Fugitives of Chaos

shoulders, watching in every direction for any sign of grown-ups.

Victor put out his hand: 'All for one.'

Quentin said, 'And one for all.'

The girls chimed in: 'One for all—one for all.'

Colin waited until Vanity and Amelia put their hands in the circle, and he plopped his hand down on Amelia's, caressing her knuckles with his finger in an oily fashion; and he said, 'And all the girls for me!'

Then he said, 'Ow!' when Amelia, without removing her hand from the circle, elbowed him in the ribs.

Victor slapped his neck. That was the sign that everyone should assume the conversation was being bugged.

Then Victor said, 'What's your favorite color, Amelia?'

Yellow was her favorite color. Everyone sighed, except Colin, who groaned. Yellow Alert meant no unsecured communications, even when alone, and everyone was to wake up at midnight to participate in a conference (by tap code) through the dormitory walls.

Quentin said, 'I'm curious as to why you're curious about her favorite color, Victor.' (Translation: Why the alert?)

Victor said, 'I see a squirrel. Rare this time of year.' (Girls, start chattering.) Amelia was annoyed. Not only had she and Vanity just had an argument that morning, but it was something of a stereotype, if not an outright insult, to assume that girls could just blather on and on about nothing on demand.

Vanity did not help matters by living up to the stereotype. She apparently had forgiven Amelia, and now wanted to chat about Mr. Drinkwater, the handsome new teacher.

Amelia tried to follow the conversation of the boys (the 'Macho Patriarchy,' as she called them) while they coughed and tapped the benches in code or made innocuous-sounding comments with double meanings.

Victor said, 'The weather is getting warmer.' (This comment was hard to translate, because the weather actually was getting warmer. In code, it was supposed to mean that things were heating up; that is, the grown-ups were up to something.)

Quentin: 'Seems cool enough to me, except for one thing.'

Colin said, 'Rum luck that we all came down with Doctorfellitis at the same time. Missing the big meeting, whatever that was. But won't it get colder as the week goes on?'

Victor had been writing a note in his notebook. He passed it around the circle. Unfortunately, he passed it to his left, so that Quentin saw it first and Amelia saw it last.

Never so much drugs before. Never knocked us out for days at a time.

Vanity (still chattering away like a stereotype) took out her pink pen and circled the s in the plural 'days'

and put a question mark by it. Amelia passed the note back to Victor.

Victor took an almanac out of his coat pocket, opened it to a page he had dog-eared, and passed it to Vanity. Amelia peered over her shoulder. It was a chart listing the predicted times of the rising and the setting of the moon and certain major stars, cross-referenced by latitude and time of year.

Colin said, 'Hey, look what I found!' (Translation: I stole this.) And he pulled out a folded back-page from a newspaper, one of the several that arrived daily in the large mailbox, surrounded by stone like a pillbox, at the far end of the drive. He had circled the times given for sunrise and sunset, moonrise and moonset for today.

The two figures agreed that today was Monday, December 18. But the school calendar and the class schedule for today indicated that it was supposed to be Wednesday the thirteenth.

Vanity turned away from Amelia and said to Victor, 'Remember what they taught us in science class?'

(Translation: Always seek independent confirmation.)

Quentin said, 'This may not interest anyone but me…' (This may not convince anyone but me.) '…

but who wants to see a card trick?'

Quentin took his Rider-Waite deck of tarot cards out from a cedar box he kept in an inner pocket. He shuffled, cut the deck into three piles. He said, 'Pick a card, any card.'

Vanity leaned across the circle and picked one of the cards, turned it faceup. It was Key Eighteen: the Moon.

Quentin said, 'That's been happening all day.'

Colin said, 'Good job in language tutorial today. Not everyone speaks Greek as well as you do, pal.' He passed him Victor's notebook. 'Why don't you write out that passage for me we were looking at.'

Quentin wrote in his small precise hand:

— 2day clearly Monday, not Wednesday. Monday is assoc w/Moon (obvsly!) but also w/ White Roses, silver, Willow trees. All signs v. obvious. Saw Owl by day, flew widder-shins thrice around clock tower: Warning of Danger! Key XViii-deception.

Colin rolled his eyes and sighed. 'Look, the big meeting is over and we missed it. The weather is turning colder again. We all got sick, but we're all better now, so… so what is all this? My favorite color is Irish green. Why don't we all just relax?'

Victor leaned over and pointed to what he had previously written in the notebook: Never knocked us out for days at a time.