by Ginger Rue
I was so shocked, I could hardly speak. “How?” I pleaded.
“The equalizer unit works with the calibrated microphone and the frequency analyzer, and then from the sound booth, you have—”
“No,” I interrupted. “I’m not interested in how the sound system works. I meant how are you having this conversation with us right now? Why aren’t you frozen in time like everyone else?”
“Who are you?” Aunt Zephyr thundered.
“I’m William Ford Kimble.” He bowed. Actually bowed! “You can call me Ford.”
“Zephyr Grace Zamm,” Aunt Zephyr declared. “You can call me Miss Zephyr.” She didn’t offer to shake his hand.
“You haven’t answered my question,” I reiterated. “Why aren’t you affected by time stopping?”
“I don’t know,” Ford responded. “But I’d like to know. I like to know how things work. That is why I watched you in the lunchroom yesterday.”
“So it was you!” I have to admit, I was relieved. Ford didn’t seem like much of a threat. Something about him was a little off, but he seemed like a pretty nice kid, overall.
“Does anyone else know?” Aunt Zephyr asked.
“About Aleca in the lunchroom?” Ford replied. “Oh no. No, no, no. I can’t tell anyone about that. I wouldn’t know how. I don’t know how it works yet.”
“Do your parents know that you’re a Wonder?” I asked.
“A Wonder?” Ford clarified. “Is that the same as being special? My parents say I am special.”
“Special how?” I questioned. “What can you do?”
“I can do lots of math,” Ford replied. “And I know all the advertisements from television and billboards by heart. And I like to take things apart and put them back together. That is why I don’t have any friends.”
I didn’t understand. I looked at Aunt Zephyr.
“What else can you do, Ford?” Aunt Zephyr asked him gently. “I mean besides your smarts. What is your ability? You must have one, or you’d be frozen in time right now.” Aunt Zephyr tried to explain to him about Wonders and Duds. Ford stared at her and then began laughing.
“When Aleca stops time,” he said, “I like to hold my smooth stone.” He pulled a small rock out of his pocket. “Feel it. It’s very smooth.” After we touched it, he held the stone so that it touched his top lip and the tip of his nose.
I looked to my aunt for an explanation. Why was this boy talking to us about rocks and numbers and sound systems? Why wouldn’t he tell us what we wanted to know? “Aunt Zephyr, I thought Wonder stuff didn’t happen to you until you turned ten,” I remembered. “Ford’s only, what, seven?”
“Seven,” Ford stated. “It is a number with only two factors. That means it is prime.”
“I don’t know everything, Aleca,” acknowledged Aunt Zephyr. “Only how it happened for those in our family. Maybe every Wonder is different. Or maybe Ford is accelerated in that, too, just like he is in school.”
“Ten is the first number with two integers,” Ford said. “I will add that to my notes when I get home.”
“What notes do you already have?” I demanded. Maybe Ford knew more than we did. Maybe he could explain things.
“We don’t have time for analysis right now,” Aunt Zephyr informed us. “Well, of course we have time, since time has stopped. But it’s like I told you before: the more often you stop time, and the longer that time is stopped, the more likely you’ll be detected. We need to fix this mess and move on. Now. Let’s put the skaters where they should go.”
“Physics!” Ford clapped his hands, then clapped the back of his neck. Then he pushed on the boy who was floating in the air and moved him. “This should adjust the angle of incidence enough to affect the angle of reflection just enough to avoid a collision. But not too much, because this is all a secret, isn’t it?” He then positioned the other skaters just so.
“Well done,” remarked Aunt Zephyr. “Now, Ford, go back to where you were. Aleca, lie down, and I’ll lie across you, just like I fell.”
“Wait! I almost forgot! I’ll make this quick.” I did a dance—a little Irish jig kind of like what Aunt Zephyr had been doing on skates—before I went to lie down.
“And that was . . . what, exactly?” Aunt Zephyr asked.
“I was dancing like no one was watching,” I said. “Because no one was. I mean, except for you and Ford. It’s just this thing I promised myself I’d do whenever I stop time.”
