The Door in the Alley

by Adrienne Kress

  “What’s your name?” she asked—because she still didn’t know.

  “Sebastian.”

  “Okay.”

  He placed the box between them. “Have you seen this before?”

  Taking the question with all due seriousness, Evie picked up the box and examined it closely. She didn’t really have to, though. She didn’t remember any time in her life when a box had been a part of it. Even when she’d moved into the school, she’d packed her one bag and that was all. Boxes were not something she’d had relationships with.

  “No.” She put it down.

  Sebastian performed a series of movements with the box. He did it so quickly, she couldn’t really follow. Somehow he opened it with so much enthusiasm that the contents went spilling out between them. Papers and photographs, all weathered with age. Evie picked up a newspaper article with a picture of a handsome young man dangling off the edge of a cliff.

  It was snatched from her hand and replaced with a photograph of a group of five people.

  “Do you recognize anyone?” asked Sebastian.

  Evie held the photograph close and examined each person in the picture.

  “No.”

  “No? Are you sure?”

  “Pretty sure.” She tried to hand the photograph back to Sebastian, but he pushed it back in her direction.

  “Not even him?” he pointed at an older gentleman with a neatly trimmed beard. He was dressed in a tweed suit and had his hand on the shoulder of the young man she’d seen in the article just before.

  “No. Who is he?”

  Sebastian sighed in disappointment. “His name is Alistair Drake. I thought maybe…But of course that was stupid of me. Not everyone who has the same last name is related.”

  Evie felt a flutter of excitement in her chest. “But I am! I am related to Alistair Drake. He’s my grandfather! I’ve just never met him is all. Wait, this is him?” She looked closer at the picture. Now she could see beyond the lined face and the beard to the friendly twinkle in the eye, that mischievous spark that had always been the prelude to adventuring. Not his twinkle, though. Her father’s. Being woken up at three in the morning: “Do you want to see something amazing?” And standing outside on their lawn watching the northern lights dance across the sky.

  He had her father’s eyes. Or, she supposed, her father had Alistair Drake’s eyes. And there were other things too. The long fingers, the straight back, the high forehead.

  “Where did you find this?” she asked, not realizing she was whispering.

  “At the society headquarters. It was hidden in the back of a filing cabinet, inside a secret door.”

  “Really?” She touched her grandfather’s face. This kind face. It was in trouble now. Not smiling now. And he needed her help. Evie looked up at Sebastian with concern. “He’s in danger.”

  “Who, your grandfather?”

  “Yes.” She pulled out the letter and handed it to Sebastian. For a brief moment she wondered if she should trust him so easily, but it was too late anyway. She hoped her instincts were right.

  Sebastian read over the letter. “When did you get this?”

  “Last night. Mrs. Anderson gave it to me. In the tunnel. She…might be dead now.” Evie stared down at her hands folded in her lap. She closed her eyes. It wasn’t grief she was feeling, but a huge overwhelming guilt.

  “Dead? Tunnel? Evie, what’s going on?”

  She kept her eyes closed, squeezing them as tightly as she could. “There were these two men, and then a fire, and then I escaped in a tunnel. And I know they were looking for something, and I think I know what it is.”

  “The key mentioned in the letter?” asked Sebastian.

  Evie nodded. He was a smart one, that was for sure. “And I was told to go to The Explorers Society for help, only they didn’t.”

  “I’m…sorry.” Sebastian sounded far off, as if he were fading away. Evie opened her eyes. No, he was still sitting just there. He looked concerned and also frightened. She instantly felt even more terrible for distressing him like that.

  “No, I’m sorry. It’s none of your concern. I shouldn’t have said anything.”

  “But you should go to the police or something, shouldn’t you?”

  “I guess.”

  “You guess?”

  “I think there’s something really big going on,” said Evie, “bigger than the police. If my grandfather is in some kind of dire situation with these men but he’s more worried about this key than his own safety, then I think there’s a reason not to get the police involved.”

