by B. V. Larson
“The Estate?” asked Mrs. Terry. “You don’t mean…?”
“Yes, I do. A message arrived this morning. Vater is coming back. We must all prepare to meet him.”
“Hmm,” said Mrs. Terry. “I’ve got a new kid aboard. What about her?”
Miss Urdo looked back along the ranks of seats. We all sat in our places, quiet for once. Everyone wanted to hear. We all strained our ears and shushed each other.
Miss Urdo’s eyes zoomed in and landed squarely on Beth. She had eyes that made you feel like she was watching you from clear across the school grounds. Beth squirmed under her stare.
“I see,” she said to the driver. “We’ll have to bring her along.”
“If we are going to the Estate, maybe we will get to play Hussades,” Danny said excitedly behind us.
“Yes, Danny,” said Urdo. She had the ears of a hawk as well as the eyes. “We will be playing Hussades tonight at the Estate.”
A cheer went up throughout the bus. Everyone was smiling except for me.
“What the heck are Hussades?” asked Beth in my ear.
“It’s sort of hard to explain,” I said, “they are races. You race through an obstacle course. It’s a sport we brought over from the old country.”
“The old country?”
I looked at her pretty little nose and sighed. There was so much she didn’t know about. She would learn it all from Hussades. She would learn about all shapes the other kids could change into. And she’d learn that I couldn’t change into anything at all.
Chapter Seven
The Estate
“Okay,” said Beth. She started talking slowly then sped up the more she talked. “You guys are good. I mean, really, good. You had me going, I’ll admit it. I’m the new girl and you had your fun. I actually believed you, for just a minute there. When the Principal banged on the roof, I’ve got to say, that was pretty wild. I mean, what is the deal? Was she up there the whole time inspecting it or something?”
“Beth-” I began, but that was all I managed to get out.
“Hold it! Stop right there! I know what you are going to say. You don’t have to keep shoveling out the fairy tale stuff! The fun is over now and I want to know where this bus is going. Maybe I should go ask the driver.”
“Her name is Mrs. Terry,” Jake said helpfully.
“Yes, whatever,” said Beth. She was tugging at the white fluff of her hood and winding it up with her fingers.
“It’s all true, Beth,” I told her gently. “Try not to freak out. Just sit back and watch. You aren’t in any danger. We are pretty harmless.”
“I’m not harmless,” said Danny from behind us. I noticed he was listening to us, but he wasn’t sticking his face into our conversation anymore. He glared at me with scrunched up eyebrows. He still had ketchup sticking the hairs of his left eyebrow together, I noticed.
I ignored him and turned back to Beth. I didn’t want her to freak out and run off. I liked her. “Just stay calm and watch everything that happens. If you don’t get it, ask me or Jake, we’ll fill you in.”
“So why don’t you just turn into a toad for me, to prove it?” she said to Jake.
Jake looked ashamed. “No.”
“He’s not happy about being a toad,” I told Beth.
“What about you then? What can you turn into?”
“I don’t know yet. I haven’t turned yet. Most kids my age have, but I’m still waiting. It could be anything.”
“Well, isn’t that convenient,” said Beth. She fluttered her eyelashes and gave me a mocking little smile. “I’m not buying any of this, just for the record. You can all have your big laugh on the new kid, but I’m in on it now. The fun is over, everyone. I’m so sorry I’m only gullible, but not extremely gullible. I’m sure you would all enjoy this even more if I were.”
“Okay,” I said, “you don’t have to believe any of it now. I’ll just tell you some things about our town, so you know what to expect.”
“This should be good,” she said, crossing her arms.
“You see the Principal up there?” I asked, pointing to Miss Urdo.
Our Principal had sat down up at the front of the bus in the seat right behind the driver. She and Mrs. Terry were having a hushed conversation.
“You mean the hawk-lady?” she said, sounding like she didn’t believe it.
