What Is Visible: A Novel Read Online Free PDF Page A

quickly with the rest of them. I’ve read that animals and foods can smell bad, but I didn’t know that people could smell bad. What could I smell like—the bread and butter I ate for lunch? the pencil I used for lessons? my dress? Maybe it’s the blood from my finger; maybe blood has a terrible, terrible smell. As the girls file out, I stand with my back against the wall, holding on to one of the climbing ropes. And then there’s only Oliver, who has come over to tug on the rope, or maybe because my smell is so strong that he knows I’m here. I hold my bandaged finger up to his nose and let him get a good, long whiff. He doesn’t move away, so I slide my whole arm back and forth under his nose, almost smashing his face into it. Finally he raises his head, and almost as if he knows what I am asking, he gives me his double pat along the cheek, his sign for good . I lift him up and help him climb the rope.

Chapter 3
Chev, 1843
    N othing was sweeter. He watched their hands: Laura’s thin white fingers etched her thoughts on Julia’s upturned palm, and then they switched, and Julia’s fingers, plumper but even more dazzlingly white, responded. The last slivers of winter light made a halo of fire of Julia’s red-gold hair, shining against the dark of Laura’s braids as they bent their heads together. His beloveds, the sun and moon in his little heaven. Julia looked up at Doctor and smiled, as if she understood the pure delight he took in seeing them together. She didn’t look the ten years older than Laura’s thirteen.
    Laura sensed the slight shift in her audience’s attention and tugged at Julia’s cuff, still writing. In her score of visits in the past year, Julia had mastered the mechanics of conversing with Laura as quickly as any he’d seen—far quicker than Longo or Sumner—but she was not yet ready for Laura on a tear. Finally, Julia raised her unpinned hand and waved.
    “She’s gone wild that I’ve called you Chev,” she said. “I didn’t know your nickname was a secret.”
    “It’s not, but the children here don’t call me that.” He walked over to the settee and took Laura’s hand.
    “Thank you!” Julia shook her arm out. She could be very dramatic. They both could.
    Laura pulled Doctor down to face her. “Why Chevalier? Leaving again to fight in Greece?”
    “No. Chev a silly name.”
    “Like when I make noise for Oliver or Swift?”
    “Yes.”
    “Are you talking about me?” Julia asked, leaning over Doctor’s shoulders to watch his hands. Her breasts pressed against his back as Laura’s nails pressed into his palm. He was sandwiched between one of the most acclaimed beauties of the Atlantic seaboard and the most written-about miracle girl in the world.
    “Are you talking about me?” Laura asked. He freed himself from both of them and stepped away without an answer.
    “Dr. Combe will be here in the morning,” Doctor told Julia. “Let’s get you back to the Misses Peabodys’ before it gets late. I’ll tell Brownie to get the carriage ready.”
    “You’re serious about that? I really must have a phrenological exam before we can be officially pledged?” She sidled over and put her head on his chest, those auburn curls he dreamed of pulling rippling against the point of his beard. She only came up to his chin. In a couple of years, Laura would be the taller one.
    “All my success here at Perkins is built upon phrenological principles, my dear. Combe is traveling all this way to meet you—how could I not let him believe his opinion is of grave importance? He is Spurzheim’s protégé!”
    Laura stood up and edged toward them, and Doctor broke the embrace before she joined it.
      
    Combe was already set up in Doctor’s office the next morning when he came in. Laura sat in the student chair and Julia perched on the edge of the desk. Julia wore a blue sprigged muslin that Doctor hadn’t seen before. She would find that she wouldn’t be buying new dresses every week