by Jon Scieszka
“Joe! Watch out!” Sam cried. “Behind you!”
I spun around, knocking over one of Wang’s goons with the end of the staff. One down, a couple thousand more to go.
“Joe, what do I do?” Anna screamed.
She was under attack.
In a flash, Hui-k’o’s words rang in my head.
“Just stay out of the way,” I said.
Soldiers charged at Anna full force. As they dove toward her, Anna quickly jumped side-to-side, dodging them left and right. Wang’s goons were wearing so much armor, they toppled right over.
“How do you like that wushu?” Anna said.
Anna had finally learned how to stay out of the way. And not a minute too soon.
“Look left, Joe! Left!” Sam shouted from The Book.
I spun to my left. The staff swung wildly, taking out two more soldiers. Whatever we were doing—or not doing—seemed to be working. Somehow Anna and I were still alive.
From behind us, a voice bellowed. “Drop your sword, Li Shimin.”
It was Wang. He was aiming an arrow straight for Li Shimin, who had arrived with his troops.
“Never,” Li Shimin said. “If I must die to save this country—so be it!”
“I see,” Wang said. “But are you willing to let an innocent little girl perish as well?”
Suddenly Wang turned the bow and arrow toward Anna. Li Shimin looked at Anna and back at Wang, and then let his sword drop to the ground.
“Ha ha ha,” Wang cackled. “I thought you were just weak, Li Shimin. I was wrong. You are gullible as well.”
Wang released the arrow. It whizzed through the air—straight for Anna.
“Joe!” Anna screamed.
“Anna!” I screamed.
I had to save my sister. In an instant, everything went blank. I heard Hui-k’o’s voice: Time is in the mind. Control your mind, and you can do anything.
SLOW…, I thought. My mind focused only on the arrow floating through time and space. The arrow glowed a faint green. It slowed down and hovered in front of Anna’s face. I reached out my hand and plucked it from the air.
Suddenly everything sped up again.
“How’d you do that?” Anna asked.
“I don’t know,” I said.
Wang must have been as freaked out as I was. He dropped the bow and scurried off into the forest.
“Quickly, Tanzong,” Li Shimin called. “We must catch Wang before he can regroup.”
Li Shimin and Tanzong raced off after Wang. There was hope for China after all. Maybe they’d even finish building that wall.
As for us, Anna and I were still alive, Sam was still in The Book, and—
“What’d I miss?” a voice said.
It was Fred. He was back in the land of the living. Perfect timing, as usual.
“Oh, nothing,” I said. “Just your typical ancient Chinese kung fu battle.”
“Man,” Fred said. “I was gonna try out my—”
But suddenly we heard a noise. It sounded like someone clapping. A figure emerged from the forest covered in a cloak.
“Hui-k’o!” I said. Everything suddenly made total sense. I knew I couldn’t have stopped the arrow myself—Hui-k’o must have helped me.
“Nice guess, Einstein. But unfortunately—wrong.” The figure threw off the cloak and let out an evil laugh.
Anna, Fred, and I gasped. This was definitely not Hui-k’o.
CHAPTER 10
Anna, Fred, and I must have been going for a warp record. On this adventure we’d faced certain doom at the hands of a crazed madman not once, not twice, not three times…You get the picture. The point is, we were now gazing at another crazed madman who looked equally bloodthirsty and unstable. But, there was something sort of familiar about this one….
“That was an impressive trick, Joseph—slowing down time,” the madman said. “My, my, my. You are becoming quite the little warp whiz.”
“How’d you know my name?” I asked.
“Hey,” Fred whispered. “It’s that guy. You know…Whatshisname…Crazy Charlie…Loopy Louie…”
“Jack is the name,” the madman said.
“Mad Jack! That’s it,” Fred said. We’d run into Mad Jack before in our warps. He wanted to be the ruler of all space and time. But to be the ruler of all space and time he needed…The Book.
