that said: PALACE OF PRINCESS LULU. NO ENTRY WITHOUT PERMISSION.
“Permission to enter,” Ford asked on the threshold.
“Permission granted,” Lulu told him. “But you have to read me a story.”
“You can read yourself a story,” Ford said, flipping her onto her bed.
Only the bedside light was on, but the room was small, so it was enough to take in the bunk bed with pink comforters, an unfinished dollhouse, and two stacks of milk crates, one side holding neatly folded clothes and the other side holding books. The room was meticulously tidy. Sadie felt at home.
Sadie hadn’t seen the dog follow them, but he nosed the door open, lumbered up onto the bed beside the girl, and sat looking at her expectantly.
“See, Copernicus wants you to read to him,” Ford pointed out.
Lulu rolled her eyes. “You just want to go make out with Cali.”
“True,” Ford said. He bent over and looked under the bunk bed. “Nothing lurking,” he announced. “Good—”
“Mom didn’t go to work again today.” Lulu’s voice was quiet and tense. “It’s the third week in a row.”
Another burst of static. Dots of color collected into the image of the ATM screen saying INSUFFICIENT CREDIT in Ford’s mind. “I know. But I’m sure she’ll be better soon.”
“How do you know?”
“Because that’s what always happens. Don’t worry, okay?”
Lulu nodded, her little face somber. She leaned toward him to whisper, “Could you look again? Just to be sure?”
Ford put his finger to his lips. In one swift motion he dropped into a push-up position and peered under the bed.
“Still no monsters,” he reported, standing back up. “No way they could have hidden that fast. You’re safe.”
Lulu held up two dolls that appeared to be from the dollhouse and said, “Kiss Bless and Noshe good night.”
Ford grabbed one of them and pretended to start making out with her, causing Lulu to squeal with laughter, then dropped the dolls and reached for her, and she squealed even more. Sadie tried to imagine what it would be like to have someone who made your mind relax the way Lulu made Ford’s.
He gave his sister a soppy kiss on the forehead and was at the door when she spoke.
“How come when Cali says ‘I love you’ you don’t say it back?”
He stopped on the threshold and turned to face her, his mind staying even and unaffected. “I do.”
“No you don’t,” Lulu told him. “You say ‘you too’ or ‘me too’ or ‘uh-huh.’”
Ford laughed and turned back toward the door. “Agree to disagree.”
Lulu narrowed her eyes. “That’s my line. You can’t just take it.”
He pantomimed catching something in his fist midair, grinned, said, “Too late,” and shut the door.
Cali’s bare legs over the top of the couch, one ankle crossed over the other, were the first thing he noticed walking down the hall toward the living room, and the reaction in his body was immediate. Sadie felt his lower abdomen tighten and heard something that sounded almost like music in his head.
“I hope you don’t mind, I made myself comfortable,” Cali said.
He slid onto the couch next to her, his arm coming around to rest conveniently on her breast, his crotch against her leg. “You look like you might still be a little uncomfortable. Maybe you should get out of your shorts.”
Cali laughed. “I was thinking, on Friday you could wear the blue checked shirt. You know, the one you were wearing the first time we met.”
“Mmmm?” His lips roamed over the smooth skin along the base of Cali’s neck, and tiny clusters of sound and color broke loose in various parts of his mind, like dandelion seeds being blown free in a breeze, a momentary poof and then gone.
During training Sadie had resolved to use any intimate time her Subject had to review her findings and take down new data, but now she found herself unable to break away. She felt the tension building inside of him as though it were inside of her, each trill and riff adding another layer. It was like having butterfly wings tease over her skin, making it tingle and prickle in the most exquisite and exquisitely distracting way. She let herself slip into it, willingly, even gratefully, breathless to find out what happened next—
From very far away a voice said, “You know, the one you wore on our first date.”
It had happened again, she realized—a world of experience in the space of a heartbeat. The music in his head stopped, the tickling evaporated, and Ford blinked his eyes open, saying, “Friday? What’s happening Friday?”
Dinner with her friends, Sadie volunteered. Remember when you were too stubborn to ask what she was talking about? I guess we know who is the best now.
Cali laughed and shimmied up him, setting off a momentary tinkling of bells. “Silly. Going out with Georgia and Clinton. We have a reservation at Trattoria Olivio.”