The Atomic Weight of Secrets or The Arrival of the Mysterious Men in Black (45 page)

Drs. Isabelle and Tobias Modest and Gwendolyn and Rajesh Vigyanveta sat with Dr. Ben Banneker IV and Dr. Clarence Canto-Sagas. The children stood frozen for a moment, a thousand things running through their minds, but questions and accusations flew away like bats from a cave, and all five children came running into the outstretched arms that awaited them.

Then Noah, hugging his father, heard it first, and recognized it immediately: the gargling singing exercise emerging from the powder room at the rear of the library. It was a sound he always heard after a long voyage.

“Mother!” cried Noah, flying from his father’s arms into his mother’s as she exited the powder room. Turning back to his father, Noah was caught instantly in a double embrace.

Faye was in the warmest arms she could remember. “We’ve missed you so much, my little
marmelo,”
Rajesh Vigyanveta said, holding his daughter close. Somehow, it was that term of affection that reignited her anger. She opened her mouth, ready to accuse,
ready to demand if he had missed her, had even thought about her and, if so, why had he not come back for her or made contact with her? But instead, Faye let herself be held, and the warmth of her father’s embrace tempered the cold hard anger she felt toward her parents, even if only for the time being.

“Where have you been?” Jasper asked his mother.

“We’ve been working very hard,” she said, but that was all she offered.

“We’ve wanted to see you,” Tobias Modest said, holding tight to Lucy.

“We... well, we were just unable to do so,” said his wife.

“Son,” Dr. Banneker said, trying to offer a stiff chin but unable to keep it from quivering, “it’s so darn good to see you.” Wallace wrapped his arms around his father’s neck.

“I’ve missed you, Father,” Wallace said.

“I have something for you,” his father said, opening Wallace’s hand and putting something into his palm.

“My lucky coin!” Wallace exclaimed, squeezing the familiar object in his hand. “Did it work?”

“Work?” His father looked taken aback.

“Did it bring you luck?”

Dr. Banneker laughed, and his whole demeanor seemed to change. He relaxed and breathed a deep sigh. “Yes, son, it did,” he said. “And I am surely going to be needing that luck again. But
you keep it for now.”

And he held his son tight.

“It’s been something of a mystery to me, too, luvvie,” Noah’s mother said, caressing Noah’s hair and looking at her husband.

“To me, as well,” Dr. Canto-Sagas said. “We haven’t been told very much, either. But we were totally secluded and the work is very, very important.”

“Don’t tell me,” Ariana said, covering her ears. “I don’t want to hear anything about it. It will frustrate me to no end to hear you are doing something worrisome.”

“I don’t think Father could tell you anyway,” said Noah, reaching for his father’s hand. “Could you, Father?”

With very sad eyes, his father nodded. “I’m so sorry, both of you. There’s so much... Well, it’s just good to be together.”

“Where’s Ralph?” Noah asked.

“Glenda is taking great care of him,” Ariana said. “In fact, Fifi is staying at home as well. It seems the two little creatures have struck up something of a friendship.”

Noah found this hard to believe, but it didn’t matter. He was glad to hear about Ralph. And his mother had, after all, left that dog of hers behind to come here and be with him and Father.

The car door opened.

“Miss Brett!” Noah heard Lucy shout.

And there stood Miss Brett in the doorway between the first two cars. The children rushed to greet her, and suddenly, everyone was talking at once. “My angels,” Miss Brett said, returning the
kisses and embraces of her students.

But between the animated chatter lay great mounds of hesitation. Happy though they were all to be reunited, it felt like they were all standing behind fences they were not at liberty to cross.

M
UCH
A
DO
A
BOUT
N
OTHING

OR

THE MYSTERIOUS BEYOND

S
oon, the children and their parents followed Miss Brett into the dining room. As Jasper had predicted, there
was
a man in a black chef’s hat, and he was ladling soup from a huge terrene into large bowls on the table. The soup smelled of roast garlic and vegetable broth. The chef was assisted by a very, very short man in a long black stocking cap, who wore pointy black shoes with little bells upon the toes, wearing a suit that could only belong to one of Santa’s helpers—but black, of course. He had a pair of black spectacles perched on the end of his nose, steamed up from the hot soup.

As the second course of roast beef, fried potatoes, and grilled leeks was being served, and the soup bowls removed, conversation returned to common ground.

“We were all worried about you,” Dr. Banneker said to Wallace. “We heard that there had been trouble.”

“
We
were worried about you,” Wallace said. “All of you left us without saying a word. We didn’t know a thing. We thought the men in black kidnapped you.”

The parents laughed.

“Kidnapped us?” Faye’s mother said. “Well, that
is
funny. Really. You see, the men in black—”

“Gwendolyn.” Faye’s father stopped her gently, taking his wife’s hand and shaking his head ever so slightly.

Faye’s mother put her hand to her lips. “Well, let’s just say we were not kidnapped.”

The children all sat, waiting to hear more. But clearly, more was not forthcoming.

“Well?” Faye said. “What happened, then? What was so important that abandoning your children was worth it?”

“Dear...” her mother began.

“You all just left us,” said Jasper. “And what’s even worse, you tried to pretend that you hadn’t.”

“We...” the Modests began in unison, but there wasn’t really any argument they could make.

“We were not at liberty to say,” said Dr. Banneker. “We still are not.”

“You couldn’t tell your children?” asked Wallace.

His father turned a shocked face toward his son. “Wallace, I... well, you needn’t—”

“You all left us, without warning, without word,” said Jasper. “We’re only children! We have feelings and we worry. And we’re not just any children, we’re
your
children!”

Wallace turned and looked his father right in the eyes. “Father.” Wallace spoke firmly, surprising both himself and his father. “It was... very unkind.” Wallace knew this was not enough to describe what he felt. Bravely, he added, “More than that, it was horridly cruel.” The vision of his father driving away as Wallace stood on the side of the road punctuated his words and made his
face feel hot.

“I... I’m sorry, son.” Dr. Banneker had nothing else to say. The other children got similar looks and declarations from their own parents, but still no further information.

Lucy cleared her throat. “Can you tell us about Komar Romak?” she asked.

The parents gave a collective gasp, with forks dropped, water sipped, coughs coughed.

“How on earth do you know about Komar Romak?” Faye’s mother asked, recovering first.

Not knowing how to answer, the children all looked down into their plates. Gwendolyn Vigyanveta continued, “Even we were never told much about... I mean... Well, how do you children know?”