Until I Die

EIGHTEEN



I SAT IN MY ROOM, STARING AT THE TWO OLD books that lay open side by side on my bed. The word that had been crossed out in Papy’s book was easily legible in Jean-Baptiste’s copy—it was “Audoniens.” However, the “Sign of the Cord” bit had been crossed out so thoroughly that it was impossible to decipher. Both books were needed to fit together the puzzle pieces: the guérisseur lived among the Audoniens and could be found under the Sign of the Cord.

How strange, I thought. Someone wanted to make this guérisseur very hard to find. But not impossible. Well, if someone’s identity was being protected, that must mean that this was more than just a fairy tale. I just wondered if the healer’s descendants were still around, twelve hundred years later.

So, I was looking for a faraway land (at least far away from Goderic, wherever he had lived) and for a people called les Audoniens. Once I found them, I had to find out what the Sign of the Cord was. “Selling relics to pilgrims,” it said. So probably near a church.

I checked my clock. It was a half hour until my lunch with Georgia—a half-hour away—at a restaurant in the Marais. But Georgia was always late.

Slipping my laptop out of my desk drawer, I typed “Audoniens” into Google … and almost jumped out of my chair when I saw what appeared on my screen. “Audoniens” was the French moniker for people who lived in Saint-Ouen. Saint-Ouen … as in the neighborhood in the north of Paris. Of course, in medieval times it must have been its own town. As Paris grew, it gobbled up all the little towns on its borders and incorporated them into the city. So the healer didn’t say “Paris” or “Parisians” because he was referring to the then separate village of Saint-Ouen.

It was so close, I could go there every day if I needed to until I found what I was looking for. Or found that what I was looking for no longer existed. Pushing my luck, I searched for “Sign of the Cord” in English. And came up with a lot of references to spinal cord injuries. There was nothing of interest when I checked in French. I closed my laptop and stuck it back in my desk, then lay JB’s book carefully in its own drawer.

I threw my coat on and left the apartment at a jog, with Papy’s copy of the book in my bag. I had what I needed, and could at least give his book back today. Hopefully he hadn’t had the chance to go through his inventory cupboard and wouldn’t notice when I replaced it. Not that he would mind me taking things from the gallery. Papy had always been overly generous with me and Georgia. I just didn’t want to draw attention to the fact that the book that I took was all about revenants. He would definitely be suspicious after my “numa” slip last year.

I Métro’d over to the Marais and walked down the tiny street called rue des Rosiers, which was infamous for the World War II roundup of Jews for transport to concentration camps. One Jewish deli still had a bullet hole in its window: the owners left it as a testament to that darkest of times in the neighborhood’s history.

I neared the end of the street and saw the three famous falafel shops, lined up in a row. Heading toward the one with the green facade, I spotted Georgia already seated inside. On time. Which had to be a personal record for her.

Over squishy falafel sandwiches smothered in tahini sauce, my sister and I caught up on the last couple of days.

“So it takes your boyfriend being dead for you to come out with me?” Georgia teased.

“Not dead—dormant. And you’re the one who’s so busy I never see you anymore.”

“Yes, well, being a rock star’s girlfriend takes up all my extracurricular time.” She pretended to do an over-the-shoulder hair toss, even though her hair was way too short to be tossed, and took a big bite of pita.

“Rock star?” I teased. “When did he get the promotion from ‘wannabe’?”

“Ha, ha,” Georgia deadpanned. “You’ll see for yourself next Saturday night. Because you are coming. So … tell me. How’s your hunt for Vincent’s miracle cure?”

“I actually found something,” I said, leaning in toward her and squeezing her wrist excitedly.

“What! What is it?” Georgia’s eyes grew big.

I carefully wiped my hands, and then, using a paper napkin to protect it, pulled Papy’s book out of my bag. I turned to the first page to show her the double portrait. She studied it for a second and then said, “That is some serious cougar action going on there.”

“Georgia!”

“I’m sorry. I couldn’t help myself. So, what is it?”

I tucked the book back in my bag and told her the whole story.

“Wow—you booklifted something from Jean-Baptiste’s library?”

“Just for a day. I don’t know why I couldn’t just show it to Violette.”

