by Sheila Grau
Bonip hopped up onto Jaq’s shoulder and punched him on the cheek. “You’re pretty good at turning off the noise on Earth,” he said. “You need to do it here, too. Why are you listening to wippers, swindlers, and brats? Why are you letting them decide who you are? You need to decide who you are, or who you want to be. Nobody can decide who you are but you.”
“I can’t pretend to be brave when I’m not,” Jaq said.
“You are brave! You went back to Earth even though you knew it was filled with giants.”
“I also let Tormy steal my chicken. I didn’t fight at all, and they took Grandpa away!”
“How could you fight them? You were outnumbered eight-to-one. By grown-ups!”
Near the gate, Jaq picked Bonip off his shoulder and placed him on the ground. “You probably don’t want to be seen with me.”
Bonip looked up at him. “Jaq—”
Jaq waved his hand and went inside.
Back at the Vilcot farm, Klingdux was still struggling to get out of Tormy’s grasp so he could chase after Jaq.
Inside, Jaq’s mother greeted him with a hug.
“No glug?” she asked Jaq.
Jaq shook his head. “It turns out it’s fool’s glug. It will turn to dust in a couple of days.”
She slumped back into her chair. “I just don’t know what else to do. I don’t know how we can save the farm.”
“How’s Grandpa?”
“Still in jail. Vilcot told me he’d drop the charges against Grandpa if I sold the farm to him.”
“What did you say?”
“It was funny, actually. I wish you could have been there. I told him that Grandpa is very happy in jail. They feed him there, and because of his age, he doesn’t have to do any work. I thanked Vilcot for his offer but declined.” She even laughed. “I thought he was going to spasm with rage. I have a feeling he’s dropping the charges right about now.”
Jaq smiled. He looked out the window at the fence that separated their land from the Vilcots’ farm, with its tall, healthy trees just dripping with fruit. But in front of the fence, on the Rollop side, there was nothing but dusty, barren land.
“It doesn’t matter,” Jaq said, giving the wall a frustrated kick. “We’re going to have to sell this place, aren’t we?”
“Yes.”
“And Vilcot will buy it, won’t he?”
“Yes.”
“Where will we live?”
Mom had no answer for that.
Jaq gave her the chocolates he’d brought back from Earth, and for a brief moment they were happy.
“I wish I hadn’t made you sell Klingdux, Jaq,” his mother said, drifting off to sleep. “Oh, Jaq, I dream of being able to buy you all the things you want. Wait, no. Then you’d be a spoiled brat like that Tormy Vilcot. Let’s say I dream of being able to buy you one or two of the things you want. Because I love you and you’re a good kid.”
She was asleep before he could answer.
24
PLAY THAT PURPLE SONG AGAIN
The next morning, Jaq’s mother got up early to go to work. Jaq thought she looked so tired; the burden of saving their family had worn her down. After she left, Jaq decided to skip school. He was too distracted to pay attention to anything anyway.
He stood on the back porch, gazing at the fields. His family was going to lose their farm. It might be small and difficult, but it was theirs. The one-room shack was theirs. He knew the feel of the soil, the earthy-woody smell of his ripweed field, and all the familiar sights—the amber fields, the trees growing by the dry riverbed, with their brown trunks and parchment-colored leaves, the caramel and cream-colored hills beyond the river.
He didn’t want to lose it all, but there was no fighting it now. Even if he rescued Plenthy, even if Plenthy told mean, old Vilcot that Grandpa hadn’t stolen his money, it wouldn’t give them money to keep their farm.
Still, he had to help rescue Plenthy. Nobody deserved to be trapped on Earth.
Jaq sat on the back porch and listened to the songs on the iPod, but none of them painted a clear picture like that other song had. The songs were all Grande Taco Salad Supreme. Not a single Salad Bar in the mix. There were blasts and swirls and smells, but they gave him a random mishmash of senses. An explosion of red pops coupled with . . . the smell of cut grass? The music made no sense.