“Yes. She’s probably going to give you a chance to get out of this. She’ll ask you for your Aunt’s phone number and she will call and get you a ride home.”
“Why?”
“Because you are not one of us, and we are all headed to the Estate.”
“Who says I’m not one of you?” she asked. “I’m related to someone from this town.”
Jake and I looked at each other. Could she be a creature too?
“I suppose it’s possible, but people from around here don’t leave too often. I think your parents would have told you.”
“Okay, well, whatever,” she said making a flapping motion in the air with her hands. “What is this about? The Estate thing, I mean.”
I chewed my lip and thought about it. I wasn’t sure I should tell her.
Danny finally leaned into the talk again. “Good thinking, Connor,” he said. “She’s a mundane. Don’t give away all the family secrets.”
I was so tired of Danny. I decided to tell Beth about Vater, if only because it would bug him.
“It’s all about Vater,” I told her. “He’s the original creature, from a long time ago. We are all related to him.”
Danny made a disgusted sound and leaned back in his seat.
“Vater? What kind of a name is that?” asked Beth.
“It’s Swiss, I think. My parents always say he’s from the Alps.”
Beth nodded, but kept her lips pursed up in a doubtful expression.
“Vater is our great, great, great grandfather. Actually, I should probably put about five more greats on there, but you get the idea. The guy is really old and our clan is really a very large family that is all descended from one person. We don’t say his real name, we just call him Vater. That means something in the old country, where we all came from about a hundred years ago. But nobody has seen him since long before I was born. Some people even thought he was dead, until now.”
“So, he is some kind of super-old dude? How old can he be?”
Jake and I looked at each other.
“Well, Mr. Waldheim, that’s the dean, he says he’s very old,” I said.
“Mr. Waldheim is an alligator,” said Jake, jumping in.
“An alligator?” asked Beth, rolling her eyes.
“He’s really more like a monitor lizard,” I said seriously, “when he changes I mean. You see, sometimes it’s hard to tell exactly what kind of animal a person is because they only change part way, and they keep part of their human look.”
“You don’t want to get detention with him when he gets mad,” added Jake.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” said Beth, sighing. “You were talking about Vater.”
“No one really knows exactly how old he is,” I said. “At least if they do, they don’t tell us kids.”
“Half-human alligators? Centuries-old grandpas?” she said. She threw up her hands. “Now I know you guys are full of it.”
The bus stopped then. We hadn’t been paying attention to where we were going, but now everyone looked outside. The white-frosted trees crowded up to the bus on both sides of the narrow lane. A huge gate of black iron bars squatted in front of us. Beyond the gate, the road ran uphill to a big, strange-looking house. It was huge and rambling and my mom always called it “Victorian”. It had shingles on the walls, lots of balconies and turrets like a castle. There were stained-glass windows and complex designs made of wood everywhere. There were statues too, carved things like animals and gargoyles that crouched on the roof. Even though it was morning, up high, maybe on the third floor, a pair of yellow lights shined in the windows. They looked like eyes staring down at us.
“This is the Estate?” asked Beth, her voice filled with awe at the sight of it. “Who lives there?”
“No one really lives in the mansion. It’s Vater’s home. We take care of it for him.”
“That’s wild! It looks huge.”
The gates slowly swung open. We heard them creaking, screeching on their rusty hinges.
“What’s in there?” she hissed to us excitedly.
“Lots of stuff,” I said. “We usually get to go in only once a year, for Vater’s birthday celebration in the summer. We have a cake and everything, but he never comes.”
“What’s up in those top rooms? In those towers and things?”
“I don’t know. I’ve only been on the main floor,” I said.
“Cool!” she said. “I want to check out those towers.”
I smiled. Beth was no chicken. Maybe she would do all right in this town after all.
“Listen,” I said to her, “if you want to come along, I’ll help cover for you and tell you what is going on.”
She looked at me and chewed her lower lip. “Okay,” she said.
