by Justin Swapp
“What?” the driver asked, looking annoyed. Apparently he didn’t get this kind of request often.
“I have a recipe for Pat,” the driver said. Then he added, albeit hesitantly, “for licorice.”
Roger didn’t respond this time. A few moments went by and then the security gate made an electric buzzing sound, clicked, and opened.
The driver looked back at them in surprise. When he saw that the children didn’t look taken aback at all, he moved the cab forward up the long stretch of driveway that curved toward the entrance of Nevada State Hospital.
As they pulled up, no one immediately emerged to greet them as they had the last time they had visited. Marcus thought this was odd, especially given the reception from the security kiosk. Nevertheless, the children got out of the cab and huddled outside the vehicle. They pooled their money and paid the driver.
“Would you mind waiting for us?” Ellie asked. “We shouldn’t be too long, and it might be hard to hail a cab when we are done.”
The driver thought for a moment. “Most drivers wouldn’t wait for you, you know. You owe me a big tip.”
“Thanks,” Ellie said when the driver cut the engine.
Marcus and Ellie approached the front door cautiously. Marcus stood on his toes to look in the blurry windows of the closed door. While he couldn’t see well through the windows, he didn’t see any shadows moving.
“I don’t think anyone is in there,” he said. Ellie looked confused.
“Well, it’s not like they go on field trips, do they?” she asked.
Marcus tried the door. It was open.
When he looked to Ellie for reassurance, she just opened the door herself.
As they entered the hospital, Marcus smelled the lingering disinfectant odor. They looked down the hall for the employees dressed in white, but it was empty. Every other time they had come to the hospital people scurried all over the place. They saw nurses every now and then, but they seemed preoccupied with other things.
They moved down the hall the same way they had gone before. Roger, the security guard, sat exactly where he had sat before, reading a new book.
“What do we do?” Ellie asked. “He won’t let us by without Grandma and Grandpa.”
Marcus thought a moment. “Let’s just tell him that they are coming behind us.”
“Do you really think that will work?” she asked, but Marcus had already started toward Roger. She followed.
Marcus tried to appear normal as they approached Roger. He wasn’t sure if Roger heard them coming. The man didn’t show it, because he didn’t bother to look up from his book until Marcus cleared his throat.
“Excuse me, Roger?” Marcus asked. “We are here to see Caleb and Anabell.”
Roger dog-eared the page he was on and set the book on his desk.
“Where are your grandparents?” He paused for a moment before adding, “I need to thank Charlotte for that pumpkin tart recipe that she gave me. It was excellent.”
Ellie turned around as if she was surprised that their grandparents weren’t right there next to them.
“Oh,” she said, “they must have gotten caught up in conversation back at the entrance.”
Marcus was impressed with her improvisation.
Roger looked Marcus over, and then Ellie. “Alright then,” Roger said, “you know the drill.”
Marcus stood on the printed feet in front of the security gate and Roger systematically waved the electric wand around each of his legs. When he was satisfied, he made Ellie go through the same exercise.
“That will be all,” Roger said at last, stepping aside when the electric wand caused no alarm. He still eyed the children carefully.
Marcus and Ellie quickly moved their way to the common area where Caleb and Anabell typically spent their time staring. “We have to hurry,” Marcus said. “It’s only a matter of time before Roger realizes that Grandma and Grandpa aren’t coming.”
They moved down the hall, acting as normally as they could, and eventually found the large room where Caleb and Anabell had been the last time they had visited.
A few people wandered the area, but not nearly the same number as before. Marcus wondered where everyone was. The last time they were here there were people with walkers and canes, and clusters of people huddled around small tables, working on puzzles or playing checkers.
Finally they found Caleb and Anabell’s table. However, when they reached the table, only Caleb stared out the window like he always had when they visited.
Marcus and Ellie picked up a couple of chairs from the table behind him and placed them in front of Caleb so that they could face him.