And then, as he tended his side garden, the hose dripped some water onto the iPod and it stopped working altogether. No matter how hard he pushed on the buttons, nothing happened. What kind of people made something that broke after a little water touched it? That was ridiculous! And now Fiona’s gift was worthless to him—not only was it broken, but he hadn’t been able to find the song he wanted.
Frustrated, Jaq picked up a rock and threw it into the field.
“Hey, fat-foot.” A sharp voice emerged from the stalks. “Where are the worms, huh? We’re hungry over here.”
“The Vilcots moved the river,” Jaq answered. “My worming spot has dried up.”
“So walk a little farther and find a new one,” another wipper said. “How lazy can one guy be? Jeez.”
Jaq got up to go back inside. He didn’t have to take this abuse anymore.
“You’d be slow and lazy, too,” another one said, “if you had to drag around that enormous head.”
Laughter filled the air, until . . .
“Hey, cut it out.”
Jaq turned around. Bonip had crept out of the stalks and stood in front of the insulting wipper.
“What did you say, Bonip?”
“You heard me, Drixo. I said: Cut . . . it . . . out. Why are you picking on him? Can’t you see he’s miserable? This guy has been getting us worms for months, and all you do is insult him. That’s mean.”
Jaq couldn’t believe it. Nobody had ever stuck up for him before. Not here, not at school, not anywhere. He wanted to reach down and hug the little wipper.
“Mean?” Drixo said. “Me? I’m the nicest guy here. Just yesterday I helped Egbot clean out his nest. He didn’t even ask me to.”
“That’s not how it works,” Bonip said. “You can’t be mean all day, and then just because you do one nice thing that makes you a nice guy. A nice guy wouldn’t say a cruel thing, ever. Not one mean thing, not ever. You, Drixo, are not nice. I’m not nice, either, because I turned my back on that giant fat-foot when he needed a friend. But I’m going to stand up for him now. And if that makes you guys hate me, then hate me.”
“What’s going on?” Another wipper peeked out of the stalks. Jaq recognized him as the ringleader of the bunch.
“Nothing, Hedgemud,” Drixo said.
Bonip didn’t say anything. None of the other wippers said anything, either.
“Well, I’m feeling like we gotta go next door,” the wipper leader said. “I just scouted over there. Nice, rich soil. We may have to dig a bit harder, but I bet there are worms over there. Plus, I feel this crazy tug pulling me in that direction.”
Contagion by Mention, Jaq thought.
“Okay, let’s go,” Drixo said. The wippers quickly scurried off toward the Vilcots’ farm.
Bonip looked up at Jaq. Jaq smiled and nodded toward the fence. “I don’t have any food for you here,” he said.
“You want me to help you get back to the waterfall later?” Bonip asked.
“That’s okay,” Jaq said. “I can make it. Thanks, though.”
Bonip nodded and crouched down, compressing his back legs. And then he took off like something shot from a catapult. Those wippers could almost fly, they jumped so far.
After the wippers left, Jaq got to work collecting foot scrapers. As he hunted for the diamonds, he thought about Bonip’s plan. He knew it was logical, but a little part of him couldn’t help but think that he was a coward for staying on Yipsmix. Then he remembered how frightening it was to go through that wormhole. And what, exactly, could he do if he went through with the diamonds? Nothing.
He piled a small mound of diamonds on the porch. The
stupid rocks were so worthless, Jaq had no idea how many Fiona would need. He’d found all the ones that were close to the house.
He had just returned from the old riverbed with two huge rocks when his mom arrived home early from work. Jaq followed her inside, where she collapsed into her chair.
“They fired me,” she said. “I made too many mistakes because I’ve been so tired.”
“Oh no,” Jaq said.
She got right back up again. “But I’m not giving up, Jaq. I’m going to the bank to see if I can get a new loan and get Vilcot off our back. Will you be okay here alone?”
Jaq nodded.
“I’m not giving up,” she said again.
But before she could reach the door, the ground started to shake. Thumps rocked the house, and the air shimmered with flashes of light. Jaq and his mom stepped outside and saw the Vilcots riding their Arbians up to the front door. Jaq looked up at them, perched so high on their mounts.
