Free The History Mystery by Ana María Machado Page A

it,’ said Pedro.
    â€˜Me neither,’ said Sonia. ‘We didn’t ask for any book.’
    Faye smiled. Smiled! And said, ‘Right, I didn’t get it either for a moment. There was no number, noidentification, I didn’t know where it was sent from or who was asking. Or what book they were talking about. Not at first.’
    â€˜But why were they asking about a book?’ asked Sonia. ‘Were you at a bookstore and some guy wanted to approach you with a gift?’
    Bless her. That’s exactly what Matt had been wanting to ask, but he couldn’t even set his thoughts in order.
    â€˜No, not at all. Actually, I was at home, alone, locked in my room, dancing and singing that I was going to make my modelling portfolio.’
    â€˜You dance alone locked in your room?’ repeated Matt, trying to picture the scene.
    Sonia cut in. ‘Of course, Matt, everyone does that. In front of the mirror. Especially when we’re happy and we know that nobody’s watching. Are you saying you never dance with happiness?’
    Matt suddenly felt like an alien from a different planet because he had never in his whole life stayed alone in his room, dancing in front of the mirror.
    â€˜I don’t dance either,’ protested Pedro, coming to Matt’s rescue.
    â€˜Well, I do,’ Sonia assured them.
    It was probably a girl thing. Come to think of it, Matt remembered seeing his sister dancing alone at home more than once, though she wasn’t locked in her room at the time.
    Pedro brought them back to the subject. ‘Go on, Faye. So, you were dancing alone, you heard the phone beep, it was a text message asking which book you wanted …’
    â€˜That’s right. And of course I didn’t get it right away. But then I realised what it meant.’
    â€˜And what was it?’ The question came from all three, almost at the same time.
    Colin came into the waiting room just at that moment. But when he saw that they were deep in conversation, he gestured to them to carry on talking, indicating that he didn’t want to interrupt.
    Faye went on explaining, all practical now. This side to Faye sometimes caught her friends off-guard, because she was usually pretty vague.
    â€˜Obviously, somebody must have heard what I was singing, someone who knew that I was excited about getting my book done – my modelling book, that is. It’s someone who must live on another planet, because they don’t even know that a model’s book is her picture portfolio. Nowadays, everybody knows that: it’s in the newspapers, in magazines, on reality TV shows.’
    It was an intelligent enough deduction. Except for two details. The first was that not everybody lives in this world of modelling and photographs and wouldn’t necessarily connect these things. The second was exactly what Sonia asked.
    â€˜Somebody? But who? And how could they have heard you if you were locked in your room?’
    â€˜You’re right, it’s a mystery. But I was so distracted and happy, dying to share my joy with somebody, that at the time I didn’t even worry about that. My mum had just told me that she thought my father was going to let me make my book. So I was super-excited, and I was singing. And as soon as I realised that was the book that this person was asking about, I replied.’
    â€˜You replied ?’ asked Pedro. ‘But you didn’t even know who’d sent you the message!’
    â€˜I know, but at the time I didn’t think about it. I just got caught up in the moment. I typed a message in reply, explaining what a model’s book is, and pressed send. And hey presto! It disappeared from the screen. And the person obviously received it, because they soon sent me another message, saying “Oh, so you want to be a model!”’
    â€˜Then what?’
    Colin had been listening quietly all this time, not wishing to interrupt Faye, but when the