Chase Tinker and the House of Secrets

by Haberman, Malia Ann

  “Oh my gosh!” screamed the girl as she stumbled over Chase.

  Chase turned his head to see if the girl was okay. She was crouched on the floor, rubbing her knees and frowning. “You guys! It’s her!” he choked out.

  “Are you okay?” said Persephone’s voice.

  “What’s going on?” cried the girl. She jerked her head from side to side, searching for the people that belonged to the strange voices coming at her from out of nowhere.

  Then Chase saw the girl’s arm lift up, like someone was trying to help her to her feet. The girl jumped up and whipped her leg around in a sweeping, kicking motion. A split second later, someone landed on top of Chase.

  “Ahhh!” screamed Persephone. “Chase? Is that you?”

  “Yeah! And you just squashed the heck outta me!” he gasped out.

  “Sorry! But thanks for breaking my fall.” She shoved herself off him and jumped to her feet.

  “Sure,” he wheezed. “Anytime.”

  “I don’t know who—or what—you are, or how you’re doing this, but you better show yourselves!” said the girl. She was pressed up against the door, one hand on the knob, ready to dash out if she needed to. The other was raised as if to punch anything that came too close.

  “Oh yeah, you can’t see us,” said Chase, cringing as he pushed himself to his feet. He had a feeling he was going to be one big, ugly bruise later on. “Visible.” He heard Persephone say the same thing.

  The girl’s eyes widened and her mouth dropped open when Chase and Persephone shimmered into forms she was able to see. Chase looked at Persephone and grimaced. She had several extra arms sticking out of her sides, like octopus tentacles.

  “Uh, arms?” he muttered.

  Persephone looked down. “Oops! Forgot about those. Disappear arms.” In the blink of an eye, they vanished. “Sorry. I was practicing while we waited.”

  “Who are you people?” said the girl.

  “We only want to talk to you,” said Chase quickly. He held up his hands to show that he meant her no harm. But apparently she thought he was going to attack her, because to Chase’s complete surprise, her fist shot out and popped him in the eye.

  “Ow! Why’d you do that?” he whined as he rubbed his sore eye and winced. “What are you, some kind of boxer or something?”

  “Just stay back,” she said, “my dad taught me some great self-defense moves.”

  “We don’t want to hurt you,” said Chase, squinting at her.

  “Well, you did when you tripped me!”

  “But that was an accident.”

  “Hey! Where’s Andy?” said Persephone. She looked worriedly around the lobby. “Andy! Where in the world are you? Andy?”

  “What? Is she here yet?” asked a sleepy voice from the corner. “Uh…did I miss something? Visible.” Andy’s yawning and stretching form appeared.

  Chase shook his head. Napping. He should have known Andy wouldn’t be able to stay awake the whole time. At least it kept him from complaining about not having any snacks to chow down on, or that he had to pee.

  “You’re all just kids,” said the girl, her gaze darting from Andy to Persephone and back to Chase. “And how did you do that, anyway?”

  “Do what?” asked Chase.

  “Become invisible, dork!” she snapped. “And—and the extra-arm bit.”

  “Hey! I’m not a dork,” Chase said, looking insulted.

  Persephone’s lips twitched as she tried not to smile. “You sort of are,” she whispered out of the corner of her mouth.

  Chase elbowed her in the ribs as he repeated, “We only want to talk.”

  “You have a strange way of showing it,” the girl retorted. “Wait. I remember you.” She narrowed her eyes at Chase. “Back in the book room. You saw me…”

  Chase nodded. “Doing magic.”

  “Yeah. So what?” she said scornfully, her lip curling up. “And what would you call what you three did?”

  “But where—how—”

  The girl shrugged. “I don’t know. It started by itself one day a few years ago.”

  “When you turned ten-and-a-half?” said Persephone.

  The girl’s eyes darted from Chase to Persephone. “How did you know?”

  Not sure how to answer, Chase glanced at Persephone.

  The girl sighed, pushed impatiently by them, and walked toward the elevator, limping slightly, but looking as if she was trying to hide it. “Why am I telling you this, anyway? I don’t know you guys from any other weirdo on the street.”

