Chapter 3
Extra Ordinary.
(Part I)
"Have you tried writing all this down?" Celeste asked Vanya over lunch. She only had a few hours on her layover and wanted to see Vanya and hopefully Klaus, but he was in a rehab center and couldn't see visitors at the time.
Vanya had been seeing a therapist for a while and it was going okay, she just had trouble with voicing all her thoughts and feelings.
"I just don't think I can put it all into words." Vanya answered.
"Just try writing, or…or! Oooo! You could write a song. A song for each of them! Like Vivaldi and the four seasons. Vanya and the six siblings!" Celeste said with enthusiasm and Vanya laughed.
"I'm serious, V."
"How would that help me with therapy?"
"Therapy is there to help you, not the other way around."
Vanya twirled her pasta.
"Where are you touring next, again?" Vanya asked.
"Brazil. Want to go? The music there is alive."
Vanya didn't look up from her food.
"I think you're right, I think I do need to write it down, but my hand gets tired quickly."
"Have you tried typing?"
Celeste puts a copy of Vanya's book "Extra Ordinary" back on Vanya's bookshelf.
She wished Vanya had gone the song route. She could have said more than 20,000 books ever could that way. And Allison…wait, Allison? Celeste can feel her coming up the stairs now.
Celeste waits for her to knock.
"Vanya?" Allison calls out.
Celeste opens the door.
"Hey Allison, she had rehearsal this morning, but she should be back soon." Celeste motions for her to come in. Allison stays in the hallway.
"I actually went by the concert hall, they said she ended up leaving rehearsal early."
"She did?" Celeste remembers feeling Vanya's panic of running late this morning.
"Any idea where she is?" Allison asks.
Celeste thinks a moment. She knew Vanya must have been beating herself up unfairly for being late. She probably got some looks which fed into it, and after everything that's happened this last 48 hours, it must have been amplified. Then Celeste remembered Leonard from yesterday. All of Celeste's focus was on him, she didn't really register how Vanya was liking the attention he was giving her.
"Yeah, actually. I just hope I'm wrong." Celeste grabs her coat.
Celeste sits in the passenger seat of Allison's car.
"Where in Brick Town?" Allison asks.
"I'm not sure, actually. It's a wood shop. Do you mind if I roll the window down?"
"No."
Celeste does and leans her head out. She looks with her eyes for a wood shop and feels out for Vanya.
"Does having open air help you…feel?" Allison asks while looking around herself.
"I guess, I think it's more of a placebo though, I can feel through walls."
"Right." Allison shifts a little further away from Celeste but they're in a car, so she doesn't get very far.
"Sorry-I…" Celeste does her best to take her attention off of Allison. "Can I ask why you are looking for Vanya?"
"Something's wrong with our mom and we need to make a decision."
"Oh. I'm sorry. I'm glad you're including Vanya."
"Of course we're including Vanya."
Celeste can't help it, she looks over at Allison. Who looks at her then looks away.
"It's there." Celeste points behind her, she can feel Vanya. Damn, and Leonard.
Allison parks the car and they get out.
"Why did you say you hoped you were wrong?"
Celeste closes the car door.
"I hope I'm wrong about that too."
Allison doesn't press anymore. They head to the wood shop.
Vanya and Leonard are outside when Allison and Celeste get to the store front.
Celeste feels that Vanya is surprised to see them there, but especially…
"Allison?" Vanya asks.
"Hey" Allison says.
"Celeste? What are you doing here?" Vanya continues to ask.
Celeste looks to Allison, who towers over all of them.
"Don't I know you?" Leonard asks Allison.
"Leonard, this is my sister Allison. And you met Celeste yesterday-" Vanya says.
"-You were in the movie, you're in the movie." Leonard pays no attention to what Vanya says.
Celeste felt Leonard had recognize Allison right away, he's just playing coy. He's even acting like he's searching for the film. He knows it. Though, a lot of people do this around celebrities.
"You're the lawyer, the tough one in the wheelchair, right?"
"Yeah, yeah that was me." Allison says politely.
"You didn't tell me your sister was a movie star. Wow!" Leonard says to Vanya.
But you already knew that. Celeste thinks to herself because Klaus isn't around. She feels Vanya dim a bit, Leonard's attention is moving off of her and onto Allison. Celeste clocks that he has that unsettling, excited feeling he had when he saw Vanya for the first time yesterday. He must know Allison primarily as Number 3-
"You were in that Umbrella thing too, weren't you?" He asks Allison.
And there it is. Allison looks to Vanya.
"But, you weren't in that were you?" Leonard asks Vanya a question he one hundred precent knows the answer too. Celeste feels Allison look to her, but Celeste does not take her eyes off of Leonard.
"No, uh…I was sort of the fifth Beatle of the family, so…" Vanya answers.
"I never really did like the Beatles, I was more of a Stones guy myself." He smiles at Vanya and it makes Celeste spine crawl in a bad way, but it makes Vanya's in a good way.
"Shit." Celeste says accidentally out loud.
They all look to her.
"Sorry…sorry to interrupt, but Allison has been looking for you, V."
"Yeah, could you come back to the house? We're having a family meeting there." Allison asks.
"And you guys want me there?" replies Vanya.
"Of course." Allison looks at Leonard who looks down. Vanya looks at Celeste who nods.
"It's about Mom." Allison states.
Vanya looks to Leonard. "I'm sorry I-"
"No, don't be. We'll do a rain check on dinner."
Dinner? When was this decided?
He walks away and gives an awkward thumbs up.
"Bye." Vanya call out.
