“Not to be rude,” said Adam, “but I have a confession to make.”
Logan cocked his head to the side and narrowed his eyes. “Okay then.”
“I lost the statue.”
They all stared at him. “You know, the statue. The rabbit that Maddie gave us yesterday.”
“Yeah, we know what statue,” said Eve. “What do you mean ‘you lost it’?”
“You know how it was all jerky and crazy last night, but then it kind of quieted down? Well, as soon as I got outside, it started to jump around again, not so strong as before but strong enough that I was kind of in a hurry to get home and stash it somewhere. So, anyway, I’m walking really fast down the street, and every once in a while, it’s kicking me in the back. Then all of a sudden it stops. Just stops. No twitching, no nothing. At first I was just glad, but then I kind of started wondering. What was up with it? Why wasn’t it moving any more?”
“Tell me you didn’t,” said Eve.
“So I stopped and unzipped the bag,” Adam plowed on as Eve groaned. “I just wanted to look at it and see if I could see anything different. Obviously now that seems dumb, but at the time it just seemed like I should make sure it didn’t get broken or anything. Anyway, as soon as I opened the bag, it gave a big jerk and I dropped the whole thing on the ground. It hit the pavement really hard. I was afraid I had smashed it. I honestly still didn’t think it would really… Anyway, it did. It hopped out of the bag before I could even realize what happening and it went jumping away down the street. It was going pretty fast, but I ran after it and almost got my hands on it a couple of times. But never quite enough to pick it up. And it just kept going and going. I followed as long as I could, but I couldn’t keep running forever. I dropped to a walk and it just kept getting farther and farther away. I kept after it for a while, but finally I lost it in the shadows by the side of the road. I’m really sorry guys.”
“Where did it go?” asked Dominic.
“I just said, I don’t know. It was dark and it didn’t look like it was stopping anytime soon. I feel like an idiot.”
“I mean, what direction was it going? Where were you when you last saw it?”
“Oh, um, it was heading back the way I just came. That’s west, I guess. It kept going that direction the whole time I was following it. I lost it right around Maple Street, so that’s the southwest corner of town.”
There was a long pause. “You guys. I’m really sorry. I shouldn’t have opened the backpack.”
“It’s okay, Adam,” said Eve. “It was just a mistake. I would totally do something like that. You didn’t know what would happen. Anyway, there’s lots more to follow. Maddie had like nine hundred of those things. I’m sure she’ll understand. She said she lost one herself like that.”
“Yeah, it will be fine,” said Alex. “It could have happened to anyone.”
“Why did you follow it by yourself?” asked Logan. “You could have called us to help you.”
“Called you?”
“On your phone. You have a cell phone, don’t you?”
“Um, yeah, but... I mean…it happened fast, and I was so freaked out and busy chasing it, I don’t think I could have called even if I had thought of it. I kept hoping I would just be able to grab it and that would be all.”
Logan raised one eyebrow. “You weren’t thinking that maybe you could find out where it went without the rest of us there to tell you how dangerous it was?”
The feeling of guilt was gone. Now Adam was just mad. “No! I wasn’t thinking at all. I told you I’m really sorry, but I didn’t do it on purpose.”
Logan just gave him a hard stare.
“Look, I don’t know what to say. It happened. I’m an idiot, but it happened. There’s nothing I can do about it now. You want me to go to where I last saw it and try to figure out where it went? I doubt there’s much to see now, but I’ll do it if that will make you happy.”
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you? A chance to go off and play the hero?”
Adam didn’t know where all this hostility was coming from. He had known they would be disappointed, but Logan was acting like he’d murdered someone. “What is up with you, man? I apologized for a mistake. What do you want from me?”
Logan cocked his head to the side. He started to say something and then seemed to change his mind. His eyes darted to his backpack sitting on the ground at his feet. Finally he said, “Just forget it. You like to do stuff on your own. Whatever. That’s not going to change. Let’s just move on.”