Mad Jack looked at Fred, a little annoyed. “I prefer Stultifyingly Fiendish Jack, or Malevolently Marvelous Jack, or…”
“What do you want?” I interrupted. It had been a long day, and my patience for madmen was growing thin.
“That’s the spirit,” Mad Jack said. “Waste no time. Ah, sweet time, my favorite theme. Time is what I want. And, lucky me, it’s what you have. Hand over The Book, dear nephew.”
Nephew? Anna and I looked at each other. Were we actually related to this nutcase?
“I knew you looked familiar,” Fred said.
“What’s happening?” Sam piped in. “I can’t see anything in here.”
Mad Jack held out his walking stick with a huge hourglass on top, and pointed it directly at The Book. Suddenly the stick glowed green and started to buzz. I held The Book tighter.
Mad Jack must have known I wouldn’t give up easily. He aimed the walking stick at a nearby rock and zapped it into oblivion. Then he pointed the stick at me again.
“How would you like your molecules?” he asked. “Scrambled? Or fried?”
The guy knew how to make a point. I quickly handed over The Book.
Mad Jack giggled fiendishly as he stroked the cover.
“What about Sam?” Fred said. “Can you at least let him out of there?”
“And how are we supposed to get home?” Anna added.
“Oh, but you are home,” Mad Jack said. “Your new home. Ha ha ha ha!”
“You don’t care about anything but yourself, you big bully,” Anna said.
“Au contraire,” Mad Jack cackled. “I care very much about my precious, precious book!” Mad Jack pulled The Book to his face to give it a big fat kiss, but then…
WHAM! The cover flew open, nailing him right in the kisser. Mad Jack grabbed his face—dropping The Book and his walking stick to the ground.
“For crying out loud,” Sam said, “would someone please tell me what’s going on out here?”
Sam! We watched as he pulled his top half out of The Book like he was coming out of a pool. His bottom half followed. Finally, Sam was free.
“Hey! I’m out,” Sam said.
Sam spied Mad Jack and gulped. “Oh, no. I’m out!”
I raced over and grabbed The Book before Mad Jack could get his slimy fingers back on it. I opened it up quickly, and green mist poured out.
Mad Jack scrambled for his walking stick and aimed it in our direction. “Give it back,” he hissed. “I command you.”
We braced ourselves. There was a blast of green light.
“Nooooooooo!” Mad Jack’s scream faded in the background.
We were warping home.
CHAPTER 11
“That was a close one,” I said.
We were back in my room in Brooklyn. Anna, Fred, and Sam were sitting in front of the TV, waiting for the movie to come back on. I was putting The Book back in the safe, and this time I was using my padlock.
“One second sooner,” Fred said, “and we’d be living in a cave for the rest of our lives. No video games. No TV. I owe you one, Sam.”
Sam smiled. “Hey, guys, did you hear that? Fred owes me.”
I walked over and joined Anna, Sam, and Fred on the floor. “Who knew Mom and Uncle Joe had a brother named Jack?” I said.
“I can see why he’s not invited to family reunions,” Anna said.
“He must be the one Hui-k’o was trying to warn you about,” Sam added.
“I always knew old Hui-k’o knew more than he was telling us,” I said.
“What do you think ever happened to Li Shimin?” Anna asked.
“Well,” Sam said, “accordi
ng to what I learned in The Book, he went on to become the second emperor of the Tang dynasty. His father was the first. Under Li Shimin, China flourished. The Tang dynasty became a golden age. Culture, education, art, government—”
“Shhhh!” Fred said. “The movie’s back on.”
This was one kung fu fight scene Fred wasn’t going to miss.
Copyright
TIME WARP TRIO®: WUSHU WERE HERE. Copyright © 2007 WGBH Educational Foundation and Chucklebait, Inc. Artwork, Designs and Animation © 2006 WGBH Educational Foundation. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Library of Congress catalog card number: 2006929491
ISBN-13: 978-0-06-111645-2 — ISBN-10: 0-06-111645-9
EPub Edition © January 2010 ISBN: 978-0-06-200574-8
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