Meeting Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  ONE

  TWO

  THREE

  FOUR

  FIVE

  SIX

  SEVEN

  EIGHT

  NINE

  TEN

  ELEVEN

  TWELVE

  THIRTEEN

  FOURTEEN

  FIFTEEN

  SIXTEEN

  SEVENTEEN

  EIGHTEEN

  NINETEEN

  TWENTY

  TWENTY-ONE

  TWENTY-TWO

  TWENTY-THREE

  TWENTY-FOUR

  TWENTY-FIVE

  TWENTY-SIX

  TWENTY-SEVEN

  Books by NINA KIRIKI HOFFMAN

  Unmasking

  Child of an Ancient City (with Tad Williams)

  The Thread That Binds the Bones

  The Silent Strength of Stones

  A Red Heart of Memories

  Past the Size of Dreaming

  A Fistful of Sky

  A Stir of Bones

  Time Travelers, Ghosts, and Other Visitors (short stories)

  Catalyst: A Novel of Alien Contact

  Spirits That Walk in Shadow

  Fall of Light

  Thresholds (Magic Next Door, Book I)

  Meeting (Magic Next Door, Book II)

  VIKING

  Published by Penguin Group

  Penguin Young Readers Group, 345 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A.

  Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3

  (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)

  Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

  Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd)

  Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia

  (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd)

  Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi – 110 017, India

  Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, Auckland 0632, New Zealand

  (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd)

  Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa

  Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

  First published in the U.S.A. by Viking, a member of Penguin Young Readers Group, 2011

  Copyright © Nina Kiriki Hoffman, 2011

  All rights reserved

  LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

  Hoffman, Nina Kiriki.

  Meetings / Nina Kiriki Hoffman.

  p. cm.—(Magic next door ; bk. 2)

  Summary: Middle school student Maya Andersen and her family move to

  Oregon, where the residents of the apartment building next to them have

  magical powers and the basement is a portal to other worlds, which Maya

  and her secret alien companion, Rimi, must use to track down aliens who

  snatched Rimi from her home planet in an attempt to rule the universe.

  eISBN : 978-1-101-52934-8

  [1. Magic—Fiction. 2. Kidnapping—Fiction. 3. Extraterrestrial beings—Fiction.]I. Title.

  PZ7.H67567Me 2011

  [Fic]—dc22

  2011003002

  Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book. The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

  The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party Web sites or their content.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  http://us.penguingroup.com

  To Devon Monk and Eric Witchey, co-conspirators and late night e-mail buddies.

  To Ashton (again) and Connor and Zack H.

  To Sharyn, who works so hard with me to make these books better.

  Thank you all.

  ONE

  Maya Andersen held the front door wide on a crisp autumn Saturday night to let the neighbors into the Andersens’ new house.

  There were a lot of neighbors. She didn’t know all of their names, even after having them over every Saturday Music Night for six weeks, and spending three days a week after school studying magic and related arts and sciences at Janus House, the big apartment building next door, where all these people lived. Every Music Night she tried to focus on new people, get their faces into her mind so she could draw them later and put names to them. Different people kept showing up, though. Where did they all come from? Maybe the warren underneath Janus House, where the portal to other worlds was.

  “Hi,” she said as the people flowed inside, and most said, “Hello, Maya,” as they passed her, or “Nice night!”

  Five orange pumpkins perched on the porch railing. They glowed in the soft light spilling from the front windows and the open door. Maya’s family had visited the pumpkin patch that afternoon. Halloween was a week away.

  The air carried the spice of dead leaves, fallen, raked, stacked, jumped in. There was the tang of cold working on water. Smoke from the chimney flavored the air. Maya sniffed the mix of autumn scents, remembering last year, back in Idaho, when her best friend, Stephanie, had still been alive. Maya and Stephanie had been plotting their costumes for a week already by this time. Stephanie always dressed as something magical—a witch, a wizard, an elf, or, the year when they were six, a unicorn. Maya liked dressing as Steph’s sidekick. If Steph was a witch, Maya dressed as a black cat to be her familiar. If Steph was a wizard, Maya might be a fellow wizard. Some years Steph dressed as something that didn’t need a sidekick, like a fairy, and Maya went trick-or-treating as a Viking, in honor of the Andersen family heritage. She had a nice metal helmet with horns and rivets, and not enough occasions when she could wear it.

  Steph had already started chemo by October of last year, and she’d lost her hair. She found a Lady Godiva wig at a Halloween store, blonde, curly hair that touched the ground. She dressed as Rapunzel, only Steph’s Rapunzel had a magic wand with a crystal on the end. “It’s the spirit of television,” she had said, touching the crystal. “The witch can lock me in a tower, but I’ll still find something to entertain me.”

  Maya had dressed as a ghost. She didn’t want to do that again—not with Steph dead and not haunting, the way Maya and Steph had planned sometimes when they sat together in the middle of the night with the lights out near the end of Steph’s life.

