by T. L. Clarke
Rosalinda’s eyes filled with fear.
“Don’t worry; we’ll count with you,” Gabrielle said loudly.
“One, two—” they counted in unison.
Slowly, Rosalinda rocked back and forth, preparing to hop off.
“Stop, Rosa, don’t move,” Zora instructed anxiously.
Rosalinda froze in mid-hop, wobbling on the blue square unsteadily.
Gabrielle looked over at Zora impatiently. “What’s wrong now?”
“There’s something bothering me about the clue but I can’t put my finger on it,” Zora said anxiously. She adjusted her glasses as she read the clue again:
First step on blue then step on green, reverse it back and count two three. At the wall you multiply, ten times two then add a five.
“I just have this nagging feeling that we’re missing something very important,” she mumbled.
“Well, hurry up and figure it out!” Rosalinda said nervously as she wobbled on the blue square.
Zora adjusted her glasses and read the clue again. A slow smile spread across her face. “I figured it out! Wow! Whoever wrote this clue is very clever, very clever indeed, but they truly underestimated the brilliance of the Gabby Girls,” she said proudly.
They looked at her with wide, puzzled eyes.
“Don’t you see?” Zora asked incredulously.
They gave her blank stares.
“We read the clue wrong. You don’t count to three; you count to twenty-three. You see, look right here. It says ‘count two three,’ which means twenty-three,” Zora said matter-of-factly.
With disbelief, Gabrielle and Jessica gathered around her to look at the clue.
Jessica looked at Zora with adoration. “Wow! Zora, you’re absolutely awesome.”
Gabrielle smiled hugely. “Whew! You are awesome. I’m sure glad you caught that one, Zora. Great job, Gabby Girl.”
Zora beamed with pride. “Okay, Rosalinda, did you hear all of that? We’ll start counting to twenty-three,” she instructed.
“One, two, three, four…” Rosalinda started; her voice was low and shaky.
With each number, the pathway slowly inched its way up.
They counted loudly: “five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three…”
By the time they reached twenty-three, the pathway had inched all the way up. In fact, there was no way you could even tell that it had ever collapsed.
“Okay, Rosalinda, quick…hop off now,” Zora said anxiously.
Rosalinda’s face was set in determination as she hopped off the blue square and onto the gray section of the pathway. They all breathed a sigh of relief.
Gabrielle looked over at Zora and Jessica and smiled. “All right, Gabby Girls, it’s our turn,” she said as she nudged Jessica softly. “Are you ready? Remember, hop on blue then on green, and then reverse it back by hopping on green then blue, okay? And, please, whatever you do, don’t forget to count to twenty-three on the last square.”
Jessica quickly backed away, waving her hands nervously. “N-no! Not me. I can’t do this…I just c-can’t,” she stuttered nervously.
“Of course you can, Jess. Gabby Girls can do anything we put our minds to,” Gabrielle said confidently.
Jessica gave her a look of doubt.
“Okay, I see that you don’t believe me, so I’ll go first, okay?” Gabrielle took a deep breath as she walked over to the stone gray squares and hopped on blue then effortlessly hopped on green. She wobbled on one foot, barely missing stepping on the gold square.
Jessica squealed nervously, but Gabrielle quickly regained her footing and gritted her teeth with determination. She hopped on green then on blue, quickly hopping alternatively between the blue and green until she reached the last blue square.
Smiling confidently, she counted loudly to twenty-three and quickly hopped onto the gray pathway. Looking confidently over at Jessica, she said, “See? It was real easy. Come on, Gabby Girls, you can do it. I believe in you, but most importantly, believe in yourself.”
Zora smiled back confidently as she adjusted her glasses. “I’ll go next, Jessica.”
Jessica backed away nervously. “Please be my guest. Believe me, I’m in no rush.”
Zora hopped from blue then green then back to green then blue all the way down to the last blue square. Jessica nervously bit her bottom lip as she looked on.
Zora stood deathly still as she counted to twenty-three then hopped onto the gray pathway confidently.
“Come on, Jess. You can do it,” Gabrielle and Zora encouraged.
Rosalinda looked over at Jessica as she tapped her foot impatiently. “Come on, come on, we don’t have all day.”
