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"Inner space is more like it," Rodney said

Eureka watched him, the way he looked up at Cat and chuckled, the way he seemed to enjoy her every wacky remark Eureka didn’t think Rodney was particularly attractive, so she was surprised by the twinge of jealousy that snuck into her chest

His flirtation with Cat made what had just passed between her and Brooks feel like a Tower of Babel–scalethe track on TV and i one of the covered in advertisee of the book Rodney was pretending to read across the table

She should never have kissed Brooks It was a huge mistake They knew each other too well to try to know each other any better And they’d already broken up once before If Eureka was ever going to get involved with someone romantically--which, since the accident, she wouldn’t wish on her worst ene about her, sonorant of her complexities and flaws She shouldn’t be with a critic ready to pull away fro about her that rong She knew better than anyone that the list was endless

She ht He’d been a jerk He should apologize Eureka checked her phone discreetly He hadn’t texted

"What do you think?" Cat asked "Should we do it?"

Eureka’s left ear rang What had she ood ear toward the conversation

"I knohat you’re thinking," Rodney said "You think I’e nut job But I know classical and vulgar Latin, three dialects of early Greek, and a bit of Arae of dense text--"isn’t like anything I’ve seen"

"Isn’t he a genius?" Cat squeaked

Eureka hurried to catch up "So you think we should take the book to …?"

"She’s a little eccentric, a self-taught expert in dead languages," Rodney said "Makes her living telling fortunes Just ask her to look at the text And don’t let her rip you off She’ll respect you more Whatever she asks for, offer half and settle for a quarter less than her original price"

"I’ll bring my calculator," Eureka said

Rodney reached across Cat, pulled a napkin from the dispenser and scribbled:

Madao check her out" Eureka slid the book back in her bag and zipped it up She motioned to Cat, who unpeeled herself from Rodney and o make a deal"

13

MADAME BLAVATSKY

Madame Blavatsky’s storefront was in the older part of town, not far froreen hand in theten thousand ti lot and they stood in the rain before the nondescript glass-panel door, rapping the antique brass knocker shaped like a lion’s head

After a few ing from the inside handle A stout woman ild, frizzy hair stood in the entry, arlow that obscured her face in shadows

"Here for a reading?"

Her voice was rough and raspy Eureka nodded as she pulled Cat into the dark foyer It looked like a dentist’s waiting roo chairs and a nearly eazine rack

"I do palms, cards, and leaves," Madame Blavatsky said, "but you must pay separately for the tea" She looked about seventy-five, with painted red lips, a constellation of moles on her chin, and thick, muscular arms

"Thank you, but we have a special request," Eureka said

Madame Blavatsky eyed the heavy book tucked under Eureka’s arm "Requests are not special Presents are special A vacation--that would be special" The old wo black dress wafted the stench of a thousand cigarettes as she led the girls through a second door and into aand black-on-black embossed wallpaper There was a hue hot pot on top of a perilously stuffed bookcase, and a hundred old frowning portraits hanging in slanted frames on the wall A broad desk held a frozen avalanche of books and papers, an old desktop co purple freesias, and two turtles that were either napping or dead Elegant gold cages hung in each corner of the roo They were sreen bodies and red beaks They chirped resoundingly, melodically, incessantly

"Abyssinian lovebirds," Madaent" She slid a finger coated with peanut butter through the bars of one of the cages and giggled like a child as the birds flocked to peck her skin clean One bird rested on her index finger longer than the others She leaned close, puckering red lips and er than the others, with a bright red crown and a diahtest of all, my sweet, sweet Polaris"

At last Madairls to join her They sat quietly on a low black velour couch, rearranging the twenty-odd stained and lanced at Cat

"Yes, yes?" Madaarette "I can surreat power in words The universe flows out of them Use them now, please The universe awaits"

Cat raised one eyebrow at Eureka, tilted her head in the woman’s direction "Better not piss off the universe"