“If they did,” said Persephone, “it could’ve been before he got here in August. It sure would explain a lot.”
“Yeah, like why he was such a jerk,” grumbled Andy as he rubbed his stomach and remembered how James had punched him for no reason whatsoever.
“Unless he’s just naturally that way,” said Chase with a shrug.
“Maybe that’s why he attacked Grandfather,” said Andy. “The Marlowes probably made him do it.”
“Well, we won’t find out anything standing here,” said Persephone. “Come on, let’s get going.”
The door to Janie’s room was still cracked open a bit from the last time they’d been there. Holding his breath, Chase eased the door open more, and they slipped inside.
Chase glanced around. A feeling of apprehension skittered up his spine. Maybe digging through someone else’s private belongings wasn’t such a great idea, after all. “I don’t know,” he said, shaking his head. “Do you guys feel as weird about this as I do? I mean, it’s like we’re burglars or something.”
“Yeah, but if it helps us find some answers,” said Persephone as she approached the long dresser, “it’ll be worth it.”
“I’ll check the closet,” said Andy.
Chase was considering the best place for him to start searching, when the wall in front of him rippled and shifted. “Uh…did you guys see that?”
Andy backed away from the wavering closet doors. “Something really strange is going on. I think we should get out of here.”
Persephone turned from where she was searching one of the dresser drawers. “But we haven’t found—”
In a flash of streaking, silvery streamers, everything went crazy. The bedroom began to whip and whirl around them as an ear-splitting whistle pierced the air.
“What the heck?”
“Oh my gosh!”
“Holy cow!”
Chase had the quick thought that maybe they were being sucked into some kind of wild, swirling vortex, but then he realized the room was shrinking, and they were caught in the middle of it. He shouted in pain when something solid rammed into the back of him. Then Persephone slammed into his front and Andy into his side.
Chase turned his head slightly and saw that the large four-poster bed had contorted to fit the rapidly shrinking room and had wrapped itself around them like a skin-tight rubber suit. Not only that, the dresser had scrunched to the size of a small canoe and was shoved up against Andy, while Persephone wore a chair like a hat, with its arms wrapped around her ears like soccer-ball-sized earmuffs. It looked as if a tall, flowery vulture had sprouted from her head.
It had taken only a few heartbeats for the kids and everything else in the room to be squashed together like a foot wedged into a shoe that was way too small.
Chase cringed when he felt the stinging and stabbing of pins and needles slithering up his body. Then a long, furry thing fell across his eye. It was Maxwell’s tail. The frightened ferret now clung to the top of Chase’s head, his sharp claws digging into Chase’s scalp.
Chase blinked. Persephone’s face was so close, he figured it was possible to count every one of her eyelashes if he wanted. Her warm breath swished across his face. He hoped he wasn’t in need of a breath mint.
“What’s going on? What’s going on?” yelled Andy out of the corner of his mouth. “Chase?” His voice was muffled by the dresser squashed up against him. He was facing away from the other two, his back squeezed against their sides.
“I—I don’t know,” said Chase. “I’ve never seen anything like it. Maybe it’ll help if we all stay calm.”
“Stay calm!” said Persephone. “None of us can move because we’re mashed in here like a bunch of sardines. I have something odd stuck on my head, Andy has a dresser practically rammed up his nose, and you want us to stay calm?”
“It’s an armchair,” said Chase.
“What?”
“You have an armchair sitting on your head.” All at once, despite the predicament they were in, he had the urge to laugh.
Persephone caught the grin threatening to burst across his face. “If I hear one snicker coming out of you—” But then she noticed Maxwell attached to Chase’s head. The small animal’s back was hunched, his fur stood on end, and his bulging, beady black eyes glowered down at the kids, as if the whole thing was their fault. Her lips started twitching. Two seconds later, the two kids cracked up.
“Hey! What’s going on? Why are you guys laughing?” said Andy. “Stop it! There isn’t enough room in here.”
“I know, I know,” said Chase, still snickering. “But you should see Persephone…”
“And you should see Chase…” said Persephone in between giggles.