The bus didn’t move, not even when the gate was open. Mrs. Urdo got up and walked down the aisle. Her steps were graceful, measured and sure. She stopped in front of us and crouched down so her face was at our level. She looked at Beth seriously.
“I’ve called for a ride for you,” she said.
Beth looked at her for a long moment. Everyone else on the bus stared at us.
“I don’t want a ride,” she said finally.
“You aren’t from here,” said Miss Urdo gently. “There’s no need for you go with us.”
Beth and Miss Urdo locked stares for a moment. “I do belong here,” said Beth. “My Aunt is from here. I’m just like everyone else.”
Urdo stared at her for a moment longer without any expression. Then she glanced at me. Her gaze always made me squirm. Then, finally, she gave us a tiny smile and nodded.
She walked back up the aisle to her seat and the bus lurched into gear.
We headed into the Estate grounds.
Chapter Eight
The Mansion
We piled out of the bus and trudged through the snow to the mansion steps. They were steep, about a foot high each, as if made for someone taller than a normal human. HHHuge double doors waited for us at the top of the steps. The doors stood open, yawning wide like a giant’s mouth. Beth stopped at the threshold before going inside.
I stopped beside her. She was eyeing the ornate old-fashioned door. She ran her hands over the heavy rings that opened the door.
“The adults called this The Portal,” I explained.
“Is that real gold?” she asked. She rubbed the thick, gleaming rings of yellow metal that you pulled on to open the doors. They looked like they were solid gold to me.
“Maybe,” I said. “Knowing my family, it probably is.”
“That’s great,” she said, grinning. “You might be full of it, Connor, but I’m glad I came along.”
I nodded and smiled. She would figure things out soon enough. I only hoped she didn’t go too crazy when something really strange happened.
We tramped into the entryway and knocked snow off our boots. The carpet was thick and red and your feet sank into it as if you were walking on cushions. Along the walls were more carvings, mostly of animals. One was a wooden carving of a beaver that leaned on a cane. The beaver looked old and tired, but strained to stand up straight.
Beth giggled. She pointed at the beaver. “One of your uncles, I presume?”
“A grand aunt, actually,” I said.
“Oh Connor, you’re too much.”
I pointed at the plaque at the bottom of the statue. It read: In loving memory of Aunt Ethel.
Beth’s mouth sagged open. “Oh, come on!” she said. She stared at it for a few more moments. “Okay, so somebody had an aunt that loved beavers, right?”
“Yeah, she had a thing for beavers that walked with canes,” said Jake.
Beth just laughed and shook her head.
Jake and I exchanged glances. I knew what he was thinking. She still didn’t believe us. This was going to be a rough landing for Miss Elizabeth Hatter.
The entry led into the Great Hall. The hall was two stories high and all around the upper level were dusty portraits of people in old-fashioned clothes. Down on our level there were doors and corridors that led off deeper into the mansion. The middle of the hall was full of more plush, red carpet and a lot of overstuffed chairs and sofas. There were tables and old-fashioned frosted-glass lamps everywhere. Miss Urdo let us all relax here.
“This has got to be the best room,” said Jake, stretching out on a sofa.
Beth made me tell her things about the people in the portraits up on the walls, but I couldn’t remember most of their names.
While we talked, something fluttered down to land on the arm of my chair. It was Sarah. She was in the shape of a blue jay.
“Hello, Sarah,” I said.
She pecked at my hand. I reached out a single finger and she hopped on. I lifted her gently. Her tail wobbled as she balanced on my finger.
Beth, for the first time maybe, looked astounded. “How did that bird get in here? It’s trained? I didn’t know people had pet blue jays.”
She walked over and knelt to get a closer look. Sarah and I looked at her. Sarah cocked her head curiously.
“Sarah, meet Beth,” I said, introducing them as gracefully as I could. “Beth, Sarah.”
“Oh geez, another animal friend of yours, huh? Is she your auntie too?” laughed Beth.
