He looked from my face to Josie’s face. Back and forth.
“Don’t you feel it?”
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I mean, Mr. Appleton is kind of a jerk, but everyone loves Robbie. He’s friendly. He’s nice. He’s helping us to fix the bus. Ulysses loves him.”
“Can we compromise, Niko?” Josie said and for the first time, I saw warmth toward him from her. “What if we just let them stay for two more days? Long enough for Robbie to finish fixing the bus and for Mr. Appleton to rest.”
Niko turned away from her.
“You can’t back me up on this?” he asked us.
“Just two days, Niko. I think the little kids really need some grown-up time. And it would also give Brayden and Sahalia some time to get used to the idea that they can’t go with them. I can get everyone used to the idea, if I just have some more time…”
Niko sighed. He shrugged.
“Okay, Josie. If that’s what you want to do. Fine.”
* * *
Josie told everyone that Robbie and Mr. Appleton could stay two more days.
Robbie and Ulysses hugged.
Mr. Appleton nodded and I think he even smiled.
That was about as positive as I’d seen him.
* * *
Robbie took over Josie’s job of storyteller that night.
On the floor of the Living Room, the kids gathered around him like he was a campfire.
He told them fables from Mexico about turtles and rabbits and frogs and crows.
You never saw a happier bunch of kids or a happier man.
I was so glad Niko had changed his mind.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
“EVACULATION”
After breakfast the next morning (Chloe was my helper and she said, “Just do whatever, Dean. I want to hang out with Robbie!”), Josie and Alex gave Robbie a tour of the store. All the little kids went along, shining their flashlights all over the place.
I was getting lunch on the table when Jake wandered into the Kitchen and slung himself down at a booth.
He looked worse than he had the day before, if such a thing was possible.
“You okay?” I asked him.
“Dean. Dude. Is there any coffee?”
“Sure, Jake,” I said. “You take cream and sugar, right?”
He nodded and his low-hung head began to bob. He was crying, I realized.
I put my hand on his shoulder as I set the coffee down.
“It’s gonna be okay,” I said.
“It’s not. It’s never gonna be okay again.”
I just stayed standing where I was. I felt like if I sat down, he’d stop talking.
“I keep taking these pills. But everytime, they’re working less. It’s like I squeezed all the good feeling out of my brain and now I’m out. I drained it all out and I’m done.”
“Jake, you gotta lay off the pills.”
“I know. I know,” he mumbled. “I’ll stop today.”
He turned to go, just as Sahalia came over.
She was wearing leggings, a tank top, and some kind of blazer.
“Have you guys seen Robbie?” she asked.
“He’s with Josie and Alex and the little kids,” I said. “They’re touring the store.”
“Sweet,” she said. “See ya.”
Robbie was definitely the big man on campus.
* * *
As I was plating the food, Mr. Appleton walked in. He was definitely looking better.
“Mmmmm,” he said, eyeing the steaming-hot orange chicken I was dumping into a bowl. “Chinese?”
“Yup,” I answered. “I’m serving fried rice, too.”
“Have you seen Niko?” Mr. Appleton asked me. “I want to start packing up.”
That was interesting to me. I had sort of assumed that Mr. Appleton wanted to stay, as Robbie clearly did.
“LUNCH!” I yelled.
Mr. Appleton jumped.
“Sorry,” I said. Then I hollered again. “LUNCH! Come and get it!”
I heard the sound of the hungry hordes moving toward the Kitchen.
“You’re feeling like you can travel?” I asked Mr. Appleton as I set out the plates, forks, and napkins.
“I want to honor our agreement,” he said. “And, yes, I guess I am anxious to get on the way.”
“Why?”
“Well, we need to have another meeting,” Mr. Appleton said. “So I can tell you about Denver.”
The kids swarmed in.
“Mmmm! Chinese!” Max said.
“I love Chinese!” chirped Caroline.
“Wait,” I said to Mr. A. “What about Denver?”
Niko came in. He had his arms crossed over his chest.
He stood behind Batiste on line.
“Oh, Niko,” Mr. Appleton said. “I want to talk to you about our departure plan.”
“Really?” Niko said. “Okay. Good.”
“And I realized we haven’t told you about Denver yet.”
“What about Denver?” I said, shooing Ulysses and Max off to a table.
“What’s this now?” Robbie said, ambling up.
“They’re evacuating people,” Mr. Appleton said to Niko and me. “If you can get yourself to the Denver International Airport, you can be evacuated.”
“What do you mean ‘evaculated’?” Chloe demanded, cutting into the line.
By now most of the kids had their plates and were seated.
Mr. Appleton turned to face them. It looked like a class set in a Pizza Shack. Weird.
“Well, children,” Mr. Appleton said. “When there is a crisis in an area, the government comes and evacuates the people living in that area. Evacuation is the transfer of large groups of people to a safer place.”
“What do you mean?” Batiste interrupted.
“Many people in this area are making their way to the Denver airport,” Mr. Appleton explained. “It is rumored that the government is flying people out by helicopter and taking them to Alaska.”
Caroline raised her hand.
