The Wire Hanger

Chapter Twenty-two

It turned out that while Esau was undergoing high levels of scrutiny, Noah was upstairs working furiously at decoding the tech files he’d stolen from the Centre. Every so often I would hear a frustrated stomp over my head; to Esau’s raised eyebrows, I just rolled my eyes and said, “Noah.”

            “He gets a little touchy when things don’t cooperate,” said Jezebel mildly.

            “Noah’s her kid,” I added.

            “And you’re his dad?” asked Esau, turning to look at Obadiah with a question mark written all over his face.

            It was as though every organ in my body shriveled up at the question I had been so carefully not asking. If I could’ve kicked him under the table without attracting notice, I would have.

            “Nope,” said Jezebel in the same unconcerned tone. “Noah’s father’s not around.” I could tell by the look on Esau’s face that he found this as difficult to understand as I had. We had never met anyone with just one parent before.

            “Oh,” he said, his ears flushing red.

            “You’ll share his room tonight,” said Jezebel, kindly ignoring our discomfort. “Sorry, but we don’t have anywhere else to put you. Everyone else is already doubled up.”

            “You’re letting me stay?” he asked. Relief washed over his face.

            David made a grumpy noise from the corner, but the Professor said, “Certainly. It wouldn’t be safe to let you go, for you or for us.”

            “That makes me sound like a prisoner,” said Esau slowly.

            “Not a prisoner,” said Jezebel, “but not exactly free to move about.”

            “Who is,” said David sarcastically.

            The Professor nodded. “A valid point, actually.”

            Footsteps came running down the stairs, followed by a particularly large thump, as though he’d missed the last couple and jumped down. “Is everyone here?” asked Noah, breathless.

            “They’re mostly around. Adah’s out back, I’ll grab her,” said Hannah, moving towards the back door.

            “You have something to show us?” asked the Professor. His attention was focused entirely on Noah, who, instead of quailing as I might have, seemed to grow taller under the force of it.

            “Yeah! And I’m only getting started, there’re layers and layers of files, it’s all encrypted of course, but I think I’m getting somewhere!”

            “You know where they are?” I asked.

            “I might. There are a ton of maps. Could use some help interpreting them though.”

            “Sure thing,” said Jezebel. Adah and Hannah came in through the back door, and the others who had been milling about the house came in too, drawn by the commotion.

            The Professor said, “Should we close the door?”

            “Yeah,” said Noah, and Jethro pulled it shut with an ominous clang. I had the sudden feeling of being suffocated; the kitchen wasn’t quite large enough to accommodate all of us comfortably.