Path of Breath Read online

  “Brave New World,” he dictated, standing closer to her than he should. He knew he was risking falling into a deep abyss, one which he could never crawl out of. Delilah’s wide face plagued his mind, but he didn’t feel affected by her. He wanted to keep his morals, and he knew Izzie did, too. But he couldn’t deny the way he felt for her, the want to be near her. Why was it she had a huge scar on her stomach, one he believed was from a caesarian section, yet she felt it was an appendix scar with such certainty? And why had her eyes filled with such caution when he mentioned her embarrassment of it? And was it possible, that despite…

  He was awakened by the sound of Izzie climbing a ladder that stood at least twenty-feet tall. He chuckled as she wiggled up the shelves, and like a pro, she found the book with ease and glided down the steps. She handed him the dusty book with a glittery smile, and he took it with pride. “Laughing at my skills?” she asked.

  “Maybe just a little,” he answered, holding the leather-bound book. “When should I return it to you?”

  Izzie looked at her feet, her mind racing. “Whenever you’d like,” she finally decided. “And Christoph?” she added as he started for the door.

  “Yes?”

  “Do you feel it, too?” She bit her lip and anxiously stared into his honest eyes.

  “If you are referring to what I am thinking, yes. I do feel it.” He pulled his coat on from the chair where he left it, and as he walked out of the door, he looked back to her once more, troubled by her perplexed expression.

  THE NEXT AFTERNOON, after Izzie had fallen into a slumber on her favorite loveseat with a copy of Jane Eyre on her lap, The German entered the library and stumbled upon the peaceful woman. He placed the returned book on a nearby table with a book of check-out information, and wrote a quick note on top.

  Jane,

  You are beautiful when you sleep.

  -Mr. Rochester

  CHAPTER THREE

  KATE ARRIVED AT school the next Monday to find a surprising piece of information: Mr. Leiden was leaving the school.

  She raced between the freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors, searching for the only person she called friend. She loomed tall above the other girls, and the seniors were ogling little slim-waisted Katherine Stone as she rushed through the halls. She had finished school a period early today, and she hadn’t been able to concentrate with this new puzzling information. Why was Mr. Leiden leaving, just when he had become one of her only friends?

  Kate checked every room on the upper level of the small school, but Nick wasn’t anywhere to be found. She raced down the stairs, her new tights itching against her skin. She had tried a new look today by curling her long hair, wearing a shorter skirt than usual with those itchy tights, and an expensive sweater her mom had bought from Portland. Shocker, she was even wearing a hint of makeup. She was trying to impress one of Nick’s friends, Oliver, who hadn’t showed up to school today. But the thoughts of her normal life were gone, and she only wanted to find Nick Loring, who wasn’t anywhere it seemed!

  Kate was fuming as she ran down the freshmen hallway. At the end of the youngsters, she finally saw that familiar head of dark hair, but he was holding a strange gift in his arms. “Nick?” she questioned as her eyebrows furrowed. “What is that?”

  Nick looked back, his blue eyes settling against hers. “Mr. Leiden called me to his room twenty-five minutes ago. He told me.”

  Kate gulped. “And…?”

  “He gave me this,” Nick handed her the gift, which was wrapped in incredibly beautiful blue paper. It was the color of Kate’s eyes, but she didn’t notice.

  “This is so nice,” she gushed. “Why don’t you open it, Nick?”

  “I won’t. Why would he give me a gift? I’m just one of his students. I’m not a straight-A kid like you, and I’m not respectful when I should be. Why would he care about me?” Nick pulled his backpack tighter to his body, and Kate bit the inside of her cheek.

  “He cares about you. Maybe there’s a meaning with the gift he gave you. Open it.”

  “Not yet, I’m not ready.”

  Kate nodded, satisfied with his answer. “Is he going for sure?”

  “It’s official,” Nick answered, his emotions clearly pointing that he didn’t want Mr. Leiden to leave. “He’s leaving Monday for a new life someplace else.”

  “That was his reasoning? I…that doesn’t make sense.”

  “Well, who wants to live in Screwed-up, Maine, anyway, Kate? We were bred and born here, and its blood runs through our veins. We can’t go until we get an opportunity, and Mr. Leiden found his.”

