Chapter 12
The storekeeper came in with a woman hard on his heels.
“Now, see here,” the woman began. “I most certainly paid for one full pound of butter, but when I got home, there was only a half-pound in my basket.”
“I’ve had my mind on other things, so I might have done that.”
“There’s no ‘might’ about it,” the woman argued. “And, I want my other half pound of butter.”
“Don’t worry, you’ll get it.”
The children allowed one eye to slip inside the window frame. Wasn’t the woman unbearably hot in that long dress with sleeves that came down to her elbows? And, if that weren’t suffocating enough, she wore a hat that tied under her chin.
The storekeeper gave the woman her half pound of butter, and she harrumphed her way through the door.
The children waited for the sound of footsteps and the door closing, but it didn’t come. Instead, they heard silence then the sound of the stool being picked up and carried back to its place behind the counter.
Reece and Sean slowly turned their heads towards each other. He saw it. Now, the only footsteps they heard were heading towards the gaping window. They realized instinctively that the storekeeper would expect whoever stole the key to head for the locked room. Frantically, the children crawled past both windows, jumped to their feet and started running in the opposite direction. They’d never reach the cover of the woods without being seen, so they barreled around the corner of the stable and dashed through the huge door.
Once their eyes adjusted to the dimness, they saw a middle aisle before them with three stall doors on either side of it. A ladder leading to a loft was half way down the aisle. The first stall was empty and they slipped inside plastering their bodies against the inside wall breathing as softly as they could. They listened for the storekeeper, but all they heard was the ferocious pounding of their hearts. Where was he? They climbed on top of a bag of feed and peeked through the window. Nobody was in the path immediately in front of them, but they heard scuffling sounds and voices coming from the dirt road that ran between the fronts of the buildings.
Sean’s eyes were as wide as they ever got. “I think he’s rounded up a bunch of other people, and now they’re going to start looking for us.”
Reece fought the panic quickly rising to the surface. Instead, she covered her eyes blotting out everything that might happen and thought through the possibilities. Finally, she drew her hands back and turned to her brother. “Yes, but the storekeeper only knows that the key is missing. Even if they find us, they won’t know we’re the ones who took it.”
Sean tried to look comforted. “I know,” he said looking down at his tunic. “But, we look different.”
Reece nodded her head and they both slowly climbed down. “I know, and there’s nothing we can do about that now. But, if they find us, we have to remember not to ask them what date it is or where we are.”
“I never ask anybody the date anyway. It’s always written on the dry board.”
Reece swallowed as she listened. The sound of voices was louder now. Maybe they’d drawn in more people to look for the thief who stole the key. “We should hide the key in case they catch us, then if they ask us if we took it, we can tell them we just got here.”
Sean’s jaw dropped as he looked up at his sister.
“It’s not really lying,” Reece said as convincingly as she could. “We’re just not answering the question they asked us, that’s all.” It was a fine line, but it was the best she could come up with under the enormous pressure she felt.
Sean thought about their entire situation for a few seconds and decided if they weren’t very careful, they’d end up with the Professor. “I don’t really like him very much, but we can’t let him be stuck there, because he might never get out.”
“And if we get caught, we might never get out either.”
They let that bone-chilling thought sink in for a while then looked around the stable for a possible hiding place. Their eyes settled on the ladder leading to the loft. Of course, they’d be trapped there if anyone climbed up searching for them, but in the end, that’s where they headed. It was small and incredibly hot. They found a bucket where odds and ends were kept, and they shoved the key halfway down. They weren’t entirely satisfied that it was the best place, but it would have to do. They wiggled in between what looked like sacks of feed wondering how long they could stand the heat and dust when they heard the soft curious nicker of a horse coming from below. That must be the horse they heard offering a good-bye to the horse tied to the wagon. Why hadn’t the horse nickered when they first walked in? And, how far did the horse’s nickering carry? However far it carried, it had to stop. They scrambled down the ladder and hurried along the aisle to the front of a stall.
“Shh, horse,” said Sean. “We’re not going to hurt you. Just be quiet, ok?”
“She’s pretty.”
“How do you know it’s a girl?”
“Look at the name on the door,” said Reece. “I’ll read it for you.”
Sean elbowed his sister aside. “I can read.” He looked at the large word at the top. “Abby,” he said then read the sentence underneath. “This stall is for Abby when she visits.”
“Hi, Abby.” Reece smiled at the bay horse. “You look like a girl horse.”
“What do you mean?”
“She’s pretty and has soft eyes. Look at her dainty head and ears and feet,” said Reece then turned back to the horse. “So you don’t live here; you’re just visiting.”
“I wonder where she lives when she’s not here?” asked Sean. He reached up to touch the horse, but drew his hand back. What if she didn’t like him? He might leave this stable without one of his fingers.
“Will you let me pat you, Abby?” asked Reece. Hesitantly, she reached out and met Abby’s sniffing nose.
Abby’s ears bent forward and she was about to nose Reece’s hand when her head lifted and turned towards the barn door. She nickered again.
“I wonder if she belongs to the storekeeper,” asked Sean.
“No, as a matter of fact she belongs to me.”
The Door Into Time Page 12