  Maya wasn’t sure who to be this year. She was living in a new house, in a new neighborhood, with lots of strange new friends, including one she wore like a shadow, Rimi.

  Did Janus House people even celebrate Halloween?

  Some of the neighbors carried plates covered with colorful dish towels. Some carried instrument cases. Some carried their own chairs. When the visitors ran out of room in the living room, where the piano was, they placed their chairs in the
dining room and on the porch and settled. Those with food took the plates to the dining room table and set them down. Those with instrument cases opened the cases, got out instruments, and tuned.

  Twelve-year-old Benjamin Porta crossed the porch, following two adults Maya didn’t know yet. “Hey, Maya. Did you save me a seat?” He was just her height, with cinnamon skin, dark hair, and warm brown eyes with gold flecks in them. He wore a charcoal hoodie, blue jeans, and black tennis shoes.

  “I put my coat over part of the couch,” Maya said, pointing toward the couch near the piano. “Don’t know if that worked.” She peered past people to the couch. Nobody had sat on her coat yet, but two other people had claimed spots on the couch. There was still a space just wide enough for two, if they were small. “Guess it kinda did.”

  “Did you save me a seat?” asked Maya’s other new friend from Janus House, Gwenda Janus. Gwenda was tall, pale, dark-haired, and slender, with eyes the color of sky. Tonight she was wearing a dark, full-length skirt with no stiffening to make it stand out. Her blouse was fairly subdued, for her: pale green with lines of white embroidery that showed vines and flowers.

  Maya sighed. She had left her coat on enough of the couch to reserve space for three, but that hadn’t worked.

  “Just kidding,” said Gwenda. “I brought my own chair.” She held up a three-legged folded stool.

  Maya kicked the doorstop under the doorsill—the door would have to stay open, anyway, so the people on the porch could hear—and the three of them made their way through the crowd to the couch.

  The ancient witch and weaver Sarutha Gates, Maya’s main Janus House teacher, was one of the people already sitting on the couch. Beside her was her almost-twin sister, Noona. Both of them had long silver-gray hair and wore dark velvet dresses.

  Maya picked up her coat and put it on. The sisters smiled at Maya and Benjamin as they squeezed onto the couch, Maya between Benjamin and Sarutha. Gwenda set her stool nearby.

  Maya’s jean-clad leg pressed against Benjamin’s jean-clad leg, and her shoulder was against his. He felt warm through all those layers, and he smelled like fresh bread and spices. She liked being next to him.

  Maya’s mother stood beside the piano, smiling at the company. She was short, pleasantly plump, and dark-haired, and she wore a light jacket over her clothes. Since fall had fallen, the nights were cool, but they had to keep all the windows open. When it froze, they might have to rethink the set-up. Dad had built up a fire in the fireplace, but the heat only went so far. People bundled up. “Welcome back, everyone,” Mom said. “What’s your pleasure tonight?”

  Benjamin’s mother, Dr. Porta, said, from the far side of the room, “Can we start off with ‘Pretty Polly’?”

  “Sure,” said Mom. “What key?”

  “A.”

  “And you want to do Polly’s lines, right?”

  Dr. Porta just smiled.

  Mom sat at the piano. People with instruments put them into playable positions, and they all started the song on a downbeat from Maya’s tall, blond father, who leaned against the wall near the piano.

  Everybody sang about the evil Willy, who stabbed his girlfriend Pretty Polly through the heart, and her heart’s blood did flow. Dr. Porta sang Pretty Polly’s lines alone. “Willy, oh Willy, I’m afraid of your ways,” Polly cried, as well she should be, since Willy’s idea of a fun tour was to lead pretty Polly over the mountains and valleys to a grave he’d spent the night digging. Fear didn’t save Pretty Polly, and begging didn’t either. Willy stabbed her, threw her in the grave, and dropped a little dirt on her.

  The Janus House people could harmonize like nobody’s business. Maya wasn’t sure whether to sing or listen. Maya’s alien shadow, Rimi, was alive with delight; Maya felt her dancing, slight changes in air currents against Maya’s face, and her joy was like warm water.

  In the shuffle of the song’s ending, Maya whispered to Benjamin, “Your mother.”

  He smiled. “My mother,” he whispered.

  I like his mother, Rimi thought.

  Me, too, Maya thought.

  Peter, Maya’s younger brother, asked if they could sing “The Fox” next. Everybody got to pick at least one song on Music Night, which led to some very long nights. Janus House people seemed to know most of the folk songs the Andersens knew, and the ones they didn’t know they learned after hearing them once or twice. The Andersens were still trying to learn Janus House people’s favorite songs. The ones in English, anyway.

  Sometimes the visitors sang songs in their own language, Kerlinqua, and then strange things happened. Winds blew only in the house. Little lights appeared in shadowed nooks and in spirals on the ceiling. Maya sometimes felt the brush of invisible wings, and sometimes she heard the whispers of people from otherwhere or otherwhen.

