“And Dr. Pi is waving his hands around.”
“And I’m still burning up!” shouted Square Man. “Look at me! I’m still on fire! While you two—you have gone back to being regular girls.”
Flor looked down at herself. The dress of fire was gone. She looked at Lucy, who was no longer half horse.
“Oh well,” said Lucy. “I don’t think a centaur would have gone over well in Puddleville anyway.”
She started to trot across the floor, then realized she could no longer trot.
Two legs felt kind of weird.
Buddy was walking toward them. “All my ice has melted,” he said. “It’s just cold water. It won’t freeze, no matter what I do.”
Dr. Pi was following. “It’s extraordinary. This defies the laws of physics.”
“I’ve got the saline solution down to zero degrees, and the rectangles won’t freeze. I told you rectangles have a mind of their own sometimes. Well, all mine have decided to remain water until further notice.”
“Water, water, water!” said Square Man excitedly. “That’s exactly what I need! Please, let me dunk myself. Please!”
Buddy looked at the tiny man, who was immersed in flames.
“Ah,” he said. “Maybe they have been waiting for you. Let me move one of the rubber mats. Pip, can you help me?”
Lucy knelt and moved a mat aside. Square Man went eagerly to the edge and looked down.
“Can I dive in?”
“Be my guest,” said Buddy.
They all watched as he jumped into the water and began to splash around.
“How does it feel?” asked Dr. Pi.
“So good I can’t tell you. But my head is still on fire. I’m going underwater.”
And with that, he tumbled down into the water until he could no longer be seen.
“Now what?” Flor asked.
“Now,” said Buddy, “I expect we’ll have ice. Have a look.”
Flor knelt down and touched the top of the water.
“It’s frozen fast.”
“And so is Square Man,” said Buddy.
“They’ve all become ice,” said Dr. Pi. He sighed with relief. “The world is in order again.”
“Except for the wand,” said Flor, holding it out to Dr. Pi. “Will you return it?”
“Yes. I’ll notify the guardians of points and lines. They will restore all the planets to their original shapes.”
“The spell has been broken,” said Buddy.
“The spirals are safe,” said Dr. Pi.
“There’s a giant we should help,” Lucy reminded Flor.
“That’s right. Dr. Pi—will you tell the guardians, when you give them the wand, to go help the giant who built a planet of triangles?”
“Why, certainly.”
“And there’s one more thing.”
“What’s that?”
“Well,” said Flor, “when I was standing in the middle of the fire, and I was safe, it was like the light of the fire showed me the truth. And the truth is that Square Man doesn’t think anybody will ever like him. I know he’s made a lot of trouble, a whole lot of trouble, but I swear I could feel the fire telling me to give him a chance. Maybe we should give him a chance here on Earth. I mean, without his magic wand, what can he do that’s so bad anyway?”
“Not much,” Dr. Pi admitted. “Still, he tried to destroy the Spiral.”
“You’ve got a big heart, little Flor,” said Buddy. “Well, let’s lift the rectangle up, and push the ice out, and have a look.”
He lowered a hook on a chain and fastened it onto the steel rectangle. And slowly he cranked the rectangle up and out of the floor. He maneuvered it to a dry spot, and then he pushed the block of ice out into the light.
There in the middle was the tiny man, his mouth open wide, his arms flung out, his face full of terror. Frozen fast, like a fly in a Popsicle.
“Oh sheesh,” said Lucy. “We can’t leave him like that, can we?”
Flor shook her head.
“Daddy,” said Lucy, “melt it, please.”
Buddy looked around. “Are we in agreement?”
Everybody nodded.
“Help me roll the ice outside, then.”
Together they slowly pushed the large block of ice out of the factory and onto the deck in the sun, where it very slowly began to melt. Rivulets of water ran down the sides. It melted evenly, slowly growing smaller and smaller.
“It retains its golden shape,” said Dr. Pi, “to the very last.”
“That it does,” said Buddy.
As the ice melted, Square Man looked as if he was slowly floating downward. At last he was enclosed in a rectangle of ice only slightly bigger than himself.
Finally one hand popped out of the ice.
Then the other hand popped out.
The top of his head emerged, drops of water sliding down his ears.
As soon as his face was free, he yelped and gulped for air. And then he spluttered to a stop. The ice was entirely gone, and he was standing in water. He shook himself like a dog after a heavy rain, droplets flying out in all directions.
The sun beat down, a breeze swayed the pecan trees, and a butterfly landed briefly on Square Man’s head, opening and closing its golden wings, then flew off.
“You could have let me freeze forever,” he said. “Why did you save me?”
“We thought maybe you would have a change of heart.”
“You don’t hate me? Totally and completely hate me?”
Flor shook her head.
“I have a lot of people to apologize to, don’t I?” said Square Man.
“A lot.”
“A lot of squares need to be turned back to circles.”
