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- Story Listed as: Fiction For Kids
- Theme: Science Fiction
- Subject: Novels
- Published: 04/26/2019
S.E.E.K.s
Chapter 1
It turned out, they didn’t freak, and it was more than just a drop of soda.
Right after I got there, Kim’s mom, who kind of looked a little bit like Kim, even though she was much older (about mom’s age), and wasn’t oriental, handed me a large glass of coke, then sat with me and Kim’s father at the dining room table. The first thing she asked me was what my mom did for a living?
Just as I was about to answer her, I saw quick movement out of the corner of my eye. Caught off guard, I turned around to see who it was, and in the process, almost knocked over my entire glass of soda. I caught it before it could fall over completely, but a lot of the soda spilled out onto the plastic tablecloth.
As a little kid in someone else’s house, I was expecting to get yelled at. Instead, Kim’s mom acted like it was nothing. She calmly waved her hand in the air, almost as if she was shooing away a fly, and replied, “Don’t worry about it. We have accidents like that here all the time.”
“I’m so sorry,” I said, as I grabbed the napkin that had been put under the knife and fork near me, and tried sopping up the quickly spreading liquid. The napkin got soaked almost immediately.
Luckily, Running Girl, who was the person who had startled me, came to my rescue. She said, “I’ll get it.” Then as I watched, she melted right through the wall and into the kitchen, returning once again (through the wall) almost immediately with a handful of paper towels, which she used to wipe up the rest of the spill.
I guess that answered any questions I had about how much her parents knew about her powers, because neither of them seemed even the least bit shocked.
Once she was done, and had gone back into the kitchen, I assumed to throw away the wet paper towels, her father, whose wheelchair he had rolled up to the end of the table, said to me, “Kimmie told us it’s just you and your mom.” Looking older than Running Girl’s mom, but not as old as Max, her father had dark brown hair all streaked with grey, and skin that was all rough-looking, like someone had scrubbed it with a Brillo pad.
“Yes,” I told him. “It’s been that way since mom and Father Carmel—that’s our priest—first found me on the steps of St. Michael’s Church when I was just a baby. He helped mom adopt me.”
Kim’s father’s looked as if he was bothered by something. His forehead wrinkled and he said, “I wonder why anyone would do such a thing?”
“Do what?” I asked him, thinking he was talking about Father Carmel.
Instead, he said, “Leave a baby on the steps of a church?”
He wasn’t the only one wondering. Some day, I was going to have to ask Frank, the chauffeur, that very same question.
Just then, I heard a young girl’s voice behind me say, “Are we ready to eat yet?”
Even without turning around, I knew it was Running Girl’s younger sister, Jenny.
Coming around the other side of the table, she put an arm around her mother’s shoulders and gave her a quick hug. Then smiling like a kid who was about to have all the free pancakes she could eat (all of us were), she sat down in the chair next to her mom’s.
“We’ll eat as soon as your uncle gets here. He should be arriving any moment now.”
As if on cue, I heard the front door open and close and Max’s voice behind me say, “I’m home!”
Turning around, I watched as he took off his coat and gloves, and left them on the couch. Then, coming over to stand at the opposite end of the table from Kim’s father, he leaned on the back of the chair there and said, “So, when do we eat?”
“Right now,” replied Running Girl’s mom. Then she stood up. So did Jenny. Of course, Kim’s father couldn’t. I stood up, too, even though I wasn’t completely sure what we were going to do next.
“I hope you don’t mind serving yourself?” Kim’s mom said to me.
“Not really,” I said, as I followed her and the others into the kitchen.
Chapter 2
WHOA!
Her kitchen was bigger than our living room! She even had two side-by-side stoves, and a shiny metal refrigerator the size of a truck! But the things that really caught my eye the most were all the large metal trays that sat on what grownups call an island in the middle of the room.
Running Girl was there and had already taken off the tops from each of the trays. I couldn’t help but stare. Each tray was filled with food: scrambled eggs in one, pancakes and French toast in another, bacon and sausage in another. One was even filled with biscuits!
Next to the metal trays were glasses of orange juice, and some empty coffee cups. I guess they were waiting to be filled with coffee from the tall container they had on the stove. It was the same type of coffee pot I’ve seen in the kitchen at the church.
Finally, once I got over my shock, I asked Kim’s mom, “Did you make all this by yourself?”
“Not entirely,” she replied. “I had help from the people at the restaurant where I work. I’m a chef there. They all chipped in, then I brought everything here in our truck.”
“Wow!” was all I could think to say, as I watched everyone, even Kim’s father, grab a plate off the island, and start scooping out whatever they wanted from the trays.
I went for the pancakes, and sausage, and eggs, and a biscuit. I thought I’d save the French toast for later. Also grabbing a glass of juice, I followed everyone back to the dining room table. Max carried Kim’s father’s stuff for him.
I felt only slightly funny when I noticed no one said grace. They all just immediately dug into their food. I shrugged and decided to do the same, but I didn’t know which to start eating first.
Kim’s mom passed me the jar of syrup, which I poured all over my pancakes, just as someone rang the doorbell.
“I wonder who that is?” said Kim’s mom, as she got up to answer the front door.
Chapter 3
At first, I didn’t pay attention. I was too busy digging into my pancakes.
And then I heard Kim’s mom say, “Max, there’s someone here to see you.” That’s when I turned around.
You could have knocked me over with a spoon. It was Benny! What the heck was he doing here?
I felt a little nervous as I watched Max, who had gotten up, put his arm around Benny’s shoulders and guided him into the dining room. “Everyone,” he said, “I want you to meet Benito. He’s David’s friend. I invited him to eat with us, if you don’t mind.”
No one seemed to mind as they greeted Benny with big smiles. Seeing how happy they all were, made me feel a little more at ease.
Benny just stood there looking all kinds of shy, until Running Girl’s mom asked him if he wanted pancakes or French toast?
“Both,” he replied with a huge grin. Then, after taking off his coat and boots, he followed her into the kitchen. Meanwhile, Max sat down again and continued eating.
It didn’t take very long for Benny to return with his stuff. About a minute later, he and Kim’s mom came out of the kitchen with Benny carrying two of the plastic plates. One had pancakes and sausage on it. The other had a couple of slices of French toast, as well as, scrambled eggs and slices of bacon.