  Sometimes the songs just made you feel different. Longing, sadness, or inexplicable happiness. Other songs could do that too, though.

  Mom and Dad didn’t seem to notice the magic sneaking in. Maya wondered if Peter did. He usually sat across the room from her on Music Night. Their seventeen-year-old sister Candra was off at her high school working on the school newspaper most Saturday nights. She had started resenting Music Night even before the family had moved from Idaho to Oregon.

  “Let’s never get that old,” Maya and Peter had whispered to each other once, after Candra stomped off before the singing began.

  Maya had always thought singing was magic. Her family used to have Music Night in Idaho and she loved the way songs could knit people together.

  Candra was stupid to miss Music Night, Maya thought, as they went on to sing “The Springhill Mine Disaster.” Candra was interested in journalism, and wildly curious about everything that happened next door, always trying to get Maya to talk about what she was learning, or what she saw and heard while she visited Janus House. Maya couldn’t tell Candra anything. Silence lay on her tongue, put there by the leader of the Janus House people, Great-uncle Harper Janus.

  If only Candra were here, she might notice strange things. Maybe she’d bug somebody besides Maya about it.

  Halfway through the evening, when they broke for refreshments, Maya’s wish came true. She had just loaded a plate with pumpkin bread from Benjamin’s mother’s kitchen when Candra came in the front door. Her pale hair haloed her head. Her black and gray school messenger bag hung against her hip. She stood on the threshold and looked at all the neighbors. Her green eyes lit. “Hey,” she said. “Hey, y’all.”

  “You must be Candra. I’m Dr. Porta,” said Benjamin’s mother, from the chair closest to the door. “Would you like some cake?”

  “Sure,” said Candra. She shrugged out of her pack and followed Dr. Porta to the dining room table, glancing right and left as she went. People were sitting on chairs, with plates of food perched on their knees. Dr. Porta introduced Candra to other people, including Great-uncle Harper, not Maya’s favorite person. Tonight Great-uncle Harper was wearing an orange suit. It looked like a business suit except for the color. Candra shook his hand enthusiastically, which Maya thought was a little careless; Harper was who knew how old, and he looked frail, like a good grip might break his bones. Deceptive, but how could Candra know that?

  Maya took her plate and headed for the couch, wondering what had happened to Candra’s newspaper night. She sat down and watched her sister charming strangers. Candra had the gift of being able to make people like her. Often they answered questions she asked when it would be much smarter if they didn’t.

  Gwenda settled next to Maya on the couch. She was watching Candra, too. “She lurks. She looms,” she said. “I see her around Janus House all the time, despite the wards.”

  “She wants to find out all about you,” Maya said.

  “Oh, dear,” said Gwenda.

  “She can be incredibly snoopy and pesky.”

  “Oh, dear.” Gwenda fingered the round, engraved stones of her charm bracelet.

  She strokes the power in them, Rimi thought. Differen
t colors.

  Can you show me? Maya wondered.

  Hmm, thought Rimi. A shadow dropped over Maya’s eyes, and then something shifted in her vision and she saw that each of the stones on Gwenda’s bracelet looked like a little galaxy, some red, some green, some gold, some blue. Gwenda’s nervous fingers shifting them around made the galaxy lights flare or spread or collapse.

  Wow, Maya thought. She blinked, and the shadow with its power of seeing energy flicked up and away. Thanks, Rimi. They were still getting to know each other. Every day brought more discoveries.

  Candra made her way over and sat down on the couch next to Maya. “Hi, Gwenda. Nice to see you again,” Candra said.

  Gwenda had been Maya’s first visitor in the new house; she had come to dinner soon after the Andersens moved in.

  “Hi, Candra,” Gwenda said.

  “Last time I met you, I didn’t know how interesting you were.”

  “I’m not interesting.”

  “Hey, I’ve seen how you dress. You’re interesting.”

  “Thanks. I guess.”

  “I’d like to get a look in your closet,” said Candra.

  Gwenda turned and met Maya’s eyes. No question, Candra was snoopy. They smiled at each other.

  “You are so subtle,” Maya told her older sister.

  Candra grinned and shrugged. “Come on, what’s so secret about your closet?”

  Gwenda cocked her head. Maya noticed that Gwenda’s mean cousin Rowan had drifted closer, and so had Maya’s Janus House teacher Sarutha.

  “Well, maybe it’d be all right to show you,” Gwenda said. She glanced at Sarutha, who nodded once. “How interested in clothes are you?”

  “I like looking at people who wear a lot of colors. I don’t necessarily want to wear them myself. When can I come?”

  “Tomorrow afternoon,” Gwenda said. Sarutha gave one sharp nod again. Gwenda gripped Maya’s hand. “You come, too,” she said, “okay?”