"Miss Helena is sleeping now, Miss Barbara," Alfred said putting a tray with tea next to her. She was working on several papers and books on her desk."
"Oh thanks Alfred, I really appreciate your help. Helena is a twister."
"I noticed."
"I don't know if I should keep her chained or the turtles."
"May I suggest?" The gentle butler raised his brow.
"Turtles." Barbara answered.
"Right."
"The day Selina bought her those animals, she didn't know what was she doing… as now."
"Any clues about her?" Alfred asked curiously.
"The only one is that she has been stealing or trying to steal from the Italian Renaissance."
"I read that The Renaissance in Italy started the quest for scientific precision and greater realism culminating in the superb balance of harmony of Leonardo, Raphael, and Michelangelo."
"Boticelli too…" Barbara explained sipping a bit of tea. "The center of gravity throughout the Renaissance was Florence. It was here that the rulers, both hidden and explicity, sought to glorify their wealth and power by subsidizing literature, philosophy, science, architecture, and the arts."
"So, what's your idea?"
"It's hard to sell this kind of art, the painters are very well known, hard to sell; it must be a private collector. I need do some research, he or she would pay a large sum of money. I'm trying to investigate who would be interested in something that expensive and not common art. For example, do you know that Leonardo Da vinci just created twenty seven paintings?"
"Curious."
The young woman leaned back, "But I'm really worried about Selina, no clues from her; maybe I can go back to her apartment and look for something that will give me a clue about what's happening to her. Helena will begin to ask for her mother again… soon."
The old man sighed, "Something happened yesterday with Miss Helena."
Curious green eyes fixed on him. "Her turtles attacked Jaçques?"
Alfred chuckled, "I wish it was that." His tone turned serious. "I went with her yesterday to the store, and I surprised her stealing candies."
"What?"
"She did it yesterday, of course I paid for it, but I'm wondering if you knew something about it or if Helena is doing it just to show her annoyance against her mother because she left with out say a word."
"Did you talk with her?"
"No, not yet; I wanted talk with you first."
"Oh…" Barbara thought in silence a few seconds. "Selina never mentioned anything like this. Don't say anything to her. I promise I'll check into it."
"Another thing."
"Yes?"
Alfred extended her a ned paper. The redhead took it and opened it.
"A note?" she looked him incredulously, "What did she do now?"
"I don't have any idea; she came home from school looking rather sad and closed herself in her room. I went to talk with her and she told me the professor thought she was making fun of him. Afterwards, I asked her to help me to cook and that was when you arrived."
Barbara folded the paper again, "I hope Leroy or Leonard have attacked the school."
"Me too." He turned and raised his brow, under the next chair was Helena's stuffed cat, "Oh, Master Jaçques."
"Jaçques, where?"
"Here." Alfred picked up the black cat.
"I'm sure he was running away from those turtles."
Alfred chuckled. The redhead took the cat in her hands. "Jaçques, I thought you were a pain in the ass, but after Leroy and Leonard, I love you."
"I agree. Maybe you can adopt him while we think what to do with those little pets."
Barbara raised her brow and looked at the cat.
"Are you considering it?" Alfred asked, amused.
"No, his fur itches… and besides, I'd like keep an eye on Selina's apartment. I think I will go there now." She gave the cat to him and stood up. "Alfred?"
"I know, I'll take care of Jaçques, Miss Helena, Leonard & Leroy. Maybe I will consider an extra charge."
"I don't think so, just one of the kids can talk and she is sleeping." She winked.
"Good point, Miss Barbara, good point."
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Barbara walked inside Selina's apartment. She turned on the light and looked around. She went toward Selina's bedroom, it was clean, normal. She saw a note on the night table, she read it. It was from the woman who cleaned the house. She wanted Selina to leave her payment because she hadn't seen her in three days.
Barbara picked up a pencil next to the note and wrote a message, Selina was traveling again and she had Helena at her home, she wrote her phone number and asked the woman call to find out how much to pay her; she asked her too, to keep cleaning the house as usual. When she finished, she opened the drawer and began to look for some clue that could help her figure out what had happened to Selina.
When she finished with the drawers, she went to the closet and checked the pockets of her coats and the boxes inside.
"Did you find anything interesting?" she heard a deep voice behind her.
"No," she answered without turning. "I thought you were out of the country."
"I was, Alfred called me and told me what was happening."
Barbara closed the closet and tuned. Batman crouched at the window. The redhead crossed her arms and rested her back on the wall looking at him. "I'm worried, Batman."
He stood up and walked inside, he always had intimidated her in some way, he looked big, strong, dark, like an avenger of the night. "Money is not the issue."
"I'm afraid something terrible is happening."
"Someone blackmailing her?"
"I'm not sure… That not a reason for Selina to abandon her; she hasn't called; she hasn't been back home; she knows Helena doesn't have anyone else, just her."
"But you saw her."
"Yes, three days ago, and she was really rude, acted as if Helena didn't matter to her. That's the weird part. Selina adores her, she would never leave her daughter alone, and… she talked about her as… as if she was nothing."
"Where is she now?"
"Selina? I don't know, but she's behind the thefts of Italian renaissance art. Hard to sell, must be a private collector. I foiled her attempt to steal some paintings in NY."
"She surely won't be happy. Have more info?"
"Not, yet, I'm searching."