  Sebastian furrowed his brow and nodded. “Yeah. Though I really hope that reason isn’t that he’s doing something illegal,” he said.

  “Me too. But even if it was, do I want my grandfather found and then arrested?”

  “Well, if he’s doing something bad…”

  “He’s the one who’s in trouble! These men have him prisoner or something and his life is on the line!”

  “I’m just trying to help.”

  “Are you?” Evie realized only then that she was up on her feet. How had that happened? She noticed too that the picture in her hand was shaking. No. Not the picture. It was her hand. No. Not her hand. It was her whole body.

  Sebastian was staring up at her, and once again she felt bad for getting upset with him. It wasn’t his fault. He was making good, appropriate suggestions. It just felt like…well, sometimes, in some moments, at some times, good, appropriate suggestions could be the most inappropriate suggestions to suggest.

  “Why does everyone think I’m not trying to help when I am so clearly attempting to do just that?” Sebastian didn’t say it in a defensive tone. It almost sounded a little sad.

  “I’m sorry for getting upset with you,” she replied, sitting down again. “But I just don’t think we should call the police, and since he’s my grandfather and not yours, I hope you respect my wishes.”

  Sebastian didn’t say anything for a moment, and then nodded. “Okay.”

  Evie took in a deep breath and calmed herself down. She looked at the picture again and felt even more certain that she needed to rescue her grandfather. She’d never felt more right about anything in her life, even though she hadn’t the first idea how one orchestrated a rescue mission. But before all that, she did need to protect this key. It was what he had requested, and she was going to show him she could be counted on.

  “What now?” asked Sebastian.

  “I have to find the key and protect it. I have to do it for him. The good news is I’m pretty sure the men last night were looking for the key, and that means they don’t know where it’s hidden yet either.”

  “How can you be so sure?” asked Sebastian.

  “When the first man arrived, Mr. Anderson said something like ‘It’s not here,’ so the men must have been making a guess. And guessed wrong. Though why they guessed it was at the Andersons’ I have no idea. Why else would they go somewhere where a thing was not?”

  She watched Sebastian think about that and then nod. “Makes sense.”

  “So I think that gives us some time to find it, hopefully before those men do. But how?” Evie inched herself closer to the rest of the papers, putting down the picture and starting to riffle through the rest. She could sense Sebastian still watching her, but finally he shifted and started pushing through some of the papers himself. “I don’t suppose it’s here,” she said, picking up a different photograph of her grandfather, this time of him playing a game of chess opposite a monkey.

  Sebastian shook his head. “I’ve been through everything thoroughly. No key. Just papers.”

  Evie sighed. “Well, maybe there’s a clue….”

  “You really think so?” said Sebastian.

  “You said the box was hidden. And so is this key. There has got to be a connection there.” Evie reached over and picked up another piece of paper. It was an article about Catherine Lind’s Great African Parrot Rescue.

  “What happens when we find it?�
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  “I don’t know. Maybe there’ll be a clue with it about what it opens. Maybe some kind of information telling us where these men are keeping my grandfather, or at least why he’s in trouble. Maybe when we find it we’ll figure out how to rescue him!”

  She started to go through the papers more quickly, picking one up and looking it over, putting it down, picking up another. It was difficult to tell what was important and what wasn’t. So many stories, so many adventures. Each one unique, each one involving derring-dos and doing dares. There was a villain for every story: poachers in Belize, CEOs of large oil companies trying to shut down small villages, thieves and tricksters. Blackmailers. But all had been overcome. All had gotten their just deserts. As had the Filipendulous Five, celebrating victories with their own after-dinner treats—usually, it seemed, ice-cream sundaes.

  “If only we could just ask someone at The Explorers Society,” said Evie, feeling quite frustrated by now.

  “Yeah, why do they have to be so weird about it?” replied Sebastian, reading over an article.

