"I can scan it and look for any similar pictures on the Internet," she suggests.
"Where did you find that picture? It looks old," says Bonnie.
"It was in this book the kitty guided me to. When I looked inside, it was full of notes and there was that picture."
I put the book on the kitchen counter and open it, showing them all the little handwritten notes. Kelsi looks at it while sipping her coffee, but the twins are the ones frowning the most. Ben takes out his phone and takes pictures of the handwritten notes.
"What do you think?" I ask.
"It's... I mean, I am not an expert, but you know, the Earth Witch? She was... the one who knew these kinds of things about plants. And all those notes, there’s a lot here that you don't learn in medical school. I think this book might... have belonged to an Earth Witch."
Her brother nods behind her.
"I sent pictures to Danny to get his opinion, but I think Bonnie is right."
"Danny?"
"Our older brother, Daniel," she explains. "He was a bit closer to the Earth Witch, so he might know."
"The one who is Selena Whitewood's friend?"
"That one. ...Did you find anything else?"
"She found a cat," says Kelsi. "A totally unknown cat who squeezed into our apartment. Am I the only one concerned about that?"
"We can go around and ask if it belongs to one of your neighbors?" suggests Bonnie. "Maybe it just walked into the apartment while we weren't looking..."
I don't really believe that explanation, but it's the only plausible one we have for now...
The cat seems rather comfortable, though. It keeps purring in Bonnie's arms while we finish our breakfast and keep looking through the herbology book some more. Once we are done, we leave Bonnie to go ask the neighbors about the cat, while Kelsi and I go back to my bedroom to look for more clues. Ben is left in the kitchen to do the dishes.
"I never really understood why you had this drawer," says Kelsi. "I swear I never saw you use any of this. You've never done a painting, crafted a bracelet, or anything. It doesn't make sense unless you abandoned a hobby without ever starting it."
I don't get it either. That dreamcatcher seems very elaborate for someone who's only done one!
Kelsi and I agree to go through all of my books, hoping to find more of the unknown handwriting in the pages, or maybe another clue about my past. We take out every single book that is on the shelves, put them all on my bed, and start looking for any clues. It's incredibly long and boring to swipe one page after another. I don't know what to look for, and even find the bits we are reading completely uninteresting. It's all theology books, history, some of science or physics. Why did I even have these?
After over an hour, Kelsi sighs.
"Boo, I'm sorry about this, but you had really, really shitty tastes in books," she says, putting another one back on the pile next to her on the bed. "History of the nineteenth century? Theory of atoms? Even the nerdiest person I know wouldn't read these!"
"None of those books look used," I add. "It's as if I had just bought them."
"Even if you bought them just for decoration, there's a lot," sighed Kelsi. "I feel like I'm going to get a headache if I keep looking. There were no notes in all of the ones I looked through, anyway. Just words and words. Even my glasses hurt at this point. I am so used to working on a screen, it feels like the first time in ages I've touched and opened so many books!"
If only we could find my laptop... This is another mystery we have yet to solve. I put down the volume I was skimming through. I'm sitting on the carpet, in the middle of the bedroom. I look around once more, but like this, there is no obvious place for a computer that we haven't already gone through. It's not in any of the drawers or on the desk... I know Kelsi already searched throughout the whole room, but I somewhat hoped I could find it, maybe have some sort of intuition once I got here. Seems like I was wrong...
"You guys have any luck?"
Bonnie just came back, and the black and golden cat jumps out of her arms to come and rub its head against my knee, purring loudly again.
"Nothing so far, Mara's books are boring as a university class," Kelsi sighs. "How about you? No one knows the kitty?"
"No one," sighs Bonnie, sitting on the bed. "They have never seen this cat, including the nice vet on the first floor. The only thing I learned is that the kitty is male, which is apparently extremely rare for a tortoiseshell, and only a few months old."
I chuckle and scratch the kitty's head. So it's a boy? Maybe we should give him a name... I turn to Kelsi, but she's already making a sour face and shaking her head.
"Uh-uh, no. No, Mara, we are so not keeping the cat," she insists.