“Logan, that’s not fair,” said Eve. “He said he didn’t do it on purpose. He wasn’t trying to leave us out of anything. It was just an accident.”
Logan twitched a shoulder. “Okay. Whatever.”
The silence was tense. Dominic was the first one to break it. “I guess this means we know what we have to do next.”
Adam looked a question at him.
“We have to go to Maddie this morning and tell her the statue got away from us.”
Logan snorted at that last word. Eve sighed. Adam felt another surge of anger. What was Logan’s problem today?
“The question is, what are we going to do after we’ve told her?” said Alex. “Are we going to ask for another and see where that takes us? Or do we think she’s not who she says she is? Do we just walk away and try to figure something else out? We could always go back to the place where you found the recording, Dom. See if there’s any other clues about where to find those creatures.”
“We’ve been over that place a hundred times,” said Adam. “We have no ideas at all. There’s really nothing else to do but follow up on these statues. Plus, if Maddie really is someone evil, we need to know that. How else are we going to find out but to watch her and see what she does?”
“I agree,” said Eve. “I was thinking about it last night. If we invite her to come with us while we follow the statue, maybe we can find out more about her. Plus, she’s an old lady. There’s not much she can do to us all together.”
Dominic nodded. “Yeah. This seems like our best shot at finding out something. Even if it’s not related to the rest of this.”
“Sounds good to me,” said Alex.
They all waited a minute for Logan to object. He didn’t say anything.
“What do you think, Logan?” asked Eve.
He shrugged. “If you all think you should, then sure, okay. As long as you’re careful… I can’t be in on it anyway. I’ve got to be home in an hour.”
“What? Why?” Eve’s surprise was understandable. Usually Logan didn’t want to go home a minute sooner than he had to.
“My mom has more meetings or something.” Logan wasn’t making eye contact. Not that that meant anything. As far as Adam could tell, looking at the ground was one of Logan’s favorite pastimes.
“That sucks,” said Alex. “Well…we’ll wait for you. We can do this tomorrow. I mean, we’ll go tell Maddie what happened, but we won’t do anything else until you can come.”
“No!” said Logan. “I mean, don’t bother waiting. There’s already four of you. That’s more than enough to do this. My mom said she may be having more day stuff now, maybe even moving to the day shift, so…you know, who knows when I’ll have enough time to do it?”
“Well she’s not going to start working weekends, is she?” said Eve. “We’ll just do it on Saturday. That’s only a couple of days to wait.”
“No. Seriously. Just do what needs to be done. The sooner we know what’s up with these statues the sooner we can get on to more…to other stuff. You can let me know what you find out, and then we’ll have the weekend to figure out what we should do next.”
Something didn’t seem right to Adam. Hadn’t the message just said that they were supposed to all stick together?
Still, it wasn’t like anyone was trying to split them up or anything. He didn’t think Logan’s mom was an evil assassin. She was just a single mom with a job. This was life. Plus, the way Logan had been lately, it would be a r
elief to work on this without him.
That last thought made Adam feel guilty, so he pushed it aside. The point was that the rest of them had a lot more time than Logan did.
“Logan, we have to stick together,” Eve was saying. “That’s like the only the thing we actually know about all this. We just got a mysterious message with all sorts of hints and the only thing we understand? Stick together. Obviously someone knows we need each other.”
“I know it would be better if I went. Obviously. I just have to babysit at home. I was planning to be with you guys all day, but this morning my mom ambushed me. She wasn’t going to let me come at all, but I really wanted to be here to…” He stopped suddenly. “I finally got her to let me come for an hour, but I have to get back.”
The silence stretched on for a minute. The girls were staring hard at Logan.
“Okay then,” said Logan. “I really do have to go. You guys be careful today, and we’ll meet again in the morning and you can tell me all about it. I should be able to get an hour again, even if I can’t have the whole day.”