  “They are the only ones who might know where he is. The only ones who could possibly help us find this key. And they completely refuse. They wouldn’t even let me tell them why I was there, or show them the letter!” Evie threw down a paper and folded her arms across her chest. She had made herself all angry again.

  “Something pretty big must have happened once upon a time,” said Sebastian. “I tried asking Myrtle about it and she told me to leave!”

  “They’re all scared. Too scared to help. When they are the only ones with the answer!” It was so unfair. Why was she, a girl of eleven, braver than a bunch of risk-taking explorers?

  “No,” said Sebastian suddenly, and Evie looked at him. His eyes were shining bright, and he looked excited.

  “No?” she said, not exactly sure what he was saying no to.

  “They aren’t the only ones who might know something.”

  “But who else would?” asked Evie. “Who is this one special person who isn’t a member of The Explorers Society and yet somehow happens to know where my grandfather might be and why?”

  “Not one person,” said Sebastian, holding up the group photograph. “Four.”

  It was possibly the most dramatic thing Sebastian had ever said, and he wasn’t entirely sure he felt comfortable with himself for saying it that way. He also now felt a little guilty that he hadn’t just simply said “I think the most logical thing to do would be to see if we can find one of the other four of the Filipendulous Five and ask them if they know anything about the key and your grandfather” instead of his mysterious “No.” It seemed pretty mean, now that he thought about it, prolonging Evie’s pain and frustration just for the satisfaction of presenting his idea in as theatrical a way as possible.

  It also kind of freaked him out because being theatrical went against Sebastian’s nature, but it felt good to see Evie’s sad eyes widen and a smile stretch across her face. She bounced up and gave him a big hug of gratitude, and he couldn’t help but smile a little also.

  “Yes! Of course, yes! Sebastian, that’s a brilliant idea! And so obvious. Why didn’t I think of it?” said Evie. “We have to find one of the others—they’ll know! And then we’ll find the key, and then I’ll go find my grandfather, and then, finally, I’ll be…” She stopped short.

  “You’ll be what?”

  “Oh. Never mind. It’s okay.” Evie looked down and scrunched up her face in a weird way he didn’t understand, and then looked at him once again. “So how do we find any of them?”

  “Kids, dinnertime!” called Sebastian’s father.

  The two of them looked at each other, and Sebastian for the first time in his life felt annoyed with his parents for interrupting such an important moment. “I guess we’ll have to figure that out after we eat,” he replied, reluctantly standing up.

  It was then that he finally realized it wasn’t like they had a lot of time in the first place. Evie surely had to go home at some point. Now that he thought about it, why weren’t her parents helping her find her grandfather? Surely he mattered as much to them as he did to Evie. Sebastian was struck that his own personal excitement about the situation could have caused him to not question something that was so obvious.

  He turned to Evie, but she had already left the room, and he followed her quickly downstairs to join his mother and father in the dining room.

  —

  “Well, Evie,” said Sebastian’s father as he began methodically cutting all his peas in half after introductions had been made, “and do you go to school with Sebastian?”

  Evie nodded easily. “Yes, I do.”

  This surprised Sebastian, as that was not the case at all, and he looked at Evie, who refused to make eye contact.

  “And what’s your interest?” asked his mother, passing Sebastian the pepper before he could ask for it.

  “My interest?” asked Evie.

  “Yes—math, chemistry, physics…”

  “Oh,” said Evie. “I suppose history.”

  Sebastian stopped peppering and stared at her and then at his mother, who looked terribly confused.

  “Yes, Evie likes history a lot, which is why I wanted to show her my maps. But her interest is in biology,” said Sebastian quickly and a little too loudly.

  Evie looked at him then and seemed to understand that she should play along. “Oh, I see,” she said with a laugh, “you meant my interest! I thought you meant what I was interested in. Oh yes, biology. I do love biology.”