“Can we get on with it, please?” she replied.
We each took our positions. Just before I was about to start time again, Aunt Zephyr called to Ford, “We will discuss this more later. For now, zip your lips!”
“That’s not possible,” Ford replied.
“Don’t tell anyone about this,” she clarified. Ford nodded and put his rock to his lip and nose again.
“Aleca, do your thing,” requested Aunt Zephyr.
“Aleca Zamm,” I said.
The skaters were once again in motion, the lights pulsing, and the music booming. The boy who would have smooshed us was instead able to right himself and just missed us. Since he didn’t topple, the girl behind him didn’t topple either. There was no series of falling-skater dominoes like there would have been if I hadn’t stopped time and we hadn’t moved everyone ever so slightly. Only Aunt Zephyr and I had fallen down hard, and it wasn’t actually that bad for us. The other skaters stumbled into one another but quickly righted themselves. It probably looked a lot worse than it was.
Which is probably why the deejay shouted “Ooh!” and stopped the music and turned off the strobe lights. “Everybody okay?” he asked. After we all nodded, the deejay added, “I mean, I know I’m amazing, but I didn’t expect you to fall so hard for me!” He laughed at his own joke, but the only response he got was a few moans. “Tough crowd!” he said. Then he turned on the regular overhead lights so we could see better, and Mom rushed to Aunt Zephyr and me. Aunt Zephyr gave a thumbs-up, and everyone clapped. Once we got out of the way, the lights went back down, the music began throbbing once more, and it was like nothing had happened.
Well, as far as the Duds were concerned, at least.
For Aunt Zephyr, Ford, and me, a lot had happened.
9
The Smackdown on Snitches
“Aleca, are you all right?” Maria asked as soon as Aunt Zephyr and I were back onto the carpeted area. “I barely saw you zooming out there like that! You were so brave! And good thing, too. Your aunt came down pretty hard, from what I could tell. When I saw what you were doing, I didn’t think there was any way you could possibly make it in time! But you did!”
“Yeah,” I affirmed. “I got a lot of good . . . um . . . slideyness . . . from the slick floor. I got there faster than I thought I could.”
Once Mom had had a chance to fuss over Aunt Zephyr and me and make sure we were both okay, Aunt Zephyr proclaimed, “Aleca, I’m in desperate need of a refreshing beverage. Let’s go to your party room and procure one, shall we?”
“Oh, let me get that for you, Aunt Zephyr,” insisted my mom. “Just have a seat right here and I’ll bring it out to you.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it, Harmony, dear,” said Aunt Zephyr. “Aleca and I will get it. Won’t we, Aleca?”
“Come to think of it, a cold drink does sound refreshing,” I remarked.
“I’m thirsty too. I’ll come with you,” Maria offered.
“That won’t be necessary,” Aunt Zephyr told her. “But thank you just the same.”
I could tell that Aunt Zephyr didn’t want my mom or Maria around, so I went along with it. “I’ll catch you in a few minutes, Maria,” I assured her. “Go ahead and enjoy skating.”
Maria shrugged and went back toward the rink.
Once we were inside the empty party room, Aunt Zephyr whispered, “So, what about the boy?”
“I don’t know,” I responded. “What about him?”
“What does your gut tell you?” she asked. “Do we trust him? Do we no
t trust him?”
“He’s odd, but he seems pretty harmless,” I mused. “What do you think his deal is? He says weird things.”
“It would seem that Ford’s genius comes with a side order of social issues.”
“I guess so,” I agreed. “Seems like if you were that smart, making conversation would be so easy.”
“As you ought to know by now, Aleca,” Aunt Zephyr remarked, “things aren’t always what they seem.”
“That’s true,” I replied.
“Take me, for instance,” she continued. “To the untrained eye I seem just like your average, everyday old lady.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t say that,” I answered. I gestured to her purple-and-black getup.
“An average, everyday old lady with flair and pizzazz,” she conceded. “And you seem like a perfectly normal ten-year-old girl. But we know better, don’t we?”
