by Dan Gutman
An hour later, Pep was still trying to decipher EDIWEFER when her father pulled off I-40 in Winslow, Arizona, so he could stand on a corner there and sing the old Eagles song “Take It Easy.” They had lunch at a little sandwich shop there, and then drove another half hour west until they reached someplace called Meteor Crater. Coke assumed it was a phony tourist trap, but in fact it’s an actual crater in the middle of the desert that’s nearly a mile across, 2.4 miles around, and 500 feet deep.
Fifty thousand years ago, an asteroid slammed into the earth at this spot to create a gigantic hole in the ground. Mrs. McDonald dutifully took notes for Amazing but True. Pep celebrated the event by purchasing a Meteor Crater Frisbee in the gift shop.
After that, it was just forty-five minutes west to Flagstaff, Arizona, and another forty-five minutes south on Route 89A to Sedona. The plan was to spend the rest of the day and the night there. Mrs. McDonald had booked a room at the Days Inn.
Sedona is one of the prettiest towns in the West, mainly because of the red sandstone formations that seem to glow at night when the sun goes down. The locals have given them intriguing names, like Cathedral Rock and the Devil’s Kitchen.
But Mrs. McDonald didn’t want to come to Sedona for the natural beauty. She wanted to see and experience the Sedona energy vortexes.
The what?
A “vortex” is a funnel shape created by a whirling fluid or the motion of spiraling energy. There are four of these swirling centers of energy coming from the surface of the earth in and around Sedona. They’re sort of spiritual power centers. Energy saturates the area, and strengthens the inner being of each person who is at a vortex point.
Or so some people believe, anyway.
“That’s a lot of bull, Mom,” said Coke.
“You kids don’t have to come to the vortex,” Mrs. McDonald told him. “Your father and I can go on our own.”
So they did. Their parents drove off to groove on the vibes at Bell Rock Vortex while the twins hung around the hotel room watching SpongeBob reruns.
An hour later, Coke was getting antsy and suggested taking a walk. Having seen every SpongeBob episode at least ten times, Pep agreed.
As the twins left the hotel and walked down the main drag, they looked at the storefront windows—Crystal Magic, Sedona School of Massage, Mystical Bazaar, Peace Place, Anti-Aging Life Extension, Center for the New Age Metaphysical Superstore . . .
“Gee, this is sort of a hippie town,” Pep noted.
A few blocks down, they stopped in front of a little house with a sign out front that said PSYCHIC COUNSELOR & HEALER. At the bottom of the sign were the words SEE YOUR FUTURE . . . TODAY.
Pep pushed her face against the window so she could peek inside. There was a woman sitting on a couch with her eyes closed, as if she was meditating. She had long black hair and flowing robes.
“Hey, let’s go in here,” Pep said.
“Are you crazy?” Coke replied. “These people just take your money.”
“Come on, it’ll be fun,” Pep said. “Maybe she really can see our future. And tell us what’s going to happen to us.”
“I can’t believe people buy into that stuff,” said Coke.
“Hey, neither of us believed in aliens until a couple of days ago,” his sister pointed out.
“I have a bad feeling about this,” Coke said as his sister pulled open the door. “Hold on to your wallet.”
“You and your feelings!”
The bell on the door jingled softly, and the psychic healer lady opened her eyes and smiled. There were colorful tapestries and peace signs covering the walls. The smell of burning incense filled the small room.
“Come. Sit,” the woman said, patting the couch next to her. “Heal your hearts. Allow me to help you find your spiritual direction, fulfill your greatest potential, and create a more successful life path.”
Coke rolled his eyes. This lady had to be kidding.
“We want to know our future,” Pep said as she sat on the couch. “It’s very important.”
“You have come to the right place,” the lady told her. “Your spirit guides will give you insight and direction or clarify your path and manifest your dreams.”
“How much is this gonna cost?” Coke griped.
“There will be no charge. Sit down, please.”
Coke sat on the couch.
“Do you need to hold our hands or anything?” Pep asked.
“That won’t be necessary,” the woman said. “Just focus on the eternal. Your future will come.”
