“No …” I told the man. “I’m sure the key’s been gone a long time. Which is a good thing, because I have to keep this safe from … someone.”
The man raised his fuzzy eyebrows. “Who?”
“Some jerk who wants to turn my entire town into a parking lot,” I said, gripping the trunk edges so tight my fingers hurt. “He wants to turn my home and my graveyard into a parking lot, too.”
Penny Lane’s bird-feet tapped against the trunk as she walked across the dusty surface. “I’LL PUT YOUR KEYS IN THE FRIDGE!”
The old man looked at the bird. “Not the first time somebody’s said that to me this week.”
I hugged the trunk closer as a cold realization came over me.
“Yep,” he said, handing me my flashlight. “I’m Warren Steele.”
I never imagined Warren Steele looking like a normal person, like somebody who’d laugh at a joke or take his grandkids out for ice cream.
“Not what you imagined, am I?” he said, as if he could read my mind. “I know Blue filled your head with images of Warren the greedy dirtbag, the big-money man out to crush a town. But someday you’ll see that I’m not the villain you think I am. This town is dying. We need to start over.”
He shined the flashlight over the roof of the cave. “This town’s only ever talked about what has been. We’ll never move on until we bury the past for good. There’s a whole world of opportunity up there.”
I raised my eyebrow at him. “If you’re so interested in what’s happening up there, what are you doing down here in the caves?”
Warren’s mouth pressed into a flat, angry line. His voice was so low it sent shivers down my arms. “I’ve been looking for this treasure much longer than you have. It’s mine.”
My first instinct was to cower. Warren was bigger than me. He was more powerful than me. But I thought about the fire I’d seen in Granny Blue’s eyes—and in my mother’s eyes—when they stood up for what they believed in. I thought about how it felt to stand my ground against Beretta in the woods. Some bullies never grow up, I realized. “No way,” I told him. “I found it first.”
“What would a little girl use the money for?” Warren smirked. “I’d put it to good use.”
“This little girl will use it to preserve a national treasure for years to come.”
Warren sniggered. “Preserve?” He shook his head. “Sorry, kid. My men are on their way. They’ll help me haul this trunk to the surface, and then it’ll be my property. Finders keepers.”
“But I found it!” I felt my face getting hotter. “I’ll tell them you stole it from me.”
“EMMA!” Cody Belle yelled from the entrance to the cave. “EMMA!”
I shone my light out into the darkness. “That’s my light, Cody Belle!” I hollered. “Walk toward it. Warren Steele’s back here, too, but I have him cornered.”
Warren rolled his eyes and tried using his walkie-talkie. But the only response he got was full-static.
“Emma!” Cody Belle did not walk toward the light; she ran full blast and slid at me, throwing her arms around my neck.
“Are you okay?” I asked her.
“No! Everybody’s freaking out. Earl’s mom said he never made it home from the woods today. Have you seen him? It’s raining really hard now.”
“What?” My volcanic anger toward Warren Steele shifted into a much more terrible feeling: worry. “Earl had plenty of time to get home.”
Didn’t he?
I didn’t have my drumsticks with me, but a scary rhythm pounded against my heart.
Thunder. Lightning. Endless rain. The storm was getting worse.
Soaked jeans sliding through mud and muck. Earl might have crawled under his house, to his sanctuary. He was afraid of mighty winds. I was more worried about a raging flood.
Silence. Scary, awful silence. Earl couldn’t call for help.
Only one person knew where his sanctuary was. Me.
Warren Steele had rested his hand on the trunk, oblivious to what was happening. I loosened my grip … on the trunk, and on my destiny. I knew what I had to do. If something happened to Earl, I’d never forgive myself. Walking away would mean I’d leave a big hole in the Book of Days …
Still, I knew my mom would understand.
Love above everything; that’s the choice she would have made.
“Let’s go,” I said, standing up and reaching for Cody Belle.
Warren shoved his useless walkie-talkie into its holster. “Come to your senses?” he asked me.
