The smart girl with the greasy hair, whom he didn’t really know, raised her hand.
“Yes, Lenora?” Mr. Mancuso nodded at the girl.
Blake heard her suck in a deep breath. “Our assignment was to document the trials and tribulations of our Founding Fathers as they pertained to the formation of our country after the American Revolution.”
“That’s correct.” Mr. Mancuso picked up a single sheet of paper from his desk. “This, Class, is Mr. Wyatt’s report.”
Laughter ripped through the room as Blake squirmed in his seat. Here it comes.
“Mr. Wyatt took it upon himself to change the assignment.” He walked to Blake’s desk and held the paper aloft. “He ignored my guidelines. Obviously he thought it more important to write about determination. Please, Blake, read a bit for us.” He handed over the paper with a flourish.
“Out loud?”
“Yes, out loud.”
Blake cleared his throat and stared at the paper. The words looked like they all ran together. He could hear every kid breathing and feel them staring at him.
“Well, it’s just that--”
“From the beginning, please.”
Blake scanned the faces of his classmates, raised the page, and then read. “While the names and dates of the people who lived in the past are important, history is actually about what real people did to change the future. After reading the chapter on the American Revolution, I find that determination is what really shaped our country into the great place it is today.”
A knock at the door interrupted him.
“You’re not off the hook, Mr. Wyatt. I want the class to hear what you wrote about Christopher Columbus.” Mr. Mancuso opened the door.
Uncle Leopold stood in the doorway, a large, thick envelope in his hand.
Blake shot up. Uncle Leopold was alive!
“Yes?” Mr. Mancuso asked as though he had never seen the man before.
“A message, yes, yes, yes, an urgent message for Mr. Wyatt, please.”
Mr. Mancuso took the envelope. “Thank you, sir.”
He closed the door and walked over to where Blake was seated. “It appears that Mr. Wyatt thinks I’m his personal secretary.” The teacher dropped the fancy envelope on his desk.
Nura’s image, stamped in red wax, sealed the brownish-yellow cover. Blake tore apart the gummy wax and, holding the flaps open, yanked out the message inside.
Einstein must be stopped. Knowledge is the power.
Another message appeared below the first, in the same scraggy scrawl that had filled the chalkboard a couple of weeks before.
I intercepted this message. Parabulls in trouble.
--Uncle Leopold
Blake confidently tucked the paper back in the envelope and grinned. It sure was a new world.
About The Author
N.M Singel is a Rhodes Scholar nominee and an honors graduate of the theater program at Purdue University. She studied Shakespeare and English literature at the University of Warwick in Coventry, England and was the recipient of the Irene Ryan acting scholarship for her performance at the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival. She has written two plays and several short stories. The Wicked Passage is her first novel.
Ms. Singel lives in Las Vegas where she has been managing her husband's medical practice while she pursues her passion as a full-time novelist. She is the mother of two beautiful bulldogs, Guinevere and MacArthur, who are the inspirations for her Rellium series.
Look For
Rae of Hope
by W.J. May
How hard do you have to shake a family tree to find out the truth of the past?
Fifteen-year-old Rae Kerrigan has never questioned her family’s history. That is until she accepted a scholarship to Guilder Boarding School in England. Guilder is a very unique, gifted school. Rae has no idea what she is getting herself into or that her family’s past is going to come back and taunt her.
mitchellmorrispublishinginc.com
The Wicked Passage (A Blake Wyatt Adventure) Page 20