He nods and doesn't say goodbye to any of them. Weird, weird, weird.
Celeste and Allison make eye contact. Vanya looks to them.
"Who's that guy?" Allison asks.
Vanya looks at Celeste. "He's a…just a friend." Vanya answers.
"Friend?" Allison asks again.
"No…it's not…" Vanya looks right at Allison, which takes Celeste by surprise. She feels Vanya become a little more solid than usual.
"Maybe I'm just not trying to separate myself from everything and everyone."
Celeste can feel Allison wanting to apologize and now that Leonard is gone, she can feel herself get in the way of the sisters.
"Glad we found you, V. I'm going to take off. I hope the meeting goes as well as it can."
"I can drop you off somewhere." Allison offers.
"No, thank you. I'm fine."
"I'll see you tonight." Vanya says. Celeste wants to make a quippy comment about how that will now only happen because her apparent dinner plans were cancelled, but decides not too. She leaves the sisters so they can try to figure out how to be sisters.
"Which ones are your favorite?" Celeste asked Five. He pointed to the row of classic doughnuts.
"That's it? But there are so many different shapes and colors! Have you tried them all?"
Five looks directly at Celeste.
"I know what I like." he said entirely too confidently. They were only celebrating their twelfth birthday after all.
Celeste had never had a doughnut before and she was a bit overwhelmed with the amount of choices. Her Oma made plenty of baked good, just not these. They also rarely got to go out to eat. Number Five had asked her father if he could take her to Griddy's for their birthday. Her father had to work that night, so Oma drove. She sat at a table reading a book while Five and Celeste sat at the counter.
"How many can I get?" Celeste spun around on her stool and asked Oma in German.
"I'm not paying." Oma answered in German back.
Celeste spun back to Five.
"How many can I-" She starts to ask in English.
"-As many as you would like." Five answers in German. He pulled out a credit card from his jacket pocket that had 'Reginald Hargreaves' written on it.
A big, dumb, wonderful smile swept across Celeste's face.
That big, dumb, wonderful smile finds its way back onto Celeste's face as she recalls the memory. She shakes it off. She's at Griddy's, sitting at the table Oma sat and going over the articles for her next assignment. There's a large man at the counter trying all the doughnuts. He likes doughnuts, but not as much as he likes the lady serving them. There's just one other small family in the opposite corner and a woman in the bathroom. Slow day.
If she hadn't seen what Number Five had done in here with her own eyes, she never would have known or guessed it. There's not a trace of damage. The police must have come and the unit did quite the clean up. She wonderes if this means Diego had done some snooping. She clocks to remember to ask him if she sees him before she leaves.
She feels the man at the counter getting full, but he doesn't want to stop talking to the server, so he asks about another. Affection really makes people do strange things.
Celeste then feels the young girl at the family table become sad because her doughnut is now gone, a feeling Celeste knows to well and is about to know again.
The woman walks out of the bathroom. She's wearing a suite like the man at the counter and joins him.
Wait a second.
Celeste feels the man get nervous. He hasn't been doing what he's supposed to have been.
"So, uh.." He says as he stands and tries to change his tone. "…is there anything you might be able to tell us about the night this place got shot up?" The man asks the lady serving doughnuts.
Celeste stares down at her articles and pretends to write things down while she chews her doughnut slowly, but her entire attention is on this conversation.
She feels the lady at the counter experience a little shock and disappointment. She was enjoying talking to the man and she didn't realize this is what he was interested in.
But he was interested in her. Celeste feels he doesn't want to ask her any of this.
"Well, I already told the police everything I know." She answers. "Twice, actually."
Twice? So Diego did show up.
"Do you remember the boy from that night?" The woman asks. The woman absolutely wants to have this conversation, she is all business. Celeste stops chewing.
"I didn't really notice him, to be honest." The lady answers. "Uh, he and his father sat right over there." She points to the end of the counter.
That most definitely was not his father. Celeste thinks to herself.
"That most definitely was not his father." The woman says out loud.
Shit. So they know. Celeste grips her pen.
Celeste feels the lady get nervous and the man clock this. He wants to sooth her. Aw, he really likes her.
"We're just concerned for his safety, is all." He says to the lady. "It's a dangerous world out there. Wouldn't want anything bad to happen to him"
Oh the irony of it all. It doesn't fool this lady, who Celeste is liking more and more.
"Are you with the police?" She asks.
"We were hired by his family to help get to the bottom of things." The woman answers. She's quick. She's good.
"So if there is anything you can help us with, we'd really appreciate it." The man wants this to be over with for the lady's sake. "I'd…really appreciate it." He adds.
"I'd-I'd really like to help, but I wouldn't know anything about that." She says.
The woman scoffs away and the man is relived. But the lady misreads it, she thinks he's disappointed. No, lady! Celeste longs to cry out. Please don't…
"Although come to think of it there was one thing."
The woman turns back around. No, no, no.
"He had a…um, tattoo on his wrist."
Shit.
"I mean who lets a kid get a tattoo?!" She exclaims.
A maniac with a monocle made six kids get one, actually.
"Unbelievable." the man sympathizes with the lady.
"Do you mind drawing that tattoo?" The woman asks.
Please don't remember. But of course she will. It's simple and unique enough to not forget.
"Sure, I uh…Yeah I can." The lady pulls out a pad of paper. The man is sorry she has to do this.
"It was a circle…and…good. And there was a..ah yeah.."
Celeste can't see what the lady is drawing, but she knows it well.
It's a circle with an umbrella in it. And that's going to lead them to the Umbrella Academy.
Celeste just hopes she can get there before they do.