Benny wasted no time. As soon as he sat down in a chair next to me (Running Girl sat on the other side of me), he spread butter on both his pancakes and French toast, then poured syrup on both, sprinkled some cinnamon on them, and dug into them like he hadn’t eaten in a week.
“So,” said Running Girl’s mom, “you and David go to the same school?”
With his mouth full of food, Benny just nodded.
Then she said to me, “So you two must be real good friends?”
That stopped me. With my fork hovering just above my eggs, I looked at Benny. He only glanced slightly in my direction, mostly out of the corner of his eyes. Then, I looked at Kim’s mom and nodded. “Yeah, we live in the same building and walk to school together . . . He’s my best friend.”
This time Benny did stop eating long enough to look at me. Would he disagree? Was he still mad at me about the gun? I waited for him to answer.
Then, I saw him turn and look at Kim’s mom, and with a smile, he said, “Yeah, we sure are.”
Wow! I thought. He wasn’t mad at me, after all! But then a bad thought hit me. Could he be saying that just so the others won’t think there’s anything wrong? Max would know for sure. I wish I could ask him, but this was not the time and place.
Chapter 4
The rest of the meal went great. Everyone seemed to enjoy the food. I know I did! And so did Benny! Just to prove it, he went back for seconds on both the French toast and pancakes.
Then Running Girl said to me, “Want to go for a walk around the block?”
By then, I was almost as full as I had been on Thanksgiving, so I said yes. She asked Benny if he wanted to come along? He said yes, too.
Then Jenny announced, “I’m coming, too.” She turned to her mom. “Can I, mom?” Her mother smiled and said it was okay.
Running Girl must have been used to having her sister come along, because she didn’t say anything. So all four of us: Kim, Jenny, me, and Benny got our coats and stuff and went outside to start walking around the block.
A short ways into our walk, I asked Kim what her father did all day while her mother worked? It was strange for me to think of a grownup man not going to work like everyone else did.
Instead of Kim, Jenny answered. “He makes toys!” She sounded really proud.
A picture formed in my mind of Santa’s workshop. “You mean like Santa Clause?” I said to her.
Both she and Kim nodded. “Yep! But in his case, there are no elves to help him make the toys.”
I couldn’t picture all kinds of plastic toys being made by just one person, so I asked, “What’s he make them out of?”
“Wood,” replied Running Girl. “He used to be a carpenter before his accident. Now, he makes toys out of wood.”
“I’d like to see that,” I said and meant it.
“You can,” replied Running Girl. “When we get back, I’ll show you his workshop.”
That’s when Benny said something that kind of both shocked and surprised me, mostly because I couldn’t figure out how he even remembered it.
“By the way,” he said, “your sister once said you can run as fast as the Flash. Can you really?”
Running Girl looked at her sister. “Did you?” Jenny shrugged. She turned back to Benny. “When?”
“Back when we first met at the mall.”
That’s what I meant. It was so long ago (at least, it felt that way), I was surprised he could even remember that far back.
“So,” said Benny to Running Girl. “Can I see you run?”
Kim’s brown oriental eyes got big and I could tell what she was thinking—should I?
I replied, “You might as well; he already knows about me.”
When I turned toward Benny, he was looking back and forth between Kim and me. He had a confused look on his face. “What does that mean?” he asked.
“Kim is one of us,” I said.
I could see right away he knew exactly what I was talking about. His eyes got really huge. “You mean she’s one of those babies the scientists made?” I nodded. “What about her sister?” He motioned toward Jenny, but continued to look at me. I shook my head.
“But, I’m expecting to get my own super powers any time now,” she announced.
Now, it was my turn to be amazed and confused at the same time.
Kim said almost casually, “I’ll explain later.”
I nodded.
Then Benny asked, “So how fast can you run?”
I was just about to answer him when Kim replied, “You want me to show you?”
I thought she meant we would watch while she ran around the block or something like that. Instead, I was surprised when I saw her reach for one of Benny’s glove-covered hands.
Chapter 5
“You’re going to run with him?” I asked her. I couldn’t help be amazed.
“Yeah, it’s fun!” Jenny replied. “We do it all the time!”
I looked at her. She was grinning like the wall clock shaped like a cat I had when I was five-years-old. “You’ve run with your sister?” I asked her. She nodded.
“When?”
“Mostly at night.”
Then Running Girl replied, “Just like you can teleport people (and really big things, I thought as I remembered what had happened with me and my bed), I can make people run as fast as I can.” Then she turned to Benny. “You ready?” He nodded, but didn’t really look ready. “We’ll go slow at first then pick up speed.” Which is what she did by having Benny run along side of her at normal speed, while she held onto his hand. Then, they quickly picked up the pace until they disappeared in a blur.
Luckily, where we were standing on the sidewalk, there seemed to be no one around and no cars driving by. Only parked cars. I guess that’s because all the grownups were inside their houses, some of which were still decorated with Christmas lights, getting ready for New Year’s Eve.
Since it was just Jenny and me standing there alone on the sidewalk, I decided to ask her what she had meant about getting her own super powers?
She replied like it was no big deal. “Dad’s been reading a lot about this lately. He says I can get powers like Kim’s.”
“How?”
Jenny shrugged. “I don’t know; it has something to do with our blood.”
“You mean like drinking it?” I asked, thinking about all the vampire movies I had ever seen.
Double yuck!!
She shook her head. “No, he said they do it with a trans . . . trans . . . ”
“Transfusion,” I finished for her.
“Yeah, that’s it!”
Yeah, I knew exactly what she was talking about, and it involved being stuck with needles! I shivered. But then I wondered—could they even do that?
While I was thinking about what Jenny had said, Running Girl and Benny came back.
Chapter 6
It was weird watching them come to a stop. It was like when a movie in the theaters gets stuck. Sometimes the film will slow down in jerks before it comes to a complete stop. That’s how Kim and Benny looked. Suddenly, they were in front of me looking like they were part of a movie that was slowing down frame by frame.
Once they did stop, Running Girl let go of Benny’s hand. Then he bent over as he tried to catch his breath. He was breathing hard while she looked like she’d only been walking and wasn’t even tired at all.
“How was it?” I said to Benny.
He straightened up. Then between gasps said, “It was great! Now I know how the Flash must feel when he runs!”
I smiled at him. Yes, it was great having super powers, I thought. What wasn’t so great was having to hide them from everyone.