She closed her eyes.
“Together we must release your emotional blocks caused by shame, guilt, and fear,” she said softly. “It is the only way to provide guidance for a brighter tomorrow. I am letting the energy flow into you and through you, so that I might understand your true path.”
“Oh, geez,” Coke said. “What a load of—”
“Can you tell us anything specific?” Pep asked.
“Yes,” the woman said. “I see a troubled man in your life.”
Pep’s eyes opened wide. She looked at her brother.
“That’s a lucky guess,” Coke said. “Anybody could have come up with that.”
“The troubled man has been pursuing you,” the woman said.
“That’s true!” Pep exclaimed.
“Oh yeah?” Coke said. “If you know so much, what’s this troubled man’s name?”
“He is a sick, sick man,” said the woman. “Sick in the head, not in the body.”
“Ha!” Coke said. “That proves it. You don’t know his name. You’re a fraud.”
“I see a city in Poland,” said the woman. “The capital.”
“Warsaw!” Pep shouted. “Warsaw is the capital of Poland! Dr. Warsaw is the man who’s chasing us!”
Even Coke was impressed by that. Maybe the woman was psychic.
“Dr. Warsaw has been chasing you for a long time . . . all the way across the country,” the woman said. “You are almost home now, yes? You are heading west. To California. I see another man. Pain.”
“That’s John Pain!” Coke said excitedly. “He tried to kill us with a rattlesnake!”
“Where is Dr. Warsaw going to set off his nuclear bomb?” Pep begged. “We have to know. Tell us what else you see! Is he going to kill us? Please!”
The woman closed her eyes again. Both twins looked at her imploringly for answers. Even if they were going to die at the hands of Dr. Warsaw, there might be some comfort in knowing how much time they had left.
There was something vaguely familiar about the psychic woman’s face. Tufts of short brown hair peeked out between strands of her long black hair. Coke glanced down and noticed a chocolate bar and a bottle of hand sanitizer on the table next to her. He looked at her face again, more carefully. That’s when he knew. He leaned over and yanked the wig off her head.
“Mrs. Higgins!” both twins yelled.
Yes, it was Audrey Higgins, their germaphobic, chocoholic health teacher, and Dr. Warsaw’s henchman and ex-fiancée!
“I no longer go by that name,” said Mrs. Higgins calmly. “Now I am Aurora Moonbeam.”
“You’re an assassin!” Coke shouted, pointing his finger at her face. “I don’t care what you call yourself.”
“Please,” Mrs. Higgins said. “Those days are behind me. I’ve changed. I am a peaceful, loving person now. You’ve got to believe me.”
“Believe you?” Pep yelled. “You locked us in the detention room and then set our school on fire! You tried to kill us at The House on the Rock. You tried to blow our ears out at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. You poisoned our bowling shoes in Texas!”
“And don’t forget about Wrigley Field!” Coke added.
“Each time we trusted you, and each time you tried to kill us again,” Pep yelled. “I will never believe you! I will never trust you!”
Both twins were on their feet now, shouting at Mrs. Higgins. She looked small and helpless sitting on the couch. Her eyes were watery.<
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“I was in love with Herman Warsaw,” she whimpered. “That’s why I did all those horrible things to you. It was for love. We were going to be married. I know everything I did was wrong now. I know I deceived you. I’m wracked with guilt. What can I do to make it up to you? I’ll do anything.”
“It’s all an act, Pep,” Coke said. “She’s doing it again. Don’t fall for it.”
Pep wasn’t falling for it. Not this time. Pep was furious. Her eyes were on fire.
“You still love him!” she said to Mrs. Higgins. “You’ll always love him!”
“I will,” she admitted. “But he’s insane now. He’s too far gone. Herman is incapable of loving another person. So I’m finished with him. Why won’t you believe me?”
At that point, she broke down sobbing. It was hard to watch. And quite convincing. Coke was starting to waver. Maybe Mrs. Higgins had changed.
But Pep wasn’t buying it.
“Save the tears, you phony!” she shouted. “I’m not falling for them. Not this time.”
