His eyes got big, and he ran to the bunks and snatched my pillow. “Arcade, why you gotta do this to me?” He dove into the elevator just as the doors closed.
“You know, it may not take us where you think, Doug.”
“Oh, I’m sure it will.” Doug scrunched down in the corner of the elevator, hugging the pillows and shaking. “It’s the one place I remember most from geography class last year.”
“Lots of people climb there, Doug,” Zoe said. “And most survive. Arriving by elevator should help us.”
I grabbed hold of my golden chain.
Where did you go, token? Are you back in the mold? Why don’t you go with me on these adventures?
Ding!
Is the boy talking with Ruah? Where is the amphitheater? Will I ever find out?
“Arcade.”
Why can’t I see? How will I see?
“Arcade.”
“What, Zoe?”
“We’re here.”
CHAPTER 21
High-EST
The doors open. We’re on the top of the world. Mount Everest. I’ve read lots of books about this place.
Zoe rubs her arms. “I’m not cold. How come?”
“Never underestimate the warmth of a reindeer onesie.”
“Well, I’m cold!” Doug shivers. “I guess pizza-slice pjs are substandard gear for around here. Brrrrrr!”
We step out on the summit and turn around and around. Snow covers the peaks below us, but there is nothing above us because this is Sagarmatha—the Peak of Heaven.
“THIS IS DOPE!”
I keep turning, then stop and stare down at my feet. “Hey, Zoe, do you think we’re in Nepal or Tibet?”
She pulls her hood tighter over her ears and surveys the land around us. “This looks like Tibetan snow to me.”
“Aw, then we must be in Nepal.”
“Well, maybe you’re in Nepal and I’m in Tibet.”
“Sounds like truth to me,” Doug says. “You two are always in different worlds.” Doug jumps over to a little snow patch between me and Zoe. “Hey, what if I’m right on the border?”
“Then you are in the best of places, Mr. Baker. From there you can see both sides of the argument.” A woman in a white snowsuit approaches us from the open elevator doors.
Doug points his finger at the woman. “Hey! Are you . . .”
Ruah nods. “I am.”
Doug comes over and gives me a jumping high five. “I’m so glad I came! I finally saw her. I mean, yeah, I saw her before, at the gold refinery, but I didn’t know it was her then.”
“I’m glad you came, too, Doug.” Just saying that sentence makes me a little short of breath.
“You are in the highest place.” Ruah comes over and places her hand on my chest.
“With the lowest amount of oxygen,” Zoe puts her hand on my forehead. “No more high fives, Arcade. We have one-third of the breathable oxygen than we have at home.”
“We had more air on the moon.” Doug tries to suck in a breath.
“Because you had space suits and oxygen tanks.” Ruah smiles. “You will be fine,” Ruah says to Zoe. “But only for a short time. Humans are not made to exist up here for long. Heights above 26,000 feet cause rapid pulse, poor sleep, loss of appetite, and confused thinking.”
“See! I told you heights are bad!” Doug squeezed his pillow.
“No,” I say. “They have a purpose. This place is an -EST, right Ruah?”
“It’s called Ever-est!” Zoe looks down at the mountain peaks below us. “Is your thinking becoming confused already, Arcade?”
I don’t respond to Zoe, but zero in on Ruah. “What’s the purpose of a widest, a longest, a highest, a deepest . . . anything? What’s the purpose of an -EST, Ruah?”
She smiles, turns, and heads back toward the elevator. “You’ll need to ask one to find out.” She points a finger at me.
“What? Wait! I have one more question!”
She tilts her head. “Yes?”
“Why is it that you only sometimes show up on these adventures?”
Ruah reaches into her puffy snowsuit pocket and pulls a lump of metal out of her pocket. It’s the mold! She takes the top off, revealing the Triple T Token. “Sometimes he’s late.”
She takes off toward our elevator, walks right through it, and disappears.
“WE’RE ALMOST THERE, SIR! THE SUMMIT! DO NOT GIVE UP HOPE!”
The sound of crunching snow, hard breathing, and axes picking at ice echo below us.
“Arcade! Hide! We’ll be seen!” Zoe turns around and around. She grabs me and Doug, but there is nothing up here and nowhere to go.