“So what’s your other power?” Benny asked Running Girl between breaths. “David said you guys have two powers.”
Running Girl glance at me for a second. She was probably wondering why I had told him, but then she said to Benny,” I can walk through walls.”
“That’s neat, too!” replied Jenny, sounding all kinds of happy.
Once more, I glanced at her. She was smiling like a clown in a circus. Suddenly, off in the distance, I could hear a lot of deep booms and see flashes of light coming from beyond the buildings.
“What’s that?” Benny asked.
I smiled, because I knew. They were shooting off fireworks in the park, even though it wasn’t midnight. The TV news had said they wanted to do that so everyone could see the fireworks, and not have to wait until real late to watch them.
I turned to the others. “That’s fireworks in the park; you guys want to go see them?”
Chapter 7
Benny replied, “I’d love to, but by the time we get there, they’re going to be over.”
I think all three of us looked at him like he was a dummy.
I said, “You just ran with Kim like the Flash. I don’t think it will take very long.”
Benny looked down like he was embarrassed. “Oh, yeah,” he said. “I forgot.”
I said to Kim, “Why don’t you and your sister run there and I’ll teleport Benny.”
But Benny surprised me when he asked, “Can I run with Kim again and you take her sister?”
I looked from Running Girl to Jenny and back again. “You want to?” she nodded. “Then okay,” I said, as I reached for Jenny’s glove-covered hand. But then a thought hit me. If she came with me, would she get sick like mom did?
I started to let go of her hand when she said, “Come on, let’s go!”
I guess it would be alright, I thought. After all, she has been running with her sister and obviously, she hasn’t gotten sick yet. So, once more, tightening my grip on her tiny hand, I said, “Close your eyes and we’ll be there in a second.”
She did as I said.
“Why are we here?” She asked after she opened her eyes and looked around. We were standing on the rooftop of a building overlooking the park.
“I just wanted to make sure the coast was clear before we teleported there. Wouldn’t want anyone to see us arrive.”
Just as I said that, I saw Running Girl and Benny appear from around the corner. Wow! I thought, they must have been really booking it!
Next, picking out the same spot I had used before (it was in the middle of a small bunch of trees), I told Jenny, once again, to close her eyes.
“Why?” she asked.
I shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t want you to get dizzy or sick.”
“I won’t,” she said, sounding positive she wouldn’t.
I wasn’t so sure, but I teleported us down to the trees anyway.
“That was neat!” said Jenny after we stepped out from the middle of the small group of trees, and waited for Running Girl and Benny to catch up to us.
Chapter 8
The park was really crowded. There were people all over the place—some standing, some sitting in chairs they had brought with them. Even the guys with the food carts were there, selling hot chocolate and coffee, as well as pretzels and other stuff.
The four of us were standing off to the side closest to the street, and not very far from where Jenny and I had arrived. The fireworks themselves were great, but the bangs some of them made when they went off were so loud, you could feel it in your stomach. They kind of hurt your ears, too. More than once, I saw Jenny cover her ears with her hands.
About five minutes after we got there, I turned around to see if I could spot Rickie Conners anywhere amongst the crowds. Of course, that would be almost impossible. Besides all the people, mostly everyone was in the dark. There was some light from one of the street lamps, but not from the Christmas tree. They had already turned off the lights on the tree so everyone could enjoy the fireworks.
Disappointed, I turned back around. I kind of missed seeing Rickie, even if I couldn’t talk to her.
Then just before the show ended, I turned around again, still hoping I might spot her. Instead, I saw someone else—someone who made my stomach feel as if I had just swallowed a whole scoop of ice cream in one shot: the man who wasn’t from Child Services! He was standing next to a group of people directly behind us. I could see him because of the light from the street lamp.
Talk about making my stomach jump! I couldn’t stop staring at him. That’s when I realized he was talking to someone. There was a man in a heavy winter jacket standing right next to him; and even though they weren’t looking at each other, I could see the man who wasn’t from Child Services nodding his head like he could hear what the other guy was saying. He was also smiling. There was something about the way he was smiling that made my stomach feel even more weird.
Running Girl must have noticed, because she asked me, “What are you looking at?”
“Nothing,” I said, turning around again.
“What?” she asked, “I couldn’t hear you.”
“Nothing,” I said again, shaking my head and waving my hand to let her know it wasn’t important.
She just shrugged, and turned around front again. But I couldn’t help glance back, one more time, at the man who wasn’t from Child Services . . . except, he wasn’t there! Where had he gone? I kept looking around, but couldn’t see him anywhere.
Finally, I decided he must have left, so I turned around to enjoy the rest of the fireworks, which were really great!
Chapter 9
“So you kids must have gone for quite a long walk!” Kim’s mom said after we got back. I wasn’t sure if she was just joking with us, or she had actually been worried because we’d been gone for so long.
“Not really,” replied Jenny, while we were still taking off our coats and stuff. “After we walked for a little bit, we went to see the fireworks in the park.” She seemed almost as happy and upbeat as she had been right after the fireworks had ended and we all started walking home.
I had to wait for a lot of the people leaving the park to get past us before I could teleport all four of us back to where we’d started out on the sidewalk near Running Girl’s house. Talk about a weird feeling! I thought teleporting two people at once felt strange. Try four. I felt like a wad of Silly Putty being stretched in all four directions at the same time.
“Well, I hope you kids didn’t run all the way,” said Kim’s mom.
“No,” replied Running Girl. “David teleported Jenny, while I ran with Benny here.”
“Yeah, it was wild!” exclaimed Benny. “I felt like the Flash!” He was grinning like a loon.
At this point, Kim’s mom asked us if we wanted a piece of the four layer chocolate cake she had baked for us.
I felt funny refusing her, but I had to. I was still stuffed from supper.
“Kim, Jen?” she asked. Both the girls said in a little bit.
“First, David wants to see dad’s workshop,” explained Kim.
“I’ll have a piece,” replied Benny happily. It figures
So, while he stayed upstairs eating cake, I followed Kim and her sister down the stairs and into the basement where their father had his workshop. Their father didn’t come with us down the stairs, of course. Instead, he used a small dumbwaiter-like elevator in one corner of the kitchen to get his wheelchair down into the cellar. It was kind of sad, but at the same time, kind of neat to watch.
Chapter 10
“So, how do you like it?” Kim asked after she turned on the lights.