  “Convince yourself of what you want, but I think he’s hiding something. Don’t you want to find out, Nick?” She crossed her arms over her chest.

  Nick rolled his eyes. “We are not spying on Mr. Leiden, Kate.”

  “And if we don’t, who knows why he’s leaving? We can do it tonight.”

  “Tonight’s a Monday, and don’t you have some kind of test to study for? Tutoring? Volunteering? Walking across the Amazon to end global warming?”

  Kate smiled and stepped on her tiptoes, trying to look straight into his eyes. She squealed gleefully, “Nothing! It’s a date, then. I’ll meet you at that lamppost where we met him last week, okay? Seven o’clock?”

  The other teenager slumped over a bit, and before he realized it, he nodded. What they would find next would startle them to the bones.

  AT PRECISELY SEVEN o’clock, Nick darted out of the backdoor to his house, ignoring his sleeping brothers, who had already fallen under a sleeping spell; his mother, who was watching a special on a recipe she wanted to try; and his father’s incessant calls for work. No one would notice he was gone, and as he pulled his hood over his dark hair, he was refreshed in the cool air.

  He couldn’t believe he had agreed to this suicide mission with Kate, and he couldn’t believe he was sneaking around at seven, when they should be sneaking at a later hour. However, Kate professed she wouldn’t be able to leave the house after nine, and she had lied to her parents that she would be at the library under Isobel Hampton’s strict tutelage.

  Nick wondered what kind of library would still be open at seven o’clock, but he knew the librarian, Mrs. Hampton, preferred her cramped dwelling full of books to her rough husband’s apartment. Every waking soul knew that Paul Hampton was not one to be crossed with, and whenever Nick needed a book from Mrs. Hampton, he couldn’t imagine how a kind, eccentric soul as hers could put up with a masochist like Paul.

  Nick’s headphones flowed with rock music, and he tried to find the meaning of his small-town lifestyle. He had his family, a family he loved, and he had made a friendship with the loner girl, Kate, who he had recently discovered was a fun gal. What else would he find out with Kate at his side? He felt they would be intruding Mr. Leiden’s personal space, but Nick did find their spying to be weirdly satisfying compared to the normal go-home, do-homework, eat, build an airplane, go-to-bed, repeat routine.

  He noticed Kate hiding behind the lamppost. She was dressed in black, and her long hair was strangely tied on top of her head and concealed by a black hood. “Why didn’t you wear black, idiot?” she angrily demanded.

  “Because…I didn’t know we were robbing a bank.” He took out the headphones from his ears, finding Kate’s stomping of the feet to be more entertaining.

  “It’ll have to do. Now, I know it’s late enough, but I was thinking, we should wait a little longer before we go on our mission. What if he’s not home yet?”

  “This is your mission, Kate. Remember, I’m coming along to assist.”

  “Fine, Nikita. Now, let’s keep going. I was thinking we go to the library for scones until it’s a little darker. Methinks it would be a good idea.”

  “Did you just say ‘methinks’?”

  Kate sighed, and then grabbed his elbow. “C’mon, Nick. Let’s get some refreshing beverages. I’m thinking hot cocoa.”

  “Do you mean hot chocolate? Look at where this refin
ed lifestyle’s getting you, Kate,” he chuckled as she swatted his arm. “And what kind of library sells scones and hot chocolate?”

  Kate looked over at her companion before shrugging. “Izzie’s different. You know her, too, you know. She’s just…different. And they’re not for sale.”

  “I’ve only been to the library a few times. I don’t know her very well at all.”

  Kate squared her shoulders as she always did when she was about to give her opinion. “Isobel Hampton, a distant relative of the Comptons who founded this nation…”

  “I wouldn’t call it a nation, my friend,” Nick interrupted in a faux British accent.

  “Shut up for once in your life. Now, the Comptons founded this particular town of Wistilla, where we happen to reside…”

  “Cut to the chase already.”

  Kate kiddingly growled, “If I wasn’t being interrupted so many times. Now, Izzie’s married to Paul Hampton, who I’m sure you know. Now, the rumor is that she was married before she met Paul. To whom, I’m not sure, and why she left him for Paul, I’m not certain. But if you look at her sometimes, she has this forlorn, lost look on her face. Like she’s trying to remember something important.”

