by Bob Blanton
“What are you going to do?”
“Find the statue and hide it.”
Emily slid back to the driver’s side and started to drive down the road again. A few seconds later, Matthew patted the top of the cab, Emily slowed down, and Matthew hopped out carrying his backpack. He ducked through the barbwire fence and started running through the orchard of avocado trees.
When he reached the shed, Matthew pulled a flashlight out of his pack, and using his portal, examined the inside of the shed. The mascot statue was sitting in the middle of it under a tarp. “Okay, so how do I get inside?” Matthew asked himself as he started to look around the shed. There was a lock on the door and he didn’t see any easy access.
“Oh, well.” Matthew used his portal to open the lock. It was rather easy since he could just open the portal inside the mechanism and push the upper pins up so the lock would open; he used his thumbnail to rotate the cylinder. Once it was open, he removed the lock and tossed it into the field beside the shed. He opened the door, squeezed inside, and closed it behind himself before he turned the flashlight back on. He made a quick check of Jerome to see how much time he had. Jerome had just gotten the jack out of his truck and was getting it oriented underneath the axle.
Matthew’s phone buzzed indicating a text message. He looked at it. “From Emily of course.” He texted back, ‘Found it.’ His phone buzzed again. ‘Call me.’
“Why do I need to call you?” Matthew asked once he’d called her.
“That way I know what’s going on. You might need help.”
“Actually, I do. Where can I hide this thing?”
“Where is it?”
“In the middle of the shed.”
“Can’t you push it to one side?”
“Not easy, there’s a bunch of junk in here.”
“Can you push it out the door and hide it around back?”
“I don’t think I’ll have enough time.” Matthew was continuing to look around the shed. He’d need some help lifting the statue; he was hoping to find a lever. After a bit, he found a fence post against the wall alongside a bunch of 2x4s. He grabbed the post and several short 2x4s and headed back over to the statue where he dropped his load. A quick check on Jerome showed that he already had the truck jacked up and the tire off.
Matthew looked up; the shed was a lean-to shape with the front side taller than the back. The front looked to be about fifteen feet high. “I hope that’s not too short.”
Matthew laid two 2x4s on top of each other to use as a fulcrum and pried the post under the statue. “Grrr!” Matthew put all his weight on the end of the post. Nothing.
“What was that?”
“I’m trying to lift the statue up so I can get my portal under it.”
“Can’t you just open it underneath it?”
“Sure, but then how do I raise it up enough to move it?”
“What are you going to do?”
“Use an elevator to lift it.”
“That sounds like overkill.”
“It might be, but I need to be able to move it after I lift it. The shed is probably too short right above the statue and it’s kind of an obvious space. I think Jerome might notice it.”
“Should I come there and help?”
“No! Are you on a hill?”
“Of course, there’s nothing but hills around here.”
“I mean can you drive uphill from where you are?”
“I can back up a hill.”
“Okay, wait a second and I’ll tell you when to back up.”
Matthew moved the stuff he’d collected back to where he had gotten it. He kept two of the short 2x4s, and placed them at the front of the shed right next to the door, spacing them out just the way he wanted. Then he went back to the statue and focused his portal. He was able to get it to open under about four inches of the statue.
“Okay, slowly back up the hill,” he instructed Emily.
Since his portal maintained equal potential energy between the two points, raising one end would raise the other, but you had to supply the energy to lift any object on the portal to the higher potential energy position. As Emily backed up the pickup, the statue lifted.
“Stop!”
The statue was tilted. Matthew tried to level it out so he could expand his portal but it was just too heavy. Thinking for a minute he decided he could start to lower the statue and spread the portal out by dropping it faster than the statue. He’d figured out that the portal allowed him to go to a lower potential energy state on one end versus the other, though who knew where the energy went. He leveraged himself under the raised end to try and hold it up, or at least slow its drop, then he lowered the portal.
“Ugh!”
“What happened?”
“It’s just heavy. Back up again about the same distance as you just did.”
“Backing up.”
“Stop!” This time Matthew was able to level the statue and expand his portal out so it was covering the entire bottom of the statue. Now he could just push it over to the door where he had the 2x4s placed and ready. Once he had it next to the 2x4s, he rotated the statue until it was parallel with the front of the building then lowered the statue. While his portal was free, he checked on Jerome again. “Damn, he’s just tightening up the last lug nut.”
“Emily, how far can you back up?”
“How far or how high?”
“I guess I want to know how high.”
“Not very high here, but if I move across the road, there’s a lane that goes up a hill.”
“Okay, hurry. Jerome is on his way.”
Matthew checked on Jerome again. He had just tossed the spare into the back of the truck. “Damn, there’s not enough time.”
“What?”
“Don’t worry, keep going,” Matthew told Emily. He really didn’t want to give Jerome another flat, but what else could he do. Emily needed at least a minute to get to the hill. Jerome was putting the jack in the back of the truck also. “Damn.” Matthew looked in the truck. The keys were dangling from the ignition. “Why not!” Matthew used his portal to pull the keys out. He buried them under some trash on the floor of the pickup. He figured Jerome would think he’d pulled them out automatically when he turned the truck off and then accidentally dropped them.