I’ll have to admit, I was blown away. I had expected to see maybe a few wooden toys, but nothing like this. There were dozens of toys everywhere: trains, and planes, and cars, and boats, and soldiers, and . . . It really did look like something out of the North Pole. There was also a set of wooden shelves filled with all kinds of books. I wondered if any of these were the ones Running Girl had been stealing for him.
“What does he do with all of this?” I asked her, as I stared open-mouth at everything.
“Some of my stuff is taken on consignment by the stores around town,” I heard her father say, as he rolled his wheelchair closer to us. I wasn’t sure what “on consignment” meant, but I didn’t care; I was too busy staring at everything. “Of course, I wish I could keep most of it so the girls would have plenty of toys to play with, but Martha would have a fit if I did that.”
I looked at him and saw that he too was staring at the toys, but in a different kind of way. He seemed almost sad.
But I had no time to think about what that meant, because, that’s when Jenny announced, “Dad lets us play with his toys all the time.”
I stared at her for a second or two. Somehow, the picture of Running Girl playing with toys just didn’t seem right to me, and yet . . . .
Chapter 11
“Why don’t you go closer,” I heard her father say.
I did and began looking at all the toys like they were pieces from a buried treasure someone had dug up. I couldn’t believe an actual person had made all these. They looked so perfect, especially one very realistic-looking car I saw sitting in the middle of Kim’s father’s workbench, which seemed shorter in height than the workbench I had seen in Benny’s uncle’s house, and also had a bunch of tools hanging on the wall behind it that I couldn’t even begin to tell you what they were used for.
The car, in the meantime, was a convertible that had been painted all shiny blue and had chrome-like plastic pieces for bumpers, and a grill, and hubcaps. Even the seats and dashboard were painted to look real.
“How did you do this?” I murmured, as I studied the car like it was some kind of really expensive toy.
“It took me a long time,” I heard him say. Then he said something that made me turn and look at him astonished. “You want it?” he asked me.
My eyes bugged out, and I said to him, “Are you serious?”
Sitting in his wheelchair like Santa Claus, he smiled at me and said, “Yes, I’m serious.”
Looking back at the car, I nodded my head without saying anything.
“Good,” said her father. “I’ll put it in a box for you.” Which he did, along with some tissue paper, and then, all four of us went back upstairs.
When I got there, I saw that Benny was just finishing up his piece of cake; unless, of course, it was really his second piece.
“You ready to go?’ I asked him. I wouldn’t want your parents to get all worried about you.”
Benny nodded and said, “I’d better call my father first so he can come and get us.” Benny’s father had been the one who had driven him to Kim’s house.
“No need,” I told him. “I’ll just teleport us to the roof of our building.”
“But what do I tell my father when he asks how we got home?” He sounded a little worried.
That’s when Max, who had just come out of the bathroom, spoke up and said, “Just tell him I drove you.”
Chapter 12
After putting on our coats and boots, we both said thank you to Kim’s mom for all the food. “It was great!” I told her. Then I said a thank you to her father for his gift.
“You’re welcome,” he replied smiling. Then, he added, “Come by any time if you want to play with any of the toys.”
Imagining his workshop as my very own toy store felt really good! But, of course, I had another reason for coming there—Running Girl!
“I will,” I told him.
Then Max spoke up. “Hey, if you two kids want to come by the mall tomorrow around noon, I’ll have one of my guys cook you up a mess of free onion rings.”
When I heard that, I almost gagged. The idea of the man who wasn’t from Child Services cooking for me didn’t make me feel very good. But then Benny turned to me and asked, “You want to?”
I didn’t want to disappoint him, so I said yes.
This made him happy. “Great!” he said. He turned to Max. “See you tomorrow around noon.”
That’s when I reached for his arm and asked him, “You ready?”
He nodded and didn’t look frightened this time. So, after forming the clear image of the rooftop of our apartment building in my mind, I felt the slightly sluggish sideways pull as in the next instant, we were there.
Chapter 13
But when I let go of Benny’s arm, he said to me in Spanish, “It’s broken, you know.”
For a fraction of a second, I held my breath; I thought he was talking about his arm. But then it hit me. He was talking about his gun.
“You mean the riffle you stole from the toy store?” I said to him in Spanish.
He looked down as if he was embarrassed, but then said, “I had to.”
“No, you didn’t,” I told him. “I would have gotten you another gun.”
Even though I could barely see his face (the only light was coming from a small bare bulb above the door that lead off the roof), I saw Benny’s eyes get big and he asked, “You would have?” He sounded amazed.
I nodded.
That had been my plan from the beginning, ever since his first gun had gotten stolen. I decided I was going to get him another one, the same way I had gotten him the sneakers after his father had lost his money.
But even though I had planned to steal the gun for him, when Benny asked me, “So, can we go now and get it?” I felt kind of funny. It was one thing for me to decide on my own to want to help him. It was another thing for him to beg me. It was just like what Father Carmel had warned me about. That’s why I tried putting him off.
“I don’t know,” I said. “There might not be any more left.”
Benny looked at me, his forehead all wrinkled. “Well, we won’t know that for sure until we check it out, right?” I had to agree with him. “So, let’s go!” he insisted.
I tried to think of another excuse, but couldn’t, so I said to him, “Okay, but stay close to me, just in case there’s someone around and we have to leave in a hurry.”
Benny made a face. “There won’t be anyone around. It’s New Year’s Eve. They’ve probably all gone home.”
“Well, you never know,” I said, thinking about all the times I had run into the police while teleporting.
Only this time, it wasn’t a police man we had to worry about. It was a police dog!
Chapter 14
And it was a big one, too! It looked almost as big as a dinosaur standing there glaring at us.
Now, you’re probably wondering how it knew we were there? That’s easy. The moment we arrived, Benny said out loud, “Why are we here?” We were standing in front of the shelves with all the art stuff on them.
I shushed him. “Someone might hear you.”
“Who?” he asked even louder. “There’s no one here.” Which is exactly when we heard it—the taping of nails on the floor to the right of us, and the low but threatening growl.
I don’t know about Benny, but both my heart and my stomach leaped up into my throat.
Slowly, we both turned towards what was obviously a dog growling. And there it was—a huge German Shepard, standing not more than ten feet away from us. Fear shot up my back and front like a rocket, and I found myself frozen where I stood.