“I still think…” Eve sighed. “Whatever. Okay.”
Logan slung his bag back onto his shoulders. “See you guys tomorrow.”
Just as he was turning away, Alex spoke up. “Logan, wait. Wasn’t there something important you wanted to talk about this morning?”
He didn’t turn back. “Nah. It’s okay. It doesn’t really matter.”
Logan was almost out of sight before Adam remembered that he had left his copy of the Book of Sight at Logan’s last night. He had meant to ask for it back. Oh well, he thought. I’ll see him tomorrow. It was only one more day.
• • • • •
The walk to Maddie’s house was spectacular. The sick feeling in Adam’s stomach was gone now that his story was told, and even though he still felt bad about leaving Logan behind, the beauty of the day soon made him forget.
Reading the Book of Sight hadn’t just made Adam able to see bizarre creatures like the Dund; it made the world around him brighter, more alive. It was the same for all of them. Alex had once said it was like she had been walking around wearing sunglasses her whole life and then suddenly someone took them off. Adam thought about that all the time. It was like any time he wasn’t worrying about other things, the beauty around him rushed in and took over. For just a few minutes, he let go of all the mysteries he wanted solved and just went with it.
The Redoubt was in an empty field behind the giant Super-Mart. To avoid the parking lot, they left by the back way, crossing a little creek and cutting through a couple of backyards. A slight breeze was rustling through the trees they passed, making the sunshine whirl and dance. The air was a living thing. The flowers on the creek bank threw back their heads and drank it in. Adam was sure if he stopped and listened long enough he would actually hear them sing.
No one spoke as they walked along, and no one hurried. Their minds were all too full for words. The walk only took a few minutes, but it was enough to wash out the unpleasant scene at the Redoubt, to fill his mind with peace.
Then they saw the littered yard and sagging front porch of Maddie’s house. Adam felt himself thud back to earth. The next challenge was about to start. At least now he felt ready to face it.
“Well, well, well, so you decided to come back after all.” Maddie must have been waiting on her front porch because she was calling out to them before they even got to her front walk. “I was a bit worried you might just start followin’ that little rabbit without no word to the crochety old lady that gave him to you.” She contradicted these suspicious word with a crooked smile. “I shoulda known better than that. Look at those faces. Bunch of innocent faces if I ever saw any. Well, maybe not that one so much.” She winked at Eve, who widened her eyes innocently, making Maddie laugh. “Come on in, come on in. Let me hear what you thought about a closer look at my little guy.”
Adam knew that everyone was waiting for him to make his confession, but he waited while she led them through her heap of a house and out onto the back porch. The same chairs they had sat in the day before were waiting for them.
“Should I make us some tea again, then?” offered Maddie.
“No, thank you,” said Adam. “Actually, I need to tell you something.” He told her everything, starting from the statue suddenly going berserk at Logan’s house and ending with its shadowy disappearance. “I really am sorry. I feel terrible that I lost your statue. If you want me to pay for it, I totally will.”
Maddie’s eyes were bright with excitement. She waved a hand carelessly. “Don’t you even worry your little head about that. It look like I’m going to run out of statues any time soon?” She gestured at the jam-packed back yard. “I’m more interested in that part where it started jumping about like crazy. That is something I haven’t never seen before.” She sat for a minute humming quietly to herself. “Seems like that bunny was in a terrible hurry to get going. Wonder if it was trying to get away from something or get to something?” She hummed for another minute, then threw up her hands. “Nope. Gotta have the tea. This kind of thinking definitely needs tea.” She jumped up and hurried inside before they could even answer.
“Okay, she may be a little crazy,” said Adam, “but that old lady is smart. I never thought about it maybe trying to get away from something. I just figured, they all move, they’re all trying to get somewhere, this one was just trying a little harder than the others. Do you think there was something in that part of town it was trying to get away from?”
“I don’t know about the part of town,” said Alex. “Didn’t it keep jumping fast the whole time you were chasing it?”