“I don’t care!” shouted Andy. “I want out of here.”
“All right!” said Chase. “It just felt good to laugh for a few seconds, okay?”
“Nothin’ funny here,” grumbled Andy.
“So, anyway,” said Chase, “let’s put on our thinking caps and figure a way out of this.”
“I guess Janie didn’t want anyone coming into her room,” said Persephone.
“But why?”
She frowned. “Maybe she wanted to hide the exact thing we’re looking for. Or maybe she was just being a jerk.”
“I’d sure like to know the secret for magicking these booby traps,” said Chase. Apparently this bit of his grandparent’s magical knowledge hadn’t transferred to him. He promised himself that as soon as they escaped—if they escaped—he’d ask Grandfather about it.
“Why the heck is it called a booby trap?” asked Andy. “I know what a trap is, but what does booby have to do with it?”
Persephone looked at Andy out of the corner of her eye. “I think it’s supposed to mean the trap is meant to catch idiots or morons. You know, those people dumb enough to get caught in it.”
“You mean like us? ‘Cause I feel pretty dumb right now,” muttered Andy. “I hope we don’t run out of air and suffocate in here.” He tried to shift to the side, but his fidgeting only caused the space to shrink even more. “This sucks so much! Do you suppose she shrunk the whole house?”
“I doubt it, shrimp,” Chase answered. “It’s probably only this room, and we triggered it when we came in.”
“We need to get out of here,” whined Andy. “It’s so crowded, I think I have caustaphoblia.”
“That’s claustrophobia,” said Chase, rolling his eyes, which were about the only things he could move. “Anyway, here’s what I think we should do. First, does anyone have any idea where the hallway door is?”
“I think it’s behind you,” said Persephone. “Or maybe it’s the bathroom door. I’m so turned around, I’m not sure of anything right now.”
“The bathroom door might do the trick, too,” said Chase. “We’ll have to cross that bridge when we come to it.”
“That reminds me,” said Andy. “I have to pee.”
Chase groaned. “Not now, Andy. We need to concentrate on getting out of here first.” He frowned and tried not to think of his itchy nose he had no way of scratching. He hoped he wasn’t about to sneeze. Having lightning bolts blast out of his eyes would not be a good thing. In fact, it would be disastrous. “I don’t know exactly how this power works, but since everything is crammed into this small area, I’m guessing the rest of the room must be empty space around us. If we can inch everything across, until we meet up with the door again, maybe we can open it and the room will return to normal, but we all have to move together.”
“Why don’t you try melting through first?” said Andy. “Did you forget you have that power now?”
Chase grinned, excitement lighting up his face. “Yeah, I did! Let me try.” He squinted in concentration. “Liquefy.” He pushed against the barrier. “Crap!” he puffed out. “I can’t make it work.”
Andy sighed loudly and said, “Figures.”
“At least we still have Chase’s other plan to try,” said Persephone. “On the count of three. O
ne…two…three!”
They all shuffled their feet and pushed.
“Again!” said Chase.
They shuffled and pushed until they were panting and perspiration was rolling off them. They all agreed that it was a lot like dragging a lazy Tyrannosaurus Rex and pushing an overweight King Kong through a hot and steamy jungle. The temperature in the room felt as if it had shot up to at least 120 degrees.
Chase wanted to swipe his sleeve across his dripping forehead, but no matter how hard he tried, he just wasn’t able to move his arms. Besides that, his brain wouldn’t stop thinking about how awesome a refreshing dip in the ocean would feel on his roasting skin.
“This sucks!” Andy exclaimed once more. “When I see Janie again, she’s toast.”
“I wouldn’t mind getting my hands on her right about now,” said Persephone.
After a while, Chase lost all track of time. He hoped his spinning head didn’t mean he was going to faint. How unmanly would that be? But, considering everything that had happened so far, in his mind, this was now officially the worst experience he’d ever lived through. Sort of like a never-ending nightmare.
Several more shoves later, he was close to admitting he didn’t have the strength to move another inch when he bumped into something. “Hey! I think we made it.”