“Don’t move!” I whispered to Benny, as the German Shepard continued to snarl at us, his teeth looking like dinosaur teeth. But did Benny listen to me?
Nooo . . . ! Out of the corner of my eyes, I could see him moving sideways a little.
“Don’t move!” I said to him again, but he continued to edge away from me.
I wanted to grab him so that we could both teleport out of there, but I couldn’t reach him; he had gone too far. That’s when the dog turned more towards Benny and started barking as well as growling. I just knew, any second, he was going to attack us. Maybe that’s why I did what I did next.
Chapter 15
Holding my hands up like claws, I roared as loud as I could, and jumped toward the dog.
It worked!
The dog flinched like someone who’d been scared silly and yelped. At the same time, he turned slightly sideways like he was going to run away. This gave me the chance to grab Benny, and finally, teleport us out of there.
“Why did you do that?” he asked, after we got back to the roof of our apartment building.
“Do what?”
“Get us out of there.” I couldn’t believe he asked me that.
“Because that dog was about to attack us!” I told him.
“So?”
“SO?!”
“You could have just made him disappear.”
“How?”
Benny shrugged. “I don’t know; what about my gun?”
I stared at him dumbstruck. “You’ve got to be kidding!” I said. “That dog was about to chew on us like two hotdogs, and you want to go back there and see if they have another gun!!”
Benny nodded.
Frustrated, I said to him, “I’ll think of something and go back later.”
Benny’s eyes grew wide. “You promise?” he asked. I nodded, even though I had no idea how I was going to get past that dog if I did. “You sure?” I nodded again. “When?”
“I don’t know,” I said, beginning to feel a little bit annoyed. “Later!”
“Okay,” he agreed. “In that case, I’ll see you tomorrow morning . . . with my new gun.”
Oh, boogers, I thought. He’s going to keep on bugging me until I get it for him, isn’t he?
Watching as Benny disappeared through the door that lead off the roof, I bent to pick up the box that held Kim’s father’s car from where I had left it earlier, then teleported into my room.
Chapter 16
“Mom!” I called, “I’m back!”
No answer.
Listening for a second, I realized I couldn’t hear any voices. I also couldn’t hear the radio playing. That’s when I turned on the light in my room, and saw the sheet of white paper with writing on it sitting on top of my bedspread.
Picking up the paper, I read the note, which I knew was from mom. I recognized her handwriting.
Went over to Mrs. Hanover’s to take her some food. Wasn’t feeling well, so didn’t make it for supper. Hope you had a good time.
Love,
Mom.
For a second or two, I felt a little bit scared. I hoped Mrs. Hanover wasn’t coming down with anything bad. Old people do that a lot. But then I thought this gave me the perfect chance to try and go back to the store to see if they had another gun for Benny, which I did, but . . .
When I arrived, I was standing, once more, in front of the shelves with all the art stuff on them. It was as if invisible hands had reached into my chest and were pulling me towards the shelves. I found myself wanting to grab everything in sight, but there was so much! I knew, at that point, I should have forgotten about the art stuff, and tried to sneak over to the shelves where the guns were kept, but I couldn’t seem to pull my eyes, or anything else, away from all those art supplies.
What should I take?
Should I go for the boxes of colored pencils? How about the boxes of just the number 2 pencils, or maybe the crayons? Maybe, I should try for a couple of the larger sketchpads, or the colored markers? Or maybe even one of the bendable lamps—even though I didn’t know where I would put it when I got home, or how I would explain it to mom?
While I was still trying to decide, I heard it again—the clicking of toenails on the tile floor somewhere nearby.
My stomach dropped. Not again, I thought!
Even though there were several small lights on in the ceiling, which made it easy to see, I thought, it was night! Didn’t that dog have a doghouse, or some place he could go and sleep?
Apparently not.
I knew I should have picked that moment to teleport out of there, but I wanted to get it over with, and see if they had another gun for Benny.
So, turning around slowly, I picked out a spot behind the dog and teleported there.
The growling stopped.
I could just imagine how confused that German Sheppard must have been. Where had I gone?
Unfortunately, because when I teleport to some place I can see, I end up facing in the same direction as when I start, which meant the dog was behind me. When I turned around to face him again, my boots squeaked on the floor, which made the dog turn around, too.
He didn’t waist any time. Barking like crazy, he started running towards me. Since I was near the crossways between two aisles, I looked sideways and teleported to a spot across from me, then to another spot further away, then immediately back to the first spot where I had been in front of all the art stuff.
This time, taking one last look at all the art supplies and feeling bad because I had to leave them behind, I made a beeline for the shelves holding all the sports equipment. I could hear the dog getting closer. Any second, I knew he was going to come tearing around one of the corners and attack me. So, quickly, squatting down in front of the bottom shelf, I checked to see what guns were still there . . . and almost swallowed my gum—except, I wasn’t chewing any gum.
The rifle wasn’t there! In fact, none of the guns were there! Either they had all been moved, or were sold out!
Benny was going to be so mad!
Before I could think of what to do next, the dog appeared around the corner. Then, continuing to run and bark like crazy, he jumped.
Chapter 17
Even after I was back in my room, I found I couldn’t stop shaking. That dog’s snarling face and the size of his teeth—I just knew, if I hadn’t been able to teleport out of there, he would have chewed me up for sure; which is probably why, instead of just thinking about it, I said out loud, “Talk about a close call!”
Wouldn’t you know it, mom picked that moment to come into our apartment.
She must have heard me, because she called out in Spanish, “David, is that you?”
Walking out of my room, and into the living room where our Christmas tree stood all alone in the corner with no lights on like the one in the park, I said to her, “Who else would it be?”
Mom smiled and replied, “I thought it might be your friend; you know, the one who can walk through closed doors.” She started walking towards me while I took off my coat and dropped it on the couch. “Speaking of your friend, how did your dinner go?”
“It was great!” I said from where I was standing.
Suddenly, mom stopped. Her smile turned into a slight look of concern. “Are you feeling all right?” she asked me. I nodded and asked her why? “Because, you look kind of pale.”
I sure as heck wasn’t going to tell her about the dog in the toy store, so I said, “I think I might have eaten a little too much.”
Mom’s smile returned. “In that case, I have just the thing for you.”
