3. Maxim

3

MAXIM

I have to capture the songs for our egg. Part of the songs are as old as time. They weave in the air like strings of incomplete code or broken bits of history that no one managed to put together. I put them on the cassettes and 8-Tracks. They're obsolete, useless, wrong.

Which is why I need Eli's phone. Every time he calls me, his voice sounds beautiful. It must have the best microphone in the world. I set it on the floor next to his pillow. That's a perfect spot for it. But when his alarm goes off, he picks it up and tries to steal it.

"Eli!" I hiss. It's six o'clock in the fucking morning. It's too early to be stealing stuff.

"What?" he asks, yawning. "I'm going to the gym."

"Leave your phone. It goes on the floor next to your pillow."

He turns on the lamp next to our bed. "What do you mean leave my phone?"

"On the floor next to your pillow. I need it."

He walks slowly toward the bed and puts the phone back in its rightful place. "Does it need to be this exact phone? What if I got you a different one?"

I glare at him.

"Right, of course. Let me text Heller really fast to let him know that my phone needs to stay here."

He crouches down to pick it up.

"Eli, it needs to be on the floor. Stop moving it."

"Sorry." He kneels next to his phone and pokes at the screen for a while. Then he finally leaves for the gym so I can get back to sleep.

I can only collect the songs after five o'clock at night. Sometimes I have to stay at the forge until two or three in the morning. The old brick and rock from the chimney whisper secrets to me in the middle of the night. They have power inside them like the foam in Dominic's bedroom. I just couldn't feel the power before.

Later that day, Eli tries to take my pills away—the ones that let me hear the whispers. He says Heller is due any day, and we don't have time for me to nest.

I go to the pharmacy and get more. If the egg is almost here, I don't have any time to lose. It's time to increase the dosage.

Our chick is a Gentoo. I can't let them come into the world until I fix the code.

That night when Eli comes back from the grocery store with fish paste, he disappears into the bedroom.

"Max? Did you stop taking those pills?" he calls out.

"Yes!" I lie. Eli clearly doesn't understand the urgency of the situation.

Eli returns to the kitchen with a handful of the clippings I put around our bed this afternoon while he was gone. "Then why has the nutritional information of every food item we own been cut out and put around the bed?"

"That's where they go."

He folds his arms across his chest. "Yeah? How many pills did you take today?"

"None."

He raises both of his eyebrows in disbelief. "How about you try again. How many did you take?"

How did he find out? I was sneaky. I put the pills in the car.

"Four," I admit.

He claws his hands through his hair. "Why? I'm already calling Heller every two hours on my phone that you insist has to stay on the floor of our bedroom. He could descend into his nesting fog any minute now. Four pills could make you need a knot. You get that right?"

"Not until tomorrow," I remind him.

"Heller could give birth tomorrow!"

"Then I need to find the code tonight. I only have one night left. I should take more pills."

"For Ice's sake. I'm calling Dominic. He'll know of some way to talk sense into you."

He disappears into the bedroom again. That means he might be moving his phone. I follow him inside.

"Hello, Dominic? I need your help with Max. Heller's due date got moved up, and I need to get him off the Prexeliatrin. I told him to stop taking it, but he took four pills today anyway."

Eli does indeed have his phone to his ear instead of the floor. I reach out to grab it, then Eli says, "I thought that was impossible."

I can almost hear Dominic like all the little whispers from the chimney. Maybe he'll tell Eli something important too, and he'll put his phone down. I can't leave without my recording device.

It's almost five o'clock, and I need to be at the forge.

"Okay. I didn't understand. I'll go with him." Eli lowers the phone from his ear and hands it to me. "I didn't understand, baby. I'm sorry. Can I go with you to collect the songs? I want to keep you and Heller safe."

I'm not sure about that.

"The code is sharp and hot. It might puncture you," I say.

"Is there anything I could do to protect myself? What if I wore a helmet or protective gear?"

Now that he mentions it, there is something that might work.