Just then we heard a sneeze.
“Who’s there?” Aunt Zephyr demanded. She skated to the door. It was already open, but we hadn’t known that someone was standing next to the wall beside it, hidden from our view. “Don’t you know it’s impolite to eavesdrop, young lady?”
“I wasn’t eavesdropping.” It was Madison. For once she was without Jordan. That was unusual. But I supposed that even Jordan had to go to the bathroom on her own sometimes. “I was just tying the laces on my skate.”
“I was born during the day, but not yesterday,” barked Aunt Zephyr. “Don’t try your Little Miss Innocent routine on me. If there’s one thing I know, it’s an eavesdropper!”
“So what if I did overhear?” Madison countered. “What are you going to do about it?”
“For one, I might have a talk with your mother, young miss! I might tell her that not only are you an eavesdropper, but you are also disrespectful to your elders.”
“Go ahead,” Madison dared her. “I’m already going to tell on Aleca. And when I do, I’ll also tell everything I just heard!”
“You didn’t hear anything,” I proclaimed. I guess I felt sort of bold, now that I knew Madison wasn’t a Wonder and didn’t know my big secret. But at the same time, I was also going back through what Aunt Zephyr and I had just said. Madison didn’t really know anything, did she?
“Oh, yes I did!” Madison raged. “I heard your aunt say that you’re not a normal ten-year-old girl! I knew something was weird about you! And now I have proof!”
“She’s got us there, Aleca,” Aunt Zephyr stated.
“Huh?” I was shocked. It wasn’t like Aunt Zephyr to give up so fast. I would have thought Madison would be no match for her.
“She knows your secret,” Aunt Zephyr acknowledged.
Why would she say such a thing? Had we not just performed scientific tickling to prove that Madison didn’t know my secret?
“Aha! I was right!” bragged Madison. “See? I knew it! You have a secret! And now I know what it is! You’re not normal!”
“You’re absolutely right,” Aunt Zephyr conceded. “Aleca is far from normal.” Madison crossed her arms and grinned in triumph.
“Normal girls are average,” Aunt Zephyr continued. “Alike. The same. Run of the mill, you might say. Like you, for example. And Aleca, though she might look like an average girl, is far from ordinary. Instead, she is extraordinarily kind and selfless. That’s why she skated onto the rink floor in just the nick of time to break my fall. What average girl would have such complete disregard for her own safety? No, Aleca is not your normal, everyday girl. Not at all.”
Madison’s triumphant grin slowly wilted into a frown.
“So when you’re tattling on Aleca about whatever it is, be sure to tell your mother—and anyone else you’d like—all about how extraordinary my Aleca is,” crowed Aunt Zephyr.
“Yeah,” Madison decided, “I’ll get right on that.” Just then Jordan skated over. “Thank goodness you’re back, Jordan. I’m dying of boredom.” The two linked arms and skated away.
“That was a close one,” Aunt Zephyr declared. She closed the party room door. “Now, back to our discussion.”
10
The Most Disappointing Tattling in the History of Ever
When everyone gathered in the party room a few minutes later to cut my birthday cake, Madison tapped my mom on the shoulder. “May I talk to you a minute, Mrs. Zamm?” she asked.
“I’m a little busy right now, Madison,” my mom replied. “Can we wait until after I light the candles and serve Aleca’s cake?”
“It will only take a minute,” Madison said. “And it’s important. It’s about Aleca.”
I followed them outside the party room. “This is private,” Madison snapped.
My mom spoke up. “Madison, if you want to talk to me about Aleca, I think she has a right to be here.”
“Fine,” Madison sighed. “I just wondered if Aleca told you that she got in trouble at school the other day. Mrs. Floberg had to get the principal involved.”
“Oh,” Mom replied. “Yes, Aleca mentioned that to me. Something about your writing her name on the board when she hadn’t done anything wrong?”
Madison gulped. That was not the reaction she’d been going for. “Well,” Madison began, “a bunch of really weird stuff happened right after that. I don’t know exactly how, but I’m sure Aleca was behind it.”