“My treasure’s not in that box,” I said with a catch in my voice. I’d found the Conductor’s treasure. And now I was giving it away. All along, untold riches had been beneath the floor of the cafe. But in the moment Cody Belle told me Earl was missing, I came to an important conclusion: My treasures weren’t just in the walls of that place. My treasure was the people I loved.
Earl had nothing to do with a key or with saving my home. But he was a treasure to me. Even as I stepped away from my destiny, I felt the Wildflowers cheering me on.
I grabbed Cody Belle’s hand and ran for the entrance of the cave. We ran back through the cellar, up the stairs to the kitchen, and then burst outside into the pouring rain.
The thunder boomed, but I didn’t shiver. Lightning swiped across the skies, but I didn’t try to hide. I held on tight to my best friend, and we ran.
My lungs ached.
The muscles in my legs burned.
Hold tight, Earl! I was too winded to yell the words, but I wished them. Hoped them. Prayed them. Please, Earl. Please hold tight …
The Chance house was located down a muddy hillside, and sat flush against the woods. Just as I feared, the rainwater had pooled down around the house and the porch, already knee-deep.
I scampered down the slippery slope, falling and sliding all the way down.
“Be careful!” I heard Cody Belle call out behind me. I sloshed through the water in Earl’s front yard, calling out his name.
It chilled me to think that even if Earl had found his voice, his mom probably wouldn’t have heard him call out from under the house. I shined my flashlight under the porch, but didn’t see him. I sloshed around to the back of the house and kneeled down again.
The water was rising, but a person could still hide under there if they wanted to. Cody Belle yanked my arm. “You’re not crawling under there, are you?”
“Maybe,” I yelled. “This is Earl’s sanctuary.”
I came down on all fours, my knees and hands planting deep in the mud. Cold water covered my wrists. I shivered as I leaned down lower so I could see underneath Earl’s house. And I prayed to God no rabid possum would swim out and gouge out my eyeballs.
“Earl,” I hollered, “are you in there?”
I knew Earl wouldn’t answer me. But I hoped he’d knock against a pipe or something if he was hiding under his own house.
Which, in fact, he was.
Cody Belle held the flashlight steady behind me. Suddenly, her beam shined over Earl’s face, and I was so happy I nearly forgot that I was rescuing him.
“Can you follow the light?” I yelled to him. “Can you crawl out?”
Earl didn’t move. He sat scrunched up in the corner, clutching a ratty quilt tight against his chest. He shivered, maybe from the cold water beginning to pool around him, but also, maybe, because he was terrified. I remembered the time Blue and I first found Penny Lane hobbling through the woods, flapping her one good wing and squawking because she was scared. She tried to sing, but even her song sounded rusty. Blue held out her arms and talked so easy, in a lullaby voice, until the bird went still and flapped up into her gentle hands. And then we carried Penny out of the woods.
I get that Earl’s no bird; he’s a boy twice my size. But maybe every creature in the world needs to be reminded that they aren’t alone. That somebody cares about them. That they have a friend to lead them out of their present mess.
“Okay,” I yelled to Earl. “Plan B! I’m going to
crawl under there, and you can follow me out.”
“Hold the flashlight steady.” I glanced back up at Cody Belle. “I’ll be back.”
“Promise?” she asked, her shoulders scrunched against the cold rain.
I nodded. “Promise.”
“I can see why you selected this spot for contemplation, Earl,” I said as I crawled slowly through the rising, murky water underneath the Chance house. The ground dropped off and I slid, going chin-deep in the mud. “It’s very quiet and cool under here,” I grunted.
This was all a lie, of course. Some sanctuaries and special places are full of a sweet and peaceful darkness. They soothe your soul like a lullaby. The underbelly of Earl’s porch was not a lullaby place; it was swampy and abysmal.
I had no clue what he was doing under there, but Earl’s a skittish type, so I kept talking to him in a gentle voice, trying to be positive. Finally, I could rise up a bit taller again, even though I was still on all fours. I crawled to Earl’s corner.
“Okay, Earl!” I said. “You and me, we’re going to crawl in that direction. Right into the light. Okay?”
