What Jonah Noticed

The holiday had been the problem from the start, or at least the holiday was where the story started, according to Suki who had heard about it from her mum who had heard about it from someone on the street.

Priya's family had gone somewhere over the summer. Somewhere they had not planned to go and had not told anyone about and had come back from three weeks early looking, according to Suki's mum's source, not quite like themselves.

"Where did they go?" Jonah asked Suki on Wednesday, in the corner of the library where they went when they needed to say something that was not for general hearing.

"Nobody knows," Suki said. "Her mum said they went to visit family. But Priya told me she has no family left to visit. Her grandparents died when she was small and she has no aunts or uncles."

"Maybe distant family," Jonah said.

"Maybe," Suki said. She did not look convinced. "Jonah. Do you think she seems different?"

He had been waiting for someone else to say it first. The relief of it was so strong he felt slightly dizzy. "Yes," he said. "Since the first day."

"I thought it was just me," Suki said. "I thought I was being strange because I was so happy she was back and then she was back and it was not quite right and I did not know what to do with that."

"What is it specifically?" Jonah said. "When I try to say what it is I can not find the words."

Suki thought about this carefully in the way she thought about things that mattered. "She remembers everything correctly," she said. "All the right details. But she uses them wrong. Like she is answering questions about herself rather than just being herself."

Jonah looked at the table. That was it. That was exactly it. The feeling he had not been able to locate.

"Has she said anything about the holiday?" he asked.

"She says she does not want to talk about it," Suki said. "And when I push she changes the subject very smoothly. Too smoothly. Like she has practised."

They sat in the library corner for a moment. Through the window the playground was full of ordinary noise.

"What about Felix?" Jonah said.

"Felix says he does not notice anything," Suki said. "But Felix also did not notice when I had a different haircut for three weeks."

"True," Jonah said.

"What do we do?" Suki asked.

"Does it feel like talking to her used to feel?" Jonah asked.

Suki was quiet for a long moment. "No," she said finally. "It feels like talking to someone who has studied how to talk to me. Which is almost the same thing. Almost."

Jonah did not know. He said so. They agreed to keep watching and meet back in the library corner on Friday and compare notes, which felt slightly dramatic but also entirely necessary.