He turned toward the window, "Stay with the girl, I'll look for her."
"What?'" She blinked.
"You can't look for her every night, you can do it once or twice per week, but you can't leave the girl alone every night." He turned to looks at her.
"Well…"
"I'll check on the underworld now. Keep working on your research." He jumped down.
Barbara shook her head in annoyance, he was right. She turned and walked out of the room.
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"Did you hit someone?" Barbara asked, walking in the corridor at school toward the Helena's teacher's office, holding the girl's hand.
"No." Helena followed her with quick steps and with her school bag on her back.
"Did you arrive late to your class?"
"No."
"Did you cheat on the exam?"
"Maybe you insulted someone or did one of your 'high' jumps in front of someone?"
"No. Can you walk slowly please?"
Barbara did what Helena asked. "So, tell me why I'm here."
"Because I know too much."
"What?"
"Good morning, Miss Gordon," the principal greeted her. "Morning, Miss Kyle. In trouble again?"
"No…" Helena pouted.
"Hi, I'm looking for her history teacher, Mr. Hendricks."
"He's in the professor's room, next door."
"Thanks. Helena, wait for me here." She pointed to the bench in the corridor, "I'll talk with him and then you can go to your classes."
Helena sat in silence and put her school bag on the floor. Barbara walked inside the room and saw an old man at the far end of the room reading a book. She went toward him and stood up in front of him.
"Mr. Hendricks?"
"Yes?"
"Hi, my name is Barbara Gordon," she extended her hand, "I came here because you sent a note to Selina Kyle."
"Oh, Helena…"
"Yes. She is not in the city and I'm taking care of her. What happened?"
He waved his hand toward a chair, "Sit, please." He looked through his papers and extended one to the redhead. "This is Helena's history exam."
"Oh… It's good, she got an excellent grade."
"Yes, but read question number seven."
She did it and blinked. Helena wrote a little speech about how the hieroglyphs were sounds "Ohh… sound signs are pictures of sounds." She read in loud voice surprised by the knowledge of the girl. Immediately, she recognized that Selina loved Egyptian culture and surely she taught Helena.
"Of course she copied it, it's impossible for a girl of her age to know this," the professor said.
"Her mother is an expert in Egyptian art; she 's taught her many things about it."
"She told me she can read hieroglyphs. Please!"
"Helena…?" Barbara couldn't believe what she was hearing.
"Yes. If she could do that she would be a phenomenon. English is based on 26 characters--letters. Letters that are combined into words...and then into sentences...which tell a story. Ancient Egyptian writing uses more than 2,000 hieroglyphic characters. Each hieroglyph represents a common object in ancient Egypt. Hieroglyphs can represent the sound of the object or they can present an idea associated with the object. "
Barbara remained silent a few seconds, Helena's meta skills would help her learn fast; but she'd never heard Selina talking about it. "I think you are being unfair."
"Unfair? why?"
"I don't think she is cheating," Barbara said gently. "Her mother would have taught her some words and helped her to understand, generally, what hieroglyphs are."
"But she told me she could read…"
"You know children love to exaggerate, that's all she's doing, she got a good grade on her exam. You can't punish her because she is boasting a bit."
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Helena swung her legs under the chair waiting, while she played with one of her turtles on her lap. The door to the professor's office opened after fifteen minutes and Barbara walked outside. Helena took her turtle and put it inside her school bag. The redhead sat next to her.
"So," she said, "you read Egyptian hieroglyphs."
"Yes…" the girl answered with a soft voice.
Barbara took the girl's hand. "Your mom taught you to read them?"
"Yes."
"And... how was it?"
"We went to Egypt once and she told me that the drawings were words and sounds. She did many drawings in cartoons and she taught me."
"Oh… I see… and it was hard?"
"Not really… Are you angry?"
"No," Barbara smiled and squeezed her hand, she leaned a bit toward her. "Look, you know you are special, you can do things that normal people can't, and it makes them uncomfortable sometimes. You were right, you know too much and you are pretty small for it. So, don't worry, I talked with your professor. I told him you were boasting a bit."
"But I wasn't!" Blue eyes lifted to meet green.
"I know, but… he would never understand that you really know how to do it. So, I convinced him that you know some words, maybe ten, but, please, don't decipher hieroglyphics in front of anyone. It's not normal a child like you to do it, they would begin to asking questions and you know…"
The girl nodded.
"So don't worry," Barbara rubbed her head, "I'm proud of you, you got a very good grade." Helena smiled. "Now, go to your class, it's late…"
"Barbara, don't throw away the box for the shoes you just bought. I need it."
"To play?"
"Yep." The brunette took her backpack.
"Helena…" Barbara extended her hand, "I saw him."
"But Bar…"
"I don't want to be called here again. Once is enough."
Helena pouted and took the turtle from her bag, giving it to Barbara.
"Well, now to class." The older woman smiled, patting her shoulder.
Helena turned and walked toward her classroom. Barbara looked at the turtle a few seconds and sighed, "I need to go to work, Leonard, what am I supposed to do with you?" She looked at herself, looking where to put the turtle,
Helena hid in the corner of the corridor and watched Barbara walk toward the exit, she opened her school back and looked inside, "Leroy, don't worry, Leonard will be okay. I'm sorry for him, he's going to have a really boring day at the library."
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