When they sat in front of Caleb, Marcus noted a change in his countenance, like he contorted slightly somehow. Caleb raised his hand and put his index finger and thumb together, drawing circles in the air.
Ellie leaned back toward the table behind them, grabbed a piece of paper and a pencil, and then handed them to Caleb.
Caleb took the pencil in his hand the best he could and scribbled on the paper. After a moment, he held up the paper so Marcus could see it. On the paper Marcus read a poorly written “here”, followed by a question mark.
“Why are we here?” Ellie asked.
Caleb nodded and Marcus thought he looked confused.
“Caleb,” Marcus said, “we don’t have much time before Roger kicks us out. We need to ask you some questions.”
Caleb’s eyes widened, then he began to scribble again. He lifted the paper a moment later for the kids to see.
Caleb had drawn two stick figures that slightly resembled their grandparents, in hairstyle at least, followed by another question mark.
“Are you asking if our grandparents are here?” Ellie asked. She had barely gotten out a “no” when Caleb shook his head.
“They are okay,” Marcus said. “Grandma and Grandpa are fine.”
Caleb seemed to relax in his chair a little as he gazed out the window. He wrote again. Marcus saw him draw a lone question mark this time, as if to ask “Why are you here then?”
“We have some questions that we think only you can answer,” Marcus said, meeting his eyes. “Very important questions.” Caleb nodded.
“We’ve seen some things,” Ellie said. “Things we don’t really understand.”
Marcus added: “And everything leads us back here, to you and Anabell. Like the things you and our grandparents pass back and forth when we visit.”
Caleb drew another question mark on his paper.
“Like the locket you gave Grandma,” Ellie said. “We’ve seen her use it.”
Caleb’s eyes searched the room, and then studied the children carefully.
“I saw Grandpa getting into a strange blue room behind the tapestry at the shop one day,” Marcus said. Caleb’s eyes widened. “Grandpa sealed it off with a glass ball somehow. We saw Grandma use the locket like spectacles. Grandpa said it was to make sure it was closed off properly.”
Caleb lifted his gaze to the ceiling and took a deep breath. Then he drew a door and crossed a line through it, followed by a question mark.
“There’s more,” Marcus said when Caleb stared at the ceiling. “The reason why they sealed the door.” Ellie shifted her gaze. “We were tending the shop one day when a strange man came in and asked for the back room. We weren’t sure what he was talking about, but he was intent on finding something. So, I showed him into the blue room.”
Caleb jerked his head. His eyebrows furrowed. Marcus had never seen him look like that before. He felt he had to explain further.
“Well, Grandpa had someone else in the shop before, and it seemed like he sold her something out of that blue room. Besides, the items in the blue room had price tags, so with our family’s financial situation I thought we’d do everyone a favor if we sold something out of there too.”
Caleb’s lip quivered. He stared intently at Marcus. With trembling hands, Caleb wadded up the paper and and threw it on the floor. He held his hand out
in front of Ellie. She got another piece of paper from the table behind him, and he snatched it from her before she could sit back down.
Caleb drew on the fresh paper. A moment later he lifted up the paper. Two words were written on the paper: “What sell?”
“So you know about the room, then?” Ellie asked a little surprised.
Caleb ignored her and shook the paper at Marcus.
Marcus exchanged a guilty look with Ellie.
“The stranger looked the room over but was only really interested in one thing,” Marcus said.
“It was a skull,” Ellie said. “It looked like it came from a bird or something.”
A shadow passed over Caleb’s face. He stared out the window for a moment again, and then put his face in his hands. A single tear appeared in one eye and streamed down his cheek.
“We’re sorry, Caleb,” Ellie said. “Our grandparents were mad too, but we didn’t realize what we had done.”
“There is one more thing, Caleb,” Marcus said. “The reason we came here was to give you this.”
Marcus unfolded the picture that Caleb had given to their grandpa the last time they had visited the hospital.
