I believed him.
I thought back to the night I’d followed a man from the museum into the garden. I wasn’t even sure it had been this man. Whoever he was had been complaining to himself. If it had been Cornelius Kurnbottom, and he’d been complaining about Silas, well, Silas had that effect on people.I should know.
“I’ve heard you already spoke with my associate Mr. Huxley,” I said.
The smile fell from his face. “You work withhim?”
“Not by choice,” I said.
His grimace lightened. “He’s the worst.”
It seemed perhaps I’d misjudged Mr. Kurnbottom. I still believed that he had visited Marshmallow all those years ago, but whatever his connection to my mother, I did not believe he was lying about the amulet being stolen.
We wrapped up our meal, and I left to return to my search for a young person to help me with my telephone. I needed to speak to the driver sooner rather than later.
A few steps down the street and I spotted a blue ball hiding behind a fire hydrant. It had feet.
“Fernando?”
The ball definitely had elbows.
“Fernando, I see you hiding behind that hydrant,” I said.
He tucked his arms against his round body and inched his feet closer to his center. It did nothing to hide him from my view.
In all of my years, I had never found anyone or anything remotely like Fernando. He was one of a kind, and not in the clichéd way of someone being special. Fernando was a unique anomaly. His book at the library had no name for his species, as he didn’t seem to have one. References tohunger ballandrolling nuisancewere made, but he seemed to simply be. He was a being that existed without limit.
“I can still see you.” I stepped over to him.
He covered his singular giant eye with his hands. I bent down and gave him a poke. He peeled his fingers from his face. His pupil doubled in size as he looked up at me, and a grin overtook his entire body.
“Hello, Lily,” he said in his gurgly way.
“Hi. What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be helping Mom.”
“Lily here. Fernando here. Frens.”
“When did you….” I tried to think back. He couldn’t have hidden himself in the library. I’d come directly from there to here. Except for a single pit stop,in Marshmallow.“You’ve been here this whole time with me?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you say something sooner?” I asked. “Why are you hiding?”
“Hid in lady’s bag. She has no snacks. No want to go home. Lily here. Fernando here.”
“You’ve been hiding from me because you were afraid I’d send you home?” He was probably right. “That makes sense.”
“No home now please.”
Mom had Ambrose. I’d sent Imogen away and I was completely alone out here. So really, I could use Fernando more than Mom could, anyway.
“All right,” I said. “You can stay. But I want to know everything you’ve been up to. Have you been staying in the hostel with me this whole time, too?”
I hoped not. It had been days. If he’d been that close, for that long without me noticing, I had lost my edge even more than I’d thought.
Fernando waggled his finger, as if shaming me. I wasn’t sure what that was about.
He said, “No.”