  “Who told you she was married before? That was probably some old church lady’s gossiping gone wrong.”

  “But I don’t think it was,” Kate said, glumly looked at her feet. “Izzie told Mrs. Calliper that she worried about him, but she didn’t mean Paul. I overheard them one day. It was strange. Mrs. Calliper is one of Izzie’s friends, and they were jabbing like normal. But randomly, and with conviction, Izzie confessed she missed him, but it was obvious she didn’t mean Paul.”

  “That doesn’t mean she misses an ex-husband, or anything, Kate. She could be missing a brother…”

  Kate’s eyes lit up with the idea of a mystery. “She’s the only one of her siblings left alive.”

  “Any uncles? Her father?”

  “Her father has been dead since she was born. So, how could she miss him? No uncles, either.”

  “Okay, stop freaking out, Kate. Why do you care so much about Izzie’s genealogical history?”

  Kate was taken aback by the sudden harshness of his comments. “Because, when you don’t have any friends in a small town like this, there’s no one else to talk to except the lonely librarian, or Mrs. Calliper, or Mr. Danby. It’s not like I can hang out with you without being scolded for our friendship. A girl like me doesn’t hang out with a guy like you, Nick.”

  Feeling the tension of Kate’s sudden confession, and the hustled breathing of her lungs, Nick stopped and quickly pressed, “Why would you think we couldn’t be friends, Kate? I don’t answer to anyone, and neither do you. I don’t care what others think, if you haven’t noticed lately.”

  “But I know you do,” she said.

  “Think what you want, but you don’t have to answer to anyone. Listen to me. I’d be your friend over anyone at our school in an instant. They don’t have the depth of soul like you do. No one’s smart enough or rich enough or pretty enough like Kate Stone, and they’re all jealous of you. I’m not though, Kate, because you and I are different.”

  Kate wiped a tear from her lids and briskly continued walking. She ignored Nick’s incessant questioning until they were in front of the library, and inside, they could spot a slim Izzie dusting the surface to one of the front shelves. She held a book in her spare hand, which Nick thought was A Little Princess.

  Forgetting their previous scuffle, Kate nudged her friend and stood on her tiptoes to say, “Look at her. Isn’t she the most gorgeous woman you’ve ever seen?”

  Nick stared at the woman. She was beautiful, though she didn’t seem to care about her appearance. Her long hair was tied into a messy ponytail, and her sweater said, FRANKLY, MY DEAR, I DON’T GIVE A DAM, with a beaver printed beside the scrawl.

  He laughed as he read her shirt. He liked Izzie more because of it. He followed Kate into the library. The dingle of merry bells above their heads signaled the librarian that visitors had come, and like a newborn giraffe, Izzie teetered off of one of the ladders. Fortunately, she only fell a few steps, and she landed on her tailbone. The books she was dusting and reading somehow managed to stay in her hands, and the dusting tool floated in the air until landing right on top of her head.

  Izzie coughed as the dust filled her lungs, and the kids hurried to her aid. Kate squealed, “Mrs. Hampton!”

  Nick hurriedly pulled her up, but it was Kate who awkwardly dug the dusting utensil out of Izzie’s ponytail. “Oh, Mrs. Hampton,” Nick said, his eyes big as the woman’s face flushed with pink embarrassment. “Are you okay?”

  Kate and Nick stood expectantly as Izzie suddenly erupted with giggles. The woman laughed so hard that she doubled over and tears pooled at the base of her eyes. “Mrs. Hampton?” They asked with concern. Had she hit her head as she fell? Was she smoking marijuana? Various pictures flashed through their heads alike until Izzie spoke.

  “I’m okay. Thank you for helping me up, Nick, Kate. You’re so nice. I’m sorry, I must have given you a heart attack.”

  “Why are you laughing?” Kate asked, her mind reeling. “That looked like a nasty fall.”

  “Mrs. Hampton?” Nick couldn’t resist asking. “Are you smoking…cannabis?”

