The Dream Thief by Kari Kilgore (books for 10th graders txt) 📕

"Gemma?"

The main room was empty, and the doors to the smaller rooms were open. Loretta tried to keep calm, but she'd never gotten comfortable enough with this place to be here alone. Not even with her grandmother's belongings and gadgets set up and running. Even Karl and George were uneasy out here.

She went to the front window, puzzled by the addition of a narrow row of horizontal bars in front of it. George and Karl constantly reassured her the fence out there was enough.

The bars shifted, and she realized it was a ladder. Gemma walked into view then, arms crossed, looking up at the sky. Loretta tried to prepare herself for the smell every time she stepped outside. It never seemed to work. She held up the perfumed handkerchief she always kept with her for these visits and joined her grandmother.

"What are you doing out here?" she said.

"Oh, bobbin, you're just in time! George is making the last connections on my talking machine."

George was coming down the ladder now, the top rung lodged against the arching top of the fence.

"What talking machine?" Loretta said. "Weren't you working on that project for me?"

Gemma patted Loretta's arm, then reached up to steady George.

"I haven't forgotten. Don't worry," she said. "I kept dreaming of this, several times every night. When that happens, the only way to get a good night's sleep is to make whatever it is and get it out of my system. I'll be finished with yours in a few days."

"Good to see you, Loretta," George said, stepping to the ground and wiping sweat off of his face. "Good to be down here, too."

Loretta looked up to the top of the fence, where a bright metal bowl shaped like the end of her Dragon, or the much larger Blunderbuss, was attached. A black cable ran down the fence, along the ground, and into one of the windows.

"George. But what is this, Gemma? Who are you trying to talk to?"

"Why, the monsters, of course," she said. Her eyes and voice neatly scolded Loretta for such silliness. "Especially the big white one. You can tell that one is just dying to talk to us."

Loretta scanned the cloudy sky for the creature before turning back to her grandmother.

"Dying, huh?" she said. "Can you tell me the rest inside? I'm not out here enough to get used to that stench."

"You know, I didn't think it was possible," George said. "I hardly notice it anymore." He compressed the ladder much like Loretta did her tripod before he hung it just under the roof. "We'll get that cable buried for you, and no one will ever be the wiser."

Inside, Loretta spotted the other end of the device on a table beside the biggest window. It had a similar curving open end and part of the middle tube structure of the Dragon. Gemma beamed as she sat down beside it. She picked up headgear that matched Loretta's and Karl's.

"Shall we try it?" she said.

"It wasn't out there," Loretta said, glancing out the window. "You're not going to call it, are you?"

The white demon stared at her any time she was here. Even when she stayed inside, she caught it hanging on to the fence and watching.

"I'd bet it came right back once we were inside," George said. "I doubt it liked me being up on that ladder." He opened the door for a second. "Yep, it's up there, checking out my handiwork. Want to show us what I set up?"

Gemma grinned and nodded.

"It's much like the Blunderbuss, and the Dragon... The same thing Builders use in their work." She pulled the headgear on. "I should be able to use this to focus and send out my thoughts."

"How will it answer?" Loretta said.

She wanted to try it for herself, but maybe on other humans. Talking to monsters was low on her list of interests. Gemma tapped a second silvery bell-shaped device, larger than the first.

"This will send the reply back," Gemma said. "As words with any luck. It's sort of like a megaphone. The shape should amplify the signal."

"And you just dream these things," George said, his forehead wrinkled as he peered over his glasses at the headgear. "Did you dream whether it would work or not?"

Gemma giggled when he touched the soft leather around her hair, sounding about sixteen years old.

"Well, it worked in my dream, but nothing is guaranteed, is it? We'll just test it and see if we need to make any adjustments." Gemma closed her eyes, tilting her head to one side, then the other, a gesture Loretta recognized as gathering her thoughts.

"Hello there," Gemma said. "Do you understand me?"

Several seconds passed before a dissonant scratching sound, like a spoon dragging across a rough empty bowl, tore through the small space. Gemma jumped, leaning forward to adjust several knobs, one after another. The noise dropped to a less painful volume, but the pitch was still unpleasant. It wavered without a pattern Loretta could detect.

"Try again now," Gemma said. "I can't quite understand you. I'm very close by. You don't have to shout."

The screech modulated, sounding more like harsh birdsong than the awful scraping. The sounds picked up a rhythm almost like speech. Gemma turned one more knob. All three of them gasped at scratchy but clear words.

"Hear you."

"How can it possibly talk?" Loretta said, staring at George. "How could a monster know how to talk like a person?"

His cheeks turned red.

"I can't... We're not supposed to say. The ’sters, they're not as far from humans as you might think. I've never heard one talk, but I wouldn't be surprised."

Gemma laughed. "I'm glad you can hear me! I live here, right below you. Do you have a name?"

The scratching sound started up after a few seconds, then slowly resolved into words.

"Name. No name. All have names?"

"You mean all people?" Gemma said. "We all have names. Do all of you have names?"

"No names," the monster said,