“Christ, where are my keys?!” Jerome stretched out and felt in his pocket. Not finding the keys, he started searching along the seat, reaching under the seat behind him to see if they had slipped in the crack. Eventually, he got out of the pickup and started to search the floor.
“I’m ready,” Emily announced just as Jerome found the keys.
“Okay, give me a sec.” Matthew moved over to the statue and straddled it. Then he opened his portal under it between the 2x4s. “Okay, start backing up.”
“Tell me when.”
“Keep going, . . . keep going, . . . a few more feet, . . . there.” Matthew and the statue had risen up twelve feet, well into the upper shadows of the shed.
“Emily, mute your phone. We don’t want Jerome to hear you breathe or something.”
“Yeah, right. Muting it . . .”
“Okay, he just drove up, so cross your fingers.”
Matthew heard Jerome curse as he opened the door to the shed. “Probably wasn’t happy to find the lock gone.”
The door rattled as it slammed into the side of the shed. Jerome’s flashlight illuminated the center of the shed where the statue had been. Jerome cursed as the light revealed the neatly folded tarp that had covered the statue. The flashlight panned around the shed then stopped as Jerome stood next to the tarp.
“Dalton, where’s the statue?!” Jerome yelled into his phone. “Well, it’s not here. The shed was unlocked when I got here.
“Of course I am, I’m standing right where it’s supposed to be. The tarp is here, but no statue!” Jerome kicked the tarp. “Where’s the light switch?”
Jerome walked back to the door and flipped on the lights. Matthew started to ge
t nervous. If Jerome spent too much time searching for clues, Matthew wouldn’t be able to maintain the portal. He’d have to drop the statue back down. The longest he’d ever managed to keep it open was 75 minutes, and he’d used it a lot on the way up here.
Jerome walked around looking at the ground. “I probably left footprints,” Matthew cursed himself as he watched Jerome walk over to where Matthew had grabbed the wood. Jerome examined the bent fence post and threw it onto the ground. Then he walked back over to where the statue had been and followed Matthew’s prints over to the wall.
Matthew held his breath as Jerome stood directly below him. He brought his head back inside the edge of his portal. If Jerome looked up, he would only see the bottom of the pickup where the other end of the portal was. Matthew crossed his fingers. He heard Jerome kick the side of the shed and used the noise to let out his breath. Holding your breath was a bad strategy.
Finally, Matthew heard Jerome slam the door again as he left the shed. He waited until he heard the pickup start up and its wheels spin as Jerome took off. “Whew!” He let his portal descend back to the floor.
“Is he gone?” Emily’s voice whispered over Matthew’s phone.
“Yes, he just left. Just a second, I’m almost down.”
“I see his lights, he just turned onto the main road. It looks like he’s heading home.”
As the statue settled back onto the 2x4s Matthew had placed next to the shed, he jumped off of the statue saying a quiet prayer of thanks that Jerome hadn’t moved them.
“Should I come up there now?”
“Wait, let me see where Jerome is first.” Matthew reopened his portal at Jerome’s location. He was definitely heading back home. “We’re clear, come on.”
Matthew closed his portal and rested while Emily drove the gardener’s pickup to the shed.
“What happened? I could only hear some of what he said on the phone.”
“I could only hear this end of the conversation. He called this Dalton guy and asked about the statue.”
“I remember a Dalton from the party, this shed is probably on his family’s property.”
“Makes sense. Now let’s get this thing loaded. You need to drive back down the hill a bit so I can raise it up.”
“Okay,” Emily said. She was already running back to the pickup.
Matthew waited until he heard the pickup start and move down the hill a bit, then he opened his portal under the statue.
“I’m ready,” Emily announced.
“Okay, drive back up and park next to the door. Then we can move it into the bed.”
Emily brought the pickup back up to the shed. As it came up the hill, the statue raised up until it was about 4 ½ feet above the ground. Once Emily parked the truck, Matthew let the statue sink down to just above the bed. He was already pushing the statue around when Emily came around the truck.
“Open the tailgate.”
“Got it. . . . Damn!”
“What happened?!”
“Nothing, I just broke a nail. Do you need help pushing that thing?”
“No, I’ve got it.” Matthew maneuvered the statue out of the shed and into the pickup bed. Then he lowered it to the bed and closed his portal. He closed the tailgate, being careful not to slam it. “Let’s get out of here before somebody shows up.”
“Do you think he’ll come back?”
“Probably not, but his buddy, Dalton, might.”
The two hopped into the pickup and Emily drove them back to the road. “Once we reach I-15, let’s head down to Del Dios.”
“You got it. I’d rather not run into anyone from Fallbrook while we have the statue sitting in the back of this thing.”
◆ ◆ ◆
It was ten p.m. when Emily turned into the parking lot at Pacific Coast Academy.
“Kill your lights,” Matthew suggested. “We don’t want to draw attention to ourselves. I’ll need you to stop when the rear wheels are on top of one of the speedbumps.”