Georgia lifted an eyebrow to show me her feelings for Violette were unchanged.

“Anyway, so now I have this mysterious information to go on, and am going to sleuth around Saint-Ouen looking for some nameless healer whose family might have died out centuries ago.”

“Sleuthing. That’s so Nancy Drew.” Georgia smiled. “Gonna have to get you a pencil skirt and an oversize magnifying glass.” Her expression changed from silly to serious in a second flat. “So, what can I do to help?”

“Well, first of all, you can help me return the book to Papy’s gallery. Distract him while I put it back where I got it. But after that, I think I’d rather do the sleuthing alone, since I have no clue where I should even look first.”

“Deal. But just let me know if you ever want me to come along.”

I smiled my thanks. “Oh, and don’t mention anything to Vincent. I don’t want him to know what I’m doing until I’m sure I’m onto something. He’s kind of been … doing his own thing that he’s not telling me about.”

I had meant it to sound flippant, but my voice cracked and gave me away. My sister’s eyes filled with sympathy. “Oh no, Katie-Bean. What’s going on?”

“It’s something he’s doing to make things easier on us—some kind of test. But he doesn’t want to talk about it because he thinks it will freak me out. Whatever it is, it’s not good for him. He looks worn out. And beat up. I’m just afraid it’s dangerous.”

“Oh, little sister,” Georgia said, and leaning over, took me in her arms. She gave me an affectionate squeeze before sitting back and considering what I had said.

“Well … first of all, I hope that your instincts are wrong and that Vincent’s not doing anything stupid. But secondly, I think you’re totally right about striking out on your own, Katie-Bean,” she said, petting my arm consolingly. “You’ve always been the smartest one in the family. If you think you can solve this, then I’m sure you will. And then, when you show up with the answer to all his immortal problems, you’ll knock that dead boy right off his feet.”

I smiled at her, reassured. Nothing like a sister-sister pep talk for comfort.



Georgia and I pulled the book-replacement scheme off brilliantly, with Papy so surprised to see my sister actually in the gallery and acting interested in the antiquities, that I easily excused myself, nabbed the key, and slipped into the back room. I was relieved to see all the boxes were in the closet where I had left them. Papy would never know the book had been gone.

Leaving Papy’s, Georgia and I walked up the rue de Seine, past all the minimalist galleries and crowded antique shops. I glanced over at La Palette, the café where I had spotted Vincent with Geneviève last fall. The terrace was punctuated with tall, treelike gas heaters, and all the tables beneath them were occupied.

My eye was caught by a blond boy sitting at a table, talking to a man standing beside him. The table held several open notebooks: The boy had been interrupted while writing. As we got nearer, I saw it was Arthur.

Georgia noticed him at the same time. “Hey, isn’t that one of Vincent’s friends?” Arthur glanced our way, and he flinched as he registered who we were. “Bonjour! Hello!” he called, after a second’s hesitation.

“Great. Thanks, Georgia. He looks really happy to see us,” I grumbled as we crossed the street to stand in front of his table.

The guy talking to Arthur was a handsome older man, probably around Gaspard’s age. He looked like someone I knew, but I couldn’t quite place him. And there was something weird about him, something just outside my mind’s grasp that didn’t seem right. When he saw Georgia and me heading in their direction, he tucked his newspaper under his arm and walked quickly away.

“Another friendly acquaintance of the oldsters,” I muttered to Georgia, and then I said more loudly, “Hi, Arthur.”

Arthur stood politely to greet us. “Hello, Kate. And Georgia, is it?”

“Georgia it is,” my sister said flirtatiously.

“Yes, well”—Arthur gestured toward his table—“would you like to join me for a coffee?”

“Sure—” Georgia began.

“No,” I said, cutting her off. “Thank you, though. We have things to do. In fact, I’m supposed to be meeting Violette soon.”

“Ah, yes, for one of your movie dates. Well, she’s just up the road shopping.” He indicated the direction with a nod of his head, and then stared silently at me, with an expression that looked almost apologetic.

I stared right back, challenging him to say something. If forgiveness was what he wanted, he wasn’t getting any from me. “See you,” I said after an awkward pause, and, taking Georgia’s arm, led her away.