Mom patted Madison on the head like she was a golden retriever who’d just brought back a tennis ball. Then Mom said in a superfake voice, “What a vivid imagination you have, Madison.”
“B-but—” Madison sputtered.
“Aleca told me all about what happened at school. And frankly, I think you should be very glad that I chose not to discuss it with your mother.”
Madison didn’t know how to recover. “I . . . just thought . . . you should know. I was only trying to help.”
Mom patted her head again and said in her phony voice, “If I need your help, I’ll let you know. Are we finished here?”
“Yes,” Madison replied.
“Wonderful,” Mom said. “Then why don’t we go back inside and enjoy some birthday cake?” It was kind of the most awesome burn ever, because there is nothing more embarrassing than being totally owned and then offered cake. It’s like the person who put you in your place is so cool that they didn’t even notice that they just destroyed you.
Mom went back inside the party room, leaving Madison and me alone.
“Wow, Madison,” I said. “That was probably the worst tattling anyone has ever done. Thanks for making this my best birthday ever!”
11
My New Ally (Which Is What Spies Call People on Their Side, and Being a Spy Is Kind of Exciting)
When I got home that night, I was tired but couldn’t make my brain shut down. The party had been fun, even in spite of Madison and Jordan, but after I’d found out about Ford, it had been hard to focus on having a good time.
Aunt Zephyr and I had decided that we would treat Ford as an ally. Mainly because we didn’t know what else to do with him. He already knew about my ability anyway, so there wasn’t much risk in sharing information with him. We hoped that finding out more about him and what he knew might help us better understand Wonders in general. Ford was supersmart, after all, and he was the first and only Wonder that Aunt Zephyr had ever met who wasn’t part of our family.
So my next job was to seek out Ford at school and try to talk to him in private. I wasn’t sure how to do that, since he was only in third grade, and third graders and fourth graders were never on the playground or in the lunchroom together. But Aunt Zephyr said she was confident I’d find a way. Of course, even if I did find an opportunity to talk to him, that was no guarantee that I could make any sense of what he said. He might just start talking about math and science again. But I had to try.
Maria was sound asleep in my other twin bed, and I could hear Aunt Zephyr snoring away in Dylan’s room when a solution finally popped into my head.
I got out of bed and tiptoed to my desk. For my birthday Maria had given me
some pretty notecards with colorful zigzags all over them and a big A in the center. I took one out of the package and wrote a note to Ford:
We need to talk.
Meet me at the playground swings before school on Tuesday.
Tell no one.
—A
I supposed the A at the end might have been overkill, since there was already an A on the card, but how else was I supposed to sign it?
I’d slip into Ford’s classroom Monday morning, find his desk, and leave the note there for him to find. Then he would meet me Tuesday before school, and I’d get some answers.
I turned off the light, got back into bed, and closed my eyes. Aunt Zephyr’s snores from the next room kept a regular rhythm, and I told myself there was nothing else to do but sleep.
Tuesday would be here before I knew it.
Acknowledgments
Thanks again to my editor, Amy Cloud, for all your hard work on this series and for thinking I am funny. I think you are brilliant, so maybe that makes us even. Thanks to the rest of the team at Aladdin/Simon & Schuster for believing in Aleca and bringing her to life.
Thanks to my incredible agent and friend Abigail Samoun. What can I say? You are just the best.
Thank you to my bilingual friends Justin Brasfield, Dr. Krista Chambless, and Dr. Shirin Posner for filling in the gaps between online translations and my last foreign language class in college, which was . . . ahem . . . a while ago. Y’all are totally bueno and stuff.
Thanks to my family and friends for their continued support. Especially to my children and my nieces and nephews for their enthusiasm, critiques, and all those answers to my many, many questions. I love you all so much. And don’t worry—I won’t tell anyone that you are all Wonders. It will be our secret.
Finally, I would be remiss if I failed to thank my incredible husband, even though he prefers to stay in the background. Dwight, this would be infinitely less fun without you. I love you so.