Part 20 (1/2)

I felt myself blush. ”Then why wouldn't she?” Noah's father said. ”It's the most coveted job in our society.”

”Maybe she doesn't want to be a High Monitor,” Noah offered. ”Maybe she wants to do something else.”

I tried to get a word in, when his mother's laugh stopped me. ”But everyone wants to be a High Monitor. Noah, if you just apply yourself, one day you could-”

”I don't want to talk about this now,” he said, trying to control his voice.

”Noah told me you're both professors?” I said, changing the subject.

Noah's mother smiled. ”Oui. I am a scholar in francais and the Romance languages, and Luc is one of the most celebrated historians in Canada.” She rubbed her husband's arm. ”Actually, your father just started doing research for a new book. It's very different.”

Noah spooned a heaping pile of potatoes onto his plate. ”What's it about?”

His father leaned back in his chair and swirled the wine around in his gla.s.s. ”A forgotten female scientist who had a peculiar obsession.”

Noah's mother gave him a coy smile before going to the kitchen to bring out more wine.

”Go on,” Noah said.

”Bon,” his father said, clasping his stubby hands together. ”Her name was Ophelia Coeur. And she was obsessed with water.”

Ophelia Coeur. The name sounded familiar somehow. ”Who was she?” I asked, trying to remember where I knew her from.

”She is the Marie Curie of Monitors. The Mother Teresa of Monitors. The Christopher Columbus of Monitors!” his father said, spilling his wine as he gesticulated.

”But what did she do?” Noah pressed.

”Many, many things. She was the first person to study the effects of water on the dead.”

I frowned. I definitely didn't know her name from that.

”She started her career as the school nurse at St. Clement, then moved to the Royal Victoria Hospital in 1894 just after it was taken over by the Plebeians, where she rose to become the head nurse of the children's ward.”

”The Royal Victoria?” I repeated, my eyes darting to Noah's. ”The children's ward?”

”Oui. She revolutionized the entire hospital.”

I coughed, my mind racing. Noah gave me a knowing glance. ”Then what?” he asked.

Noah's father dunked a piece of bread into his sauce and stuffed it in his mouth. ”After a few years, Ophelia Coeur quit nursing and dedicated her life to science,” he said, his words m.u.f.fled as he chewed. ”She went to every body of water in North America to study drowning victims and the way the flesh and soul reacted to being submerged in different kinds of water. She was the first person to figure out that water has a m.u.f.fling' effect on dead beings.”

Noah's mother leaned over and wiped a speck of food from Luc's chin. He smiled at her and squeezed her hand.

”She spent most of her time studying the Great Lakes, with special attention to Lake Erie. She claimed that the water in that lake m.u.f.fled the dead even more than usual.”

”Lake Erie?” I said.

”Oui. . .” Luc said, clearly confused by my interest. ”She was the first one to set foot on many of the islands in the lake. Some of them were even named by her.”

Little Sister Island. That was where Miss LaBarge had been found, dead.

”But I believe her greatest contribution was when she identified all of the lakes that had briny properties, or properties that mimicked those of salt water. That was, oh, in the early 1900s-”

”Where was she buried?” I demanded, and then shrank back when I realized how urgent my tone sounded.

Noah's parents didn't seem to notice. ”Probably at sea, like everyone else,” Noah's mother said, nibbling on a string bean.

”Oh,” I said. A part of me expected the nameless headstone to be hers.

”Actually, I wasn't able to find any records of her death,” Luc corrected. ”But back then, our record system wasn't what it is today. Even now, though some of her research papers have been preserved in the archives, we know very little about her background. She was very private about her past. She rarely made public appearances, and only published her scientific findings sporadically. All we know about her past was that at some point in her childhood she was badly injured in a fire.”

By then, both Noah and I had stopped eating.

”It's odd, non?” Noah's mother said, gesticulating with the carving knife.

”How do you know about the fire?” I asked.

”Because much of her face was covered in burns.”

”Do you have images?” I asked, a little too eagerly.

Noah's father seemed a little taken aback by my abrupt request, but then smiled. ”There's a spark in you,” he said, and winked. ”I like that. After dinner, I'll bring one out.”

I felt Noah's foot touch mine beneath the table, and I blushed.

It was a long, hearty dinner. One course and two bottles of wine later, Noah's father was a little pink in the face, but otherwise just as lucid as when he had answered the door. We finished the meal with a platter of soft, smelly cheeses, which Noah's mother ate as if they were dessert, scooping up the Camembert with one finger and licking it off like frosting. His father smiled, admiring her.

”So, are you interested in history, then?” Noah's father said to me through a mouthful of blue cheese.

”It used to be my favorite subject,” I said slowly.

I must have looked confused, because Noah's father said, ”Ah, well I just thought since you were so interested in my new book.”

”What are you interested in?” Noah's mother asked.

”I-I don't know,” I said. ”Maybe teaching the Undead? Helping them in some way?”

Noah's mother let out a laugh as if I had made a joke. When she realized I was serious, she said, ”Help them? But why?”

I froze. ”What do you mean?”

”Well, they have no souls; they cannot be helped.”

I felt Noah trying to catch my eye, but I refused to turn to him.

”That's not true,” I said. ”At Gottfried-”

At the mention of my old school, Noah's mother groaned. ”Oh, that place. We've been trying to get them to shut it down for years. Teaching the Undead to be human. Impossible! Enfants terribles. That's all they are.”

I clutched the cheese knife, my knuckles white as I opened my mouth to respond. Noah cut in before I could. ”A lot of her friends are at Gottfried,” he said. ”She's very close with them.”