by Brandon Mull
Finally he reached the area where the ice cream truck had been ambushed. He saw the oak trees, the bushes, the dry creek with the little bridge. He drove through the dry brush on the opposite side of the road from where the Hummer had been hiding, heading for some voluminous bushes behind a bent oak tree.
Coming around to the back of the bushes, he found he could pull the Explorer into them some distance, screening the vehicle from view on three sides. He got out and locked the doors. The ground was firm and on a slight slope, so he hoped it would be a good place for the deserted Explorer to weather the rains.
Nate stuffed the keys a short ways into the tailpipe and ran off. With his remaining time, he wanted to put some distance between himself and the Explorer, so the man he was inhabiting would not discover the SUV when he regained his senses.
Feeling rested after the drive, he started out at an ambitious sprint, feeling the texture of the dirt road through the thin soles of his shoes. Soon Nate flagged to a brisk walk, throbbing pain hammering inside his forehead. He continued forward in spite of his weariness and discomfort.
Nate was well out of sight of where he had hidden the SUV when the fringes of his vision began to darken. He became so dizzy that he had to sit down. The darkness encroached from all sides until it seemed like he was peering at the world through a narrow tube.
The world spun and he swooned, soaring up into nothingness.
Chapter Nineteen
Red
Nate came to himself seated in the overturned ice cream truck. “I’m back,” he said to the coyote. “The headache is gone—what a relief!”
“To me it seemed you never left,” the coyote said. “It happened in a twinkling. Hurry, use the red sand.”
Nate unscrewed the other end of the hourglass. “I stashed a car nearby,” Nate reported.
“Good thinking.”
“Hope it’s still there. Off I go!” He poured the sand into his mouth, swooned, and soared.
*****
Nate opened his eyes. He was lying on a couch in front of a television, head cushioned on a decorative pillow. On the TV a judge was dispensing advice to a woman with poofy red hair, who was nodding reluctantly.
Nate sat up. His arms were pudgy and he had long nails. He could feel rolls of fat on his waist and chest. He was a woman!
Hustling to the kitchen, he found a clock. Instead of numbers, it had the hours represented by different species of bird. According to the clock, it was about blue jay past goldfinch. Which meant 3:25. Daylight flooded in through the open blinds, throwing shadow stripes on the kitchen floor, so he knew it was afternoon.
Nate noticed a set of keys on the counter. He grabbed them and headed for the door, pausing to take a look at himself in the bathroom mirror. His brown hair was tied up in a scarf. The face was chubby and friendly, a woman in her forties wearing too much makeup.
One of the keys was electronic. Scuttling out the door, Nate tapped the unlock button twice. He heard the locks click inside the silver Sentra parked in the driveway. Turning in a circle, Nate recognized the neighborhood—he wasn’t far from the cemetery.
Nate tugged open the door of the car and got behind the wheel. Relieved that the car was an automatic, he started it up and backed out of the driveway. Mr. Stott had said the red sand would take him one or two days into the future. Whichever it was, at this time of day, his best bet would be Pigeon’s house. Judging from the phone call before the ambush at Gary Haag’s, Pigeon was his one friend who had not yet been captured. Hopefully that was still true.
Driving cautiously, Nate found the streets abnormally empty. He wound his way down to Mayflower and followed it to the Presidential Estates. Turning down Monroe, he parked alongside the curb where Pigeon lived.
He got out of the car and walked up to the door, fascinated by the feel of his softer, flabbier body. Nate rang the doorbell, waited, and rang it again. An old man opened the door who looked so much like Pigeon that Nate almost laughed. It had to be his grandfather, or maybe even great-grandfather.
“Can I help you?” the old man asked in a frail voice.
“I’m looking for Pigeon?” Nate said. His own voice surprised him. It was so feminine! He would have to get sprayed for cooties when he got back to normal.
The old man looked him up and down. “Do you know him?”
“Yes, this is really important.”
The old man stared at Nate suspiciously. “How do you know him?”
“He’s a really good friend of my son,” Nate tried.
“What friend?”
“Nate Sutter.”
The old man shook his head. “You’re not Nate’s mom. What is this? Who are you really?”
“Who are you?” Nate countered. “Pigeon never mentioned he had a grandpa living with him. How do you even know what Nate’s mom looks like?”
“Okay. Try this on for size. I’m Pigeon, and I’ve never met you.”
“Pigeon?” Nate said. “How far into the future did I go?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Pigeon, it’s me, Nate Sutter. Mr. Stott helped me travel into the future and I ended up in this body.”
Pigeon grinned. “No way. Prove it. What’s the name of our club?”
“The Blue Falcons.”
“What does Denny call you?”
“Dirt Face.”
The grin broadened. “Wow, Nate, good to see you.”
“What year is it?” Nate asked, wondering why none of the cars or houses looked futuristic.
“I saw you yesterday,” Pigeon said. “I was aged by magic. Come in.”
