Poppy Mayberry, a New Day

by Jennie K. Brown

  Ellie rolled her eyes.

  “He has a point,” I said as my stomach moaned. “I’ll look for the peanut butter.” I walked to the cupboard next to the refrigerator. “Ellie?”

  Not hungry, she thought to me.

  “And you just stay put,” I added as Ellie worked her way toward the freezer. Using my Monday power, I slid the stool behind the island right next to Ellie. She hobbled over, sat down on one stool, and propped her throbbing ankle up on the cushion of the other.

  Mark wrapped some ice in a washcloth and gave it to Ellie while Sam made four peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

  “Thanks,” Ellie said, biting into the one we’d made for her. I smirked, thinking about the whole I’m not hungry comment she made in her head just a moment ago.

  “It’s so late you guys,” Sam said.

  “I haven’t been up this late since our sleepover this summer,” Ellie said.

  I thought back to then. Ellie, Veronica, Celia, and I stayed up all night reading gossip magazines, eating greasy pizza, and talking about our crushes.

  Speaking of crushes, Ellie thought. “I wonder how it’s going with Logan?” she asked the rest aloud.

  Mark sighed. “Me too.”

  Ellie yawned. “I’m so tired,” she said, stretching her extra-long arms above her head.

  I yawned, followed by Sam.

  “Contagious,” Mark spoke through a muffled yawn.

  As if Logan’s mom heard our thoughts (maybe she was a Thursday), she showed up in the kitchen with Logan following closely behind. “If any of you want to get some sleep, there are plenty of guest rooms upstairs. Just take a left at the top of the steps, and find yourselves a place to stay for the evening.” She paused. “Boys in one room and girls in another,” she added, smiling warmly. Blotches of red dotted her cheeks—evidence she’d been crying.

  Logan cleared his throat. “Uh … and by the way, these are my friends.” He pointed at Sam first. “This is Sam.” His eyes shifted. “And this is Ellie.”

  “Hello,” Mrs. Prince said warmly.

  “This is my friend, Mark,” Logan said as Mark’s eyes lit up at the mention of being called “friend.”

  Then Logan continued. “And this is my … um … this is my girl … um.” He hesitated. “This is Poppy.”

  Mrs. Prince smirked and shot an endearing look to Logan.

  I don’t know what compelled me to do it, but I ran up to Mrs. Prince and gave her a great, big hug. She wrapped her arms tightly around me.

  “Thank you, Poppy,” she said, smiling Logan’s crooked smile.

  Mrs. Prince stepped away and then grabbed Logan’s hand. “We have a lot of catching up to do,” she said, tilting her head toward the sunroom. “We will see you all in the morning.”

  “Thank you, Mrs. Prince,” the four of us said in unison.

  We walked through the grand foyer and headed up five stairs, took a right turn and walked up seven more, and then arrived at another landing that led us up another ten steps.

  “Nothing like a workout at midnight,” Ellie huffed. She pulled herself up each step by using the banister for leverage. This was not the ideal house to navigate with a bum ankle.

  We got to the top of the staircase, and the first thing I saw was another second floor foyer just as grand as the first. A dazzling chandelier hung from the ceiling that appeared to be at least ten feet high.

  “Let’s find our rooms.” Ellie pulled on the sleeve of my favorite purple tunic.

  Don’t stretch it, I thought. She immediately let go.

  I looked left and then right, down the two enormously long hallways that branched off to either side.

  “I’m pretty sure she said right,” Mark said.

  We followed Mark and took a right at the top of the stairs to reach the first door on the left. The soccer ball decor and green wallpaper made it obvious this room was definitely made for a boy. A giant letter L hung on the wall on the opposite side of the double bed. Photographs of Logan as a child lined the dresser mirror. Had they intended on Logan using this room?

  “How did they get pictures of him?” Ellie asked.

  “Beats me.” Mark shrugged. “But somebody must know they’re here.”

  And then we reached the next room. The door creaked open.