“Just play it cool.” I try to shake Zoe off my sleeve.
“No problem there.” Doug shivers and grabs his pillow tighter.
“Act natural, Zoe. Well, as natural as you can in a reindeer onesie.” I turn just as the two heavily clothed, weathered climbers reach the summit.
“Never mind. Just freeze.” I stand there like a statue.
If we’re out here much longer, it will become reality.
“TENZING! TODAY WE HAVE MADE HISTORY!”
They are shocked to see us, of course.
“WHAT IS THIS?!?” The first man grabs his chest. I hope he’s not having a heart attack. “Tenzing! I thought we were going to be the FIRST to summit Everest! What has happened!?!”
The other man circles us, throwing his hands up in the air. “WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE?”
He reaches out to poke my arm. “Why aren’t you frozen, young man? You are standing there in your pajamas! We must be hallucinating, Sir Edmund. No one can withstand the temperatures up here dressed like this!”
Sir Edmund unhooks from his oxygen bottle and walks up to Zoe. “Am I hallucinating about a reindeer? This is NONSENSE!” He smacks one of her antlers.
“Ah . . . ah . . . ah . . . CHOOOOOOO!” Doug sneezes icy gel from his nose and it immediately freezes into a snotberg.
“Do hallucinations sneeze, Tenzing?”
Okay, time to go to plan B.
“Hello, friends! Congratulations on making it to the summit. My name is Arcade Livingston, your welcoming Sherpa.”
I had read that the Sherpas who live down below on the mountain really know their way around here.
“I know all the Sherpas,” Tenzing says. “And you are NOT one of them.”
“He meant yeti.” Doug breaks the frozen snot from his nose. “We’re yetis. Except the girl. She’s, well . . . a reindeer, as you can see.”
DOUG!
“What shall we do, Tenzing? It seems we have been beaten to the summit by children. What will we tell the British public?”
“You could call it the Miracle on Everest,” I say, and grin. But they are not grinning.
Both men are breathing hard now. Sir Edmund falls down in the snow. “I am not feeling well.”
Zoe jumps into bossy, big-sister mode. “You have to eat.”
“I do not feel like eating. And I do not take commands from reindeer!”
“I hate to admit it, but my sister’s right.” I step forward to help Sir Edmund up. “You don’t feel like eating because you have altitude sickness. But if you don’t eat, you’ll die. Humans weren’t made to survive up here. It’s too high.”
Tenzing takes what looks like an unwrapped candy bar out of his pack and hands it to Sir Edmund. “Here, try this. Then we must head down. The children are right.”
“What time is it?” Sir Edmund takes a bite.
“Eleven-thirty, sir. We must head down.”
Edmund finishes the candy bar and brushes the snow off his suit. “Well, then, we shall head down.” He comes up close to examine my face. “Clearly, you are a figment of my imagination, or some kind of god, or you would be quite frozen by now. I think it would be honest to claim ourselves as the first mortals to summit the highest place on earth. Do you think we could trouble you to take a picture of us for the British newspaper?”
“It would be an honor,
Sir.”
He hands me his camera, and I take it with trembling fingers. I’ve never used an old-fashioned camera before. Or any camera, for that matter, except the one on my phone. I hold it up to my face. There’s a little square opening in the top corner, and I look through it, trying to get both the guys in. “Scrunch in closer . . . a little more.”
“Just don’t step back, or you’ll descend much faster than you planned.” Doug laughs nervously under his frozen breath.
“Take the picture, Arcade!” Zoe jumps up and down and rubs her arms and legs. Guess the onesie has reached its limit.
“Hang on, I can’t focus. There’s a strong beam of light in your faces.”
Tenzing and Sir Edmund hold their gloved hands up to block the light beams. “Drat that noontime sun!” Sir Edmund steps back. Zoe throws a hand out. “NO! You’ll fall off!” She runs toward me, grabs the camera, and pushes me aside. “You and Doug get over by the elevator. Be ready to drop the token in. I’ll just be a minute.” She points the camera at the two men. “Smile!”
The men hold their hands up in a victory pose.