Earl blinked down at the bundle in his arms. From far back, I thought Earl was holding a lumpy quilt or something. But now, I realized Earl was hugging a sweet old dog.
“You have a golden retriever!” I said, reaching out to pet the dog’s velvety ears. Earl’s dog wasn’t shivering; he just stuck close beside his buddy, strong and sweet. If people were as nice as dogs, the world would be a much better place. I patted the soft fur on the dog’s forehead. “Earl, you might be too scared to get out from under here yourself. But you can be brave for your dog, right? We have to get the dog out.”
Cody Belle yelled, “What’s taking so long? HURRY!”
“We’re coming!” I said as a loud burst of thunder rippled overhead. Earl’s breath caught. The dog rested its head on Earl’s shoulder. The water was steadily rising.
“Earl,” I said earnestly. “All you have to do is swivel around and scoot backward. You can keep your eye on the dog and on me. And I’ll get us out of here, easy as pie. Just pretend we’re swimming, okay? Let’s go!”
I don’t know if Earl would have jumped into action if his dog hadn’t cooperated so thoughtfully. But the dog was more than ready to get out of that swamp and so was I. Earl turned around, scooting backward into the light. The dog crawled between us, keeping his eyes on Earl. I was our flood caboose, crawling along behind the dog, hoping and praying and wishing we’d get out from under the house before the water got too high.
Cody Belle cheered us on from the outside. “You’re nearly here!” she called out.
“We’re nearly there—” I meant to echo Cody Belle’s affirmation as a way of hurrying Earl along. But I accidentally swallowed a bucketful of muddy water.
I couldn’t stand up.
I couldn’t crawl forward.
I gagged and coughed, trying to push myself ahead another inch or two. But I couldn’t feel anybody close to me anymore.
Suddenly, the light was very near. I felt a strong hand reach out and pull me free from the slimy water under Earl’s house.
“Emma!” It was a voice I didn’t recognize.
I fell down on my knees and coughed up all the water stuck inside me. And then I glanced toward the person who’d just spoken. Cody Belle was staring at him, too, her eyes wide in disbelief.
Earl touched his throat. He said my name again. “Emma … are you okay?”
This time, I was the one who couldn’t find any words to say. I threw my arms around Earl’s neck and hugged him tight.
Somehow, all four of us—me, Cody Belle, Earl, and the dog—finally managed to get inside Earl’s house. The storm had zapped the phones and the lights. I tried to text Blue on the Tracking Device, but I wasn’t sure I had enough power for the text to go through.
For a flicker of a second, I wondered if I could make it back to the cafe in time to save the treasure. To claim it as mine. I knew I’d made the right choice when I left it behind to help my friend. But walking away forever was hard. The treasure belonged to somebody else now. That realization didn’t just make me sad; it made me ache.
Earl brought us towels and flopped down beside me. Seeing him there and healthy gave my heart a happy jolt again. Earl Chance was okay.
He was more than okay.
“So I’m guessing your sanctuary is under the house because of the storm you survived,” I said, wiping the mud off my arms. “Do you want to talk about it?”
He nodded. “Do you remember when the tornadoes came last summer?”
Earl’s voice matched the kind of person I already knew him to be. Because his voice was kind, and strong. There was a gentleness in the way he spoke, and little moments that reminded me of radio static when his voice would scratch. Probably from not being used for so long.
“I absolutely remember the storm day,” I told Earl. It’s not the kind of moment you forget. “I’ve always heard that mountains are supposed to keep tornadoes away. But we’ve learned differently. Cody Belle and I were at the cafe. We had to hunker down with Blue and Periwinkle in the kitchen.”
“So I was staying with my dad when the tornadoes came.” Earl swallowed. His shoulders stiffened. Fudge, the dog, jumped up beside Earl and licked him. Earl ran his trembling fingers through the dog’s muddy fur. “Dad lived in a trailer. It was a nice trailer, in a nice lot. But mobile homes are dangerous during tornadoes.”
Cody Belle nodded. “I was so afraid for my mom and dad. They were both at work, and they were fine. But it’s awful because it happens so fast.”
