Page 9 of If Anything Happens To Me

“Come on,” I said.

“Up to the tower?” she said, following my gaze. “Are we allowed?”

“I know someone,” I said mysteriously.

She didn’t answer. I hurried her through the suite, past dozing Gram, into the hotel’s hallway. This was a very grand place where adults spoke in hushed tones. That suited me fine. I liked slipping through spaces, almost as if I was invisible. That was one of my superpowers—disappearing into thin air. I was quiet, and I never wore anything fancy, and if I didn’t want to be seen, I could just walk through a crowd and no one would notice me.

All I had to do was find the way up to the tower. I was intent on seeing that merlin, but there was another reason—it felt like a romantic destination. If I could get up there, I’d find some kind of enchantment, maybe like Merlin’s cave where spells could be cast, where sadness and worry drifted away.

Eloise and I climbed the stairs until we got to the top floor and found a door with an oval plaque markedTOWER SUITE. I leaned against the heavy door with my shoulder and it opened right away.

“Should we really go in?” Eloise asked.

“We should,” I said, smiling. Although I sounded confident, I had butterflies in my stomach.

We walked into the suite, and it was every bit as astonishing as I’d been told, with walls of gleaming wood, like the inside of a ship. I glanced around—I didn’t see anyone’s luggage or belongings. No one was in sight. But my heart skipped because I knew who had left the door unlocked for us.

There were bookcases flanking the fireplace, with cozy chairs gathered around. A table with an antique chess set nestled between two arched windows that overlooked the town and harbor. Windows on the other walls looked onto the sparkling blue ocean and out toward the lighthouse. The sound of waves hitting the beach matched the crashing feeling in my heart.

We went upward to a balcony—the Crow’s Nest—a secret nook with books, a ship’s log, and a wide daybed with big, comfy pillows. Every step felt like an adventure. From there, a steep spiral staircase with finely tooled balusters—they reminded me of the precise woodworking my boat-building father had done—led up to a trapdoor in the ceiling. I knew that it opened to where the merlin was perched—and much more. I’d been told how private this was, how very few guests climbed through the door. Only someone with a special key could open it.

I knew who had that key.

Eloise followed me up the tall spiral staircase. My heart pounded again, and it wasn’t from the effort of climbing: It came from the excitement sizzling all through my body. I didn’t even think about this trapdoor being locked. I just knew the enchanted tower had been left open for us.

And it was, and we stepped out into the bright sunshine, onto a widow’s walk. Many old New England houses had them—a place up on the roof where, long ago, wives would stand with a telescope, watching the horizon for their husbands’ ships to return. Some never would, and the wives became widows.

A flagpole rose in the middle, an American flag rippling in the summer breeze. My gaze went straight to the merlin. The fierce little raptor was about twenty feet away from us, peering intently at some prey down below. It had blue-gray wings, a blue back, and a speckled white breast.

“It’s not afraid of us,” Eloise whispered.

I nodded, full of anticipation.

“Oli?” It was a boy’s voice, and my heart sped up.

I looked over my shoulder, and there he was: Matt Grinnell.

Matt, with his blue eyes and brown hair, who made me blush just to look at him, who made my heart race just to hear his voice. I felt my cheeks get hot, and I saw that his were flushed, too. We grinned at each other.

“You came,” Matt said. “You convinced your grandmother?”

I nodded. “It wasn’t hard,” I said. “She liked the hydrangeas.”

“What are you doing here?” Eloise asked. Matt was in my grade but he, Eloise, and I were all part of the same nature club.

“My family comes here every summer,” Matt said.

“And he knows everyone who works at this hotel,” Chris Nicholson said, turning around. He was smiling at all of us, but his gaze was focused on Eloise. Chris and Matt were best friends, and Chris was in the nature club with us.

“Hi, Chris,” Eloise said, and her blushing cheeks gave everything away. She’d had a crush on Chris since the spring. The way he smiled back made me wonder if he felt the same about her.

Chris was very cute, with perfect teeth and short blond hair. Girls mooned over him, but not me. He was too professionally handsome for my taste. He talked about going to Harvard as an undergrad and also for medical school. I didn’t doubt that he could make those dreams come true. His grades put him near the top of our class, and he could afford to go anywhere he wanted: His parents were both executives at Denzer—a major pharmaceutical company.

“The hotel gives guests tours, including the tower when the suite’s not occupied,” Matt said. “So I always take the tour, because it’s so cool up here. Devon, one of the managers, brought us up to the tower. He knows we’re birders.”

“Tell them the rest,” Chris said.

“I might be able to get a job here this summer,” Matt said. “There’s a naturalist who takes guests out on a boat, and into a salt pond near Weekapaug, and Devon says I’ll be able to help with bird identification.”

---