  “Please wait,” Persephone begged. She grabbed Chase’s arm and dragged him across the room with her. “I think we can help you.”

  “I don’t need any help! In fact, I was doing much better before running into you two!” said the girl. “You guys are nuts!” She slipped between the closing doors.

  “But we know where your magic comes from!” said Persephone, right before the doors snapped shut.

  “Do you really believe her magic comes from the relic, too?” Chase asked Persephone. “How can that be?”

  “I don’t know! But you saw her reaction when I asked about when she turned ten-and-a-half! We need to talk to her.” She slapped her thighs in frustration.

  “So what do we do now?” asked Andy.

  “Nice of you to join us,” said Chase sarcastically. “You were supposed to be helping keep watch. Not snoozing!”

  “Hey! That was a long wait!”

  “But you still—”

  The elevator doors slid open again.

  “Get in!” commanded the girl.

  Without even giving it a second thought, Persephone, Chase, and Andy scurried into the elevator. As they took their spots, Chase noticed the girl’s eyes lingering on Andy’s baseball cap where it said “Tinker” in white letters across the front.

  No one spoke a word as the elevator creaked and jerked its way to the sixth floor. Even while worrying about whether the elevator had the strength to make the journey to its destination, Chase couldn’t stop himself from sneaking glances at the girl out of the corner of his eye. She stood stiffly beside him, her angry gaze never leaving the lighted numbers that told which floors they passed.

  When the doors slid open at last, Chase had to put a lot of effort into not hopping out in front of the others. “Uh, girls first,” he said, swishing his hand through the air. His mom would kill him if he didn’t act like a gentleman at least some of the time.

  The girl led them to the end of the hall and stopped in front of a blue door. “Okay. We can talk here.” She crossed her arms and stared at them. “First off. Your names.”

  Persephone quickly introduced everyone, frowning as the girl leaned slowly against the wall after hearing Chase’s and Andy’s full names. For the first time, she looked unsure of herself.

  “And you are…?” Persephone began with an encouraging look.

  “Nori,” said the girl. “Nori Mika Tanaka. I’m named partly after my mom. Her name is Mika Yoshi Tanaka, but before my parents got married, her name was Mika Yoshi Sasaki...Tinker.”

  “Oh my gosh,” breathed Persephone, her eyes locked on Nori’s face. “It’s true.”

  “What? What?” said Andy. “I don’t understand.”

  “She’s related to you!” explained Persephone.

  “But how?” Andy shook his head. “Uh-uh. No way. Grandfather said there aren’t any more Tinkers out there. Only him, Dad and Chase and me. And Janie and James, of course.”

  “Well, apparently he’s wrong,” said Persephone, sighing.

  “Grandfather is never wrong!” said Chase emphatically.

  “He’s not infallible, Chase,” said Persephone. “He’s perfectly capable of making mistakes, just like the rest of us.”

  “But this isn’t any old mistake. This—this is huge. Colossal even.” Chase began his usual routine of pacing the floor. He raked his hands through his hair. He chewed his lip. Abruptly, he stopped and swung around to frown and stare at Nori again.

 
“But look at her,” said Andy, still ready to argue the issue as he waved his hand at Nori. “She doesn’t even look like a Tinker.”

  “Neither does James,” said Persephone, always the logical one.

  “I’m Japanese-American!” said Nori with a toss of her hair and a quick sniff. “My grandfather was American, too. At least that’s what he told my grandmother.”

  Nori sat down on the floor, and the other kids did the same, listening raptly as the long-ago tale poured out of her.

  “He met Grandmother Yoshi in Tokyo years ago. She was eighteen, and they fell madly in love. It was all so romantic, until the skunk skipped out on her. He dishonored her and caused nothing but trouble between her and her family! You see, they’d been secretly married because her parents had arranged for her to marry someone else, and she didn’t have the nerve to tell them she had fallen in love with another man. But no one wanted to believe her.” Nori’s voice dropped to a whisper. “And then Grandmother realized she was with child.”

  “With child?” said Chase, looking confused.