  Izzie raised her eyebrows and fell to the floor laughing harder than before. Nick and Kate exchanged glances and both wanted to hide behind the stacks of shelves behind them. However, Izzie stopped laughing and crying, or whatever she was doing, and stood up again. “I’m not smoking anything, Nick. It’s just that…I can only imagine how I must have looked with a duster in my hair. Excuse me, I must look like a wreck. How can I help you kids, first?”

  “Sitting down and not harming yourself further,” Nick chided, feeling strangely connected to the small-town librarian.

  Izzie nodded and sat down on her nearby loveseat. “Can I help you with anything? I can sit here and have Kate get whatever you need. She’s a regular here.” She proudly gleamed as Kate blushed.

  “Well, I love visiting you, Izzie.”

  “And I love your visits. Even when I fall off of ladders.”

  Kate plopped down on one of the sofas near the fireplace. “Well, honestly, I’m here because I wanted to have a scone, but now I kinda lost my appetite with that dustball apparatus that fell with your duster.”

  “Sorry,” Izzie shyly giggled. “If I could only erase your memory of that…Now, explain to me why you’re dressed in all black. Going goth? That is the proper teen terminology nowadays, right?”

  Nick wandered around, looking at the volumes of novels, all in alphabetical order and in the correct genre section. There were thousands of books housed here, and the smell of old paper was clearly evident. As he heard the light chatter between Kate and Izzie, he looked over at the only clean table in the library. He saw a note, a beautifully scripted note, and puzzled by the familiar slant of the letters, he read it.

  Jane,

  You are beautiful when you sleep.

  -Mr. Rochester

  Jane Eyre. One of the required novels on Mr. Leiden’s honors summer reading list. And that’s when it hit him: the script was Mr. Leiden’s. His heart sank.

  As the implications of the note filled Nick’s brain, his hands fumbled against a rack of books. Luckily, nothing fell to the floor, but Kate and Izzie looked over at him. Kate sensed his hesitation, but she was a smart girl, and continued to talk to Izzie like nothing had happened.

  Meanwhile, Nick grabbed the note and thrust it in his jacket pocket. He would show Kate later, and then he’d return it tomorrow if he could. He needed Kate to distract, and she was doing a good job of that at that precise moment. She kept sneaking glances over at his direction, but he winked back and turned to the books. He pretended like nothing had happened. Nothing at all.

  AT EIGHT O’CLOCK, the duo stepped outside into the chilly air and Kate demanded, “What did you do? What did you find?”

  “
We don’t need to go spying anymore, Kate.”

  “What do you mean?”

  With one swift motion, Nick slammed the paper against her cold hands. “Read it.”

  Kate read it aloud before her eyes clouded over. “What does this have to do with anything?”

  “You don’t recognize the handwriting?”

  Kate read it again, before shoving the paper back to him. “No, and I think that you shouldn’t steal from Izzie. Take it back inside, Nikita.”

  “Kate, listen to me. It’s Mr. Leiden’s writing. Don’t you see? It’s a play on Jane Eyre. It’s…”

  Out of the corner of her eye, Kate saw a figure appear, and she clutched Nick. He froze in fear, before seeing a woman slither out of the shadows and into the shadow of the lamppost. What was it with people and lampposts these days? Anyhow, Kate was prepared this time and released the pepper spray into the woman’s face.

  “Kate!” Nick screamed as the woman grabbed her eyes and fell to the ground. “What are you doing?”

  Kate, realizing the complications that had arisen, stood rooted to the spot as she watched Nick fall to the ground to assist this woman. She stomped her foot in frustration while Nick helped the writhing woman. “Why couldn’t it have been a bad guy?”

  Nick, meanwhile, couldn’t help but see the beautiful woman he was trying to corral. She had long, curly brown hair and was very slim. She was dressed in only a long-sleeved blouse with leggings, and she had to be freezing. He helped her stand until she cried out in agony about her eyes. “Here, let me help you…”

  She screamed, “So you can pepper spray me again? C’mon, I just did my makeup!”

  “Sorry?” Kate offered as she looked down at her cell phone. It was getting late, and their spying time would come to a close soon if they didn’t hurry it up with Miss Dramatic. “Nick?”