“Congratulations, Sir Edmund,” Tenzing says. “We have made history. The first to summit Everest on May 29th, 1953!”
Zoe smiles and clicks the camera a bunch of times. Tenzing runs forward. “Stop. How many photos did you take? We need to save film for logging the descent.”
“Film?” Zoe hands the camera back. “Oh, yeah. I’ve heard about that. I only took ten or twelve.”
“Ten? Twelve? Heavens, reindeer! Who takes that many pictures of the same thing?”
Zoe laughs. “Everybody I know.”
The token’s shining so bright the whole peak of the mountain glows. It’s beautiful, but I could use a little heat right now because I can barely feel my fingers. I somehow manage to squeeze them together to pull the token off the chain.
“Come on, Dasher! Let’s get back to our warm house in New York City!” I walk up to the coin slot, which has that golden sign—GET TRUTH—sitting right above it.
“Maybe the purpose of the highest place is to put me in my proper place.”
Walk humbly with my God.
I let go of the token, and the doors open.
Creak!
The heat and light that radiates from the inside of the elevator draws Doug and me right in. The reindeer is not far behind.
“Close, close, close, close, close!” she yells.
“I agree with Zoe!” I can’t believe I say that.
And the doors close.
“I love heat.” Doug is back in his corner, snuggled under his blanket.
The glow from the golden dome warms our chilled bones. I stare up, wishing I could make out everything the gold plaques say.
“I gotta go to the library tomorrow. Zoe, you need to find those overdue books so I can get my card unblocked.”
CHAPTER 22
Back in the Trash
The golden elevator returned us right back to Doug’s and my bedroom. I checked the clock. “Three a.m. Sorry about your circadian rhythm, Zoe, but it was pretty cool to be the first people to scale Everest. It will be our little secret.”
Zoe pushed the antlers off her head. “Hey, no picture means it didn’t happen.”
“And Sir Edmund and Tenzing have twelve.” Doug laughed as he climbed up to his bunk.
“No, Doug, we can’t sleep yet!” I said.
“We can’t sleep yet?”
“No, we can’t sleep yet.”
“Oh, yeah? Watch me!” Doug rolled onto his bed, shoved his body between the sheets, and threw the comforter over his head.
“Why can’t we sleep yet?” Zoe looked ridiculous, standing there, tapping her hoof.
“I need to find the card with Kenwood Badger’s phone number on it. I want to contact him.”
Zoe held her hands up. “Oh, no. We are NOT going there, Arcade. Those Badger brothers are the meanest, baddest—”
“That’s IT! They’re -ESTS, too, and I need to find out why. Kenwood wants to make things right. Shouldn’t I show him mercy?”
“Like we said before, it could be a setup! Leave it alone, Arcade.” Zoe turned to walk out the door.
“Maybe. But I’m going down to the dumpster to find that card.”
“You mean PIECES of the card! I ripped that baby up good.”
“So I’ll be down there awhile. I can’t sleep anyway. Circadian rhythm is all messed up.”
Doug threw the comforter off and sat up. “Ugh! Mine is too.” He jumped down to the floor. “Let’s go.”
Zoe sighed. “Okay. Let me go change. I’m not pawing around the trash in this.”
We changed into our grubby clothes, then tip-toed down the stairs, carefully avoiding stair five, which squeaks if you step right in the middle. Thankfully, Zoe puts a blanket over Milo’s cage at night, so we didn’t have to hear some awful cockatoo commentary on our way out.
“Hold the door open for me.” Zoe grabbed the stepladder from the pantry and brought it out the side kitchen door. “Brrr! What’s with the wind?”
“Aw, come on, sis, you’ve just been to Everest.” I reached up and clicked my headlamp on.
We climbed into the small trash dumpster that we share with our neighbors. They must have had a party last night, because we found ourselves swimming in pizza boxes.
“At least it still smells good.” Doug sniffed and grabbed his belly.
“Oh, ugh,” Zoe groaned. “I think I just stepped in a banana.”
“Try to ignore that and look for small pieces of a ripped-up, white index card.”
“It’s no use, Arcade. We’ll never find them.” Zoe pulled a brown peel from her foot. “This. Is. Disgusting.”
