Basilisk Eyes

Chapter 61: Necklaces for a deity

Harry pulled back the covers on his bed and climbed in for a little nap. Even though it was only the afternoon, it felt like it had been a really long day already and Gemma getting mad at Mei almost put him over the edge, especially because it seemed that she was mad at him, too. He still didn't get what was going on there.

He slid off his glasses and put them and the collapsed staff on the desk by his bed, plumped up his pillow, and then sank gratefully into it. His neck tingled in a relief that traveled all the way down to his toes. He wriggled them, delighting in the soft sheets that released a hint of lavender as he moved. Last night he'd been too exhausted to notice.

He was just drifting off to sleep when he heard Mei surface in her tank with a splash. A couple droplets landed on his forehead, startling him awake. He heard quiet footsteps on the tile floor of their room pad quietly by the foot of his bed. He tensed, wondering what was going to happen.

"What do you want, Gemma?" Mei said. "Come to berate me some more for my thoughtlessness?" It was quiet in the room, the rustling noises of his roommates puttering around in their areas had stopped. Harry imagined that Tony and Aminah were also listening in to the conversation.

"Okay. Thanks, I guess. I get it. We're all tired and overwhelmed." Mei conceded, apparently to Gemma's apology.

Harry heard a strange sound, like gravel swirling in a tin bucket.

"Here are the necklaces, Gemma. I went back and got them from the ocean floor so that no memory of a person would know that I had rejected their offering."

There was a clapping sound... Gemma, Harry thought.

The necklaces rattled loudly as they were dragged over the edge of the tank, and then water was splashing on the ground. It sounded like a whole bucket had been spilled. Gemma's feet were slapping in water as she jumped around.

"Stop hugging me! Gesh!" Mei said though she sounded happier than she had since he'd met her.

"Where are you going to put those?" Mei asked.

The necklaces tinkled and rattled as Gemma's hands moved while she responded.

"Okay, whatever," Mei said.

The jangling of the shells and Gemma's wet footsteps started to move past Harry's bed, but then paused. Harry opened his eyes and lifted his head so that Gemma would know he was still awake. He leaned over on his elbow, propped up as she came over and pulled the chair out from his desk to sit next to him. He heard her put the pile of necklaces on the ground by his desk and then she wrote in his offered palm, "W-R-I-T-E-?"

"Sure," he said as he sat up and felt for his staff. He opened up the extendable storage and summoned the writing tools and anagnóstis and placed them on the desk in front of Gemma.

He realized that he was thirsty and wondered if there were drinking glasses somewhere in the room, but was too tired to investigate, so he pulled his bottle of water from his staff and drank from it. It was getting low. As he listened to the pencil scratching across the surface of the pad of paper, he summoned his wand and stuck it in the neck of his water bottle, then performed the water charm to fill it up. He listened as the sound of the water changed as it neared the top of the bottle and then said "Finite," when he thought it was close enough to the top. He dipped his finger in to check how close it was to the top. It wasn't as close to overflowing as he thought it might be. He replaced the lid and set the water bottle on the desk next to his glasses.

Gemma tapped his hand and he felt the pad of paper being pushed against his fingertips. He read her note with the anagnóstis.

"Harry, I'm sorry that I got so mad at Mei when we got back from the ship. I really don't know if I can explain why it made me mad that she would just throw away the offerings from the people there. I mean, I know that they are a memory and not even 'real', but they seemed real. I know it isn't really fair to say this, but if you could have seen the expressions on their faces... they were so in love with Mei or maybe with who they thought she was. They were bringing her sick little babies and asking her to lay her hands on them to heal them. It was so sad and so beautiful. They really believed in her. And the thought of their beliefs and hopes and dreams being tossed aside like they were nothing, like they were trash, well, it really hurt me. I don't know why. I was just so angry."

Harry had reached the end of the note and set down the anagnóstis. He turned his face toward Gemma.

"Thanks for explaining why it made you mad. I felt like I was missing something," Harry said softly. "I'm glad you talked to Mei and that you feel better about it now."

Gemma took the pad and started writing again. Harry stifled a yawn and rubbed his eyes.

She pushed the pad against his fingertips again.

"This is hard to say, but I'm going to try. I wanted to tell you that I'm sorry because I was mad at you, too. Which totally wasn't fair. I know that. I guess because from the expression on your face when I was yelling at Mei, it seemed like you didn't believe me. I thought about it a lot at lunch. You couldn't see everything that was going on and even if you could hear what the people were saying, I bet they weren't speaking English, so you wouldn't have known what they were saying. It was really unfair of me to get mad at you. I'm really sorry about that. I'm sorry, Harry."

Harry turned to her again when he was done.

"I didn't understand and I was confused. It makes more sense now. Thank you and it is okay."

She wrote a short bit more, "I'm really tired and I'm going to go take a nap before we have to go back."

"Me, too," Harry said. She squeezed his hand and then he heard her picking up the clattering shell necklaces.

"Could I see the necklaces?" Harry asked, holding out his hands.

There was a pause and then Gemma was draping one across his outstretched hands. He took it and felt the delicate shells, little lightweight round beads that almost felt like seeds, and the rough, hairy cord that held them all together. He handed it back to Gemma.

"Thanks, I was wondering what they looked like," he said. "What are you going to do with them?"

The necklaces clanged against the desk chair as Gemma leaned over it to write on the pad again.

"I'm going to save them. Mei might need them again," Gemma wrote.

"Sure. I guess that's possible," Harry agreed, nodding.

She squeezed his hand again and then trailed two fingers down his palm, which he took to mean that she was leaving.

"See ya, Gemma," Harry said as he gathered up the writing tools to put them back in his staff. He climbed back into bed and nestled down into the sheets and listened to her progress back to her area of the room through the jingling of the shell necklaces. He had fallen asleep before he heard her set them down.

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Author's Note: Thanks for reading! What do you think of Gemma's reasons for being mad? Does it make sense?