“Do you mean like our mommy?” she asked. “Like our mommy might be going to Denver to go away in a helicopter?”
“Possibly,” Mr. Appleton said.
All at once everyone was talking, screaming, shouting: Denver, Denver, Denver. We had to go to Denver. We could drive the bus to Denver. We had to leave today for Denver.
Niko was shaking his head, already imagining the chaos this news was going to create.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Mr. Appleton said, holding his hands up. The kids gradually fell silent though Henry had the hiccups. “It’s not at all feasible for you kids to make it to Denver. Absolutely not. It’s too dangerous out there for you.”
“But we want to find our mommy!” Caroline said.
Her freckled face was so sad. It was hard not to just sweep her into a hug.
“I understand that, Caroline,” Mr. Appleton said. “And that is why Robbie and I are going to Denver. We will be airlifted to Alaska, and then we will find your parents and tell them where you are so they can come for you.”
The little kids started smiling. They started clapping and grinning, wiping their tears away.
Niko was grinning.
This was the happiest I’d ever seen Niko and I understood why: The men were leaving; he hadn’t had to make them leave, so he didn’t look like the bad guy anymore; and on top of it all, now there was a prayer we might be rescued.
Hope. It was a real glimmer of hope Mr. Appleton had just given us.
Everyone talked with excitement. Niko, Alex, and Mr. Appleton started talking about what supplies the men would need.
Only one person looked unhappy: Robbie.
I could tell that he really had wanted to stay with us.
He stalked away.
Sahalia watched him go, then started after him.
I thought she was probably going to beg him to take her along.
I didn’t think about it too long, because Mr. Appleton said, “Now, if you kid
s will please go to your school area, you may each write a letter to your parents for Robbie and me to deliver.”
* * *
I was throwing away the remains of our meal when Alex came back. He held a small storage bin with some electronics in it.
“Can I show you something?” he asked me.
“Of course.”
I was happy he was even bothering to show me anything. We weren’t getting along like we should be.
Alex took two video walkie-talkies out of the bin. One of them had an extra-long antenna attached and some extra wiring, all held together by some blue electrical tape.
“It’s a video walkie-talkie but I amped up the transmitter with this antenna,” he explained. “I’ve been testing it and, so far, it works pretty well in the confines of the store.”
“That’s cool,” I said. “Are you thinking we could use it as, like, an intercom?”
“No,” he said. “I thought maybe Mr. Appleton would take it with him. That way we could see what’s going on outside.”
Again, again, again, like always, I was bowled over by my brother’s brilliance.
“That’s incredible, Alex,” I said. “That’s such a great idea. They’re going to love it.”
He went off to show it to Niko and Mr. Appleton.
I sat down to write my letter to our parents.
I tried to tell them what had happened to us. I wrote that Alex and I were taking care of each other and that I’d make sure to keep him safe, no matter what.
I had to do a better job of that.
But it’s hard to take care of someone who doesn’t want or really even need your help.
* * *
Mr. Appleton and Robbie came to the Kitchen with Niko and Alex a little while later.
I had seen the four of them in the bicycle aisle. They had picked out two sturdy high-end mountain bikes. Now that their success was linked to our dreams of finding our parents, we wanted them to have everything they wanted. They could take the whole store, if they wanted. Just get us our parents back.
“Dean,” Niko said. “Have you given some thought to the food we can send with these guys?”
I had.
I had a plastic storage bin filled with stuff:
2 boxes of granola bars
1 box protein bars
2 bags trail mix
4 cans RavioliOs
4 cans of beans
1 bag of dried beans
1 bag of rice
1 box instant oatmeal
2 jars of instant coffee
1 box powdered milk
I had also set out four gallon bottles of water and six liter bottles of Gatorade. I don’t know, that seemed like the most they’d be able to carry.
“You guys can take as much dog food as you want,” I offered.
Robbie shrugged.
“Luna does pretty well for herself,” he said. He seemed down. He was looking at the floor.
He didn’t want to leave. That was clear.
Mr. Appleton started rummaging through the plastic box.
I went over to Alex.
“Are they going to take the walkie-talkies?” I asked him.
“Yeah! They thought it was a great idea. Mr. Appleton said I am very ingenious.”
His serious face looked proud.
I put my arm around his shoulder and kind of gave him a hug. He shrugged it off and went to stand next to Niko.
They were best buds again, I guess.
I tried not to care.
Mr. Appleton lifted the tub, and seemed okay with the weight. Going through it, though, he discarded the RavioliOs.
“Do you have any beef jerky?” he asked me.
“Sure,” I said. And I turned to go get it for them.
“I’ll go with him,” Robbie said.
Robbie and I went back toward the snack food aisle.
“I feel like I can trust you,” Robbie said to me, putting his hand on my shoulder. “I’m in a bind and I don’t know what to do.”
“What’s wrong?” I said.
“Craig wants to leave right away. But I don’t think he’s well enough to go.”
“I know that Niko had said you guys could stay at least another day,” I said.
“Yeah! And now Craig wants to go today. He wants to go right now and I’m just not sure he’s up to it.”
