When the Heart Falls

Cade frowns "How can we keep this a secret?"

"We'll fix it. I'll fix it." I place the pieces side by side and study them. "I'm not getting my sister fired for doing me a favor. It would destroy her career. Oh God." I hold the pieces up. "This is history. I'm holding history in my hands. Who knows how old this was. And I broke it. I broke history."

I try to build the statue up from the base, but it collapses again, and I bite my tongue to keep from screaming.

Cade whispers in my ear. "That's not going to work."

"I know it's not going to work. Do you have a better idea, Mr. Fancy Feet?"

"Wow, I'm getting a lot of new nicknames out of this trip." He tweaks my ear, and I almost smile, but force it down.

So not the time for flirting. Totally inappropriate.

Le sigh.

"Okay, here's what we're going to do. We're going to sneak the pieces out and maybe they won't realize it's missing." I shove pieces into my pockets and stick some up Cade's shirt.

"Seriously, Winter?" He gestures to the lumps under his shirt. "I have tits now."

I bite my nail, thinking. "Maybe you had a sex change?"

He lets the pieces fall out of his shirt. "No. Pretty sure museums don't do those."

Right. Of course he's right. I collect the parts, smack my gum, and blow a bubble as I consider my other options. When my bubble pops, inspiration hits. Pulling it out of my mouth, I use it to stick two pieces together, and shove another stick of gum into my mouth.

"What are you doing?"

"Just watch the bathroom door." I pull the next gooey mess out of my mouth and add another broken piece to the sculpture, repeating the process until it's more or less back together. If you don't look too closely. Or touch it. Or breathe around it.

Holy crap.

Cade nudges me, and I turn around, making my face relax as Autumn exits the bathroom. "Did Satan Baby come out okay?" I ask.

"When would that ever be okay? It's horrible. This Italian guy gave me a pastry with custard, and I swear I've been running to the bathroom ever since."

Cade and I look at each other and start laughing.

Autumn rubs her belly. "Care to let me in on the joke?"

"Did you happen to get that pastry from a guy named Rocco?" I ask.

"Yeah. From the restaurant you raved about." Her eyes widen. "Wait. How'd you know?"

"Let's just say, been there, done that, only ten times worse."

"A hundred times worse," corrects Cade.

"It wasn't that bad, was it? More like fifty times worse."

"At least ninety times worse."

Autumn sighs. "Anyway, there's a piece I really want to show you guys."

Wait? What piece? She takes a step toward the broken sculpture, now held together by gum and back in its rightful place. Noooooo!

I pull her away and point to a painting of Egyptians. "This one?" I gesture at it. "This one is pretty. That looks like the Pharaoh." My heart is trying to make a prison break from my ribs, and I know I look guilty as hell.

Autumn's eyes narrow. "It is."

I glance at the sculpture, and its arm is starting to peel lose from the base, a long strand of pink gum stretching between the pieces.

Cade catches it and pushes it back together, then blocks it with his body.

I turn back to Autumn. "I love his big hat and his little cane. And what, what are those things on his chest?"

Autumn looks at me like I've lost my mind. "Breasts."

"Oh…" I pause. "That's odd. I guess museums do have sex changes."

Cade hides his laugh behind his hand, but mine just blurts right out.

"What?" Autumn crosses her arms over her chest.

"Nothing." I move to the left to keep her eyes on me.

But she turns toward the statue. "Okay. Now look at—"

I run over to Cade, throwing myself at him to block Autumn from seeing the statue. "Saw this already. Neat. What's next?"

"Winter, what's going on?" My sister isn't a fool.

"I'm just so excited. So riled up." I jump up a little, sticking my hands out like jazz hands, because I really have lost my mind, and I have no idea what the hell I'm doing.

"You know, me too," says Autumn. "You know what I like to do when I'm really riled up?"

"No."

"This." She pushes past Cade and me and karate kicks the statue. It falls to the ground, broken but with bits of pink goo stuck on it.

Cade and I freeze in place, stunned beyond comprehension. An alien could land in front of us and offer us a pot of alien gold and we wouldn't be any more shocked than we are right now.

When feeling returns to my body I drop to the ground. "Nooo!" I shove the pieces back together, but they won't stay. "Why? Why would you do something like this? Why is the world so cruel?"

"Hey, it's okay." Autumn pats my back and looks ready to call in professionals to help her derailed sister. "They're fakes."

"What?" I drop the piece I'm holding and look up.

"They're fakes. Replicas. They were supposed to be for sale in the museum store, but this whole shipment came defective, so they have to be replaced."