Buttoned Up Read Online Free

to the right of the exhibit.
    “Press the Button,” it said.
    Which didn’t help a lot considering how many buttons surrounded us.
    Never one to be put off—especially when I had the chance to study buttons, buttons, and more buttons—I let my gaze roam over the sign, and it actually didn’t take me very long to catch on to what I’d bet any money Forbis thought was one heck of a whopping joke. The sign, see, was made entirely out of glass buttons—almost. There was one shell button all by itself over to the side.
    I pressed it.
    A whirring noise from inside the big box startled not only me, Nev, and Evangeline, but the rest of the crowd as well. My gaze was fixed on the box, but I could feel the space behind me suddenly fill with people who, like us, were anxious to see what was going to happen. We held our collective breaths and when the top of the box popped open, we all flinched as if we’d choreographed the move.
    The whirring continued and like a jack-in-the-box in slow motion, a figure rose into the spotlight.
    Good thing Nev was standing between me and Evangeline; I grabbed onto his free arm. But then, I don’t think anyone could blame me. The button-covered statue that ascended from the box was one of the most terrifying things I’d ever seen.
    It was eight feet tall and its arms were out as if it was reaching for each person in the audience. It’s eyes were black and sunken, its face was that of a skeleton and since it was covered with what I recognized as mother of pearl buttons, it glimmered in the overhead lights like bone. Its hair, row after row of black buttons strung onto wire, bobbed as the statue rose up. Like it was twitching. Like it was alive.
    “It’s Congo Savanne.” On the other side of Nev, Evangeline’s voice choked out of her, as unwavering as the look she gave the statue. “He’s a powerful
petro loa
; that is, a fiery and aggressive spirit. He’s fierce and strong and angry and he grinds people up with his teeth and eats them.”
    “Yeesh.” I would have known this was a malevolent spirit even if Evangeline hadn’t told me, and I backed up a step and would have kept on going if there wasn’t a lady right behind me staring up into the terrifying, button-covered face of Congo Savanne. I glanced passed Nev toward Evangeline. “You still think Forbis is trying to be funny?”
    “I think . . .” She finished off her champagne and when she was done, she was back to being her old self, straightforward and friendly. With a laugh, she handed her glass to Nev. “I think I’ll hit the ladies’ room before the festivities get started. I’ll be right back.”
    It wasn’t until we heard another series of whirring gears and the statue of the loa sunk back inside the box that I felt as if I could shake off its fierce spell. “Creepy, huh?” I said to Nev.
    Who, unfortunately, had picked that exact moment to glance toward where Evangeline had disappeared.
    “I didn’t mean her,” I blurted out, embarrassed. “I meant the statue. Evangeline is nice.” I gave him a playful poke. “You didn’t tell me you hung out with anthropologists.”
    My glass was empty, too, and Nev took it out of my hand and deposited it on the tray of a passing waiter along with Evangeline’s glass. “We don’t exactly hang out,” he said. “I haven’t seen Evangeline in a couple of years.”
    “She’s very smart,” I said, because it was true and because I was dying of curiosity and knew the best way to find out what I wanted to know was to keep Nev talking. “And she’s very pretty.”
    “She is.”
    “And you don’t exactly strike me as the type who sits around talking about cultures and old religions.” I knew this for a fact; Nev and I had been dating for just about a year and I knew he wasn’t into brainiac stuff. Sometimes, even talk of button history and collecting made his eyes glaze over. “How do you two know each other?”
    “Oh, just from around.” Nev shrugged away the