“The guardians of the line will do that for you.”
“I don’t know how to begin a new life,” he said.
“I could use your help making ice. I need an assistant,” said Buddy.
“Do you really mean it?” whispered Square Man. “You really want me to stick around?”
“We do,” said Buddy. “The world needs squares, just not all squares. And you need to learn that there is something more powerful than a circle or a square, than a rectangle or even a spiral.”
“What’s that?”
“Love, of course,” said Buddy. “What say you all we go back to the house and eat some leftover wedding cake? It’s been a long, strange day, but it all seems to have turned out all right, and a little celebration is in order.”
RED EYE IN THE SKY WITH DIAMONDS
Lucy and Flor were in the hayloft, having a sleepover. They’d stuffed themselves with wedding cake, and then Flor had called her mother to tell her she was safe, just a thousand miles away in Georgia. “When I get home,” she had promised her mother, who had been quite upset, “you can ground me forever. I’ll clean the dishes after dinner every night, and I’ll even scoop out the cat litter. I’ll do whatever you ask, I promise!”
Then Buddy had put two sleeping bags, a few pillows, and a battery-operated fan up in the golden rectangle of hay.
It was around ten o’clock. They were staring up at the night sky through the large, open window in the loft.
“It’s gorgeous. You never see stars like this in Brooklyn,” said Flor. “There are too many city lights.”
“We were near some of those stars just a few hours ago,” said Lucy. “Nobody will ever believe it, will they?”
“Nope.”
They were silent for a while.
“Hey, look up there, past that tree branch,” said Lucy. “See that sprinkle of stars there?”
“I think so. Why?”
“Don’t they sort of look like the shape of a lobster?”
Flor squinted. “That could be a lobster. You think it’s Red Eye? That he’s saying hello from a distant star somehow?”
“I don’t know. Well, if it’s not a lobster, it’s definitely an egret,” said Lucy. “Definitely, those stars there by that branch of that tree, are either a lobster
or a bird.”
They laughed. And then they were silent again.
“Pip?” asked Flor.
“Yeah?”
“Are you going to come visit me in Brooklyn—I mean, the regular way? Not arriving in my closet.”
“You mean, like, ride me a baby alligator all the way to New York?”
“Exactly,” laughed Flor. “Arrive on an alligator. My mom will love that.”
“Can Nell and Matt come too?”
“Sure, why not?”
“Sounds like fun.”
And once more they were silent.
“Pinkie, you got your key?” asked Lucy.
“Yep. You got yours?”
“Right in my pocket.”
“That’s good.”
“Hey,” said Lucy.
“What?”
“Do you mind if I just close my eyes and check my eyelids for holes?”
“Nope, go right ahead. That sounds like fun. I’ll check mine, too.”
And Lucy closed her eyes, and Flor closed hers, too.
“No holes,” said Lucy contentedly.
“No holes here, either,” said Flor.
And before they knew it, they were fast asleep in a bed of hay.
Inside the house Dr. Pi was snoring happily in a soft leather chair.
Square Man had climbed into the Kleenex box, stretched out on the soft tissues, and nodded off.
Buddy quietly turned off the lights and went upstairs. All was well in the world. The Golden Rectangle and the Spiral were in balance. He stood at his window for a few moments before going to bed. Up in the night sky the constellation now known as Red Eye sparkled.
Buddy Moon waved. And then he lay down like the others to sleep.
is the nom de plume for writer Jill Neimark’s juvenile fiction. She is the coauthor of the highly acclaimed Bloodsong (adult fiction, Random House), as well as Why Good Things Happen to Good People (adult self-help, Random House) and, with coauthor Marcella Bakur Weiner, I Want Your Moo (picture book, Magination Press), recipient of the Teachers’ Choice Award for Children’s Books.
Jacket illustrations copyright © 2013 by Steve Simpson
ALADDIN
SIMON & SCHUSTER, NEW YORK
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KIDS.SimonandSchuster.com
Also by Gillian Neimark
The Secret Spiral
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division
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First Aladdin hardcover edition February 2013
Copyright © 2013 by Jill Neimark
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Designed by Lisa Vega
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Neimark, Gillian.
The golden rectangle / by Gillian Neimark.
p. cm.
Sequel to: The secret spiral.
Summary: Ten-year-olds Flor Bernoulli, a Brooklyn fashion maven, and Lucy Moon, a Georgia farm girl, use their very different super powers to combat tiny Square Man, whose mission is to rid the universe of anything round or curved.
ISBN 978-1-4169-8042-1
[1. Mathematics—Fiction. 2. Space and time—Fiction. 3. Ability—Fiction. 4. Fantasy.] I. Title.
PZ7.N42945Gol 2013
[Fic]—dc23
2012028955
ISBN 978-1-4169-8527-3 (eBook)
The Golden Rectangle Page 8