I had to moan. “Not the Alka-Seltzer!” I said to her. She always made me drink that funky-tasting Alka-Seltzer stuff whenever I wasn’t feeling too well.
Mom nodded, and headed for the kitchen to get a glass of water, and some Alka-Seltzer tablets she kept in a drawer.
Yeah, I could have just teleported out of there, but instead, I played the good son and followed her into the kitchen, where I watched as she plunked the tablets into the water, and they began to fizz. Then she handed me the glass. Both of us continued to watch as the fizzing tablets kept getting smaller and smaller. Then, not waiting for them to completely dissolve, I began to drink some of the liquid.
Chapter 18
YUCK!!
I shuddered. It was like drinking liquid sand. At least, that’s what it tasted like to me.
Mom just nodded and said, “Drink up.”
She watched as I drank some more, and made more faces. Then taking the glass from me, she asked, “So, what did you all have for dinner?” I thought she already knew.
“Wow! You should have seen all the food!” I said, as I went over to sit at the kitchen table. “Kim’s mom is a chef at one of the restaurants in town. She made enough food to feed half the block!”
Mom, who had sat down at the table, too, said with a smile, “Oh, yeah, that sounds like fun.” Then she asked, “So what does her father do for a living?”
I don’t know why, but I suddenly felt a little bit funny, even though there was no reason for me to feel that way.
I said to her, “He doesn’t have a regular job.” Mom’s smile seemed to fade a little. She probably thought I was going to say something about him getting into trouble with the cops. Instead, I told her, “He was in an accident and can’t walk.” Her smile disappeared totally. “He gets around in a wheelchair.”
Mom looked almost as upset as if I had told her that one of the kids in my class at school had died. I didn’t want her to feel bad any more, so I said to her, “But you should see what he does! He makes toys out of wood!” Which is when I remembered about the car in my room.
Chapter 19
“Wait, I’ll show you!” I said to her, then got up from the table and hurried into my room to get the box with the car in it. Then, coming back, I opened up the box and pulled out the car. I put it down on the table for her to see.
“Wow, David, that’s beautiful!” she said, while looking at the car like it was something from a jewelry store. She kept turning her head this way and that, but didn’t touch the car. It was almost as if she was afraid she might ruin it somehow if she did.
“Don’t worry,” I told her, you won’t break anything if you touch it.”
Mom glanced at me a moment, then finally picked up the car and began to look at it more closely. “This is really beautiful work,” she said. I had to agree with her. “You’re not going to play with it, are you?”
My stomach dropped. “Why not?” I said.
Mom stopped looking at the car and said to me, “Because, this is too nice.”
“So?”
She looked back at the car. “This is like something you put in a museum. In fact . . .” I saw her glance in the direction of the living room. “Why don’t you put it on the mantel.”
We have a fake fireplace in our apartment, just like some of the other apartments. Each fake fireplace has a grill inside it with some fake logs, and a mantel on top so you can put stuff on it, like trophies, or pictures, or flowers.
I felt all kinds of disappointment. “Ah, mom!’ I said. “Do I have to?”
She made a little face with her mouth. “Well, you don’t have to, but wouldn’t it be better to do that instead of breaking it by trying to play with it?”
I thought a moment. She was right. After all, she was a grownup and grownups are sometimes right.
“Ok,” I agreed.
“Good,” she said then got up from the table and carried the car into the living room, with me following her. I watched as she put it on the mantel then stepped back to look at it again.
“See how nice it looks there?” she said to me.
I nodded, but didn’t say anything. Then, suddenly, I remembered about Mrs. Hanover and asked if she was all right?
“Just a little stomach bug,” replied mom.
“Maybe she should take some Alka-Seltzer,” I said. I knew I was being smart-alecky, but mom didn’t say anything. Instead, she just glanced at me, then asked if I wanted to watch some TV with her.
The program we ended up watching was a movie about two six graders who got into trouble for smoking cigarettes. If you’re wondering, it did kind of remind me a little of Benny and I, except the kids in the movie didn’t live in an apartment building, and didn’t have crazy men with needles chasing after them. Still, though, I couldn’t stop thinking about Benny and what he was going to say when he found out I didn’t have his gun.
As it turned out, Benny being mad about the gun was the least of our worries. Something bigger was about to happen.
Chapter 20
After the movie, I fell asleep on the couch thinking mom was going wake me so we could watch the ball drop together. Instead, the next time I opened my eyes, I realized that what I was seeing on the TV was the morning news and not the eleven o’clock at night news.
Boogers!
A little annoyed, I looked over at the lounge chair and sure enough, there was mom, still sitting in it snoring away. No wonder she hadn’t woken me up.
Double boogers!
I got up to use the bathroom and when I came back, I saw she was awake. Realizing too what must have happened, she apologized, then asked me what I wanted for breakfast?
Not really mad any more, I told her cereal.
She looked at me, her eyebrows rising. “Not pancakes or French toast?” she asked.
I shook my head. “After last night, I think I’ll skip them for a little bit.
“Ok,” she said. Then while she made herself some coffee, I ate a bowl of Cheerios and had some toast. Then I went to take a shower. Afterwards, mom took her bath while I used that time to call Benny.
Was he mad about the gun? You bet, until I told him about my plan for getting the gun he had stolen fixed.
Benny sounded happy and asked me, “You think it will work?”
I shrugged, even though he couldn’t see me through the phone and said, “I don’t know for sure, but we can always ask.”
“In that case, you going to call right now, or what?”
Once again, I felt as if I was being pushed into something before I was ready. But I said yes anyway. Then after we hung up, I made the call.
Chapter 21
Running Girl’s father answered the phone. As soon as I told him who I was, he asked me how I was doing?
“Fine,” I told him, then, asked if he wouldn’t mind if Benny and I came over?
“No, not really, why?”
I went on to explain. “He got this pellet gun for Christmas, but suddenly, it’s not working any more.” A big, fat fib, I know, but what else could I say to him? “We were wondering if you might take a look at it and see if you can figure out what’s wrong.”
“Sure, I’d love to,” he replied. “When do you want to come over?”
This is when I hesitated. “Could we come over . . . this morning?”
For a second, I held my breath. I was sure he was going to say no. After all, it was New Year’s Day, and I knew a lot of grownups like to spend New Year’s Day watching football.
To my surprise, he said yes and didn’t even sound upset. Then he said, “How about in a half hour?”