Earl nodded. A bead of sweat trickled down his forehead. “My dad was working, too, and I was home alone with Fudge. I knew a bad storm was coming, because Fudge had been whimpering all afternoon, walking around with his tail tucked. And then Dad called and told me to get out of the trailer, to get low in the ditch near my house because a tornado was coming.”
“You had to get out of the trailer?” I asked, jumping up to get Earl a glass of water. Brew would be better in a time like this, but water would have to do.
“Dad said it was safer than being inside. Before I could ask him why, I realized he was wrong about something. The tornado wasn’t coming. It was already there.”
Earl swept his hand across his forehead. He lowered his voice as he spoke. “Before I even got off the phone, the hair on my arms stood up. Like the room was suddenly full of static electricity, ya know? And then I heard it—”
Earl closed his eyes. His chest heaved with sharp, sudden bursts of breath. I scooted closer to him on the couch, and Cody Belle kneeled down on the floor in front of him.
“You don’t have to tell us anything else,” I whispered.
Earl shook his head. “I want to tell y’all. I’d always heard people say that a tornado sounds like a train. And it does. But it’s more like a train would sound if you’re a bug stuck on the tracks and you can’t move. It was a roar from the sky, and it was coming right for me. At first, I was so scared I could hardly move. But I didn’t want anything to happen to Fudge. So I snapped on his leash and we ran outside.”
A tear rolled down Earl’s face. He didn’t try to wipe it away. “We saw them as soon as we stepped outside—not just one, but two different spirals, dark as smoke spinning through the flat fields near Dad’s trailer. They looked evil, like demons dancing out of the sky, ripping up everything they touched. Fudge was howling, but it’s like I couldn’t move. I watched the tornadoes rip up the Smiths’ house. The Davidsons’ house. Just smash them into rubble while we stood there. I thought, what if people were in there? What if they didn’t get out?”
Earl pressed his face against the soft fur of his dog. “Somehow, I found enough courage to move. I picked up the dog and ran. I mean, Fudge is no lightweight,” Earl said with a smile. “But I carried him like he was nothing. We jumped into the ditch, and I held Fudge as tight as I could. And I screamed. I screamed for my dad and my mom, like I was a little ki
d or something. But they couldn’t hear me. Nobody could hear me. I was stuck in a ditch with a tornado getting closer. Everything went dark, and the next thing I remember is people pulling me and Fudge out of the ditch. We were both okay. But my voice was gone. I couldn’t talk. Or maybe I didn’t want to talk.”
Earl looked down at his dog. “Fudge never left my side. But the trailer was gone. I’m still afraid of storms. I want to be as close to the ground as I can. I can’t help it.”
“Earl,” I said, swiveling around where I could see him better. “Consider the facts here. You saved yourself. You saved your dog!” I grinned. “You’re a hero.”
Earl shook his head. “Not really. Because I’m still afraid … of lots of things.”
“Here’s an indisputable fact, Earl: Heroes are afraid.” I shrugged. “I know a thing or two about this. I come from a family that’s full—and I mean FULL—of brave people. And the one thing they all had in common is that they were afraid when it came down to doing what needed to be done. Maybe there are people in the world who really are fearless. Cody Belle’s one of the toughest people I know and she’s afraid of stuff.”
Cody Belle nodded. “It’s true.”
“All the brave people I know … they’re still afraid even when they do brave things. My mom said fear’s like a flashlight that helps you find your courage.”
Earl smiled. “Your mom sounds like a cool lady.”
“She was the coolest,” I said proudly. “You know what I realized the other day, when we happened upon the evil woodland creature better known as Beretta Simpson?”
Earl’s cheek dimpled. “What?”
“I learned that courage and fear always come as a pair. If you’ve got one inside you, you’ve surely got the other. I have a hard time drumming up enough brave for myself. But when it comes to you and Cody Belle, I’d take on the world. We’ll just be brave for each other.”
“I can do that.” He grinned. “I can be brave for y’all.”
“Same here.” Cody Belle smiled.
“So,” I said. “Now that you’re talking, want to tell me what you were doing in the graveyard that night?”
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