Gabrielle twirled around, giving Rosalinda a nasty stare.
“Come on, Jess, it’s your turn,” Zora said softly.
Jessica looked at the pathway nervously. “I-I can’t, I just c-can’t,” she repeated.
“Oh, please! Give me a break,” Rosalinda muttered under her breath.
Gabrielle smiled encouragingly. “Yes, you can, Jess. Remember, Gabby Girls can do anything. We’ll help you through it,” she said loudly. She quickly looked over at Zora and Rosalinda for support but Rosalinda gave her an angry look.
“Come on, Jess, you can do it. We believe in you,” Zora said loudly.
“Are you ready, Jess? We’ll talk you through it,” Gabrielle chirped. “Okay, hop on blue.”
Jessica looked at them nervously then hopped on a blue square. She wobbled on one foot.
Zora smiled. “Now green.”
Jessica bit her lip as she hopped on green, barely missing stepping on a gold square.
Gabrielle smiled encouragingly. “Come on, Gabby Girl. Step on green,” she chirped.
Jessica smiled nervously as she hopped on green.
“Come on, now blue,” Zora said.
With each hop, Jessica became more confident. But when she finally reached the last blue square, she looked over at them nervously.
“Okay, Jess. Gabi and I will help you count to twenty-three,” Zora shouted. “One, two, three…” They continued to the last numbers: “Twenty-two, twenty-three! Now…hop off now, Jess!” they shouted.
Jessica nervously hopped off the blue square, letting out a huge sigh of relief. Gabrielle and Zora hugged her as they jumped up and down with joy.
“All right, all right, enough of this jumping up and down stuff. What’s next?” Rosalinda growled angrily.
“Sorry, Princess Rosalinda. We didn’t realize that we were keeping you from something important,” Gabrielle responded.
“It’s Miss Princess Rosalinda to you,” Rosalinda shouted angrily.
“In your dreams,” Gabrielle shouted back.
“Come on, Gabby Girls, we have a long way to go. Let’s keep it friendly,” Zora said tiredly as she spun on her heels and walked away down the passageway.
Gabrielle rolled her eyes at Rosalinda then stomped off after Zora, with Jessica following.
Rosalinda fumed as she stood tapping her foot angrily. She propped her hands on her hips and stared defiantly as Jessica, Gabrielle, and Zora quickly disappeared into the darkness of the passageway.
Ruthless gusts of cold air swept down the pathway, blowing her shiny dark hair briskly around her face. Startled, she looked around fearfully as if expecting to see someone standing behind her.
“Oh, stop it, Rosalinda; you’re getting as paranoid as those crazy Gabby Girls,” she mumbled under her breath. Coolly, she smoothed down her hair. “Well, I might as well follow them. Goodness knows they would be lost without me there to help them,” she said pompously as the she stomped down the passageway after them.
* * *
Tiredly, they walked down the dusty passageway with seemingly no end in sight. Jessica stopped in mid-stride and huffed and puffed wearily. She started to sit down but Gabrielle tugged on her arm, stopping her in he
r tracks.
“Oh, no, you don’t. There will be no stopping. Remember, we have to get out of here,” Gabrielle said uneasily.
“But, Gabi, I’m just so tired. Really, I just can’t go on,” Jessica wailed dramatically.
“Oh, yes, you can,” Gabrielle said loudly as she dragged a very tired Jessica behind her.
They continued to walk for a few minutes more before they finally reached the end of the passageway only to find a colossal wall blocking their path out.
“Great! It’s a dead end. Are we ever going to get out of here?” Rosalinda wailed.
Zora adjusted her glasses as she approached the huge wall covered with large gold tiles.
Jessica tiredly plopped down on the dusty ground. “Finally, I can rest.”
Rosalinda looked at her with utter disgust. “How can you sit on that filthy ground?”
“I-I’m sorry but I’m really tired,” Jessica stuttered.
Gabrielle slowly walked beside the wall, examining the tiles curiously. Her gaze eagerly moved from raised tile to raised tile. As if in some sort of trance, she slowly reached out to touch it.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you. It could be another trap,” Zora said quickly.