With that, Pep leaped on the couch and attacked Mrs. Higgins, punching her and kicking her. Coke was so shocked that all he could do was stand back and watch as his sister pummeled the helpless woman. Mrs. Higgins wasn’t even fighting back. All she could do was put her hands in front of her face to try to ward off the blows. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she sobbed pathetically.
“Pep! Stop it!” Coke finally shouted as he pulled his sister away. “Get off her! Are you out of your mind?”
Chapter 16
CHOICE POINT
Something had come over Pep McDonald. Four weeks earlier, she had been a pretty normal California girl, concerned with her homework, babysitting, and soccer. But in the last two days alone, she had beaten up a defenseless woman and killed a snake with her bare hands. She had gained a tremendous amount of confidence, and ruthlessness. It was like she was a different person.
Her brother, on the other hand, seemed to have lost some of the swagger he’d displayed at the start of the trip. Coke was no longer calling himself “Ace Fist” and bragging about his karate skills. He had become hesitant, tentative, sometimes hanging back and letting his sister take charge of the situation.
The pressure of being chased and hunted down like animals over thousands of miles was starting to wear on both of the twins. Knowing that Dr. Warsaw was building an atomic weapon and might set it off at any time had frayed their nerves. They were less than 800 miles from San Francisco now. Questions were running through the backs of their minds. Will we get home alive? What’s going to happen if we do? Will we be able to live a normal life? Will we be hunted—and haunted—by Dr. Warsaw forever?
The uncertainty was eating at them.
“I don’t know what happened,” Pep said on the way back to the hotel. “I think I just snapped.”
Coke flipped on the TV to help them both calm down. SpongeBob was on again. A few minutes later, there was a knock on the door. Their parents were back.
“Oh, I wish you kids had come to the vortex with us!” gushed Mrs. McDonald. “I felt the energy. The hair on my arms was standing on end!”
“Personally, I didn’t feel a thing,” said Dr. McDonald. “I say it’s all a hoax.”
“You’re still sitting here watching TV?” asked Mrs. McDonald. “You kids haven’t moved an inch since we left.”
“Actually, we went out for a walk,” Coke said. “We consulted with a psychic healer, and then Pep beat her up.”
“Ha! You kids are a riot,” said his father. “I guess that healer wasn’t really psychic, because if she was, she would have known that Pep was going to beat her up, right?”
They went to eat at a little Italian restaurant down the street. After dinner, Dr. McDonald called a family meeting. He had read an article in a magazine that said children enjoy and appreciate family vacations better when they’re involved in the decision-making process. Up until this point, the parents had pretty much decided where they were going, and the kids had had no say in the matter.
“We are here,” Dr. McDonald said, after spreading his road map across the table and pointing to Sedona, Arizona. “We have two choices tomorrow. We can drive south down to Phoenix or north up to the Grand Canyon.”
“What’s in Phoenix?” Pep asked.
“Oh, there’s lots of cool stuff,” Mrs. McDonald said as she pulled out her Arizona guidebook. “Let me see. There’s the Musical Instrument Museum, and the Hall of Flame Museum of Firefighting. Oh, and there’s also the Phoenix Police Museum. They have a room honoring police dogs that have died in the line of duty. And you get to sit inside a real police car.”
“That sounds pretty cool,” Coke said.
“Wait, listen to this!” said Mrs. McDonald after flipping the page. “There’s a Cockroach Hall of Fame!”
“You gotta be kidding me,” Coke said.
“It’s true,” his mother continued. “An exterminator has a place called the Pest Shop. In the back, he made a museum with dead cockroaches dressed as celebrities!”
“That’s ridiculous, Bridge,” said Dr. McDonald.
“Oh, come on!” Mrs. McDonald told him. “It will be fun! It says they have David Letteroach, Marilyn Monroach, Liberoachi, and roach versions of Elvis, Britney Spears, and lots of other famous people. Oh, we must go!”
Dr. McDonald closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead silently. He had already endured museums devoted to yo-yos, hot dog buns, mustard, bowling, washing machines, and Spam on this trip. He tried to think of a diplomatic way to get out of driving 117 miles to see costumed cockroaches.
