She went to her dresser and took out her jewelry case. The crucifix, which she had
received as a christening gift from her grandmother, was not there!
So she really had lost it. All right, but how had her father known it when she
didn’t even know it herself?
And another thing: Sophie had apparently dreamed that Hilde’s father came
home from Lebanon. But there was still a week to go before that happened. Was So-
phie’s dream prophetic? Did her father mean that when he came home Sophie would
somehow be there? He had written that she would get a new friend ...
In a momentary vision of absolute clarity Hilde knew that Sophie was more
than just paper and ink. She really existed.
The Enlightenent
...from the way needles are made to the way cannons are founded…
Hilde had just begun the chapter on the Renaissance when she heard her mother
come in the front door. She looked at the clock. It was four in the afternoon.
Her mother ran upstairs and opened Hilde’s door.
“Didn’t you go to the church?”
“Yes, I did.”
“But... what did you wear?”
“What I’m wearing now.”
“Your nightgown?”
“It’s an old stone church from the Middle Ages.”
“Hilde!”
She let the ring binder fall into her lap and looked up at her mother.
“I forgot the time, Mom. I’m sorry, but I’m reading something terribly
exciting.”
Her mother could not help smiling.
“It’s a magic book,” added Hilde.
“Okay. Happy birthday once again, Hilde!”
“Hey, I don’t know if I can take that phrase any more.”
“But I haven’t... I’m just going to rest for a while, then I’ll start fixing a great
dinner. I managed to get hold of some strawberries.”
“Okay, I’ll go on reading.”
Her mother left and Hilde read on.
Sophie is following Hermes through the town. In Alberto’s hall she finds
another card from Lebanon. This, too, is dated June 15.
Hilde was just beginning to understand the system of the dates. The cards dated
before June 15 are copies of cards Hilde had already received from her dad. But those
with today’s date are reaching her for the first time via the ring binder.
Dear Hilde, Now Sophie is coming to the philosopher’s house. She will
soon be fifteen, but you were fifteen yesterday. Or is it today, Hilde? If it is
today, it must be late, then. But our watches do not always agree . . .
Hilde read how Alberto told Sophie about the Renaissance and the new science,
the seventeenth-century rationalists and British empiricism.
She jumped at every new card and birthday greeting that her father had stuck
into the story. He got them to fall out of an exercise book, turn up inside a banana
skin, and hide inside a computer program. Without the slightest effort, he could get
Alberto to make a slip of the tongue and call Sophie Hilde. On top of everything else,
he got Hermes to say “Happy birthday, Hilde!”