Emily The Strange_ The Lost Days Part 17

ME:.

Wow. Well, do you know who I am?

R:.

You're my a.s.sistant. Earwig.

ME:.

Do you know who made you?

R:.

I'm programmed not to answer that question.

ME:.

Of course you are. Do you know where Rachel is?

R:.

She went away.

ME:.

But you didn't hurt her?

R:.

No.

Would LOVE to find out who made her. (Emma LeStrande???) And what she's programmed to do, besides make coffee and sandwiches and give evasive answers to crucial questions.

And why she showed up here the same time I did.

Later I just realized that, of course, Raven is...unusual, meaning Attikol might be interested in her for more than just loooove.

I guess I can add that to the growing list of things I don't want Jakey to know about.

Really late the same day (I think) Higgined! I should have checked out Raven's secret closet a loooooooong time ago.

The first part you see when you go in is no big deal. A tiny little room with a mirror on the wall, a little shelf, a bag of cosmetics with RACHEL written on it. Emergency rations of water and astronaut food. Some coat hooks on the wall. Your basic extremely tiny, suspiciously secret employee break room, I guess.

BUT.

As soon as I went in I felt different. Recharged or espressofied. And like my eyes were sharper, or something. All the little fibers in the s.h.a.g carpeting stood out so clearly. So right away I noticed the small ridges in the carpet that outlined the trapdoor underneath.

The cats and I have spent a good long time in there. Down there. It goes way, way, way down. Farther than you'd ever think.

There's a spiral staircase that goes down and down and down. Seems like it would be so easy to slip and fall. I'm not sure how far you would fall if you slipped. You'd be lucky to catch on to a stair.

But I don't think I'll be falling, cuz there's a certain air in there that makes me feel excited and invulnerable. I started out just walking down, you know, but soon going faster and faster, till I was racing, barely touching the stairs with my feet. Then suddenly, WHOOSH, molten black rock would come roaring up the stairwell and I'd start to race back up. Most of the time I'd just barely make it or it got my foot just a little but other times it totally overtook me and I'd be blown right up the stairwell tumbling around and soaking through with hot molten rock.

Yeah, hot molten rock! And it burns, burns, burns. So much that I scream like crazy. But I'm not incinerated. And I don't want to stop. Explain it? I can't.

The cats and I spent a long time riding the rock, and let me tell you it was all right.

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Next day (I think)-Day...23? (Haven't slept. Losing track of time.) I reeeeeeallly wish I'd checked out the closet better back when I first discovered it. But I didn't know then that Raven herself was so...unusual.

Today I went down the staircase a lot more slowly and detective-like. There are all these landings that are sort of protected from the black rock when it whooshes. Here's a short list of stuff I found: 1. A bookcase of fascinating t.i.tles like Occult Thermodynamics and You Occult Thermodynamics and You.

2. A door locked with three complicated bolts.

3. A loose brick that reveals a secret cubbyhole full of the most darling bright red spiders.

4. A bunch of hidey-holes you can use to stay dryish when the lava whooshes up.

5. A large oil painting of a menacing black rock.

6. A folder full of architectural sketches for the attractive black building that the El Dungeon once was.

7. A telephone nook with one of those old-timey black phones, the kind with a dial and a cord (not working).

8. A beaten-up tin box full of miscellaneous electrical parts.

9. A bucket on a pulley.

10. A coat hook with a lab coat hanging on it (nothing in pockets).

11. A wooden bench covered in carved graffiti-must do rubbings of it later.

12. Some extremely pleasing rocks for slingshotting.

13. 4 giant statues of cats done in hard, gla.s.sy black rock.

Later-possibly a lot later (??) Have pulled up and let down the bucket many, many times, but there is never anything in the bucket except hot liquid black rock.

Later I JUST realized I haven't slept at all or eaten anything since I first went down into the closet. I wonder why? I'm not hungry or sleepy, and I feel incredible. Like I could fly. There must be something about this place that's recharging me.

Uh-oh.

Doesn't that pretty much point to the black rock being...unusual?

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4 black cats sniffing 4 black cat statues.

And therefore, something that Attikol would like to get his hands on?

Am feeling the need for big-time diversionary self-preservationist tactics.

It's all making me feel extremely lost and alone. It wouldn't be so bad if I could at least remember some of the good advice I'm sure my mom has given me over the years. I've been trying to prompt my memory by saying out loud: "It's like Mom always said..." But I get nothing.

Am holding tight to that folded piece of paper I found in my pocket, the one I instructed myself not to open until Day 27. I reeeeeeally hope it contains some kind of lifeline, such as my mom's phone number, or a recipe for reversing amnesia.

Hope I can hold out a few more days on my own before I give in and open it.

Day 24 You know what I've realized today? It is VERY suspicious that Schneider never told me I looked like the dead founder of his town. And I KNOW he's seen Emma LeStrande's portrait. I mean, I did think it was kind of odd, but excusable, that he'd never looked through the sc.r.a.pbook with all those photos of her. But I started to suspect him today when I took Sabbath to Hilda's to get his st.i.tches taken out, and I saw a photo of Hilda and Emma and a teenaged Schneider on Hilda's mantelpiece. Even THAT was KIND of excusable because...well, MAYBE he had forgotten what Emma looked like in the 13 years since she had died. (AND hadn't visited his grandma in all that time.) But THEN I went inside CITY HALL for the first time to find Schneider, and there is a six-foot by ten-foot portrait of Emma hanging in the foyer!!! I was so shocked I turned right around and came back to the El Dungeon to think it over. He is clearly hiding things from me!! But WHY??? Would dearly love to get a sneak peek into his mind. Wish I could ask Jakey to take a look for me, but I have to steer clear of the Moon Child unless I want Attikol to know about Raven and her secret closet full of magical black rock.

