CHAPTER FIVE
Jakob was on my mind for the next couple of days. He was right about my head always being in a dreamland, only this dream was about him. I couldn’t figure him out, who he was or where he came from. Why was he so cryptic, so vague? What did he mean when he said he would help me?
My memories of the girl in the lake and those tearing wolves came flooding back and that was the sole reason I never told anyone about Jakob. I knew there was a slight chance that it was all in my head, or perhaps I’d seen something that was only meant for me. I also knew that Jakob could have also been a living, breathing boy who came in off the street searching for warmth. He could have been any of those things and it was the not knowing that anguished me.
Finally, after the last performance of The Importance of Being Earnest, I saw Jakob again. The snow was building throughout the day, but the evening still went well. Anne was swept away on a date by one of her new suitors, and I had no problems taking another cab home.
After I was done cleaning up, I locked up the theatre and bundled a scarf around my neck, preparing for the cold walk to find the nearest cab. It was lucky that when the snows came, the derelicts in the neighborhood were inside, hiding from the minus temperature and I felt a lot safer walking short distances.
I was just coming off the last step and onto the snow-dusted sidewalk when my boot slipped and I began to pitch forward. I knew I’d hit the snow hard but hopefully it would be soft enough to break my fall.
I never did hit the ground. A hand shot out from behind me and grabbed hold of me, lifting me up to my feet.
I gasped. It was Jakob. He grinned at me in his boyish glee and stepped back.
“You almost fell.”
“Where did you come from?” I gasped. Never mind the fact that he just saved me from possibly hurting myself – I knew when I walked down the steps there was not a single soul in sight. There was no earthly way that he could have been hanging about to save me.
“Around,” was his answer.
“That is not an answer, young man,” I said, taking a step toward him. I was no longer afraid. “Where did you come from?”
He watched me carefully for a few seconds, a bit of the sparkle leaving his eyes. Then he shrugged at some internal dialogue he was having with himself and pointed to an area at the side of the theatre, between the building and snow-covered bush.
“From the bushes?” I asked dubiously.
“No, look closer,” he said.
I squinted my eyes, unsure what he was saying. He took my hand in his and raised it so I was pointing at the area.
“Do you see the waves?”
I didn’t know what on earth he was getting at. What did he mean by waves? All I could perceive was a building, a bush and snowfall.
And then, as if my eyes adjusted themselves, I saw it. I saw the waves. The air in front of the bush danced and jostled, like I was looking at the reflection of the scene on the surface of a waving pool of water.
“That’s where I come from.”
“What is it?” I whispered, sure that I wasn’t supposed to be seeing this magical thing.
“The Otherside.”
I took my eyes away from the hypnotic dance and looked at him. His grey eyes glowed in the light of a yellow streetlamp.
“Can I go there?” I breathed.
He chuckled and turned his back to me and started to walk along the sidewalk into the city.
I ran after him. “I was serious.”
“Pippa,” he said, but didn’t say anything else.
“Who are you? How do you know me?” So many questions were begging to tumble out of my lips.
“I told you, I’m Jakob. I’m from the Otherside. From the Thin Veil. And I know you because I’ve been watching you your whole life.” He said all of this like he was listing off his favorite comic books.
“The Thin Veil?” I stammered and stopped walking. The words sounded familiar but I had no idea why or how.
He stopped too, the snow whirling around his slight frame. He didn’t seem the slightest bit cold.
“You’ll freeze if we don’t keep walking. Don’t worry, I’ll keep you safe until you get a cab.”
“How?”
He walked off and I followed again, my boots kicking up the snow. My legs were starting to go numb.
“How what?”
“How…everything,” I said. “What are you?”
He looked at me over his shoulder and smiled. “Jakob. Pay attention.”
“Are you dead?”
“It doesn’t feel like it.”
“When were you born?”
“A long time ago.”
“Can I go to the Thin Veil?”
Now it was his time to stop. He placed his ungloved hands on my shoulders and shook me ever so slightly. His grey eyes looked deep in mine. It was odd sometimes how boyish he looked, just like any 14-year old kid, then in the next minute it’s like he would grow a million years inside.
“You can but you shouldn’t.”
“What’s there?”
“Others like me. But they aren’t all like me.”
I paused to wipe rogue snowflakes out of my face. “Ghosts?”
He wiggled his thin lips around and his eyes roamed in the empty space above my hat.
“Something like that.” He tugged at my arm. “Come on, let’s keep walking, it’s not safe.”
I was eager to get out of the cold but I looked around at the empty streets. “But there’s no one here.”
“That you can see,” he said just as the lights of a car flashed in our eyes. Jakob raised his hand and for a second I thought how foolish that gesture was. How could the car see him if he was a ghost?
But the car stopped and it was indeed a cab. The door opened and a man stuck his head out. “Excuse me miss, do you need a ride?”
I looked at Jakob who whispered. “He can’t see me.”
“But-”
“Don’t talk to me, he’ll think you’re a nutcase.”
I nodded, shocked and walked toward the cab driver.
“Y-yes please,” I said. The driver gave me a wave to come over.
I looked behind me at Jakob.
He was gone.