“Got it.” Emily turned off the lights, then drove the pickup along the lane that passed by the front of the school. She stopped at the top of the speedbump just in front of the spot where the statue was supposed to reside, as Matthew had instructed.
Matthew got out and lowered the tailgate. He opened his portal under the statue before waving Emily forward. As the pickup rolled off the speedbump, the statue stayed at the previous height, giving Matthew eight inches of space to maneuver it out of the pickup. He waved Emily forward some more so that the statue was outside the pickup, then he pushed it toward the flagpole and its long-bare pedestal. He slowly eased it into place. With a satisfied smile, he patted it on the head and walked back to the pickup.
Matthew was just closing the tailgate when Emily whispered, “Somebody’s coming.” A set of headlights turned into the parking lot adding emphasis to her point.
“Drive behind the gym. We can take the back path to Camino Bello,” Matthew said as he opened his portal to check out who it was.
“It’s a patrol car.”
“Darn, they must be keeping an eye out for activity around the school since the heist.”
“Yeah, and I don’t want to have to explain where we found the statue. It’s downhill, let the pickup coast until we reach the road.”
Emily gave the pickup a bit of gas, then put it into neutral so it would coast down the road. “What about my brake lights?”
“I’ll cover them.” Matthew opened his portal behind the pickup with the other end about ten feet in front of the pickup. Anyone looking would see the part of the road they were approaching instead of the back of the truck. “They’re covered.”
Emily touched the brakes a couple of times to keep their speed down as they coasted down the hill. As they approached Camino Bello, another set of headlights was approaching the lane from the left, signaling a turn into the lane.
“Pull over, I think there’s enough space on the left.”
Emily pulled the pickup to the left and slowed to a stop. She cut the engine and turned to Matthew. “Now what?”
“I’ll use my portal to hide us. I just hope it will work.”
“How are you going to do that? Whoever it is, they’ll drive right by us.”
“I’ll rotate it around us. It should work. We’ll have to see.”
“And if it doesn’t?”
“We could be making out.”
“Yeah right, like they won’t see right through that.”
“Hey, the sheriff’s guys don’t know us. They might buy it.”
“Then you should slide this way.”
“No, you should slide this way, away from the steering wheel.”
“Right.” Emily slid over next to Matthew and he turned and put his arm around her.
“Hey, this is like at the Sackler.” Matthew was alluding to Emily hugging him while he worked his magic at the Sackler exhibit in New York when they’d foiled the terrorist plot to kill the Crown Prince.
“Have you got your portal up?”
“Yes. Tell me where the lights are so I can adjust it.”
“Can’t you see them?”
“It’s hard for me to look around when I have it open.”
“Sorry, I forgot. They’re coming now. . . . They’re about ten feet away, . . . at our two o’clock, . . . our three o’clock, . . . now our five o’clock, . . . they’re behind us.”
“Good job. Now should we see if we can roll on down the hill?”
“How do we get the truck started again.”
“I’ll push.”
“The interior light!” Emily called out as Matthew started to open the door.
“Good call. I’ve got it.” Matthew used his portal to hide the interior light as it came on. He got out and carefully closed the door. “Is it in neutral?”
“It is now. Push.”
Matthew pushed on the pickup’s tailgate, but it didn’t move, just rocked a bit. “Damn.” Matthew looked around trying to figure out what he could use to
push the pickup. After a minute, with Emily hissing suggestions, he moved to a big oak tree. He opened his portal against the pickup with the other end just a few feet from the tree. Then he leaned against the portal and walked his way up the tree until he was horizontal. Now he could use his legs to full effect. He pushed hard and the pickup moved, dumping him on the ground. He got up and ran to the pickup and continued to push it until it gained enough momentum. Then he hopped in the back and waved Emily on.
The pickup rolled to the end of the lane where Emily braked to a stop.
“What are you stopping for?” Matthew asked as he jumped out of the bed and got into the cab.
“It’s not safe to just pull out on the road. I have to start the truck.”
“Wait a second.” Matthew opened his portal between the pickup and where the two sheriff’s deputies were standing by the statue. He opened the other end on the other side of the parking lot where the main entry to PCA was.
“Do it!”
Emily started the pickup. Fortunately, it started right away. Then she put it in gear, turned the lights on, and drove onto Camino Bello. Matthew could see the deputies running toward the parking lot.
“Turn up here,” Matthew instructed.
“Why, and what did you do?”
“Because they’re probably going to come looking this way once they realize there’s nothing on the other side. I used my portal to move the sound to the other side, but they would have heard it from both directions, just more from the other way.”
“Okay, so we’re trying to lose them.”
“You’ve got it. Now turn left.”
“Do you know where we’re going?”
“Yeah, I ride my bike through this neighborhood every day. . . . Now right.”
“Where are the deputies?”
“One of them is driving this way, the other is going down Camino Bello. Now left. Two houses down, turn in, and pull under the carport. The Talbots are away and their neighbor is mostly deaf. We should be okay. Kill the engine and we’ll wait them out.”
“Great. How long?”
“An hour. They’ll either get bored, or we’ll just leave. It won’t be unusual for someone to be driving back to Del Dios at this time of night.”