“Thank goodness!” said Persephone. “We need to find the door handle.”
Chase wiggled the fingers on his left hand, the only part of him that wasn’t squashed or feeling mangled at the moment. “Okay, my fingers were numb for a bit, but now they’re tingling. I’ll see what I can do.”
He grimaced as he slowly twisted his wrist and groped behind him. Three minutes later, he was still fumbling around. He had the urge to shout out his frustrations like some kind of lunatic, or maybe pound his head against the wall; that is, if he could move it. Where in the heck was that lousy, idiotic—his fingers brushed a cool, smooth object—fantastic, most-awesome handle!
“Hurry, Chase!” cried Andy.
“One more second.”
He twisted the handle and when he heard a quiet click, he pulled. The door opened a tiny crack, but this was all it needed. Instantly, a howling wind filled the room. It took but a split-second for things to start whirling madly again. It was as though every piece of furniture in the room exploded as it returned to its original shape.
“Whoa!” yelled Chase when his feet were swept out from under him.
He, Andy, Persephone and Maxwell twisted around the room like scarecrows caught in a tornado. At last, one by one, they sailed out the doorway and landed in a heap in the hall.
Moaning, Andy sat up and pried his bent, lopsided glasses off his face. He had red eye-glass marks across his cheek and forehead. “Boy! I thought we’d never get out of there.”
Persephone winced as she rubbed the top of her head. “I’m happy I’m not wearing that goofy chair anymore. Please remind me to never buy myself a big, floppy hat.”
“Deal,” said Andy. “As long as you guys remind me to never let you talk me into breaking into anything else around this place.”
“I’m with you there,” said Persephone.
Feeling a bit queasy from all the spinning, Chase lay sprawled on the floor with a frazzled-looking Maxwell stretched across his chest. Chase drew in a deep breath, enjoying the cool, fresh air, and the great feeling of having space all around him again. “So, anyone up for going back in?”
“No!” shouted Andy and Persephone together.
“Good,” he answered. “I don’t know about you guys, but I’ve had enough for one day.”
CHAPTER TEN
Tendicula
Chase pried his gritty eyes open and squinted at the clock. 8:34 A.M. Well, at least he’d gotten a couple hours of sleep, even if he didn’t feel like it. For three nights in a row now, he’d spent practically the whole time flopping around in his bed, trying his hardest not to think about Janie and the Marlowes.
Another thing that wouldn’t stop bothering him was why in the world he hadn’t had a premonition about Janie being kidnapped. It might not have helped, but at least it would have been nice to get some sort of warning that something terrible was going to happen.
Noticing the chill in the air, he pulled the blankets up around his chin as he listened to the raindrops pinging against the windows. Maybe he should stay in bed the whole day. Now that sounded like the perfect plan, and after all, it was his last chance to sleep in before school started.
School. This was another thing he didn’t want to think about. Persephone had told him and Andy that since the island only had around a hundred and eighty kids, everyone attended at the same place.
Chase thought going to school wouldn’t be so bad if they taught more interesting things than math and science. He really hated math. No matter how hard he tried, something about those numbers completely confounded him. A class on understanding girls might be a lot more helpful in getting through life. Yep. He’d be the first in line to sign up for that one.
As he lay there feeling comfortable and groggy, he became aware of something warm snuggled against his back. Did Andy have a bad dream and decide he would feel a lot safer closer to his older brother? Chase shifted to the side and the warm body followed. Actually, it seemed a bit small for Andy. He rolled over and pulled back the covers. “Yiiiikes!” he exclaimed, jumping to his feet on the bed.
“Ahh!” yelled Andy, tumbling to the floor in a jumble of sheets and blankets. “What’s going on? Is it the Marlowes again?”
“There’s some strange, furry thing in my bed.” As it yawned and stretched, Chase realized the creature was Maxwell, looking for all the world as if he owned the place. “Maxwell! What’re you doing here?” Of course he wasn’t going to get an answer, since talking wasn’t one of Maxwell’s many abilities. “You ruined a perfectly good day of sleeping in.”