Nate entered Pigeon’s house and found a seat on a sofa. Pigeon sat down carefully in an armchair. “What happened with Mrs. White?” Nate asked.
“She did it,” Pigeon said. “She drank from the Fountain of Youth. I tried to stop her but I blew it.”
“Pidge, you have to tell me everything you know. I’m only here for a little while, then I’ll go back to yesterday. We might still be able to stop her.”
“That would be great,” Pigeon said. “Nate, it’s terrible. She’s turned into a little tyrant. Everyone who has been eating the white fudge is under her spell. Like the Sweet Teeth, but worse—they do whatever she says. My parents are actually at a special meeting down at the candy shop right now. She took over the town.”
“How old did she end up?” Nate asked.
“She looks about our age. The age we were, I mean. Ten or eleven.”
“How’d she do it?” Nate asked.
Pigeon settled back into the chair. “Where should I start? Kyle wasn’t at school with Denny and Eric yesterday because he was inside the surgeon doll, the same one you used at the museum. I learned the whole story from him after I was caught. He snuck into our classroom and crawled into your backpack while you were speaking with Mr. Dart. That was why we saw Denny outside the window. Then at the Paradise Inn, Kyle heard we were looking for Haags, so he wanted to get back to Mrs. White with that info. When he heard John was going to drop me at the school, he managed to sneak from your backpack into mine. His goal was to bail out and find Denny, but before he could, I brought him with me into Gary Haag’s office.
“When I talked to Gary, it became clear he was the guy with the key. Gary almost killed me for finding out his secret, but instead tied me up in his office. Kyle was still in my backpack, so he heard everything. Once Gary left, Kyle came out of the backpack and unplugged the phone. That was how I lost you when we were speaking. Then Kyle wriggled under the door and ran off.
“Turns out Kyle went straight to Denny, who called Mrs. White, who blew into Kyle’s eye to break the connection with the doll. Kyle was actually at the candy shop, under her supervision. When he arose from his trance, Kyle told Mrs. White what he had heard, including who Gary was and where Eric and Wyatt were being held.”
“Is Wyatt the Fuse?” Nate asked.
“Right,” Pigeon said. “And the jelly man is named Mauricio. Mrs. White telepho
ned Mauricio, who rescued Eric and Wyatt, then picked up Denny. Miss Perlman, Denny’s teacher, used to date Gary, so Denny got his address from her. They had just barely captured Gary and prepared their trap when you guys arrived.”
“So they totally set me up,” Nate groaned. “They knew they didn’t knock me out. They let me get away! They said Gary had escaped to his relatives who lived outside of town. They knew I’d drag Mr. Stott out to the middle of nowhere. The perfect place for an ambush.”
“Pretty much,” Pigeon agreed.
“Then what?” Nate asked.
“Some lunch ladies found me. I plugged in the phone and called as quickly as I could, but I was too late. I knew that the treasure was at the school, and that Mrs. White probably had the key, so I went home for reinforcements. I gave my dog, Diego, some Brain Feed. We’d been having some really good talks, so I knew I could count on him. We returned to Mt. Diablo and spied.
“Mauricio arrived just after I got there. He had Denny, Eric, and Kyle with him. I found out later that they had used the key to blackmail Gary into telling them where the treasure room was hidden. See, the fate of the key is connected to everybody in Gary’s family. For example, if they held the key underwater long enough, everyone in his family would drown, which Mrs. White knew, because Kyle overheard Gary telling me about it. Gary wasn’t sure what would happen if somebody outside his family opened the door. He ended up spilling his guts, since it was his only hope to maybe save his family.
“Mauricio went straight to the cafeteria. Under some filing cabinets in Gary’s office was a hatch that led down to a secret basement. After waiting for a while, I tried to follow them, but Wyatt, the Fuse, captured me and Diego with a couple of giant black widow spiders. Not long after, one of the spiders bit Diego and killed him.” Here Pigeon had to pause, lower lip quivering.
“I’m sorry, Pigeon. I’ll try to save Diego, too.”
Pigeon nodded. He gave a small grin. Nate could tell that the grin was the best response he could muster without crying. He waited for Pigeon to compose himself, and then asked, “Where exactly did you get caught?”
Pigeon drew a shaky breath. “The Fuse was hiding in the cafeteria, back where they prepare the food.”
“How did Wyatt get there?”
“I’m not sure,” Pigeon said. “I didn’t see him arrive with the others. He probably came separately. Might have been before, might have been after.”
“Okay, I’ll do all I can to prevent it from happening.”
Pigeon nodded. “Anyway, Wyatt marched me down the hatch after them. He had used his powers earlier to knock down a wall. Beyond the wall was a tunnel that led to a door. Kyle had unlocked the door. Turning the key had transformed him into an old man. Through the door was a room. The water from the Fountain of Youth was inside a jeweled goblet resting on a pedestal. Mauricio entered the room to retrieve it and dropped dead. He changed into an old skeleton. They had suspected that a curse would fall on whoever turned the key, but had no idea that an aging curse transformed anyone who entered the room. Denny convinced Eric to go in, but he became an old man who couldn’t walk, and collapsed on the floor.