  “This is definitely not a guest room,” I said, trying to take everything in.

  Awards and accolades hung from the walls, and collages of pictures lined two cork bulletin boards. I walked toward a cabinet on the far side of the room and saw the words “Nova Power Corporation: Department of Scientific Research” atop a newspaper article. I glanced at the picture with the article just as Mr. Prince’s voice bellowed from the doorway.

  “I thought my wife told you to take a left at the top of the stairs.”

  Whoops.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Mr. Prince said those words through what sounded like a forced chuckle. Phew! I thought he was upset. Mrs. Prince and Logan stood just behind him.

  “What’s in there?” I asked, trying to peer around Mr. Prince. His hand wrapped around the wooden doorknob, and he closed the door behind him.

  “Just some old, dusty memorabilia in there from our old life in Nova,” Mr. Prince said, a touch of sadness in his tone. He stepped in front of us and led us across the foyer and to the other end of the upstairs hallway.

  “Now,” he said, looking at his son. “You kids just worry about getting some sleep tonight, and then we can all have a chat in the morning.” His eyes crinkled in the corners. “We have a lot to talk about.”

  Logan’s dad wrapped both arms around his son. “I can’t believe you found us, Logan,” he said with a happy sigh.

  Mrs. Prince joined the group hug and kissed Logan on his head. She looked up. “Towels are in the hall closet.”

  “Boys, why don’t you just take Logan’s room?” Mr. Prince said. “And girls, you take the room down the hall on the left.”

  Mrs. Prince nodded at her husband in agreement before both she and Logan’s dad disappeared into their bedroom at the end of the hall.

  Logan stood in front of me, his eyes so wide they practically bulged from their sockets like a frog’s. Blotches of red dotted his face. “Do you want to talk about it?” I asked him cautiously.

  He didn’t speak but nodded his head forward.

  “Don’t we have to stay in separate rooms?” Ellie asked. “You guys heard Logan’s parents.”

  Logan tensed. I just need some more time with you, Logan thought to me.

  “Only for a couple minutes,” I responded to Ellie.

  We tiptoed to the girls’ bedroom at the end of the hall. Unlike the other two, this one was just your average guest room. Tan curtains hanging in the windows matched a tan carpet, which matched the bedspread that was … you guessed it … tan.

  Ellie sat down in the brown chair in the corner of the room, while Logan sat on the bed next to me. Sam sat cross-legged in the middle of the floor. Mark took the desk chair in the corner. I sighed. Logan sighed. Then Ellie, Mark, and then Sam. We all just sat there sighing. There was so much I wanted to say to Logan. So much I wanted to ask him, but I didn’t know where to even start. Up until this point in my life, I’d been lucky and never had to deal with something as enormous as this. Gosh. Only two years ago I was a carefree weekday just trying to master her Monday power. Now, the weight of growing up hit me hard. The weight of all-things-Nova hit me too. How many secrets could one small town hold?

  “How are you?” I finally asked Logan. This seemed like a good place to start.

  Logan took a deep breath and then pursed his lips and blew out. “You know?” he began. “I’m not really sure. It just feels so unreal. Almost out-of-body.”

  “Did they say why they lied to you?” Ellie asked, leaning casually as if she asked something as simple as, “What did you have for breakfast?”

  “Ellie!” I shot Ellie the death-stare. Pro
bably was not the best question to ask right now.

  Logan chuckled. “It’s okay,” he assured Ellie. “They didn’t talk much about that. We just caught up. I mean, sure, I asked them where the heck they’ve been all this time and why? Why leave me behind? Why not take me with them? But I think we were all just so happy to be reunited, that got pushed aside. They promised to tell me everything in the morning. Tell us everything in the morning.” He nodded firmly. “After a good night’s sleep.”

  “I guess this is as much of a shock for them too,” Mark said.

  Logan rubbed the back of his head. “Mmm hmmm. Too much.” He leaned forward and held his head in his hands. I thought about my parents, Willie, Pickle. Just the thought of being away from them for a summer at Power Academy hurt my stomach.