We had reached the jerky and he skimmed his hand over some packs.
“I think he’s afraid he’s gonna die. He wants to try to get to Denver before he dies.”
Robbie turned to me.
“I think the longer we stay, the better. I mean, I want to get your letters to your folks. I do. But I don’t know what kind of chance we have with him the way he is.”
I had to agree.
“I feel really bad, Robbie,” I said. “But I don’t know what to do. Truthfully, I think before we all knew about Denver, most of us would have wanted you to just stay. Like forever.”
Maybe it was too much to say that. Maybe I had crossed a line, but I felt bad. To have to go back out there after everything he’d been through, when it was safe in the store and we all wanted him to stay. It was rough.
“But I also have to say”—and this was the truth in every way—“if you can go to Alaska and find our parents, you would be our hero forever and ever.”
Robbie sighed.
“That’s true,” he said. “I would like to help you kids.”
* * *
When we got back, Niko was helping Mr. Appleton pack up two large-frame backpacks and two bicycle saddlebags. I saw on the ground two small camping stoves—the kind that are just a can of fuel and a metal thing that goes on top. Also two thermal sleeping bags—the very thin space-blanket kind. And a bunch of matches and some Ziploc bags. Ponchos, flares, camping stuff from the Sports Department. Alex’s video gear was in a heap next to the clothing. Most key: a Ziploc bag containing a list of our names and our letters.
Niko and Mr. Appleton were methodically packing the stuff up.
“Mr. Appleton, I was just wondering.” I had to try, on Robbie’s behalf. “I mean, it’s fine with us for you to spend some more time here. We all want you to make it to Denver with our messages, why don’t you just wait until you feel a little better?”
“I have already discussed this with Niko,” he said stiffly.
“We don’t know when the evacuation began,” Niko said. “So if they wait too long, they might miss it.”
“Besides, we’ve hit on the right antibiotics and I’m already starting to feel better,” Mr. Appleton added.
Okay. Those were sound arguments, but why wouldn’t he meet my eyes?
“We’ll have dinner with you and then we’ll go,” he said.
Robbie was staring at Mr. Appleton with irritation and maybe anger on his face. When Robbie saw me looking at him, he gave me a weak smile.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
THE BIG SEND-OFF
Batiste and I really went to town for the farewell dinner.
After the men left, I was going to ask Niko if Batiste could just become my permanent helper. He really had a way with food and I think everyone was getting tired of the ridiculous meals my other helpers picked (for one lunch Ulysses had picked only foods with cherries in them—Cherry Pop-Tarts, cherry pie, black cherry ice cream, etc.)
Batiste and I oven-roasted the last of the fresh-frozen chicken. He made a corn soufflé using Egg Beaters and frozen corn, with some other stuff. For dessert we made three cakes: yellow with chocolate frosting, devil’s food with marshmallow icing, and a pink cake with vanilla frosting and sprinkles, for novelty effect.
It was a really good meal. Everyone said so, except for Jake, who took a plate and slunk away to eat by himself, and Astrid, who was still MIA.
Mr. Appleton and Niko had joined forces, clearly. They sat together, discussing the trip. Alex sat with them, listening in, and happy, I imagine, at being allowed in on this important conversation.
After dinner Mr. Apple
ton gave a speech.
He stood up and dabbed his forehead with a napkin.
“I want to thank you all for taking us in and taking such good care of us,” he said. “You are some of the brightest and most determined children I have had the pleasure of knowing. I am proud that you are in my school district.”
He swabbed his head again. Why was he sweating so much? It wasn’t warm in the kitchen. It was chilly, like the rest of the store.
“Robbie and I will make it our mission to find your parents and tell them you are here.”
The kids cheered.
“Can you please ask my mom to tell Mr. Mittens that I miss him?” little Caroline asked Mr. Appleton.
“Sure,” he said. Then he closed his eyes. He put a hand out so he could lean on the tabletop.
Niko stood up. At his signal, Alex handed out plastic flutes filled with sparkling apple juice.
“And, Mr. Appleton and Robbie, we are very glad you came. It has been our honor to prepare you for the journey ahead and we thank you very much for taking our letters to our parents. To Mr. Appleton and Robbie!”
We toasted with our faux champagne.
“Okay,” Mr. Appleton said. “I think it’s time we headed out.”
The kids groaned.
“I don’t get it.” Chloe pouted. “At least wait until the morning. Nobody travels at night.”
“It doesn’t really matter,” Mr. Appleton said. “It’s night all the time out there.”
“And less people are out at night. So there’s less of a chance we’ll run into dangerous people,” Robbie added.
Chloe shivered.
Ulysses was sitting on Robbie’s lap. Robbie kissed him on the top of the head. Ulysses snuggled into him and wrapped his arms around Robbie’s neck.
This was going to suck for Ulysses, their leaving.
“Come on, Robbie,” Mr. Appleton said. “It’s time.”
Mr. Appleton stood up.
“Thank you again,” Niko said.
“It’s our duty and our pleasure,” Mr. Appleton said. His color was not good.
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