“How did you draw this man? Do you know him?” Marcus asked. “Do you know where can we find him?”
Caleb eyes darted from the picture to the children, and then back to the picture again. The hairs on the back of Marcus’s neck tingle. Beads of sweat appeared on Caleb’s brow, and his breathing grew heavier.
“Who is this man you drew?” Ellie asked in a calm tone.
With a quivering hand, Caleb scrawled what they thought were the words: “bad man”, and then added the word “very” in front of it.
“We already know he is bad,” Marcus said, slightly frustrated. “He’s the one that stole the skull from us.”
Caleb suddenly seized up and made a gagging noise. He confusedly looked at Marcus, as if he didn’t hear him properly.
“This is the man that came into the shop, Caleb,” Ellie said. “We need to find him so we can get that skull back and our grandparents won’t force us to move away.”
Caleb unexpectedly yelped like a wounded animal, and then rocked silently in his chair. Tears welled in his eyes.
Marcus suddenly heard footsteps scrambling down the hall and various voices giving orders.
“Caleb,” Marcus’s eyes shifted from the hallway to his uncle, “we need your help, and we don’t have much time. What can you tell us to help us find this man?”
Caleb reached a shaking hand into his pocket and pulled out what looked like a small marble. He extended it to Marcus.
Now he wants to play games? thought Marcus. I’m not a kid anymore, and now’s definitely a bad time. “This was a bad idea, Ellie,” Marcus said. “Feel free to rub it in later.”
Marcus barely heard Caleb’s insistent grunts over the incoming voices as they approached; but he saw the angst in his face. When he saw how intent he was on giving Marcus the marble, he played along and quickly put it in his pocket.
Caleb began to write on his paper the moment Marcus took the marble. “Keep safe, always,” the paper said.
“Thanks, Caleb,” Ellie said, “but—“
“But,” inserted Marcus, “we are in need of some real help here.”
“Marcus? Ellie?” came a voice from the other end of the room. Roger arrived with several men at his heels. “Is everything okay in here?”
Caleb wrote again, even faster and sloppier than before. “Stay away the man,” he showed them, or at least that is what Marcus thought he read.
“I’m afraid we can’t do that,” Ellie looked in Caleb’s eyes. “He stole from us, and we have to get the skull back.” She lowered her voice. “Now, for heaven’s sake, help us find him already.”
“Are your grandparents still not here?” Roger asked, looking concerned. He and his coworkers made for Caleb’s table.
Caleb wrote furiously and then held the paper up for Marcus and Ellie to see just in time for Roger to swipe it out of his hand.
“He did this me,” read Roger aloud.
Marcus and Ellie froze.
“What kind of note is this?” Roger asked as he glanced over the paper. “Are you guys playing charades or something?” He looked around, digesting all the details from the scene. “Where are your grandparents?”
“We were just wondering the same thing,” Ellie said. “But it doesn’t matter now. We were just leaving anyway.”
Marcus and Ellie stood from the table, and Caleb’s arm reached out to them.
“Sorry for the confusion, Roger,” Marcus said. “We need to find our grandparents.”
“I’ll see you out,” he said.
Roger followed them up to the gated security room while the other men stayed behind to check on Caleb. Once the children were outside of the gate, Roger entered his booth and locked it.
“Don’t you kids lie to me again,” he picked up his novel and settled back into his chair.
Marcus and Ellie exchanged an awkward glance.
Ellie said, “Thanks, Roger.” Roger nodded and waved them off.
Marcus was half surprised to see the cab driver waiting outside like they had asked him to do. They had been gone for some time.
“You know this is will cost a lot of money,” the cab driver said as they scooted into the backseat. “You said you had money, right?”
“Just take us back home,” Marcus said, and the cab driver started back the way they came without another word.
Marcus gazed out his window and Ellie stared out hers. Marcus liked watching the passing trees. The rhythm soothed him. Ellie tapped her thumbs on the drawing of the very bad man in her lap.