  “Thank you all for being here for me,” Logan said, squeezing my hand.

  “That’s what friends are for,” I said.

  That was the last thing spoken before the boys left for Logan’s room.

  I woke up two hours later with a crick in my neck and a chill down my spine. I’d fallen asleep with my feet tucked under my butt and my neck awkwardly positioned half on the pillow and half off. Ellie’s body was curled up like Pickle’s at the foot of the bed. She snored. I giggled, thinking about the first time I heard her snoring at Power Academy. Then I thought about the trail of slobber that trailed behind her retainer. Ugh.

  My mouth felt dry, so I headed to the bathroom to get some water. As I opened the guest room door though, I realized I had no idea where the bathroom was. My bare feet were soundless as I tiptoed down the hall. A few creaks escaped from the wooden boards below my feet, but it wasn’t any louder than the odd noises and creaks any old house makes with footsteps or not. After checking the other two rooms on the left side of the hallway (two normal-looking rooms, I might add), I made my way to the large foyer at the top of the stairs. A single door was positioned directly across from the top of the staircase. Bingo! I thought.

  After sipping on some water, I started back toward the room with my sleeping friend. I was so tired; I knew it wouldn’t take long to fall back to sleep if I headed back to the room. But that’s not what I did. Instead, I took the “right” hall at the top of the stairs.

  I stood in front of the wooden door Mr. Prince had shut in our faces earlier. I didn’t know exactly what I expected to find in that room, but the nagging feeling in the bottom of my stomach told me something important was in there. What else are you hiding? I thought.

  I turned the doorknob and expected it to open right away. But it didn’t. In fact, the knob didn’t even turn at all. Locked. Just as I spun around to head back to the guest room, I felt pressure on my shoulder. I whipped my head around. Nothing. A shiver ran down my spine. I knew this creepy place was haunted, I thought.

  “It’s just me,” I heard Logan’s voice. He suddenly appeared in front of me.

  I smacked him on his shoulder. “Oh!” I sighed in relief. “Don’t do that again! You scared me half to death!”

  The blotchy spots of red had disappeared from Logan’s cheeks, and the Logan I knew and liked stood in front of me. “Here,” he said sticking out his hand. I placed my hand in his, just like I had done at the rusted-out bus just a few months ago. If his parents saw us together in the middle of the night, they would so not be happy.

  Logan gave me his cute crooked smile and squeezed my hand. “One. Two. Three.”

  On three, we were on the other side of the locked door. A large wooden desk stood centered between two oversized windows. Behind the desk were two floor to ceiling book cases, and mahogany shelves lined the walls.

  “Why do you think your parents didn’t want us in here?”

  Logan shrugged. “Beats me, but I’m curious now.”

  “Don’t you feel kinda bad about sneaking around?”

  Logan’s eyes met mine. “I’m tired of people not being honest with me. If I want to figure things out, and they won’t fill us in until morning, then I need to do it on my own.”

  My lips turned down.

  “Well … on my own with you,” he added. I knew what he meant.

  I went right back to the cabinet from earlier tonight. “Nova Power Corporation: Department of Scientific Research” headlined the article I looked at before. The article detailed the discovery of the meteors crashing into the center of Nova, magically giving us powers from another world.

  “I didn’t know they worked in research,” I whispered, looking at the young Mr. and Mrs. Prince in the black and white picture below the words.

  “I knew they worked at Nova Power Corporation. I was just too young to know what they did there.” Logan pulled decorations off shelves, inspected them, and then placed them back.

  I swallowed. “Do you know now?”

  “Nope,” he admitted through a half-frown.

  I unpinned the article from the board to get a closer look at the photograph. Logan’s dad stood on the right, and half his face was cut off because of a fold in the newspaper. I looked at the photograph again and unfolded the flap falling behind. When I lifted it, the photograph became complete, like a puzzle that finally possessed its missing piece. “Oh my gosh,” I said, gasping. My fingers slid from the article, the entire piece of paper floated, swaying back and forth until it reached the ground, finally resting in front of my toe.

