March by Gabrielle Lord

any stranger has said to me lately. I just wish the 365 days were over already!’
    I slid down against the wall, landing in an uncomfortable squat. Who the hell was that guy anyway? And how would he have known anything about Dad?
    ‘I’ve been doing a lot of research on the net,’ said Boges, interrupting my thoughts, ‘and I found a lot of references to the Ormond Riddle. But that’s all they are. Just references. Like I said before, I can’t find the words of the Riddle. Not anywhere. And one of the websites suggested that the words of the Riddle have been lost. So I don’t know what we’re going to do.’
    ‘The words of the Riddle—they have to be somewhere,’ I said, ‘even if they’re not on the net. Rafe had written a note about it. He must know something.’
    ‘I don’t think that proves anything. Just that he knows the name of it.’
    Boges pointed to the drawing of the Sphinx again.
    ‘You have to get to your great-uncle to see if he knows something.’
    ‘Yeah, Great-uncle Bartholomew,’ I said. ‘I’ve gotta get out of the city. Get to his place at Mount Helicon. I’ve been meaning to do that ever since I snuck back to the house to get his address that night. If anyone knows anything about our family secrets it’ll be him. He might know the words of the Riddle or at least know where we can find them. And he might be able to tell me more about the great-aunt that Dad mentioned once or twice.’
    Boges scratched his head and nodded. ‘So what’s your uncle like?’
    ‘I’m not really sure,’ I said, trying to think back to the last time I saw him. ‘When I was little, we all drove out to visit him at his place in the country, but I hardly recall anything about it. I think the only reason I remember him at all is because Dad was always talking about the awesome plane he was building.’
    ‘He was building an aeroplane?’ Boges asked, clearly impressed. ‘Awesome!’
    ‘Yeah, he spent all his money and his timeon it, Dad also used to say.’
    ‘Well he must have finished it by now, right? If you’re lucky, he might even take you on a joy flight!’
    ‘I’ll be happy as long as I make it to his place alive, and he doesn’t want to call the cops when he realises who his visitor is.’
    ‘There’s only one way to find out how he’ll react. You’ve really gotta get out of town, dude.’
    That should be easy, I thought, with every cop in the state looking for me.

11 MARCH

    296 days to go …

    Boges was carrying his laptop bag and wearing aviator sunglasses and a cool-looking grey fedora when we met again. Beside him I felt like a complete dag wearing the old canvas hat and big glasses.
    It didn’t really bother me though, it was just so good to be walking alongside my friend again in public. Nobody seemed to be taking any notice of us, but that didn’t mean I was about to let my guard down.
    We turned the corner, heading for the large library building, with its white columns and cool, shaded areas.
    ‘Some weird chick’s been hanging round my place,’ said Boges, as we made our way up the stairs. ‘I’ve noticed her a couple of times now, just wandering outside on the street. She’s definitelynot a local.’
    Alarm bells started going off in my brain. ‘What does she look like?’ I asked.
    ‘Sort of cool. Sort of goth, but not exactly. Sort of, drifty … Hard to say.’
    ‘Eyes?’ I asked.
    ‘Two of them,’ said Boges, glancing at me. ‘She also seemed to have thin, silver ribbons through her dark hair, and tiny bells on her skirt.’
    ‘That would be Winter,’ I said.
    Boges gave me a hard look. ‘Why would Winter be hanging round my place?’ he asked. ‘Is she spying on me?’
    I tried to brush his question aside.
    ‘Maybe you should ask her next time,’ I said.

    Boges started deleting the junk messages that were clogging my blog. A lot of people had contacted me since I last checked, but there was nothing too exciting in there; nothing that was going