“That was when I showed up with Wyatt. They made me go in after the goblet. That’s how I got so old. I aged as soon as I entered the room, but at least I could still walk. When they sent me into the room, Diego went berserk. His Brain Feed had run out, but he was still trying to protect me. That was when one of the giant spiders bit him.” Pigeon paused, took a shuddering breath, and wiped his nose with his sleeve.
“I’m so sorry,” Nate said. “Remember, we’ll try to prevent any of this from happening.”
Pigeon nodded. “Wyatt worked his magic on the stem of a rose and it coiled around my neck. I could feel the thorns pricking me. He told me that if I tried to drink the water he would kill me instantly. I knew he could keep his word before I drank it, so I just dumped it out. The problem was, every time you dumped it out, the goblet was full again. The only way to drain it was to drink it. Afterwards it made sense—I mean, if there wasn’t some sort of magic to prevent the water from spilling or evaporating, it would have been gone a long time ago.”
“So they ended up with the water,” Nate said.
“Yep,” Pigeon said. “And I almost got strangled for dumping out the goblet, until they saw that it was spill-proof. I helped Eric out of the room, and Wyatt carried him to the car. We all drove back to the candy shop, where they were holding John, Summer, and Gary. We all got to watch Mrs. White turn into a ten-year-old. She was actually pretty cute.”
“Then what?” Nate asked.
“Mrs. White asked John to swear loyalty to her and eat the fudge,” Pigeon said. “He wouldn’t, so she had Wyatt kill him. I didn’t watch. Then she gave Summer the same offer. Summer accepted. I don’t blame her. It was unbelievably scary. After eating the fudge, Summer was like a robot. She did whatever Mrs. White told her.”
“And Gary?”
“Opening the door apparently broke the curse on his family,” Pigeon said. “He was a free man for about twenty minutes, until he ate the fudge.”
“What about you?” Nate asked.
“Mrs. White thanked me for the water and said that I had done enough. She didn’t make me eat the fudge. She didn’t seem to think I could cause any trouble, since I was so old. And she would have been right, except that you came forward in time and found me. She has become so powerful, I doubt anybody could stop her at this point. I don’t think she considered that somebody might be able to go back and stop her before she was invulnerable. But here you are. And here I am.”
“Anything else?” Nate asked.
Pigeon shrugged. “I talked to Kyle afterwards. He was old too, and Mrs. White didn’t make him young, she just dismissed us. Denny was mad she didn’t heal Eric and Kyle, so she made him eat white fudge. Like with me, she didn’t make Kyle eat the fudge. She just sent him away. Kyle was bitter, and we ended up having our first good talk, a couple of eighty-year-old kids. He filled me in on how everything had happened from his point of view, and I explained some of the details he had missed.”
“What about Trevor?” Nate asked.
“Still in the mirrors,” Pigeon said. “He has come to my mirror a few times. I told him the gist of what happened. He keeps hoping you’ll show up back at your place.”
“Is there anything else I should know?” Nate asked. “Anything else that might be useful? We get a second shot at this. If it goes right, we can make it all end differently.”
“Would that mean I’d cease to exist?” Pigeon asked pensively. “This me, I mean?”
“Sort of. Not really. Just this last day will cease to exist. Hopefully we can fix it so you’ll never end up old.”
“Then what happens to this me?”
“This you will never happen,” Nate said. “This you isn’t real yet. This you is just a possibility. This is the you without my help.”
“I hope you can do it,” Pigeon said. “I’d love to erase this past day. Do you have any Ironhides left?”
“No, and just one dose of Shock Bits.”
“We’ll think of something,” Pigeon said. “Try to watch out for Diego.”
“I’ll do my best,” Nate said.
“Is it weird being a girl?”
“Not as weird as I would have imagined,” Nate said. “I almost forget if I’m not talking. Is it weird being old?”
“Not too bad,” Pigeon said. “You have to move around more carefully.”
“What time is it?” Nate asked.
Pigeon got up and looked at a clock in the other room. “Just after four.”
“I still may be able to find out more,” Nate said. “Thanks. You can’t think of anything else?”
“You know all I know.”
“See you yesterday.”
“I hope so.”
Nate rushed to the door and got back into the Sentra. Where to next? His mind was whirling with the information Pigeon had shared. John wa
s dead! Summer was a mindless fudge zombie! Mrs. White had become as powerful as everyone had feared. Now that Nate knew how it had happened, he wished he could think of an obvious way to prevent it.
Driving out of the Presidential Estates, he was struck with a thought. Since he now realized how crucial it was, maybe he should visit the Flatman and plant the idea of giving the Grains of Time to his past self. The thought sparked an internal debate. On one hand, he already had the Grains of Time, so what could it matter to plant the idea? On the other hand, here he was with an opportunity to suggest the idea—shouldn’t he do it just to be safe?