  “Ah! That makes sense.” Sebastian’s father’s expression brightened. “Are you also interested in being a doctor, like our Sebastian here?” he asked.

  “I’m more interested in the biology of animals,” said Evie, not missing a beat. “We’re studying the life cycle of the fruit fly right now. Fascinating stuff.”

  “It is, it is,” replied his mother, and Sebastian realized only then how upright and stiff he’d been holding himself. He breathed out and allowed himself to relax a little.

  “I also wanted to thank you all for letting me stay here while my parents are out of town,” said Evie, and Sebastian felt his whole body instantly tense again. What? Since when? They were?

  Sebastian’s parents both froze and turned their gaze to their son. He gave them a little smile, hoping it looked like an apology for not asking when really it was the only thing he would ever think of doing in the situation.

  “Of course,” said his father slowly, turning back to Evie. “It’s our pleasure.”

  “It’s so nice of you! Could you pass the potatoes, please?”

  The potatoes were passed.

  The remainder of the meal was decidedly uneventful. Though with all the questions churning about in Sebastian’s brain, not to mention the challenge of finding one of the Filipendulous Five to help them, it also felt interminable. More small talk was made about fruit flies, there was a discussion about the metric system, and his mother told the joke about the two salamanders, which Sebastian had never found particularly funny. Finally the main course was done, and as quickly as he could, Sebastian excused himself and Evie, skipping dessert, and they hurried back to his room.

  “What are you doing?” he asked, closing the door behind them.

  “What? What do you mean?” She looked completely confused by the question.

  “Why did you say that about staying over?” Sebastian pressed. “Why did you say that about your parents?”

  “Oh,” said Evie, sitting on the floor once more. “I needed a place to stay. I didn’t mean to lie.”

  “I think you did, though,” replied Sebastian. He watched as she began going through the papers again.

  “Well, of course I meant to, but I didn’t mean anything bad by it. This is hopeless!” She sat upright and leaned against the foot of his bed. “There’s nothing new here. We’ve been through it all. Let’s go on the computer!” She stood up and made for his desk, but Sebastian stepped in front of her.

&nbs
p; “Stop,” he said. Evie stopped and looked at him with a puzzled expression. “Evie, what’s going on? What happened? Why do you need a place to stay? And what was all that about an attack earlier?” He was getting mad at himself for having been so distracted by the excitement of the mystery earlier that he hadn’t asked the most straightforward of questions.

  Evie sighed hard. “Can we not? Let’s just see if we can find where the rest of the Filipendulous Five are instead.” She tried to sidestep him, but he moved with her. She sighed again. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  “Well, you have to. I don’t really know you, and I might have been drawn in by everything earlier, but now I’m aware of how strange it all is. You’ve done a good job telling me just enough so I think you’ve told me something, but it’s not true. You’ve told me nothing. And I need to know what’s going on. Tell me.” He put his hands on his hips. Yes, maybe he had enjoyed indulging his moment of theatrics earlier, but this was too much now. It was time for some plain talking.

  For the third time Evie sighed. She walked over to the window, then turned, leaning her back against the radiator beneath it. She stared at him for a moment longer. “Last night,” she said, “I was at my weekly dinner with the Andersons when a man came to the door and held us hostage. We attempted to escape, but there was another man. And then I don’t know what happened, but a gun was fired and Mrs. Anderson was hurt, and the house was set on fire, and then I was sent through a secret tunnel. But before I left, Mrs. Anderson gave me the letter from my grandfather and told me to go to The Explorers Society and ask for help.” She looked down at her hands for a moment, took a deep breath, and then looked up at him again. Her eyes were shining.

  “My parents died two years ago in a car accident,” she continued. “My grandfather’s the only family I have left. I didn’t even know he was still alive until Mrs. Anderson gave me the letter. I have nowhere to go except back to the school where I was sent by the state. And if I go back there, then I know I can’t go save my grandfather. And then I’ll really be alone and then there will be no one in the whole world who…who…”