  “Pregnant, dork!” snapped Nori.

  “Oooh…”

  Persephone elbowed him in the ribs. “Don’t interrupt.” She leaned forward. “So what happened to her?”

  “Her parents were so ashamed of her, they sent her away to live with relatives. Then she had my mom. They wanted to take the baby away from her and pretend it never happened. But Grandmother refused. Even after his betrayal, she still loved her husband with her whole heart. She never married anyone else. After Grandmother Yoshi died, my mom moved over here. She wanted to confront her father and ask him why he left them, but no matter how much she searched, she never found him. Then she married my dad, and so, here we are.” Nori stared down at the floor and picked absentmindedly at a frayed hole in the carpet.

  “Your grandfather doesn’t happen to be named Thomas does he?” asked Persephone quietly.

  Nori’s head jerked up. “How did you know?”

  “That’s the name of our Great-Uncle,” piped in Andy. “He died.”

  Nori blinked. “He—he did?”

  Chase glared at Andy for blurting it out. “I think I understand now,” Chase said, turning back to Nori. “You must be Thomas’s granddaughter. So that makes you our grandfather’s great-niece and our cousin.”

  “Wow!” exclaimed Andy. Then, looking skeptical, he turned to Chase. “Are you sure?”

  “It seriously makes so much sense. She has a power, and after the story she just told, what the heck else can it be?”

  Persephone nodded. “Thomas didn’t mean to leave your grandmother, Nori. He was hit by a train and killed when he was twenty-five.”

  Nori jumped up and raked her hand through her hair, causing her smooth bangs to stick up here and there, like tufts of black feathers. Chase had the urge to laugh out loud. Well, that cinched it for him. She must be a Tinker if she was doing the famous hand-through-the-hair gesture.

  “I can’t believe this is happening!” cried Nori. “After all this time! For years Mom and I have thought nothing but bad things about him. Grandmother is the only one who never believed he’d leave her on purpose. Only if something beyond his control had happened.” Tears trickled down her cheeks. “And now she’ll never know the truth.”

  Persephone placed her hand on Nori’s arm. “But now you do and so will your mom.”

  “Where is your mom?” asked Andy. “Is this where you live?”

  Nori nodded as she swiped her sleeve across her face. “This is our apartment. Mom’s inside. She’s…um…not feeling well. My dad was killed a little over six months ago. He—he was a cop and was trying to stop a robbery. Officer Kenji Tanaka.” She said his name with pride in her voice. “He wanted to make the streets safer for everyone. Mom and I have been living on his life insurance ever since.”

  “Do you think it would be okay for us to meet your mom?” said Persephone.

  “I—I don’t know…I’ll have to go ask her. This is going to shock her. A lot.” Nori pulled a key from her pocket, unlocked the door, and slipped inside. “Wait here. I’ll be back in a few minutes,” she whispered before shutting the door.

  After she was gone, Chase, Persephone, and Andy stood in the hall and stared at the closed door.

  “Do you think she’ll come back?” asked Andy.

  “If she doesn’t, I’ll pound on the door until she does,” said Chase. He crossed his arms and looked ready to kick in the door right that very second.

  The kids were nervously pacing the hallway when, almost ten minutes later, the door opened again and Nori waved them in. Her eyes were bloodshot and her nose was red. “Uh… okay. She didn’t want to see anyone, but I finally convinced her it would be a good idea. Before you go barging in, I think I better warn you—”

  But she was too late; the three excited kids were already pushing past her and trotting down the short entryway and into the living room. Chase’s eyes darted around, taking in the stylish Japanese pictures and knick-knacks strewn about the room. But then he had to do a double-take when his gaze landed on the woman sitting on the sofa.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Affliction

  Nori squeezed past them. “Uh…Mom.” She licked her lips as she stammered out, “This—is, um, Persephone Periwinkle and her friends, Andy and Chase…Tinker. Our—cousins. We think. Guys, this is my mom, Mika.”

