The Unlikely Resident of Room 313

Chapter 35

Strange occurrences were a regular part of my existence at that point.

I was used to my parents scolding me when I randomly fell on the steps, reprimanding their clumsy daughter to be more careful. Don't be in such a rush, they'd tell me. You need to hold on to the railing. The stairs are slippery.

They would roll their eyes and tell me to tie my shoelaces when I'd stumble. They wouldn't listen when I told them I didn't trip; someone pushed me. There was always something wrong with the house, not me when pictures or lamps would shatter without warning. As the years passed, I knew the strangers I saw roaming the streets, the whispers that I only seemed to hear, and the faces that visited me in my dreams were not usual.

According to them, I had an overactive imagination that led me to jump headfirst into the pond when I was five, unable to swim. I was a kindergartener determined to join my best friend at the bottom of the lake. I knew she wasn't imaginary. There was treasure down there. If we wanted to be friends forever, I would have to find the treasure.

My father grabbed me before I could jump off the dock.

We moved out the next day.

But the encounter that haunted my family and me the most happened the week of my eighth birthday—the previous few months had been rough with my grandmother suddenly passing in her sleep. My mother and her siblings were fighting over who got how much of the expensive jewelry she left behind. We had just moved to Oracle after my father was offered a semester teaching job at the School of Business. We lived in a house right off campus, bigger than any house I'd seen before.

"Mommy? When will they fix the air?" I asked from my spot on the floor. Because of an accident down the road, the entire street was out of power. That meant no air conditioning or fans to combat the humid, sweltering air.

Mommy looked at me with a grim expression, the paper fan in her hand doing nothing more than moving the sweat on her forehead around and around. "I don't know, my love. Hopefully soon."

Soon. She said that an hour ago.

I groaned. "Soon is taking too long."

"You're right." She jumped to her feet and motioned me to follow her. "Come. We will go to the pool."

The pool?

I didn't wait for her to change her mind, so I rushed to grab my favorite watermelon and pineapple bathing suit and towel, and we were off.

The campus pool turned out to be three different pools.

"When I go to college, I'm going to come here every day," I told Mommy as we exited the locker rooms. She laughed. "I don't like parties," I reminded her. I didn't understand why she laughed again. She was so angry when I refused to go to Jenny Nichol's ninth birthday party. Maybe something changed her mind. She made me promise to give that to her in writing when I was older. I guessed the heat was making her feel loopy, too.

The first pool was the biggest, with floating blue ropes that separated it into columns for people to swim by themselves. I watched them rocket through the water in awe. The second pool was smaller than the lane-pool but it made up for it with a waterfall on one side and a fountain on the other. The third pool was much darker than the rest. The surface was calmer. As we walked around it, I craned my neck to look inside. Something ominous shimmered from the rows of lights that disappeared to the darker depths. I quickly stepped away, careful to pass without slipping and falling inside.

Mommy said I was only allowed in the second pool.

I didn't mind; I liked the waterfall one the best, anyway.