Gabrielle pulled her hand away. “Zo, these symbols look so very familiar. What are they?”
Zora adjusted her glasses. “Roman numerals…but the numerals seem to be jumbled. See, this tile has ‘five’ written on it but the one right next to it has a ‘ten.’”
“Jess, why don’t you keep yourself awake by reading the clue to us again,” Gabrielle said teasingly.
Zora quickly handed the clue over to Jessica, who read:
First step on blue then step on green, reverse it back and count two three. At the wall you multiply, ten times two then add a five.
Zora’s forehead crinkled with concentration as she examined each tile with her magnifying glass. “Jess, can you read the last sentence again…and this time real slow?”
“‘At the wall you multiply, ten times two then add a five,’” Jessica mumbled.
Gabrielle paced back and forth across the dirt floor in deep concentration. “Hmm…so obviously we’re at the wall,” she mumbled. “Okay, so let’s take this slowly. Ten times two is twenty then if you add five that’s twenty-five. Does everyone agree with the answer?”
They all nodded.
“Okay, so what’s next?” Rosalinda asked impatiently.
“Well, I think that we should look for a tile with twenty-five,” Zora said.
“Which is?” Rosalinda asked with annoyance.
“XXV,” Zora stated matter-of-factly.
They scrambled to different sections of the wall, quickly examining each tile.
Jessica’s face flushed bright red with excitement. “I think I found it. Look…XXV.”
They all gathered around her.
“Okay, so we found twenty-five. What do we do now? Just stand around and look at it?” Rosalinda asked.
Gabrielle gave Rosalinda an irritated glance. “Ugh, I’m really so tired of your snotty attitude, so here’s the deal: you’re either going to help us solve the clue or whine like a baby. Which one is it?”
Zora adjusted her glasses with agitation. “Okay, okay, Gabby Girls, let’s not fight. Jess, read the clue again; maybe we’re missing something.”
Jessica repeated, “At the wall you multiply, ten times two then add a five.”
“Okay, we’re at tile twenty-five,” Zora mumbled distractedly. “Hmmm, I think the tiles are buttons.” She pointed. “See how the surface of this tile is raised? Jess, since you found the tile, I think you should do the honors of pushing tile twenty-five in.”
Jessica gulped nervously as she hesitantly pressed her palm against the tile. The tile gave way slightly, revealing a gap between itself and the wall.
“Come on, Jess, use some muscle and push harder,” Gabrielle demanded excitedly.
Jessica gritted her teeth as she pushed the tile harder. The harder she pushed, the deeper her hand went into the gap of the wall. Encouraged, she pushed harder, huffing and puffing all the while. With her last push, her arm was buried deep into the wall, well past her elbow.
They jumped excitedly and a huge smile spread across Jessica’s face. But her smile quickly disappeared when the passageway erupted with a loud bang, causing the wall to vibrate ferociously. Jessica’s eyes filled with sheer terror as she quickly tried to jerk her arm out of the wall.
“G-Gabby Girls, something has my arm. I can’t pull it out of the wall,” she stuttered. She pulled and jerked her arm but it still did not budge.
“Relax, Jessica, and stop jerking your arm; you’ll hurt yourself,” Gabrielle said impatiently. “We must have done something wrong. Rosalinda, read the last sentence again.”
Rosalinda’s hands trembled as she reached for the clue that had fallen to the ground. She cleared her throat. “At the wall you multiply, ten times two then add a five.”
Zora’s face flushed with excitement. “You’re right—we did do something wrong. Read the last part again.”
“Ten times two then add a five,” Rosalinda read.
“Oh, tricky, tricky, tricky,” Zora mumbled as a wide smile spread across her face. “Okay, listen up. I just figured it out. We came up with the wrong answer. You see, we multiplied two times ten and then added five, which gave us the answer of twenty-five, but that’s incorrect. The correct answer is two times ten, which is twenty, but when you add five to the end, it becomes two hundred and five.”
Gabrielle slapped her hand to her forehead. “Duh, you’re right…it was another trick. Okay, quick…everyone look for two hundred and five, which is CCV.”
They frantically looked around for the tile marked CCV.