Normally Marcus would fall asleep on a long car ride like this, but he had too much to think about. He wasn’t sure why he thought he could get help from Caleb or Anabell, especially in their condition. He felt stupid.
He slipped his hands in his jacket pockets and nestled into the door. He found the clear marble that Caleb gave him and stared out the window. It had been a silly idea to go to the State Hospital, he thought. He rolled the marble around in his hand. They had come away with very little—a couple of cryptic comments from Caleb and this worthless marble.
Then something occurred to him; had anything truly worthless come out of the Hospital before? The picture seemed to have significance, though they didn’t quite understand it, and Grandma’s locket definitely seemed out of the ordinary. Yet, he held the marble in his hand, and it was just a marble. It felt like a marble and looked like a marble. Nothing seemed odd about it. He didn’t want to get in the habit of seeing things that were not really there. He already questioned himself that way, given everything that had occurred recently.
The cab driver had kept his eyes fixed on the road until Marcus leaned against the window to settle in for the long haul. Something odd caught the driver’s attention.
He looked up at the rearview mirror. From the corner of his eye he thought he had seen a flash of light or, something like that. He looked at the mirror trying to catch it again. He didn’t see anything else for some time, but he glanced up at the mirror occasionally just in case.
It wasn’t until they arrived back in town that the cab driver saw it again. It was the boy. He was fumbling with something in his pocket. Was it a flashlight? No, flashlights don’t give off blue light.
“Thanks for the ride,” Ellie said when the driver pulled up to the movie theater where he had picked them up. Ellie pulled out their pooled money. “How much?”
While the driver quoted her the fare, he curiously watched Marcus, who still rested in the corner of the cab. A mere glow bordered the boy’s pocket, and not the bright light he had seen before.
“Sir,” Ellie said, waving a wad of cash in the driver’s face. She waited another moment. “This is the part when you take the money.”
The man shook his head a little. “Yes, thank you,” he said.
“The tip’s included,” Ellie
said before turning to her brother. “Marcus, wake up.”
Marcus’s eyes opened wide and he shot up. As he did, the light from his pocket vanished altogether.
“We’re here already?” Marcus asked. “But we haven’t been gone that long!”
“You fell asleep. Surprise, surprise.”
They scooted across the backseat and out of the cab. The driver continued to watch the children for a moment and then slowly pulled away.
“Now what?” Marcus asked.
“We need to confront Grandma and Grandpa.”
8
Heist
“What a big waste of time,” Marcus said, just loudly enough to be heard over the passing cars as they started back home. “I can’t believe I suggested that.”
“We need to tell Grandma and Grandpa what happened,” Ellie said. They walked passed The Magic Box without even noticing it. “And I don’t mean how good the movie was.”
“Tell them what? That we went to the mental ward and tried to ask our crazy uncle to explain how he could possibly draw the face of a man that had recently robbed us before we ever even met him? I don’t think so. They will probably put us at the table right next to him for suggesting such a thing.”
“Didn’t you see his face, Marcus?” Ellie asked.
“I’m holding back the jokes on that one. You make it too easy.”
“You heard what he said, right?” Ellie asked as the sun began to set. The pink and orange sky seemed to darken, bleeding into purple.
“I’m not sure what he said, Ellie, and I’m definitely not sure what he meant. Do you really believe that the man in the drawing did something to Caleb? I mean, what could he have done to put Caleb into he mental ward? Tell him scary jokes?”
“I don’t know,” Ellie said. “All I’m saying is that we’re in over our heads and out of options. We have to talk to Grandma and Grandpa. We should start at the beginning, with the blue room.”
Marcus considered it, and finally nodded. They had indeed exhausted all their options. They would have to suck it up and look stupid if they were wrong. Their grandparents would probably lock them up with their aunt and uncle once they finished the conversation.