Free Pyxis: The Discovery (Pyxis Series) by K.C. Neal Page A

wasn’t like I could ride with her and then hang out all day while she was at work. I doubted she’d be interested in making another long drive just to take me to Aunt Dorothy.
    Then I remembered my appointment to take the driver’s license exam in Danton next week. How could I have forgotten about something that huge? It must have been a sign of my overly-stressed brain. My parents had coerced Bradley to take me, so now I just needed to convince him to stop at Aunt Dorothy’s retirement home. Then, I’d somehow get her to take some of the white liquid.
    That was it. It’d have to work. And then, maybe all the strange dreams would stop.

|| 13 ||
     
    THE NEXT DAY, ANGELINE was waiting at my locker. I smiled at her hopefully and started to ask how she was feeling.
    She held up her hand. “I still think what you did was wrong.” She folded her arms. “But the silent treatment thing isn’t very mature. I can’t avoid you forever, and I don’t want to, of course.”
    I let out a relieved breath and tried to look sufficiently penitent so she wouldn’t change her mind. I still thought she should take more responsibility for what happened, but I didn’t want to argue any more.
    “I swear I wasn’t trying to do anything I shouldn’t. Seriously, Angeline, I want to figure out what all of this is so we don’t do anything stupid with the pyxis . Or let anyone else do anything stupid with it. And I realized something last night that I have to tell you about—”
    The first bell interrupted me.
    “Oh, crap.” I scowled and grabbed my geometry book from our locker. “Guess I’ll have to tell you at lunch. How are you feeling, by the way? You still sound a little stuffy.”
    “Way better.” She gave me a quick hug and turned down the hallway the opposite direction I had to go for geometry. “See ya!”
    During lunch hour, we ate our sandwiches, and I caught her up on what I’d discovered about the date of the first pyramidal union.
    “I wonder if there’s some kind of Tapestry historian or historical society that could help us?” Ang said.
    “I bet my dad would know. He seriously knows every person in Tapestry. He even knows stuff like who their parents and grandparents are, and how long their family’s been here.” I laughed. “Maybe my dad should be the town historian.”
    “And there might be an archive of old newspapers somewhere. Or historical artifacts or something.”
    I started to feel a little hopeful. “There’s gotta be, right? I mean, some of the families have been here for generations. Somebody has to be saving that sort of stuff.”
    We both chewed thoughtfully for a couple of minutes. One tiny concern nagged me: what if we ran into another Harriet Jensen as we dug around? Were there other people out there who wanted to get their hands on the pyxis ?
    “Hey,” I said. “I keep having these dreams where Grandma Doris tells me I have to give Aunt Dorothy some of the white liquid from the pyxis .” I set my sandwich down and looked at Ang. “I don’t know how to explain it, but they’re more than dreams. It’s like it’s really her. I know that makes me sound slightly insane.”
    “Wow.” Ang raised her eyebrows. “I don’t think you’re insane.”
    “Gee, thanks.” I said. I chewed my bottom lip for a second. “Next week when I go to Danton to get my license, I’m going to go see her.”
    “What do you think will happen?”
    “No idea. But I’m going to do it anyway.”
    * * *
    That night, I dreamed about my grandmother’s kitchen. Grandma Doris and I were side-by-side at the counter making cheesecakes with graham cracker crust from scratch. A glass jar of my grandmother’s homemade, deliciously red-pink raspberry syrup sat on the counter, ready to be drizzled over fat wedges of cheesecake. Aunt Dorothy occupied her usual spot, bent over one of her crossword puzzle books in the breakfast nook. I pressed the crust mixture into the bottom of a springform pan while