“I’m here to inform you that you must vacate the premises by tomorrow,” Ripley Vilcot said. “I’ve purchased your loan from the bank, and I’m foreclosing. Don’t know why I didn’t think of this sooner. You have one day to pay what’s owed or vacate. Please be gone by tomorrow night.”
Jaq and his mom were too stunned to say anything.
“By nightfall,” Vilcot repeated. He took something out of his pocket. It was another key, just like the one Jaq had traded for Klingdux. “And you can give this to Greggin,” he said, throwing the key at Jaq’s feet. “Tell him that his friend is not getting the last laugh with his little mocking gifts. I get the last laugh.”
He rode off laughing.
25
COURAGE SPARKLES LIKE A STAR—AND LIKE A STAR, IT SEEMS OUT OF REACH
Jaq picked up the key. His mom put a hand on his shoulder. “I have to go,” she said. “There must be someone in town who hates the Vilcots as much as I do and will lend us the money.”
She left Jaq alone.
Jaq opened the key, like Grandpa had shown him. Inside was another note:
Dear Yorlim Plenthy’s friend,
My name is Dharvil, and I work for Plenthy at one of his glug farms. I need to find him, quickly. I remembered how he’d asked me to take that other key to your farm in case of emergency. I hope that key worked, and I hope you get this one, too. If you are anything like my boss, you must also love puzzles, like this key. That Plenthy and his puzzles!
You see, Plenthy has been missing for a while now, and I need some direction. The trees are glugging like mad, and the warehouse is full. Should I sell the glug or rent out more space? Like I said, I need an answer quickly, as we are drowning in glug. What a problem to have, ha!
Yours,
Dharvil Meyr, First Rancher for Farm Three
Jaq reread the note. He turned it over to see if there was any indication of where it had come from or who this Dharvil was. Nothing.
This was crazy. The glug-tree idea had worked? Jaq stared blinking at the fields as the news seeped into his thoughts and exploded into one gigantic realization: Plenthy was rich! He could save them—if Jaq saved him.
Jaq hurried to collect a few more foot scrapers. He couldn’t stop thinking about the note.
That Plenthy and his puzzles, the note said.
Plenthy had mouthed the word music when he saw Jaq hiding in the bushes. What if that strange song with the emotions and pictures was from Plenthy? What if Plenthy was trying to send a message with the song, like a puzzle?
As he searched for the rocks, Jaq tried for the hundredth time to remember the mysterious song. He saw the pictures the song painted, he tasted the notes, he felt the song on his skin. The images were so vivid, he could almost draw them.
Jaq picked up a stick and made swirls in the dust. He doodled while the song played in his head. The splashy-water part, the swirling-up part, the red blobs. There were other parts he couldn’t remember, and then the dark part.
He looked at his swirls and pictures. How had he not realized it before? It was so obvious.
The song was a map.
It was a map that only another Yipsmixer could decipher.
“That Plenthy and his puzzles!” Jaq repeated.
He hopped up and down in excitement. The splashy part—that had to be the fountain. The swirling-up part was the moving staircase. But what about the rest? All he could remember was the darkness and the terror at the end.
“BONIP!” he yelled. “The song’s a map! It’s a map! Bonip! We can find him!”
But Bonip was gone. And Jaq didn’t have much time.
He bundled up the diamonds in a towel and stuffed it into his backpack. He was ready to go.
He knew, deep down, that if he went ahead with his plan to send the backpack through while staying safely behind, that someone else might find it, or that Fiona might find it but not in time. On the other hand, he knew that if he told himself he was going through the wormhole, panic and fear would grip him so tightly that he wouldn’t be able to leave the house.
Jaq needed to find some courage to go through the wormhole and rescue Plenthy himself. The best way to capture a shy beast like courage is to sneak up on it and grab it before it knows what’s coming, so Jaq continued to tell himself that he was taking the safe route, because that would get him to the wormhole. He tried not to think about going through the wormhole himself, because that would startle his courage, and it would flee.
You decide who you want to be.
That was what Bonip had said. Jaq wanted to be courageous. He wanted to save Plenthy.
