The Vanishing Stair

All the money, all the power—none of it compares to a good book. A book gives you everything. It gives you a window into other souls, other worlds. The world is a door. Books are the key.

Anxiety and excitement are cousins; they can be mistaken for each other at points. They have many features in common—the bubbling, carbonated feel of the emotion, the speed, the wide eyes and racing heart. But where excitement tends to take you up, into the higher, brighter levels of feeling, anxiety pulls you down, making you feel like you have to grip the earth to keep from sliding off as it turns.

So much of anxiety was anxiety about having anxiety.

You have to try. Trying is the first step to whatever comes next.

Why. Do. People. Do. Stupid. Things." "Because we're stupid," she said.

What did you do?” she hissed. “Me?” “Don’t be a dick,” she said. “That ship has sailed. Hang on. We can’t fight yet. Where’s my hug?

Stevie woke the next morning, which was a good start. When things are bad, give yourself a point for everything.

The real magic rocks are the friends we make along the way.

You probably don't like snow, right?' 'Oh, I like it,' Nate said. 'Snow makes it socially acceptable to stay in.

He looked a bit more confused by Stevie and David, but nodded politely. “I’m a watch ad,” David said. “She’s a hipster grandpa. Together, we solve crime.

DETECTION HAS MANY METHODS, MANY PATHWAYS, NARROW AND subtle. Fingerprints. The lost piece of thread. The dog barking in the night. But there is also Google.

It's funny when you smile," she said. "It's like a rainbow on a cloudy day." "Don't ever say that to me again.

There are reasons for everything, even if we don't know them," Stevie said. "Motive." "Okay," Nate said. "My motive is that I prefer dragons." "To what?" "To the absence of dragons.

How does this keep happening to you?” David said. “Because I look,” Stevie replied. “A lot of things happen when you go out and do them on purpose.

No moose," Stevie said. "The moose is a lie.

Nate, she is back - what are you doing?" Janelle said. "She's back!" Janelle bounced on the balls of her feet a bit. "I'm hugging you with my mind," he replied. "I'm awkwardly accepting your hug in my mind," Stevie said.

Where do you look for someone who's never really there? Always on a staircase but never on a stair.

What do you do when the devil turns up in your living room and offers you everything you want?

Maybe he understood how terrifying it is to do the thing you meant to do.

Mostly, Stevie forgot she had a body, and when someone else noticed her body, it made her look down and go, huh. Would you look at that. How long has that been there?

I'm scared." To Nate's credit, he did not ask why she was scared, and he did not tell her not to be scared. Maybe he understood how terrifying it is to do the thing you meant to do.

She means," Nate said, turning away from the books, "That David has gone full weird." "He was always that way<' Janelle said in a low voice. "Yeah, but now he's completed his journey. Our little caterpillar has turned into a freaky butterfly." "Tell her about the screaming," Janelle said. "Because I can't." "The screaming? Stevie repeated. "The other morning he started something called 'screaming meditation'," Nate said. "Guess what happens in screaming meditation? Did you guess screaming? For fifteen minutes? Because that's what happens in screaming meditation. Fifteen. Minutes. Outside. At five in the morning. Do you know what happens when someone screams outside for fifteen minutes at five in the morning at a remote location in the mountains, especially after a . . ." The implied dot dot dot was "student dies in a terrible accident or maybe murder and another one goes missing." "When security got to him he claimed it was his new religion and that it is something he needs to do every morning now as a way to talk to the sun." So this is what Edward King had been referring to. "Sometimes," Nate went on, tapping the books into place so that the spines lined up perfectly, "he sleeps on the roof. Or somewhere else. Sometimes the green." "Naked," Janelle added. "He sleeps on the green naked." "Or in classrooms," Nate said. "Someone said they went into differential equations and he was asleep in the corner of the room under a Pokémon comforter." "Your boy has not been well," Janelle said.

Don't follow someone into the dark, Stevie. I've seen it happen too many times.

It’s been a long week,” Nate said. “Don’t leave again. Don’t leave me with these people.” “Which people?” “Any people.” “I don’t count as people?” “Of course not,” he said. “It’s been all feelings and love. I want to go back to numbness and avoidance. You’re great at that stuff.

Reading is on of the greatest pleasure of life - maybe the greatest. It's true. All the money, all the power - none of it compares to a good book. A book gives you everything. It gives you a window into other souls, other worlds. The world is a door. Books are the key" -Albert Ellingham

Tell her about the screaming," Janelle said. "Because I can't." "The screaming?" Stevie repeated. "The other morning he started something called 'screaming meditation'," Nate said. "Guess what happens in screaming meditation? Did you guess screaming? For fifteen minutes? Because that's what happens in screaming meditation. Fifteen. Minutes. Outside. At five in the morning. Do you know what happens when someone screams outside at a remote location in the mountains, especially after a...

Therapy," she said. "It works." "I've tried it. They always end up crying. I think I've helped them have some real breakthrough moments.

David had, in fact, done the Sherlock thing that Stevie had dismissed for herself, specifically, the BBC one. He was wearing a sharply cut blue dress shirt, slender, tailored pants, and a long gray-black coat with a red interior. He had teased out his hair a bit and made sure it curled. In many ways, it was a perfect costume while not being a costume at all. And it was obviously intentional, directed at her.

Stevie tucked her hands up into the arms of Poirot's jacket to keep from being cut and numbly felt her way along, taking half-sized steps, and right into David's back. "That's you, right?" he said. "I'm afraid of monsters. Also, it stinks down here." This was true. There was a low-lying funk in the air. "The drone would work better," she said. "You know, if that's a leaking gas line or something." "Did you just say leaking gas line?" Nate said from above. "Smells more like ass than gas," David replied. "Tight, dark, smelly. This tunnel has it all! Five out of five stars." "It's really okay to leave him to die," Nate said.