“I think the children would get more out of a trip to the Grand Canyon,” he said gently.
“The Grand Canyon is just a big hole in the ground,” Mrs. McDonald replied. “What’s the big deal about that?”
“It’s one of the seven natural wonders of the world!” her husband said, raising his voice somewhat.
“I’m just kidding, Ben,” Mrs. McDonald said. “The Grand Canyon and Phoenix are both about two hours from here. How about we let the kids decide which direction we go?”
“Fair enough.”
While their parents went to pay the check for dinner, Coke and Pep stayed at the table and talked things over.
“Do you care where we go?” Pep asked.
“No.”
“Me neither,” Pep said. “The important thing is, where are Dr. Warsaw and his pals likely to go? If we go to Phoenix and they go to the Grand Canyon, we avoid them, at least for a while. If we go to Phoenix and they go to Phoenix, we’re in trouble. We’ve got to outguess them.”
“Of course, they could track us and follow us anywhere,” Coke pointed out. “Dr. Warsaw could be watching us right now.”
The twins debated the issue a little while longer, and then joined their parents at the cash register.
“We vote for the Grand Canyon,” Pep said.
“Yes!” shouted Dr. McDonald with a fist pump.
Go to Google Maps (http://maps.google.com/).
Click Get Directions.
In the A box, type Sedona AZ.
In the B box, type Grand Canyon National Park AZ.
Click Get Directions.
In the morning, the McDonalds set out on Route 89A heading north for 24 miles until it merged into I-17, which intersected with I-40 West. Just before the town of Williams, Dr. McDonald took exit 165 for Route 64, which goes directly north for 50 miles to Grand Canyon National Park. You can follow it on the map.
In the front seat, Dr. McDonald had found a classic rock station on the radio and turned the volume up loud. When Pep tired of looking at the scenery, she absentmindedly pulled out her notepad and realized that she hadn’t solved the cipher they received back at the Petrified Forest . . .
EDIWEFER
Pep tried all her usual strategies, but nothing seemed to work. She was frustrated. If she wasn’t so stressed out, she figured, she would have cracked the code by now. Maybe EDIWEFER wasn’t a cipher at a
ll. Maybe it was just somebody’s name.
While she kept juggling the letters around, Coke borrowed his mother’s laptop computer. He went online and searched for an anagram solver—a simple program that can take any group of letters and generate every possible word that can be made from those letters. There were several free anagram solvers online, so Coke picked the one at the top of the list and typed in EDIWEFER. Almost instantly, the computer spit out a list. . . .
if reed we
if deer we
fewer die
die fewer
fried ewe
free wide
deer wife
I were fed
I wed reef
ever I fed
I we freed
I reed few
fireweed
“I got it!” Coke said, poking his sister.
“Got what?”
“The answer!” Coke said. “I think EDIWEFER is ‘fireweed’!”
“Fireweed?” Pep asked. “What’s that? I never heard of fireweed.”
“It’s a plant,” Coke told her. “A wildflower. It’s one of the first plants to appear after a forest fire.”
“How can you possibly know that?” Pep asked. “Nobody knows that.”
“Lots of people know that,” her brother told her. “You’re just not one of them.”
“But what does a plant have to do with anything?” Pep asked. “How does that tie in with the other clues?”
“Hey, all I know is that EDIWEFER is very probably ‘fireweed.’ I can’t tell you what it means. That’s your department.”
Pep sighed and updated her list. . . .
CIPHER #1: MAY 28, 1937, VOLKSWAGEN IS FOUNDED
CIPHER #2: 49:08. 28:40.5
CIPHER #3: FIREWEED
Chapter 17
THE PERFECT PLACE FOR TROUBLE
Pep had been working so hard on EDIWEFER that she hadn’t noticed the road led directly into Grand Canyon National Park. It is, of course, one of the most popular tourist destinations in America.
“Did you know,” Coke asked the family, “that if you took four skyscrapers that were a thousand feet high and stacked them on top of one another inside the Grand Canyon, they still wouldn’t reach the rim?”