“Beth,” I whispered, “I told you to play along with things until you understood.”
“But this is too much,” she said. Beth laughed hard and loud, she was so loud that all the other kids noticed. Soon everyone in the Great Hall stopped talking and looked over at us to see what was so funny.
“Beth,” I whispered.
She had the giggles now, and shook her head at me. She couldn’t talk.
“How rude,” said Sarah.
Beth’s laugh cut off with a gasp. “Someone taught it to talk?”
“Sarah,” I said to the bird, “You know she’s new.”
Sarah turned her beak toward me and said, “Your new girlfriend isn’t too smart, is she?”
“Sarah!” I said, shocked at her rudeness.
“Hmph,” huffed Sarah, turning around so her tail feathers faced me.
Beth’s face froze and her eyes flashed from my face to Sarah’s. In that instant, she got it. I was talking to a bird and it was talking back in a snooty fashion. One moment, everything was a big joke. Funny and interesting, but not real. Then the next moment, she got it all. All at once. Everything was real, and the joke was on her.
It was too much surprise all at once for one person. Beth was still kneeling in front of my chair. She rocked backward, lost her balance and sat down hard. Fortunately, the carpet was cushy. She stared at Sarah and me in shock. Her mouth made a perfect “O” of surprise, matching her wide, staring eyes.
Everyone in the place hooted with laughter.
I felt bad for Beth, but it could have been worse. She was only embarrassed and shocked. Not scared.
Chapter Nine
Beth Believes
Beth recovered well. I have to give her that. She didn’t scream or pull her hair out or run out through the portal into the estate grounds and the swirling snow. She did shove a lot of her fingers into her mouth. She chewed on them, without seeming to realize she was doing it.
“You okay, Beth?” I asked, leaning forward. She still sat on the floor, looking around at everyone as if we might turn into monsters and eat her or something.
She shook her head. She wasn’t okay. This wasn’t the first day at a new school she had been expecting.
“Let’s go somewhere,” I suggested. I reached out my hand to her. Sarah fluttered up to land on my shoulder and looked down at Beth.
“She’s lost it,” said Sarah.
/> “Hush, Sarah,” I said. “You aren’t helping.”
“Hmph,” said Sarah, and she fluttered away to land on a frosted-glass lamp. Her claws clicked on the glass. She left behind a single blue feather that floated down between Beth and I.
Beth took her hand out of her mouth and reached out. She caught the feather gently. She lifted it up on her finger. We both looked at it. By now, since nothing else interesting had happened, the other kids had gone back to their conversations.
“She’s a bird,” said Beth.
“That’s right,” I said encouragingly.
“She’s really a bird,” she said, still staring at the feather. Her pretty eyes lifted up and met mine. I was glad to see she was calm again.
I nodded, not knowing what else to do.
“What happens now? Am I the guest of honor at some cannibal feast?”
I laughed. “No, silly. What will probably happen is they will give us some job to do, like dusting the statues. That’s what usually happens when we are having the birthday party.”
“I hope they give us the basement to clean,” said Jake. “I hear there’s really weird stuff in the attic.”
“They say the same about the basement,” I said.
“What about her clothes?” asked Beth suddenly.
“Hmm?” I said.
“Her the clothes, Sarah’s clothes. What happens to them when she turns into a bird?”
“They drop on the floor, I guess,” I said.
“She has to wriggle out of them,” said Jake.
“So when she turns back, she’ll have nothing on?” asked Beth.
We grinned. “Yeah, usually we get a friend to hang onto our stuff. When we change back, we do it in a closet or bathroom. Just like changing into a swimsuit.”
She nodded. “So, Connor, you don’t know what you can change into yet?”
I looked down at my hands. “No.”
“It could be anything, right?” she asked. “Like a lion or a dolphin or a spider, even?”
I nodded. “Usually it is some kind of mammal. Birds and reptiles are less common.”