Chapter 10

CHAPTER 10 "You order for me," Nellie said to Amy. For the first time on the entire trip, Nellie didn't look at the menu. Her mind was too preoccupied to think about food. They had stayed at Miss Alice's house for a couple of hours; it had taken that long to hear the whole story. Hundreds of years earlier, an ancestor of Miss Alice's had worked as a nanny for a woman in Cuba. The woman put her baby in the nanny's care and also gave the nanny a pair of silver snake earrings. She told her to keep both the baby and the earrings safe. The woman then left Cuba to join her husband. At sea. They were pirates. The baby died in infancy. The nanny was so distraught that she made a vow to take care of

those earrings no matter what. Over the years, one of the earrings had gotten lost. But Miss Alice's family had faithfully guarded the remaining earring. Everywhere they went, they brought the little silver snake with them. It had been passed down, mother to daughter, for nearly three hundred years. In some impossible way, Grace had discovered that the second earring had ended up in Mexico, with another branch of the family. It, too, had been faithfully passed down. A generation ago, there had been no daughters born to that family, so the earring was passed to a son. When he grew up and had children of his own, he gave the earring to his oldest daughter. Nellie. Now Nellie rubbed the back of her neck with one hand. She could feel knots of tension in her muscles. "If Grace traced the earring to my family, she must have had her eye on me for years," she said. "But she never said a word about it. Why didn't she tell me?"

"Well," Amy said, "now you know how it feels." Nellie stared. "What are you talking about?" "You didn't tell us the whole truth, just like what Grace did to you." Nellie felt the blood rush to her face. "It's not the same thing at all!" Amy raised an eyebrow. "You don't think?" Her calmness made Nellie even madder. "I'm talking about my whole life here!" she said, pounding the table with her fist. "Everything! Like— like— what about the flying lessons?" "Flying lessons?" Dan said, clearly mystified by the change in subject. "They're expensive, right? But my dad said no problem. Did Grace pay for them? Come to think of it, it wasn't even my idea— it was his! Or maybe it was Grace's, and does that mean my parents were in on the whole thing all along?" Nellie caught her breath in what was almost a sob. "This isn't just about the stupid clues thing. This is my family!" Amy looked at her for a long moment. "For the

last few months," she said slowly, "our family has been the three of us." Her sentence hung in the air almost as if it were written there. Nellie looked at their faces, both as solemn as she'd ever seen them. It's true, Nellie thought. Parents gone, grandmother gone, an aunt who doesn't want them. Guilt washed over her yet again— for lying to them and even more, over her part in what was soon to happen…. She slumped forward, her head in her hands. "Okay, I get it," she said quietly. "I thought I did before, but now I really get it. How you felt— still feel, I guess— about me working for Grace and McIntyre. You feel like you've been played, and that's what I feel like now, too." The silence among them grew to awkward proportions. They were rescued by the waiter, who arrived with the three plates of jerk chicken Amy had ordered. Nellie was suddenly ravenous. She began attacking her chicken. It was delicious.

"Dude," she said. "This is good." Spicy, but not just pepper–hot. Thyme, for sure… maybe nutmeg, too? And mace? She'd have to look up a recipe and make it herself sometime. Dan's mouth wasn't quite full as he spoke. "C'we talk 'bout shomething elsh now?" he said. "Swallow," Amy commanded. Nellie's phone rang. She took it out of her pack and looked at it. "It's my dad," she said. She had left a message for him when they were at Miss Alice's house; she wanted to tell him about their newfound relative. And now she had other things to talk about. She stood up from the table and walked outside to take the call. A few minutes later, she came back to the table, shaking her head. "That Grace. She never quits." "What? What is it?" Amy and Dan said at the same time. "My dad got a letter from Grace. A few weeks before she passed away. He thought the letter was kinda strange because it was so short. It just said

that if I ever found the mate to my snake, he should give me a message." "What message? What was the message?" The sibling chorus again. Nellie frowned a little. "The message is even shorter. 'C/o The Right Excellent Nanny,'" she said. "The c/o, that means 'care of,' which is weird— you only ever see it as part of a mailing address." "'The Right Excellent Nanny,'" Amy echoed. "Wow. Grace planned for you to be the one to find the missing earring all along." The waiter came by to give them the check. He poured more water for them. "Yeah, but it doesn't really sound like Grace, does it?" Dan said. "Too— too awkward, or something. 'The Right Excellent Nanny,' hmmm…" The waiter paused in his water pouring. "Oh, yah," he said. "You already been to the park?" All three of them looked at him blankly. "Heroes Park," he said. "Her statue there."