Kevin had always known his older siblings kept secrets from him. For thirteen years he'd watch them hold silent conversations across the dinner table with their eyes. Even with the twins gone—Jonah down in California pursuing a masters degree in psychology, Jordan interning as an assistant teacher in Illinois—Kevin felt an invisible distance between himself and Katherine, who spoke on the phone with her brothers daily, and for hours. Kevin's phone conversations with Jonah and Jordan hardly went over twenty minutes before they ran out of things to talk about.
Kevin was no idiot. He was, in fact, five years ahead in school, studying among twelfth graders while most kids his age were still in middle school. He was smart enough to know that Katherine would have left to study law in Massachusetts if she wasn't hiding something very important at home. Not that there was anything wrong with the law school in town, but she could have made it into Harvard if she wanted. Instead, she stayed put and went to the local law school, claiming that she didn't want to leave Whiskers, her fat fluff of a Ragdoll cat. But Kevin knew that was a fabricated excuse. Katherine was guarding a secret there, and he was tired of secrets. One day, he told himself, he would find whatever it was they were hiding from him.
That day came in late December when the whole family was back home. The Correros had come over on Christmas Eve, and that meant Kevin had to hang out with Greg and Henry. Not that they weren't nice kids, but he got bored around people his own age. All they wanted to do was play video games or talk about girls from school. Luckily, Jordan came to the rescue just before dinner.
"Hey, Kev!" Jordan called from downstairs. "Come help us set the table."
Kevin instantly jumped up from his bedroom floor and told Greg and Henry they were welcome to keep playing Minecraft on his TV while he helped downstairs. They thanked him without taking their eyes off the screen.
In the dining room, Jordan handed Kevin a stack of plates and took charge of the cutlery. "It's felt good to be home. Grading middle school papers can get pretty exhausting. What have you been up to, Kev?"
Kevin shrugged. "Same as ever. Bored in school and wishing I could be in college with you." Kevin always felt closest with Jordan. He loved all his siblings, of course, but Jordan always tried to make sure Kevin didn't feel left out, even with all the secrets.
He could hear Mom laughing with Angela in the kitchen while Dad and Hadley interrogated Jonah about school. Katherine, Maria, and Leo were watching a Ted Talk of some sort on Katherine's phone in the living room.
For a few minutes, Kevin slid plates onto the table and tried to imagine this was a normal Christmas Eve gathering with no weird siblings and no secrets. His mouth watered at the smell of roast turkey and he closed his eyes and listened to the faint tinkling of sleigh bells outside. Snowflakes fluttered from the sky and stuck to the windows. A rare aura of calm filled the house.
Then came the scream.
It was Katherine and she was screaming for her older brothers to come quick. Whiskers, who'd been sleeping on the window sill, darted up the stairs and out of sight. "The elucidator is glowing red!" she cried. Kevin didn't know what an "elucidator" was, but he knew it must be important because Jordan dropped a cluster of forks on the table and ran to her side, while Jonah almost knocked Dad over in his hurry to reach his sister. Katherine opened her palm to reveal what appeared to be a flash drive, but it was blinking bright red.
Kevin wasn't sure how he knew, but he was certain that he needed to reach his siblings before it was too late. He abandoned his dinner plates and leapt into the living room. He reached for the device, but Katherine closed her palm around it before he had the chance, so he ended up clutching her wrist instead. Then the room started to spin.