  “What is it, Poppy?” Logan picked the article up from the wooden floor below.

  His eyes widened as he saw the reason for my reaction.

  “Those are my parents,” I barely whispered.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Logan handed me the newspaper article. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from my parents. There stood my dad—just as bald then as he is today, with my mother to his right. She beamed, and her spirally orange hair cascaded past her shoulders. I could practically see her bright green eyes shining.

  I took the time to read the entire article and came back to one excerpt:

  “Both the Princes and the Mayberrys have worked under Dr. Nalsom in the DSC (Department of Scientific Research) of Nova Power Corporation since 1995. Part of the team that continues to work on the origination of weekday powers, the two couples have worked alongside one another for years, ensuring the residents of Nova they are safe from other such natural disasters. Without the work of these four individuals, Nova would not be where it is today.”

  My jaw dropped to the floor. “I just don’t understand this at all.”

  Logan studied the article. “It looks like our parents worked together with this guy,” he said, pointing to the name of the research director.

  “More than that. It sounds like our parents were friends.” I sat down in the swivel chair behind Mr. Prince’s desk. “But my parents never mentioned anything about knowing your parents. Of course, they have to know you’re their son?” I looked at Logan, searching for some sort of explanation. He didn’t have one.

  “So my parents must think that yours are … ” I swallowed, not allowing myself to say the D word. “Not alive.”

  “I guess so.” Logan shook his head. “But why not even mention they used to know one another?”

  I thought back to the many times Logan was at my house over the summer. He ate macaroni and cheese with stewed tomatoes at our dining room table just two weeks ago. Not once did either of my parents mention knowing his parents. Alive or not, that is something normal people would bring up. And to see they worked together was astonishing. I looked at the photograph again. All four of them smiled like friends. Like best friends.

  I passed the article back to Logan, and he pinned it back on the board. Logan scratched his head. “So what did they actually do at Nova Power Corporation then?”

  “Huh?” I asked, confused.

  “What I mean is … we know there was no meteor, and that our parents had to know too.”

  He was right.

  Logan’s eyes grew wide. “So what were their real jobs?”


  For my entire life, I thought my dad worked security at N.P.C. and my mom just stayed home to raise me and Willie. But if the words attached to the article were true, then that was way off.

  This was becoming too complicated. I thought the worst of my problems was being caught in the sneaking-out-of-Nova lie. It looked like my parents were part of an even bigger one.

  “Maybe we should just ask your parents,” I suggested.

  Logan looked to the door and then back at me. “It’s been an emotional trip as it is already. I don’t want to start questioning them right away.”

  I crossed my arms over my chest. “Stop right there, mister,” I said with authority. “You mean we came all this way, and you want to wait to ask them this? That’s ridiculous.” I looked Logan in the eyes. “You need answers. We need answers.”

  “You’re right,” Logan said, sounding exasperated. “I will ask them first thing in the morning.” He looked around the cluttered office and whispered, “Why leave me in the first place?”

  Logan walked to a shelf on the other side of the room and picked up a picture of his parents holding up two medallions. Just another one of their many Nova accolades. Why would they leave if they were honored so much?

  Using my Monday power, I unpinned about half a dozen other newspaper clippings from the corkboard and set them gently on the desk. Headlines about Logan’s parents jumped out at me. “Nova Scientists Awarded Research Medals of Honor” and “When the Meteor Strikes: Scientists Uncover Meteor Remains.”

  And then I saw one that didn’t look like the others. “Esteemed Nova Scientists Dead: Fire Burns through Nova Power Corporation.”

  My hands shook as I handed this particular article to Logan. “Is this what happened to your parents?”

  A look of confusion spread across Logan’s face. “I guess so. The fire must have been the freak accident I’d been told about.” He shook his head.