The Raven Conspiracy

Chapter 7 - I Avoid Spontaneous Combustion

Chapter 7 – I Avoid Spontaneous Combustion

“Anna,” I called gently. She was amusing herself by rolling around on the carpet.

I got up and walked over to her, tapping her shoulder.

“Anna, I’m talking to you.”

She continued to be unresponsive, so I knelt next to her and said firmly,

“Anna, this is important. It’s about the tulips”

That caught her attention.

“The Maya!” she finally responded by giving me the most enthusiastic hug I’d ever received. It almost knocked me off-balance.

“Yes, that’s me.”

“Now, Anna. I need you to listen to me. Are you listening?”

She nodded repeatedly.

“Would you like something to eat? You know, food?”

I mimed eating for her.

“No tulips? Anna eats tulips. Maya eats tulips, yes? Food is funny.”

She giggled to herself for a full five minutes, despite my attempts at interrupting.

“There are no tulips for you to eat, Anna. I have a sandwich. Do you like sandwiches?”

“Sand-witches? No! No evil sand-witches. Too much sand!”

She curled up in a ball, hugging herself and quivering.

“Anna, what’s wrong?”

“Sand-witches!” she yelled.

I backed away, slowly. My stomach growled, but I wasn’t sure if taking out my cheese-and-tomato on white bread was worth the risk. Anna looked absolutely terrified.

“It’s okay,” I eased my voice into a soothing tone. “There are no sandwiches here. Forget all about the food. You don’t have to eat if you’re not hungry.”

“Hungary? Europe? You rope. Anna wants rope. The doc-ter says rope is bad. Doc-ter not give Anna rope. Maya is rope?”

I shook my head, stunned at how she made it from food to ropes.

“There’s no rope here. I don’t think Kai will want you to have ropes. Why don’t you just...stay there.”

I inched to my desk and grabbed the phone. My fingers dialled the number automatically. I muttered every swear word I could think of while I waited for an answer on the other end. Instead, I got the answering machine.

“Damn, mom. Why couldn’t you answer,” I thought.

“Hi mom, this is Maya. I’m just calling to let you know that, um, this new job I got, might not be the best idea. Will you find out if that filing position is still open? Thanks, I love you.”

I felt something tickle my arm. Reflexively, I pulled it back and swatted the spot. Sighing, I put down the phone and glanced around. I couldn’t see Anna anywhere.

“Mum!” she yelled behind me.

I jumped and spun around. She twirled something between her fingers and poked the side of my head with its sharp end. A ballpoint pen. The spot she poked me hurt quite a bit. I could understand why Kairo didn’t want her to have any writing equipment. She was dangerous with it.

It was when I reached up to snatch the recently acquired weapon from her that I saw the marks on my arm. Mildly annoyed, I frowned at Anna. It wasn’t the first time someone had drawn scribbles on my skin (most of my siblings had done so when they were between the ages of two and seven), but my shirt had short sleeves and it would be impossible to cover up.

“Anna!” I said, exasperated.

She just giggled.

“Liar, Maya, pants on fire!”

She giggled some more, covering her mouth with one hand and pointing at my skirt with the other. Tense, I followed her gaze. The hemline was smouldering. A stray thread caught a flame. That’s when the panic set in. I slapped my hands against the fabric, trying to extinguish the fire. I forgot the safety drills I learnt at school in an instant. All I could think of was the fire that was starting to consume my clothing.

I leapt around, flapping my now-burnt hands in panic. A rose-coloured welt splotched against my light skin, obscuring the scribble Anna drew. I found my bottle of drinking water and poured it over my flaming skirt and arm. The fire hissed out.

Relieved, I dropped into the chair and pressed a hand to my forehead. It was all too much. It was only my first day, but I was ready to quit. The job was supposed to be answering phones, filing notes and taking appointments, not babysitting an insane grown woman with pyromaniac tendencies. To make matters worse, my clothes were sopping wet. I shot Anna the evil eye.

“Anna, you will sit quietly. Give me the pen, now.” I used the same, firm tone that almost always worked when I wanted my siblings to do something. She frowned, but reluctantly handed over the pen.

“Good. Now, are you going to set me on fire again?”

She shook her head, eyes wide.

I smiled; she really was like a small child. It was almost impossible to get really angry at her.

“If I give you food, will you eat?”

Another nod. I rewarded her with one of my sandwiches. She sat, cross-legged, on the floor and ate passively. I could finally breathe a sigh of relief.