  Chase knew it was impolite to stare, but he was finding it impossible to take his eyes off the woman across the room. He’d seen a lot of odd sights and people on the streets of New York City, but never anyone who had purple and green stripes slashed across his or her face and neck. Other than that, Mika looked perfectly normal. A lot like an older version of Nori, except her jet-black hair was pulled into a knot on the top of her head and held there with what looked like colorful sticks.

  “Holy moly! What happened to you?” blurted Andy, his eyes bulging behind his glasses.

  Chase elbowed him. “Andy! Don’t be so rude! Um…sorry about that. He was raised by bears.”

  “Sorry,” mumbled Andy, blushing. “But I’ve never seen anyone looking like her.”

  Nori hurried across the room to stand protectively next to her mom. “I told you she wasn’t feeling well. We don’t know what’s wrong. She keeps having these awful headaches and this weird side effect keeps coming and going. The doctor doesn’t know what’s wrong with her, either. He can’t find any medicines to help. But don’t worry, she’s not contagious or anything.”

  Looking sympathetic, Chase, Andy and Persephone all nodded.

  Mika’s dark eyes darted from Persephone to Chase and then to Andy. Like Nori, her gaze lingered on Andy’s baseball cap. She waved Andy forward. “May I see your hat?” she asked in an accented voice.

  Andy slipped it off and sidled over to the sofa. Mika took the headwear and stared at it while she ran her finger slowly back and forth across the white lettering. “My mother told me that he said he would come back for her, but he never did,” she murmured as she handed it back.

  Persephone hurried across the room and dropped to her knees next to Mika. “I’m sure he planned on going back to her.”

  Chase skirted the coffee table and sat down on the edge. “Did she ever say anything about his magical power?”

  “What do you mean? He could perform magic? Like a magician?” she asked as Andy plopped down on the couch on one side of her and Nori on the other.

  “No, that’s not what he means,” said Persephone. “You see, Thomas had a real magical power.”

  Mika shook her head. “Real magic is nothing but a myth. A legend invented to frighten people.”

  Chase and Persephone exchanged glances. Oh man, thought Chase, we have a lot of explaining to do. This must be how Grandfather had felt on the day he first met his two magically clueless grandsons.

  And so, with the help of Andy and Persephone, Chase explained about their ancestor Jedadiah, the Relic, and how every Tinker has their own special, unique
magical ability. Tears began rolling down Mika’s face when she heard about Thomas’s unfortunate accident.

  “According to Grandfather,” said Chase, “Thomas teleported all over the world. That must have been when he met Yoshi.”

  “Everybody in your—I mean our—family is born with a power?” asked Nori, who hadn’t said a word for a while. She’d just sat there frowning during the whole long story. She turned to her mom, who had started to shake as realization dawned on her face. At least, that’s what Chase thought he saw under the weird stripes.

  “You didn’t know you had a magical power, did you?” he asked.

  Mika shook her head. “I have always thought it was some terrible affliction. I have only wanted it to go away and leave me alone!”

  “You never told me!” said Nori in an accusing voice.

  “I’m sorry, but I had no idea what it was. I thought something was horribly wrong with me.”

  “There’s nothing wrong with you,” said Persephone.

  “Wait,” said Nori. “If everyone has a different power, how did you all become invisible? And that extra-arm bit?”

  “We have a way to enchant different objects with magic,” said Chase.

  “My real power is freezing time,” said Andy eagerly. “Wanna see?” He flicked his hand, and Chase was frozen in place with his mouth hanging wide open. He looked like a frog getting ready to catch a fly.

  Mika lurched sideways as though she’d received a powerful electric shock.

  “Oh!” said Persephone, sending Mika a worried look. “I don’t think you should’ve done that, Andy.”

  “Oops!” said Andy. He flicked his hand again.

  Chase’s eyes shifted back and forth as they all stared at him. “Why are you—Andy! Did you freeze me?” he asked angrily.

  Andy shrugged and tried to look as innocent as possible while Persephone frowned at both of them. “Knock it off, you guys,” she said quickly when she saw that Chase was getting ready to blow up at Andy. If they started arguing, she might never get them to stop. “Can’t you see you’re upsetting Nori’s mom?”