A small notebook had slid out from under the bed when I dragged the suitcase out. A little black composition notebook, the kind kids use in school.
I picked it up and opened it.
Columns. Neat, tidy columns in Eleanor’s careful handwriting. Dates going back to April. Next to the dates, codes that matched the bags. R-07. E-14. Next to the codes, numbers. Ratios. “1:1:1.” “1:5:5.” Times. “6 a.m.” “2 p.m.” “10 p.m.” Little checkmarks. Little notes.
“R-07 sluggish. Warmer spot?”
“E-14 very active. Good smell.”
“B-22, first attempt. Promising.”
My hands were shaking so badly that the notebook rattled.
In a mesh pocket on the inside of the suitcase lid, I found a piece of paper folded into quarters. I unfolded it.
It was a map. Hand-drawn. In pencil. Our whole county, and parts of the next two over. Roads. Rivers. Little towns.
And little X’s. Maybe fifteen of them. Scattered all over.
One X sat right on top of the Saratoga Farmers’ Market, at High Rock Park. The market where Thomas and I buy peaches every single Saturday in August. Where Eleanor had come with us at least a dozen times this summer.
Other X’s were along the county highway. Tucked into back roads in places I didn’t recognize. Out near Greenwich. Out near Schuylerville. Over the border in Vermont.
In the margin, in Eleanor’s careful cursive:
J.J. Mill. Sat. 9 a.m. Bring thank-you card.
A mill. A time. A thank-you card.
My brain tried, for one brief second, to give me another explanation. Something wholesome. Something normal.
Then I looked at the bags again. At the codes. At the ratios. I thought about the closed door. Six months. The humming. The Saturday “errands.” The paper bags she carried straight into this room.
I shoved the softer thought away.
And I let the darker one win.
Ethan Blake is a skilled Creative Content Specialist with a talent for crafting engaging and thought-provoking narratives. With a strong background in storytelling and digital content creation, Ethan brings a unique perspective to his role at TheArchivists, where he curates and produces captivating content for a global audience.
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