As soon as we got out of hearing distance, she turned to me. “What is wrong with you?” she asked. “He was trying to be nice.”

“He also got me kicked out of a house meeting for being human.”

Georgia drew her breath in sharply. “He did not!”

“He did,” I confirmed.

“So they’re both racists,” Georgia mused. “But the difference is, he’s cute. Katie-Bean, doesn’t he kind of remind you of …”

“Kurt Cobain.”

“Totally!”

We were barely out of view of the café when we saw Violette a half block away, inspecting the display in a shop window. Spotting us heading her way, she smiled broadly and waved. “Hello, Kate! Hello …” And then she saw who was with me.

“Oh, wonderful. The evil munchkin herself,” moaned Georgia. “I’m outta here,” she said loudly enough for Violette to hear, and walked off down a side street.

The revenant acted like nothing had happened. “I was about to phone you about our movie.”

“Yeah, me too,” I said, “but we saw Arthur, and he told us where to find you. We weren’t supposed to meet for another hour or two, but if you want, we could go now.”

“Absolutely,” she said. “My only plans were to sit around with that sourpuss at La Palette and wait for you.”

“Sourpuss?” I asked, surprised. This was the second time she’d said something unflattering about her partner. Not that I didn’t agree.

“Oh, Arthur can be such a stick-in-the-mud sometimes. I have stayed with him for centuries, but sometimes he makes me crazy.” She grinned at me conspiratorially. Laughing, I grabbed her arm and walked with her toward the nearest art-house cinema.



“That was very, very strange,” Violette mused as she sipped her coffee.

“I warned you,” I said, stirring some whipped cream into my hot chocolate.

“But I thought it was going to have something to do with … you know … Brazil. I mean, that is what it is called. If they had called it ‘Bizarre Alternate Universe,’ I would not have chosen it.”

I smiled, thinking of the confusion and disgust I had seen on Violette’s face during the face-lift scene. Special effects weren’t yet in her movie vocabulary. I would make it a point in the future to stick to older, classic films.

“So, how is it going with Vincent? Has he talked to you about things yet?”

“No,” I said, my smile disappearing. “And I’m getting a bit worried. Have you noticed how bad he’s been looking lately? Whatever he’s doing, it’s obviously really hard on him.”

Violette nodded. “It is probably a case of things getting worse before they can get better.”

“That’s exactly what he said!” I exclaimed. I sipped my chocolate and shook my head in frustration. “You know, Violette, I’ve started looking for my own solution.”

Her eyebrows rose. “Really? Like what?”

“The same thing he’s looking for. Something that will prevent his need for death.”

“You are really that upset about seeing him die?”

I nodded. “I didn’t react well to Charles’s death last fall, and he’s not even my boyfriend.”

“I guess that is the normal human reaction. Especially for someone like you who has been affected by death so recently.” She touched my hand lightly in sympathy. “So … what are you thinking of?”

“I don’t know. I’m just researching it right now.”

“Oh, so that is why you were in the library this morning!”

I smiled guiltily. “I actually found something somewhere else—at my grandfather’s gallery. A book about a revenant-human couple. It talked about a guérisseur who might have had some sort of remedy.”

“That sounds fascinating. I would love to see it!” she said eagerly.

“I actually just returned it to my Papy’s shop.” I didn’t mention the fact that I had Gaspard’s copy sitting in my desk drawer.

“Oh, what a shame,” she said. “What was it about?”

“It was this gorgeous illuminated manuscript called Immortal Love, and the story was about this couple—the man was revenant and the woman was human. They were going to consult a guérisseur who could help them, but then the wife died and the husband had a numa destroy him.”

“I have heard about that story before,” Violette said thoughtfully. “I have not actually read it, but I have seen it referred to in other texts.” She hesitated. “Not to discourage you, but I have to warn you, Kate: Those old legends are usually just that—old legends. They might have a grain of truth in them, but certainly nothing that you could rely on to be helpful.”

“You’re probably right,” I said, wanting to change the subject now. Once I had returned the book, I could show it to her and ask what she thought. Until then, I preferred that she forget about it. The last thing I wanted was for her to go searching for it in Jean-Baptiste’s library and find an empty box.