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“No,” Mimi said, fully alert again. Adam and Marcus exchanged bemused looks.
Mom shifted her weight uncomfortably and sighed. “I guess it’s not necessary. We’ll keep it here just in case. Delphine, maybe you and Adam can find room for it in one of the coat closets?”
“I’ll look,” I said while my mother took Mimi’s arm again and began to lead her away down the hallway on the right.
Mimi took a few steps, then cast a fearful look back over her shoulder. “Is Theo coming?” she said.
“He’ll be here for dinner,” Mom said without missing a beat, and looked relieved when Mimi hesitated only a second before nodding—knowing this impossible promise was one she’d never have to keep. Mimi’s short-term memory was almost completely gone. Sometimes I would visit her in the morning, only to have her call the house in tears just a few hours later, asking why no one had come to see her. It was like a dark, ironic twist on all those live-laugh-love memes, the ones like “Be present” or “Stay in the moment”: Mimi was so present that yesterday no longer existed for her. As soon you left her alone, it was like you’d never been there at all.
Marcus followed my mother, all three of them disappearing through the doorway at the end of the hall. Adam smiled at meas an awkward silence descended. I hadn’t expected to be left alone with him, and my mind was blank—except for the memory of my mother, sayingI wouldn’t mind if he gave me some personal care, which wasn’t helping the situation. I bit my lip and tried to think of something to say.
Instead, he broke the silence. “So, uh, this is a really huge house,” he said finally.
“Yeah, but like she said, we don’t use all the rooms,” I said, relieved to have something concrete and boring to discuss. “Most of them are full of random stuff anyway. We only go into that wing a few times a week to run the taps and flush the toilets, so the pipes don’t freeze.”
He made a show of looking impressed. “Toilets! Toilets, plural? How many bathrooms are in this place?”
“Seventeen,” I deadpanned, then laughed as his mouth dropped open. “Just kidding. There are four. Oh, five if you count the crazy powder room. Check this out,” I said, crossing the foyer to the staircase. The wall underneath the stairs was made of the same dark wood as the banister, inlaid with decorative paneling. A carved rosette sat at the center of each panel; I grasped the one nearest my hip and twisted. There was a click as a hidden catch disengaged and a seam opened up in the wall. I stepped aside, pulling the door wide to reveal a narrow space with a commode at one end, a pedestal sink at the other.
“Oh, wow,” Adam said, peering in. “That’s really cool. It’s like a secret passage. Except with a toilet in it. Is this the only one?”
“Yep,” I said. “I mean, as far as I know. I mostly go back and forth from my room to the kitchen to the sofa. I haven’t actually checked every room for a secret bathroom.”
“So you’re saying, therecouldbe seventeen bathrooms.”
I laughed. “There could. Toilets stashed in the walls, the ceilings—”
“And if you find them all, you unlock the key to a secret VIP bathroom where the toilet is made of solid gold,” he finished.
“That’s pretty specific,” I said. “Is this a dream of yours?”
“Yes. And since you made fun of it, when I do get a solid gold toilet, I’m not letting you use it, no matter how nicely you ask,” Adam said, grinning. “So what’s in the spooky wing where nobody goes?”
“Just rooms. Boxes. Lots of furniture covered in drapes.”
“You’ve never explored?”
“If you’ve seen one mummified mouse, you’ve seen them all,” I said, and he laughed.
“But it’s such a cool place. Would you ever open it back up?”
“It’s not up to me,” I said, before realizing that there was an unspoken second half to the question—that there would come a time when it was up to me, or at least, up to whoever inherited the Whispers after Mimi was gone. I grimaced.
“I’m sorry,” Adam said.
“No, it’s fine. It’s just strange. And sad. This place was home for my grandmother, but when she’s gone, it’s just going to be another asset to fight over.” I was suddenly, painfully aware of how ridiculous I sounded, complaining about the terrible burden of owning a huge seaside mansion to a guy who lived in one room above someone’s garage. “Sorry, you don’t need to hear about this.”
“No, it’s interesting,” he said. “But your mom wouldn’t stay here? You wouldn’t? It is a pretty awesome house. If I had a place like this, with all those memories, I don’t know that I would want to let go of it.”
“Not my memories. I’d never set foot in this place until this year. Once Mimi is gone, none of us have a reason to stay.”
“Well, maybe you’ll find a reason,” he said, and the awkward silence descended again. Adam had a way of making very direct, intense eye contact—probably a skill he’d picked up at Willowcrest, so the residents always felt like he had their full attention—but even though I’d known him for months, I couldn’t get used to that penetrating stare. It made me feeltooseen, exposed, like there was nowhere to hide. I fought the urge to reach for my phone.
“So what are y—” I started to say, and then nearly sighed withrelief at the sound of footsteps from the hallway. My mother reemerged with Marcus close behind her.
“How’s Mimi?” I asked.
“Fine,” Mom said, but she had a funny look on her face; clearly the homecoming wasn’t going as she’d hoped. Then she blinked and looked at Adam with a start, as if she’d forgotten he was there. “Oh. Did you give Adam the tour yet?”