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Oh Duh. Jakey can't hear Raven's thoughts. (That, or Raven doesn't HAVE thoughts. Whatever.) I just hope she can follow instructions.

Later I sent Raven out to Jakey's trailer with the following note: Yo Jakey,Sorry I haven't been to see you in a while but am very sick with laryngitis. Anyway, how would you like to do me a favor? I will owe you big-time. There's this dude Schneider who hangs out at City Hall who knows all kinds of stuff about me that he won't tell. Maybe you can get something interesting out of him. I told Raven to buy you some parrot toys if you want.Later Your Friend, Your Friend, Earwig Now I'm making espresso for the regulars while Raven does my dirty work for me. Am crossing my fingers that all goes well.

Three Hours Later MUCH PROGRESS! Raven is back! She had a letter for me from Jakey, which I'm pasting on the next page.

Hi Earwig,Sory you are sick. I would come see you but Attikol will have a fit if I get larginitus. Sorry for terribel terrible spelling. Anyway the wierdest thing happened when Raven came here! She and my parrot were totally talking! I mean in bird language not English. I told you she is not like other poeple! Man she is the wierdest person I ever met eccept for you.Anyway she took me down to city hall and we found Shenider. Yah he has a lot of ideas about you. First off he thinks you are related to this dead frend fiend of his name Emma. And did you know there is this giant picture of you on the wall there. And he thinks you are smarter than him and you will figure him out and be relly mad that he made you go to school and you will tell Emma on him wich seems kind of dum since she is dead and all. And he has a letter from Emma about you that I copied down for you.That's pretty much it about you, he also is trying to figure out how to stop Attikol from recking all these buildings in town, so maybe we will be leaving town soon. Also Raven took me to the pet store and bought me a bunch of parrot toys and so, its relly ok that she is so wierd! Also a lot of buildings are looking relly bad like they might fall down. HAHAHA I hope Attikol gets in trouble for it.Bye, Jakey

And here is the letter from Emma that Jakey apparently pulled out of Schneider's mind.

FROM THE D DESK OF E EMMA L LESTRANDE,My dear Mr. Schneider,As I am writing this, you are thirteen years old; but when you receive it, you will be twenty-six, and I will be long dead. I am arranging with a friend to deliver this at the proper time. When that time comes, a certain great-niece of mine will be arriving in Blackrock with the intention of accomplis.h.i.+ng several tasks for me. I suspect that you will have no trouble recognizing her.I am enclosing a sum of money that you may use to secure yourself a position on the City Council. (I am sure that things will have changed considerably in Blackrock in thirteen years-yet somehow I feel just as sure that the corruption and graft brought in by our Mayor will not have changed one whit. I do wish I had the strength to run him out, but I am old-you have no idea how old-and very, very tired.) In return, I ask that you use your position to a.s.sist my great-niece if she should need your aid.A word of caution. You may a.s.sume that she is just as capable and intelligent as you are (if not more so), but she may be operating under certain...shall we say, self-imposed handicaps. Therefore, I am requesting that you interfere with her as little as possible, but provide whatever help she asks of you.Thank you in advance for your kind a.s.sistance. I hope to receive an excellent report of your conduct from my great-niece. You may expect a fitting reward-"from beyond the grave," as you young people say!Yours,[image]

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Am in shock.

Am really in shock.

Also, am REALLY hoping the bird-talk episode wasn't anything Jakey feels he should mention to Attikol. Also, did not realize Jakey's psychic power was so burly that he can pull entire letters out of people's minds!! Also, couldn't Schneider have been a LITTLE more helpful?? Also, have clearly used my quota of capital letters and exclamation points for today, but CRABBING GOLDFRIX!!!!!!!!!! I wish Old Emma (Great-Aunt Emma?) had sent ME a nice explanatory letter!

Well hey now. Who's to say she didn't? Maybe I just haven't found it yet.

OK.

Here's what I know know HOPE I know: HOPE I know: 1. If I can believe the above letter, then I'm the great-niece of Emma LeStrande.

2. I was probably correct in guessing that I'm here in Blackrock to accomplish something, and that something is linked to Great-Aunt Emma.

3. Great-Aunt Emma seemed to know a lot about things that would be going down 13 years after she died.

4. There's a possibility I can communicate with Great-Aunt Emma, if I can only figure out how.

5. Based on Jakey's note, he doesn't seem to recognize that telling the future and communicating from beyond the grave are highly...unusual talents. Am feeling glad that he is only nine, and all he knows of the world is the medicine show and the weirdos who run it. Fingers crossed that I'm correct here.

6. Schneider seems to think Great-Aunt Emma will be p.i.s.sed to find out that he forced me to go to school.

7. I kind of wish I COULD get Schneider in trouble, but at least I know I have something to threaten him with.