“Yeah, true…so what? You think it just didn’t like me?”
Eve grinned. “Well…I mean, who could blame it? You do have sort of a “I eat stone bunnies for lunch” kind of look to you.”
Adam threw her the obligatory dirty look as the back door slammed open again.
“See there? Just looking at the tea clears my head. I had that pitcher half full of ice when I just thought, ‘Maddie, what’re you wasting time for? This is no time for sitting and talking. This is a time for doing.”
“We need to set one free and follow it,” said Dominic.
“Exactly, my boy. That’s just it. All the guessing in the world don’t come close to being as good as knowing something.”
“We were thinking about this yesterday,” said Adam. “If it does start going really fast like that rabbit did, we need our bikes for following it. And it might be best if we went to the edge of town first. I mean, if it goes back into town, it does, but if it’s going somewhere else, there’d be less chance of running into distractions.”
“Like nosy neighbors, you mean,” said Maddie. “I like it.”
“I guess we should head home for our bikes then,” said Eve.
“No need for that. No need at all. I got about ten of them piled around the side of the house. You just take whichever ones you want and bring ‘em back when you come to give me all the exciting news.”
“You’re not going with us?” asked Eve.
“Well, honey, it’s real nice that you think I should, but this old lady ain’t gettin’ on a bike, and you know it. I’d only slow you down, and that’s even if I didn’t fall and break a hip.”
Eve blushed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think…”
“Aw, now, don’t be sorry, girly. Never be sorry for thinking someone can do more than they can. It shows you ain’t looking down on them. Believe you me, I’d like to go along. If those girls of mine hadn’t insisted on taking away my driver’s license, I’d follow you in the car, but…well. You young ones get to go have all the fun, and I’ll have that glass of tea after all.”
“You’re not worried we’ll lose another one of your statues?” Alex asked.
“Well, that’s the chance, ain’t it? But nah, we all know I can stand to lose a few. Mind you, I ain’t going to give you one of my favorites or anything.” She creaked down the back
steps and wandered for a minute among the tightly packed lawn ornaments. Finally she put her hand on a waist-high carving of a woman with snakes for hair. “This one. She’ll do just fine. Big enough for you to see easy even if she gets away from you a bit but small enough to carry between two of you if you’re careful. And she’s got the bonus of I never liked her. That hair gives me the creeps.”
“Medusa,” said Adam.
“Yep, that’s what they told me at the shop where I found her.” She held up a hand as Adam started to speak again. “Didn’t really listen then and don’t want to listen now. Whatever tale goes along with a woman like that isn’t one this old lady wants to hear about. Now you boys come here and see if you can’t heft her up and get her around the side here where the bikes are.”
As Adam bent to pick up the Medusa statue, he had to admit that Maddie had a point. The statue was creepy. Her snake hair was a little too realistic, her look of hate too well done. He couldn’t help but think it was messed up to carve Medusa out of stone, since turning people into statues with her eyes was Medusa’s big claim to fame. She wasn’t very heavy, but she was awkward to carry. It took both him and Dominic to carry her as they all followed Maddie around the corner.
“How are we going to haul this on a bike?” Dominic said under his breath. Adam shook his head.
Just where the fence turned in to close up with the side of the house was a big pile of what looked like twisted metal. For a second, Adam looked around for the bikes. Then the the truth dawned on him as Eve and Alex gingerly began to pick through the pile. They managed to untangle the top bike, which seemed to be brown until you noticed that it was all rust. Their next find was a bit better. The handle bars were slightly bent, but otherwise it looked like it could carry a human being. The next two bikes were for children. It took the girls a few minutes to get the next one. Feebly, Adam offered to help, but the girls waved him away. He was relieved. He turned instead to where Dominic was studying the statue.
“You don’t happen to have a wagon around here, do you?” Adam asked Maddie.
The Broken Circle (The Book of Sight 2) Page 13