Standing frozen at the wall, Rosalinda looked over at them. “I think I found it. It’s way over here.”
Zora adjusted her glasses impatiently. “Awesome…quick, push the tile in, Rosalinda.”
Rosalinda nervously backed away from the tile. “No way. I’m not stupid. There’s no way I’m getting my hand stuck in that wall.”
Gabrielle stomped over to Rosalinda and pushed her out of the way. She quickly slammed her palm against the tile, which caused it to inch in slightly; encouraged, she pushed harder. With each push, the tile slowly inched its way back into the wall. A trickle of sweat ran down Gabrielle’s face. “Wow, this tile is a tough one.”
Jessica looked at her pleadingly. “Hurry, Gabi, my arm is really hurting now.”
Gabrielle gritted her teeth with determination as she dug her feet firmly into the ground and pushed harder. With her forearm now completely buried in the wall and her elbow dangling outside, she looked around the passageway with anticipation. She didn’t have to wait long; booming clicks erupted throughout the passageway, shaking the ground violently. The wall vibrated, slowly pushing Jessica and Gabrielle’s arms out.
Jessica rubbed the angry red welts on her arm gingerly.
Gabrielle smiled broadly as she held up the large, dusty envelope grasped firmly in her hand. “Now look what I found! I just love it when a plan comes together,” she chirped happily.
“Wow—now that’s teamwork,” Zora said gleefully.
“Well, what’s in it?” Rosalinda demanded impatiently.
Gabrielle rolled her eyes. “Duh! What the heck do you think it is? It’s another clue, Princess Rosalinda.”
They eagerly huddled around her as she tore open the dusty envelope. She carefully pulled out several large gold objects and handed them over to Rosalinda; then Gabrielle pulled out a small piece of paper.
Rosalinda held the objects cautiously with the tips of her fingers as if they were a rattlesnake waiting to bite her. “Gold stars? What in the world are we going to do with these?”
Zora adjusted her glasses. “Let me see them, Rosa.”
Rosalinda’s eyes filled with relief as she quickly handed them over. Zora squatted down, laying each of the gold stars in a straight lin
e on the dusty ground and squinting as she passed the magnifying glass over each of them. “What does the clue say, Gabrielle?”
Gabrielle rubbed her hands together with excitement. “Okay, Gabby Girls, listen to the next clue:
The night sky is full of shining points that twinkle in your eyes. Twinkle five and twinkle four. Work together, use your gifts, turn clockwise, and do it quick.”
Jessica nervously bit her nails. “I don’t like this one bit. What does that mean?”
Gabrielle’s face crumpled with puzzlement. “I don’t know.”
A loud booming sound exploded from the passageway, causing them to jump back. Their mouths fell open with shock as they stared at the gold tiled wall that slowly rose into the ceiling.
“No freaking way!” Gabrielle screamed with amazement.
They looked at each other as the wall opened to reveal another secret passageway.
Gabrielle smiled at them bravely. “I guess we’re about to find out what the next clue means. Well, Gabby Girls, the adventure absolutely continues.”
CHAPTER NINE
Ooey Gooey Goo
They walked cautiously through the dark passageway with only the wobbly light of the flashlight to guide them.
“I hate this…I really, really hate this. This place is absolutely awful. So far I’ve broken two nails, my hair is a mess, and my clothes are absolutely filthy,” Rosalinda said with disgust as she frantically pulled the cobwebs from her hair.
Gabrielle snorted. “We’re so sorry, Princess Rosalinda—please forgive us. We know how important your hair and nails are.” She daintily held out the edges of her sweatshirt and mockingly curtsied.
Rosalinda sniffed disdainfully. “I can’t help it if, unlike other people,” she looked pointedly at Gabrielle’s dusty shirt and jeans, “I happen to care a lot about my appearance.”
Gabrielle pushed up her sleeves and stepped menacingly toward Rosalinda. “All right, Princess Rosalinda, I’ve had about enough of you.”
Gabrielle and Rosalinda stared angrily at each other.
Zora abruptly turned around, pointing the flashlight toward what seemed to be the end of the passageway. “Look, I think see a faint light…we’ve got to hurry.”