The Immortals by Mary Hallberg (chrysanthemum read aloud txt) 📗

been there. You only know what grandpa has told you and he’s clearly biased. And you’re only being nice to me because I’m going along with what you want.

But I said nothing.

“I have to go mom,” I said. “I’ll see you next week.”

When I got back to the living room Elizabeth was by the punch bowl but I ignored her. I saw Gage heading for the kitchen and made my way there, but Elizabeth grabbed my hand and said, “There you are Kenzie! Let’s get a drink.”

She led me through the crowd, pushing past more than one tipsy person. Amidst the many minglers, we found a small table taken up mostly by a large punchbowl that I could tell from one close whiff had almost as much vodka in it as it had punch.

Elizabeth grabbed a glass and filled it almost to the brim. “Want me to pour you some?” she asked. I shook my head as she took a huge gulp. She winced as it went down but said, “Are you sure? It tastes great!”

“Positive.” I picked up a handful of chips, plotting how I was going to ditch her. It probably wouldn’t be difficult; a couple more glasses of that punch and she’d be hanging all over one of the guys surrounding the table.

“So Gage tells me you’re leaving.” She could still stand up straight without falling over, but I could smell the vodka on her breath even more than I could coming out of the bowl.

“Yeah, in a couple of weeks.”

“Couldn’t handle it, huh? Well, we’re all going to miss you. It’s not going to be the same without you in bio.”

I didn’t bother to mention to her that our bio class was over and we would get all new classes next semester anyway, even if we were still in school together. She pointed to my head with her free hand. “Your hair is so pretty. You should really get highlights. They’d bring out your eyes. Did I tell you I wanted to go to cosmetology school? And that was after I was already Immortal too!” She took another sip of her drink. “I have to pee. Save me some chips?”

I wandered away from the punch bowl and into a side room filled with tables full of figurines. My mom used to have a few figurines of angels around the house, but most of those had been put up years ago in favor of coffee table books and big lamps.

I reached out to touch an angel holding up her arms in some sort of cheer when I heard a voice behind me. “You must be McKenzie.”

I jumped and looked behind me. A man in his sixties wearing khaki pants and a white dress shirt was standing in the doorway.

“I didn’t mean to startle you. I was just wondering who might be in here admiring my study.”

“Dr. Cooper,” I said.

He nodded. “I realize that we’ve never formally met and you must be surprised. I don’t think you would remember me.”

I shook my head. “I don’t think I ever met you. You knew my dad, right?”

“Many, many years ago.” He crossed one leg over the other. “He was one of my favorite colleagues. It’s a shame we lost contact. I guess I had other priorities.”

I bit my lip. “Dr. Cooper...did you ever write my dad a letter?”

He stood up straight. “What?”

“I found part of this letter in my dad’s stuff. It was just a paragraph, but he laminated it and was using it as a bookmark. I guess whatever you said, he liked it.”

“I only wrote your father one letter in his life. I doubt it was that one.”

“He didn’t know any other scientists, and it said the writer was a scientist. It had to be you.”

He was silent for a moment, and I worried I had said something wrong — or that he knew I was lying. Of course he knew I was lying. He knew my dad had far more connections in the scientific community than just him.

Then he said, “How much of the letter did you read?”

“Just the last paragraph. I don’t know where the rest is.”

“That’s good, McKenzie. It’s not a letter you ever need to read.” I couldn’t see his face well in the dim light, but I figured that wasn’t a bad thing. “I should probably get back to my party now. Must do some schmoozing, you know. I’ll have to give your mother a call sometime and do some catching up. It’s always nice to hear from an old friend.” Just before he left the room he turned his head and said, “I hope to see you around, McKenzie.”

I found Elizabeth again near the punch bowl a few minutes later. She had already finished off her first glass and started on another, her arms around some generic frat boy. I didn’t care to watch the train wreck that was Drunk Elizabeth, so I wandered to the kitchen and found Gage standing in a corner. The idea of getting beer had apparently been forgotten because he was alone with a plate of food. He smiled when he saw me but didn’t move.

“Who was that on the phone?” he asked.

“My mom.”

“What did she want?”

“Nothing.”

“Planning stuff for your big move?” I nodded.

He shuffled his feet and chewed on a toothpick. “When are you leaving?”

“The 14th.” I picked up a grape off of his plate. Normally he would have made a joke about me stealing all of his food, but he just stared at the grape as I popped it into my mouth.

“Come on Gage, let’s not do this right now,” I said.

“Kenzie, you knew we would have to talk about this. You can’t just tell me you’re leaving in two weeks and expect me not to say anything.”

“I know, but you’ve known about this for days. Now’s not a good time to talk about it.”

“It’s never a good time, is it?” He turned on the balls of his feet and took the half eaten plate