Nightbooks

Alex fills Yasmin in on the messages from Unicorn Girl, the forest behind Natacha’s door, and how the shredder destroyed his nightbooks. Yasmin tells Alex to write while she continues the search for more information from Unicorn Girl.

Alex wonders why he grieves his stories so much when he planned to destroy them anyway, and he almost tells Yasmin the whole story about why he made that decision. Instead, he tells her a “lesser truth,” that he didn’t want to be the weird kid anymore. She insists that he is weird and that it’s “cool,” but Alex doesn’t feel cool. Yasmin says she spent an entire winter memorizing two decades’ worth of Mets players and their jersey numbers to illustrate that everyone has their “thing.” This makes Alex feel a little better.

The next day, Alex tries to write again, to no avail. Yasmin, however, finds another note from Unicorn Girl. She writes that the witch thinks she’s stupid, but the girl has figured out how to make a sleeping potion. It smells terrible because of one of the ingredients. She knows she must find something to cover the smell so she can trick the witch into drinking it. Yasmin can’t think of anything that would get the job done, and when Yasmin tells Alex he must write a new story, he realizes he can write a story to get Natacha to reveal the information they need.

Suddenly, Lenore starts yowling and shows herself, and the children realize she heard everything. Natacha bursts into the room, and the children make excuses for Yasmin’s presence in the library. Alex claims to be asking Yasmin questions about plants as “research” for a story. He makes it sound as though Yasmin knows more about the plants than Natacha does, which irritates her. When Natacha asks Lenore, the cat backs up the kids’ lie. Natacha leaves, and when Yasmin asks Lenore if she wants to escape with them, the cat purrs.

Alex explains that he questioned Natacha’s expertise to gauge her emotional response. She is a know-it-all who angers quickly, and angry people often fail to think clearly. Now the writing comes easily to Alex. He realizes that Natacha doesn’t love stories like he does, she only cares about keeping the apartment calm. She seems afraid to lose control of it.

The next time Natacha gets angry with Alex for keeping something from her, Yasmin says she can feel the floor trembling. Alex realizes she is lying and says he can feel it too. Natacha demands a story immediately, “clawing nervously at her hair” (194). Alex reads a story called “Neverworm,” about a monster who is put to sleep by a witch’s sleeping potion, and she uses bindweed to mask its terrible smell. For a thousand years, the monster sleeps while people make the potion and pour it into his ear, but one day, all the bindweed dies. A girl goes to the witch to tell her that a single drop of nightberry juice can replace the bindweed.

The witch doesn’t believe her until she demonstrates. It works, but the witch banishes her. The girl killed the bindweed herself and put a pinch of neverworm, which erases the magic of any potion to which it is added, into the juice she used to trick the witch. Years before, her brother was sacrificed to the monster, and then her parents died of broken hearts. Now, the girl awaits her revenge, watching from a nearby hill as the monster awakens.

Natacha is livid. She cannot believe that a witch would be fooled by a little girl. Yasmin and Alex appease her, saying she would never make the same mistakes. Natacha criticizes Alex for mischaracterizing bindweed, but Yasmin insists she has seen bindweed work this way. Natacha reveals that only cinaroot could cover the stench of a sleeping potion. Yasmin plays dumb, and Natacha proudly proclaims her superior intelligence.

Alex and Yasmin go to the nursery and collect their ingredients. Lenore accompanies them. They can prepare a sleeping oil, which Yasmin says will be more concentrated than a “potion.” Neither wants to kill Natacha, they just want to knock her out so they can escape.

Alex tells Yasmin a scary story about a pair of red eyes in a subway tunnel, and Yasmin suggests that Alex write his next story about something mundane that becomes scary in some way.

Yasmin makes Natacha another meal and they add a drop of the sleeping oil to her lemonade. It won’t mix, however, and leaves a greasy film on top. When the witch enters the kitchen, they pour a new glass, hide the vial, and follow her to the table. Natacha has noticed the friendship between the children and believes this will make tonight’s “lesson” more effective. Natacha knows Alex has been reading old stories, not new ones, and her lesson will “inspire” him. She makes room inside the figurine cabinet and says she’ll decide which one of them to kill after Alex’s story. When Alex goes to get her more lemonade, the vial is gone.

Alex reads “The Top Bunk,” about Keith, a boy who claims the top bed despite his younger brother, Scott’s, protests. Scott never listens and always gets his way, and he pesters Keith every night to give him the top bunk. One day, Scott runs into the street, ignoring Keith’s warnings, gets hit by a car, and dies. The night after Scott’s funeral, Keith hears footsteps in his room and smells something terrible. Scott’s voice whispers that it’s not fair, and Keith says he’s sorry. Keith offers to let Scott sleep in the top bunk if Scott promises to leave.

As Keith climbs down, Scott’s tiny hand grabs his ankle and yanks him to the floor. The next morning, their mother wakes Keith up, but his eyes are blue, like Scott’s, instead of brown, as they have always been. His voice is also higher-pitched than usual, and he hugs her like Keith hasn’t hugged her in years. He says he likes the top bunk.

Alex and Yasmin see that Natacha has fallen asleep inside her misting room. They grab her keys and look for Lenore, finding the cat inside the misting room with Natacha. They realize that Lenore poured the oil into the diffuser while invisible, and this trapped her with the fumes. Alex picks her up, then they steal Natacha’s keys and go through her bedroom door.