Prince of Air by Ann Hood Read Free Book Online

“Where?”
    â€œLondon?” Felix said. “I thought he said something about London.”
    â€œYes, but
where
exactly?”
    â€œHow should I know? I don’t know anything about London,” Felix said, exasperated. Who cared about Great-Uncle Thorne’s former address when their mother was out kissing Bruce Fishbaum?
    â€œBut was he in a house? Alone?”
    â€œMaisie?” Felix said. “What’s your point?”
    â€œMy point is that I think we brought him back, too.”
    â€œBack?” He sat upright. “Was that a car?”
    Maisie sighed one of her big dramatic sighs. “I think he was old and decrepit,” she paused, mentally searching her vocabulary words. “Infirmed,” she continued triumphantly. “Just like Great-Aunt Maisie. And our time traveling revived him, too.”
    Felix twisted his face free from her grasp.
    â€œWell,” he said, “that makes sense, I guess.”
    Maisie looked at him expectantly.
    â€œDon’t you see?” she said, frustrated.
    Felix slumped back into the sofa. “I guess I don’t,” he admitted.
    â€œWe’re twins, right?”
    Felix nodded, even though this was yet another rhetorical question.
    â€œAnd so are Great-Aunt Maisie and Great-Uncle Thorne, right?”
    And another one
, Felix thought.
    Maisie leaned closer to him. He could smell her fake butter, lemon cookie, mint chocolate chip, salty breath.
    â€œThat’s the missing piece,” she said. “You need to be a twin to do it.”
    Felix sat upright again.
    â€œYou need to be a twin to do it,” he repeated slowly.
    Their mother’s voice cut through the room.
    â€œYou need to be a twin to do what?” she said.

    Maisie and Felix sipped the hot chocolate their mother made for them and studied her face for signs of love.
    She had taken them down to the vast Kitchen, with all its gleaming stainless steel and subway-tiled walls and industrial-sized everything after they’d jumped up and shouted: “You need to be a twin to understand!”
    â€œUnderstand what?” she’d said with that tone of voice that let them know she knew they were up to something.
    â€œTo understand . . . being a twin!” Maisie had said, and Felix had nodded enthusiastically beside her.
    â€œHmm,” their mother had said. She’d stared at them a few seconds more, then thrown her hands up in surrender. “I think we all need some hot chocolate,” she’d said finally.
    The hot chocolate was made with unsweetened chocolate, cream, vanilla, cinnamon, and a touch of chili pepper in it, just the way they liked it. Maisie and Felix knew that their mother had learned to make hot chocolate this way on her honeymoon in Mexico with their father. They took it as a good sign that she made it for them now, fresh off her date with Bruce Fishbaum.
    She peered at them from over the rim of her mug.
    â€œWere you two actually waiting up for me?” she said.
    â€œYes,” Felix said at the very same time that Maisie said, “No.”
    â€œBruce Fishbaum and I are just friends,” their mother said. “FYI.”
    FYI?
Maisie thought in horror. Their mother didn’t say things like “FYI.” That was definitely Fishbaum-speak.
    â€œBut he wore a tie,” Felix pointed out.
    Their mother laughed. “He always wears a tie. Twenty-four seven.”
    24-7?
More Fishbaum-speak!
    â€œBut it’s so late,” Felix said.
    â€œWe got caught up discussing the Holbrook case,” their mother said.
    Felix tried to give her the same look she gave them, the one that let her know he didn’t buy what she was saying. Not for an instant.
    They each sipped their hot chocolate in silence.
    Then their mother said, “Twins run in the Pickworth family.”
    â€œObviously,” Maisie said.
    â€œEven Phinneas was a twin,” their mother said.
    â€œWho was