“Great!” I told him.
Then he asked me a question, which not only took me by surprise, but had me feeling a little weird. “Are you two kids going to walk over here, or are you going to teleport?”
I didn’t know what to say. I hadn’t even thought about that.
I guess I was taking too long to answer him, because suddenly, I heard him say, “If you do teleport, do it into my workshop. I’ll leave the lights on for you.”
That woke me up. “You don’t have to do that,” I told him, “I have my own set of built in lights.”
I was surprised he didn’t ask me what I meant. Instead, he said, “In that case, we’ll be expecting to see you two in a half hour.”
“Ok,” I said then hung up and called Benny back.
I could tell he was happy to hear that Kim’s father had agreed to take a look at his gun. Then I asked him what her father had asked me, “How do you want to go there—walk or teleport?”
Benny didn’t even hesitate. “Teleport!” he exclaimed, like it was the greatest thing in the world.
You know what? I kind of had to agree with him.
Chapter 22
Running Girl greeted us at the door to her father’s workshop.
“Cool!” she said when she saw the lights I had turned on in my hands so Benny and I could see our way up the stairs without tripping.
“Yeah, cool,” I said as I looked back down at my hands and turned off the lights. Benny had also thought they were cool.
Then both Benny and I began to follow her through the kitchen.
“Dad’s in the dining room waiting for you,” she said.
Suddenly, I felt kind of funny, like maybe we had done something wrong by making him wait. “I’m sorry he had to wait,” I said to her.
“No problem,” she replied over her shoulder. “He’s been reading the newspapers.”
Sure enough, when we walked into the dining room, there was her father, his wheel chair pulled up to the table, and the morning newspaper lying open in front of him. I couldn’t see what section he was reading, but there seemed to be a lot of ads.
He smiled when he saw us. “You two kids don’t look any worse for the wear,” he said.
I frowned; I had no idea what he was talking about. He must have realized how confused I was because he said, “I mean you don’t look sick or anything after all the food you ate last night.” He was looking directly at Benny when he said this.
I imagined Benny must have felt a little embarrassed. I know I would have been, but then, Kim’s father pointed toward the gun in Benny’s hand and asked, “Is that it?” Benny nodded. He gestured for Benny to give him the gun. “So what’s wrong with it?”
Chapter 23
Handing the pellet gun over to her father, Benny explained about the rattling sound that was coming from inside. At this point, I kind of tuned out what he was saying; he had already told me all about this earlier. Instead, I said to Running Girl, “So where is everyone?” Except for her father, no one else seemed to be around.
“Mom had to go to the restaurant,” she explained, as she sat down on one end of the couch, her legs crossed under her. I sat at the other end. “Jenny’s in her room lying down. We think she ate a little too much last night. That’s why dad said what he did about the food.”
Immediately, I thought about Alka-Seltzer and its bad taste. “But you’re alright?” I said to her.
She smiled and nodded. “Uncle Max is at Hardy’s. He was going to have his guy cook us the onion rings later, but he couldn’t get a hold of him, even after leaving several messages.”
“What guy?” I asked, not sure I wanted to hear her answer.
She lowered her eyes a little, almost as if she was embarrassed to say it. “You know, that guy.”
Oh, him, I thought, nodding. I was glad he wasn’t going to make us the onion rings. Having him serve them to us would have crept me out.
At this point, I heard her father say, “Come on, let’s go down into my workshop and see if we can’t fix this thing.”
When I turned to look, Running Girl’s father was backing his wheelchair away from the table. Then turning around in a circle, almost as if he was attached to a pole, he began wheeling his chair toward the kitchen. Benny followed close behind. He was carrying his rifle.
“You want to go and watch them?” I heard Running Girl ask me.
I turned back to her and shook my head. “No, not really; besides, I think I have something to tell you.”
“What’s that?” she asked.
Chapter 24
“I think I might have seen your guy in the park last night,” I said, as I glanced back toward the entrance to the kitchen. By now, both Benny and her father had disappeared inside.
“You mean Frank?” she asked.
For a second I thought she was talking about Rickie Conner’s chauffeur, but then it hit me who she meant. A slight chill ran through me. “Is that his name?” I asked.
“Yeah, why?”
“Oh, nothing,” I said. “It just seems like there’s a lot of grownups these days with the name Frank.”
“So what was he doing?” she asked me.
I thought back to what I had seen. “Besides watching the fireworks? . . . I think he was talking to someone.”
“Do you know who?” she asked me.
I shook my head, then said what had just popped into my mind for a second time since the night before. “I know this might sound crazy, but I think he might have gotten his memory back; that’s why your uncle can’t find him.”
She frowned. “Why do you think that?”
I shrugged. “I’m not sure exactly, but there was something about the way he looked last night . . .”
And then she asked me a question, the answer to which I really didn’t want to even think about. “Do you think if he did get his memory back, he might try and hurt your mom again?”
Having already decided it might be possible, I said, “I think so. Yes.”
Running Girl was quiet for a second. Then standing up, she held out her hand and said, “In that case, if you want to go back and check on her, I’ll come with you.”
“You don’t have to,” I said.
She smiled. “But, I want to.”
“In that case, thanks,” I said, then stood up, too. It felt great to have her want to come along with me. “We’ll teleport into my room,” I said as I reached out for her hand.
“I hope she’s alright,” Running Girl said, while giving my fingers a little squeeze.
“So do I,” I replied, thinking her skinny but strong hand felt really good in mine.
Chapter 25
“Mom!” I called, after letting go of Running Girl’s hand. I went into the living room. “Mom!” No answer, so I headed for the kitchen. She wasn’t there either. My stomach felt like it was riding on an elevator again.
“Maybe she went over to one of your neighbors,” I heard Running Girl say behind me. I had forgotten for a second she was there. When I turned, she was smiling, but I was too scared to let her smile make me feel better.
Then, just as I was about to ask her if she knew where else we could look, I heard the toilet flush. I hurried into the living room, just in time to see the door to the bathroom open up and mom step out. Boy, was I glad!
“Oh, David, I was wondering if that was you I heard.” Then she spotted Running Girl and smiling said, “High.”
“High,” Running Girl replied back.
Instead of asking mom if everything was OK—I didn’t want to scare her—I said, “I was just going to show Kim my comic book.”
Running Girl turned and looked at me. I could tell she was surprised, but didn’t ask what I meant, thank God!