As he neared his front gate, he heard a scream from the other side of the fence.
“Wipper-slinger!”
Jaq smiled. Klingdux must be getting to work. He heard more screaming, and then a small white ball of fluff flew over the fence. It was headed right for his best brickleberry bush. Without thinking, Jaq dropped his backpack and ran. He ran and dove and caught the rodent just before it crashed into his bush. He cradled the wipper as he rolled to the ground, so it wouldn’t be hurt. Then he stood up and placed it gently on the ground.
“Hey, thanks,” the wipper said.
But Jaq wasn’t looking at him. He was watching the sky as another wipper came over the fence. He caught that one, too, and dropped it to the ground just as another came flying at him. Wippers continued to rain down. Jaq ran to the left, and he ran to the right. He raced and dove and smiled, because it was really fun. He didn’t miss a single wipper.
“He can run forever,” one of the wippers said.
“And that hand-eye coordination is like nothing I’ve ever seen.”
“He’s got gentle hands, too. Didn’t squish me at all.”
There was a pause in the slinging, and Jaq took a moment to glance down. All the wippers were looking up at him. Their mouths were open in awe.
“Bonip was right,” the one named Drixo said. “This kid’s okay.” He clapped his hands together, slowly at first. Then the rest joined in.
Jaq couldn’t believe it. The wippers were applauding him. He looked at each one but didn’t see Bonip among them.
“Where’s Bonip?” he asked.
“He’s coming. The wipper-slinger always saves his best sling for last, and Bonip wanted to make sure he got your attention.”
And then they heard it: Bonip screaming, “Jaaaaaaaaq!”
He flew over the fence, over the brickleberry bushes, all the way to the side of Jaq’s house, where he slammed into the wall and fell to the porch. Jaq ran over.
“Bonip, are you okay?”
“I . . . heard . . . what . . . you said,” he whispered. “The song’s a map.”
“It is!”
“I want to go with you,” Bonip said.
“Of course. Let’s go!”
“Can I have a second? I just flew across your yard and into this wall here.”
“I’ll carry you,” Jaq said to the prone wipper. “Let’s go!”
Jaq started at a run—he was sure he didn’t
have much time. The visit from the Vilcots had cut into his schedule. He ran out the gate and down the road, but carrying a heavy backpack full of diamonds quickly wore him out and he had to walk to catch his breath. That was when Tormy Vilcot tackled him.
“Where you going, twiggy?” Tormy said while sitting on Jaq’s back. “Shouldn’t you be packing up?”
“Tormy, get off,” Jaq said.
“I’m not going to,” Tormy said. “My grandfather told me not to let you go anywhere. He’s afraid you’ll find another one of those glug birds. With all that glug, you could probably save your farm.”
“The bird’s worthless,” Jaq said. “The glug turns to dust.”
“Yeah, sure it does,” Tormy said. “Looks like you lost your buddy.” Bonip had run off as soon as Jaq had been flattened. “I have a little worm you can have for a friend. That would suit you.”
Jaq lay there, unable to move. Why did the Vilcots have to ruin everything?
“Since we’ll be sitting here for a while, let me tell you about my plans for your little hut,” Tormy went on. “It’s going to be my second playroom, and I’m going to fill it with toys—”
Jaq tried not to listen. Maybe Tormy would shift his weight and Jaq could wiggle free. He knew he could outrun Tormy if he could escape. Maybe not with a backpack filled with rocks, but he could collect more once he’d gotten away.
But he couldn’t move, and Tormy kept going on and on. Jaq felt a futile anger rise up in him as he realized that he wasn’t going to make it to the wormhole in time.
“—and after the pool is finished, I’m going to invite the whole class over for a party. It’s going to be great, the—”
Jaq opened his eyes to see why Tormy had stopped talking.
“What are they doing?” Tormy said. “They’re coming this way.”
Jaq followed his gaze. White blobs were springing toward them. Beautiful, angry white rodents with sharp teeth.
“Gah!” Tormy jumped off Jaq and raced away before the gang of wippers arrived. They surrounded Jaq as he sat up.