“Hmmmm.” I sorted through paper plates, pizza crusts, and red plastic cups. “Zoe, where did you put those pieces when you ripped them up?”
She took a minute to think. “I threw them in the trash in the bottom bathroom.”
“You mean the trash I’m supposed to empty twice a week but always forget?”
“Yeah.”
“CHA-CHING! Let’s get outta here!”
Sometimes it pays to forget to do your chores. But not in allowance.
We tried to brush all the trash-stink off outside, but it was no use. As soon as we got in, Loopy came running and attacked us for a lick-fest.
“Loop, hang on, boy, I got papers to find.” Doug held Loopy while I retrieved the small trash bag from the bathroom and brought it into the kitchen. I was just about to pour everything out on the dining room table when Zoe stopped me.
“Not so fast!” Zoe went to the pantry and brought out a large plastic trash bag. She spread it on the table. “Now you can dump.”
I poured out used tissues, an empty hand soap container, and a broken pencil.
“See? This is why I don’t need to empty this twice a week.”
There was also a candy bar wrapper, a broken hair tie, and a ball of hair. I picked that up and held it out for Zoe. “This yours?”
“Hey, at least I clean out my brush.”
Scattered among those items were little bits of white index card. I picked them out, and Doug and Zoe pieced them together on the table.
“I got the KB!” Doug said. “And a couple of numbers. Zoe, what’d you get?”
“Numbers.” She held a couple of pieces up. “How do we know what order they go in?”
“Just put the paper together like a puzzle. Why did you have to rip them up so small, Zoe?”
“So you wouldn’t try to put them back together! If I’d known that I would have to do it . . .”
“Here’s a couple more.” I was handing the pieces to Doug when I heard a car pull into our side drive. “Oh, no! Who’s that?”
Zoe peeked through the kitchen window. “It’s Dad! Hurry, get all this trash out of here!”
I can’t believe we forgot Dad was still at work. He usually gets home around three-thirty. We threw the trash contents back in the little bag. L
oopy was chewing on the candy bar wrapper.
“Give me that, Loop!” I pulled it away from him, stuffed it in the trash, and ran the basket back to the bathroom. Zoe gathered up the big trash bag and threw it in the kitchen garbage, and Doug headed for the refrigerator.
Dad opened the side kitchen door and jumped when he found us all waiting for him.
“Well, hello! To what do I owe a greeting from all of my kids this early in the morning?”
Doug stuck his head up over the refrigerator door. “Hey, Mr. L. We couldn’t sleep, so we’re makin’ a snack. You want a quesadilla?” Doug took out some cheese and tortillas and plopped them on the counter.
Dad yawned and stretched. “Sounds tempting, but I’m wiped. How about you make me some pancakes and bacon around noon tomorrow?”
Doug shot an index finger out. “You got it, Mr. L!”
“That will be fabulous. I’ll see you all then.”
I raised my hand. “I’ll have to take a raincheck. I’m going to the library.”
Dad put down his bookbag and unbuttoned the top button of his dress shirt. “Tomorrow? I don’t think so, bud. Have you watched the news? We’ve got a nor’easter coming. I don’t think anyone in New York City is going anywhere.”
“Nor’easter? That’s awesome!” Doug pulled a pan from the cupboard and started making cheese quesadillas. “Too bad tomorrow’s not a school day.”
“Well, I hope people can get to the show tomorrow night. We’ll have to see how much snow this thing dumps. See you all for pancakes!” Dad left his bag on the chair and walked up the stairs.
“Are you gonna put some chilis in those?” I dug in the pantry and pulled out a can. “And how about olives?”
“You got it!”
I got the can opener and started cranking away on the olive can. “Zoe, you want some quesadillas?”
Zoe was searching through the junk drawer of the desk in the corner. “Sure. I’m starving from being the first reindeer to summit Everest.” She held up some tape. “Do you have the card pieces? I’ll tape them together while you guys cook.”
“Sounds good to me.” I pulled the pieces from the silverware drawer where I had thrown them before Dad came in. After picking them out from the spoon section, I gave them to Zoe.
Arcade and the Dazzling Truth Detector Page 12