Mayan December Read Online Free PDF Page A

fine.
    In the room, Nixie set her feather carefully in the center of the kitchen table. “I’m going to change,” she proclaimed without being asked.
    Alice glanced over at the monitor. Nixie’s light burned right alongside hers, as if it had never disappeared. It was on her phone, too.
    She busied herself pouring three glasses of iced lemonade, glad of something simple and comforting to do. She joined Oriana at the table. “Thank you,” she whispered.
    Oriana smiled. “I’m glad I could help.”
    “You’re hired.”
    Oriana laughed.
    Alice stared at the feather. It surely was a quetzal tail feather, but different from the one they had seen in town earlier. The edges were crisp and clean. Except for where she’d cracked the quill, the feather was perfect. She glanced at Oriana. “Do you want to stay?”
    Oriana nodded. “If you don’t mind. If Nixie doesn’t mind. This might be a story worth hearing.”
    Nixie came in and sat by her glass of lemonade. “I’m sorry,” she repeated.
    Alice softened her voice. “I know. Tell me what happened.”
    Nixie glanced at Oriana, as if unsure what to say in front of a stranger. Alice spoke softly. “Oriana’s going to stay with you when I have to go to meetings, starting the day after tomorrow. She’s a diver, and she can teach you about the reefs here. Maybe she’ll take you snorkeling off the resort beach.”
    Nixie’s eyes lit a little, and she took a long drink of her lemonade. “When you left, I went out. I thought maybe I’d go to the pool, but I decided to walk back to the ruin, the one you found me at. It was close, and I didn’t think you’d care, if I was careful.”
    Alice would have said no.
    “I went through the doorway on the top, and down the other side. There was a path.” She looked confused again. “But it’s not there now. The path was in the jungle, and there were monkeys and birds.”
    Oriana drew in a sharp breath, but didn’t say anything. Her face had tensed.
    Alice shook her head to clear of it of a sudden dizzy feeling. Had Nixie fallen and knocked herself out? The feather gave lie to that. And the blank map of the world. “What was down the path?”
    Nixie talked about a cenote and falling in. As Alice listened, she felt more and more uncertain. But Nixie looked completely earnest as she told them about the bird, and the man. And she’d gotten soaked to the skin somehow.
    Alice interrupted, “Did the man want anything from you? Did he touch you?”
    “Only to pull me out of the water.”
    Alice could always tell when Nixie was lying, and she surely believed her story. At one point, Oriana put a sun-browned hand over Alice’s on the table, glancing at her with open curiosity.
    How come Oriana didn’t think this whole thing was crazy?
    When Nixie finished her story, she blinked up at Alice, wanting something. Reassurance? Or simple acceptance? Alice wasn’t sure she could give either, but she managed to nod. All she could say was, “I don’t know what to think.”
    Nixie leaned forward. “It really happened. I know it did. Oh, and my phone didn’t work, either. No bandwidth.” That fit with the broken locator. Where could Nix have been? Was she confusing the ruins? Well, no, she’d found her on the top of that one. Nothing made sense.
    Nixie finished her lemonade and took her glass to the sink. “Can I watch TV? I need a break.”
    “Sure honey, for half an hour.”
    Nixie’s eyes brightened at the unusual permission.
    Alice smiled faintly even though she still felt a little dizzy. What really happened?
    Nixie settled on the big bed, picked up Snake, and turned on cartoons, as if she were a younger kid.
    Oriana cocked her head toward the balcony. “Care to sit outside with me?”
    “Sure.” They were out of lemonade. “Would you like some tea? Or a glass of wine?”
    “Wine would be great.”
    Alice poured two glasses of rich, dark red Syrah and the women closed the thick sliding door, muting the squealing