Andy crawled back into his bed. “I wish you’d quit waking me up by scaring the heck outta me. Do you wanna give me gray hairs or something?”
“Sorry,” said Chase as he hopped off the bed and stomped into the bathroom. “Darn furball anyway!”
It didn’t make Chase any happier when Maxwell joined him in the shower, and then had a great time splashing and playing in the soapy water. Nor did Chase appreciate being trailed down to breakfast and having to share his banana and orange juice.
“Looks like you have a new friend,” said Persephone when she came in from the garden.
“What’s up with him?” said Chase. “It’s not like we’re close or anything.” He gave Maxwell a bewildered look, remembering that when he’d first arrived at the house, the feisty ferret had stolen a bunch of Chase’s belongings. When he’d finally found his possessions, Maxwell had been highly upset with Chase for taking all the animal’s newfound treasures away. After that, they mostly just scowled and glared at each other.
“Hmm. I guess he’s lonely. Plus, you guys did bond while we were stuck in Janie’s room,” said Persephone with a smirk.
“He’s hanging out with me because of that?”
She shrugged. “It’s only a guess. Maybe you remind him of Janie. Here, I’ll take him for a while.” Picking up Maxwell, she cuddled him under her chin. “I think he’s cute.” She scratched the top of his head. “You can hang with me, Maxy, I don’t mind.”
“Whatever,” said Chase. “But don’t come complaining to me when you can’t find your shoes and other things, or they’re all chewed up.” He stuck his hands into his pockets and tromped from the kitchen, shaking his head. Maxwell probably was wondering what had happened to Janie. The two of them were usually inseparable, and now she’d left him behind. It was just one more thing that made no sense about her leaving with the Marlowes, and not putting up any sort of fight.
Anyway, he’d have to worry about it later. He still wanted to learn the secret to setting those booby traps. That little bit of magical knowledge might come in handy some day.
Chase found Grandfather lounging in the den
, watching an old black and white movie. “Hey, Grandfather, got a minute?” When he didn’t answer right away, Chase’s heart almost jumped out of his chest. “Grandfather!” He bolted across the room and grabbed his grandparent’s arm.
Grandfather jerked awake and blinked up at Chase. “What? What? Oh, Chase, it’s you.”
Chase flopped onto the couch. “Whew! I thought—I thought…you were…”
“No need to worry, I’m feeling fine. Still alive and kicking,” said Grandfather as he straightened his wire-rimmed glasses, which were dangling off the end of his nose, and brushed his hand through his silvery hair. “Just resting my eyes.”
Chase stared at the floor and heaved a deep sigh. “Grandfather, I don’t mean to interrupt your show, or your nap or anything, but can I talk to you about some things?”
He’d decided he needed to stop keeping so many secrets. Maybe if he hadn’t kept his mouth shut, they might’ve been able to stop James’s attack on Grandfather. Chase still blamed himself for that.
“So no more secrets,” he said, after telling Grandfather about what had happened in Janie’s room.
“There’s nothing wrong with having secrets, Chase,” said Grandfather. “You only have to know when it’s best to hold on to them, or best to let go.”
“But how do I know?”
“Secrets can be both good and bad, you know. So you have to ask yourself if it will hurt or help the people around you if they’re revealed,” said Grandfather. “And, some secrets are meant to be kept, especially if it involves someone’s confidence or privacy.”
Chase nodded. “I wish I would’ve come to you about James. Then things might not have gotten so out of hand.”
“It might have helped,” said Grandfather, shrugging, “but then again, it’s hard to stop someone when they’re as determined as James seems to be.”
Yeah! And he doesn’t care who he hurts along the way, either, Chase thought angrily. He opened his mouth to say something else, but Grandfather held up his hand to stop him. “I know, Chase, you’re still upset about the secrets your father and I kept from you, but—” He gave a small half-smile before continuing, “—it appears we’ve all made mistakes concerning our secret-keeping. So perhaps it would be most wise to forgive and move on. Don’t you think?”
Chase Tinker and the House of Secrets Page 8