Then, mom said to her, “You’ll like it. He’s a really good artist.”
I could feel my face getting warm.
“Oh, yeah?” said Kim, her eyebrows rising in a silent question.
“Come on, I’ll show you,” I said and started walking back toward my bedroom.
That’s when mom said, “If you kids want anything to drink, there’s soda in the fridge. In the mean time, I’ll be over at Mrs. Hanover’s. I want to look in on her and see how she’s doing.”
“Okay,” I said, then without thinking added, “Be careful.”
Chapter 26
Before mom could ask me what I meant, I hurried into my room and closed the door. Running Girl was right behind me.
“So, where is this comic book?” she asked.
I turned to her. “I’ll show it to you later. Right now, I think we should go and tell your uncle about Frank.”
She looked at me surprised. “Why?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know for sure, but if he did get his memory back, then maybe your uncle will know what to do next.”
Running Girl looked like she was trying to decide if I was right or not. Finally, she said, “OK.”
I grabbed her hand. “We’ll head for the room where you guys keep all your supplies.”
The supply room was pitch dark when we got there, but this time, I didn’t have to turn on any of my lights. I knew right where the door-handle was from the last time I was there.
“Let me take a quick peak first,” I said to her before she could do it herself, but when I did . . . “Boogers!”
“What’s the matter?” Running Girl asked, as I pulled my head back into the darken room.
“It’s not Max.” I felt really disappointed.
“Then who is it?”
“That teenage guy.”
“You mean Henry?”
“If that’s his name?”
“Well, uncle Max has to be here somewhere,” she insisted.
“I hope you’re right,” I said, as she reached past me and pushed open the door.
“Come on, we’ll find out from Henry where uncle Max went.”
Chapter 27
“Where’s uncle Max?” Running Girl said to Henry after we came out of the back room.
Henry looked at us as if we had just appeared out of mid air. Actually, we kind of did.
“Where did you two come from?” he asked, his eyes as big as two pancakes.
Instead of answering him, Running Girl repeated her question. “Where’s uncle Max?”
“Uh . . . uh . . . he’s somewhere around. Why?”
“Where?”
Poor Henry must have felt like he was standing in front of the school principal. “I think he said he was going to Sears to see what they had for sale.”
“Thanks,” replied Running Girl. Then to me she said, “Come on, let’s go find him.”
As we started to walk away, I heard Henry say, “But how did you two get in there?”
Once again, Running Girl ignored him. Instead, the both of us hurried out of the eating area and began heading down the hallway toward the bookstore and Sears.
And that’s when it happened . . .
Chapter 28
We were passing a couple of stores that had gone out of business when I heard a noise that sounded like a metal and glass door being opened, and then a man’s voice, kind of low, saying, “Hey, kids.”
We both started to turn when something really big and sharp hit me in the side of the neck. It hurt so bad, I couldn’t breathe, let alone scream.
Reaching for my neck, I felt something huge sticking out. At the same time, I heard that same voice say in a hurry, “Catch them before they fall.” Fall? Fall where, how?
After that, the floor started to sag like melting cheese, then the next thing I knew. . .
“I think he’s finally waking up,” I heard a woman say.
“Thank God!” replied someone else—a man?
Because I had my eyes closed, I wasn’t completely sure who these people were who were talking, but the woman sounded a lot like mom. So, opening my eyes, I lifted up my head a little and looked around. Sure enough, there was mom standing by my bed! . . . My bed? . . . But also, to my amazement, there was Frank, the chauffeur, Father Carmel and Running Girl’s uncle, Max!
“How did you all get here?” I asked, still feeling like I was half asleep.
“Your mom called me,” replied Father Carmel.
“I thought you were sleeping,” mom explained, “until I saw that thing sticking out of your neck.”
What thing, I wondered, as I reached for the side of my neck. My arm felt stiff and ached a little on the inside near where it bent, but I still managed to touch my neck. When I did, I found a huge lump there, which also ached!
“You were hit by a tranquillizer dart,” said Frank. He must have seen the surprised look on my face, because he went on to explain, “Whoever tried to kidnap you used it to put you and number seven to sleep.”
“Speaking of number seven,” I said, as I tried sitting up a little. I could barely move. My whole body felt like it weighed a ton. “Where is Kim?”
“That’s what I’d like to know,” replied Frank. “When I lost both your signals at the same time, I’ll have to admit, I became a little worried.”
I felt a little bit confused. Signals? What signals? And then I remembered— oh, yeah, that tracking thingy in my arm—the same arm that ached as if it had been punched.
“After you both stopped transmitting,” he said, “I came to the mall to try and find you—”
“And that’s when he ran into me,” Running Girl’s uncle interrupted.
I looked at him. Instead of his usual happy self, he looked worried. In fact, they all looked worried.
“So what happened?” asked Frank.
Chapter 29
And that’s when I began telling him and the rest about seeing the other Frank in the park the night before, and about what I thought might have happened to his memory.
After I finished, mom stared at me, her eyes all worried-looking. “Are you saying this is the same man who tried to kidnap us?” I nodded. “Then . . . then, what happened? How did he get his memory back?” All I could do was shrug.
Mom looked around at the others, but when no one answered, she asked, “Do you think he might try and come after us again?”
I wasn’t sure who she was talking to, but it was Frank, the chauffeur, who answered her. “I don’t think so; but if it will make you feel any better, you and your son can come and stay at the agency.”
Although I had been curious about what the agency looked like, I didn’t think I’d feel very safe there.
Luckily, Father Carmel had a better idea. “No need,” he said. “David and his mom can stay with me at the rectory. We have plenty of extra rooms for when priests and nuns come to visit.” Now, that did make me feel safe.
At this point, Running Girl’s uncle spoke up. “That’s fine, but what about my niece? You said their signals stopped?” I could tell he was worried.
“Yes,” replied the chauffeur, looking even more concerned. “And that’s what disturbs me; because in order for that to have happened, the person or persons who tried to kidnap these two (he motioned toward where I was sitting up in bed leaning against the wall) would have had to know about their trackers and how to disengage them. Only someone from the agency would know that.”
This time, it was Father Carmel who seemed upset. “You mean, it was one of your own people who did this?” he asked.
Looking as if he’d been caught doing something wrong, Frank nodded and replied, “Apparently.”
“So what do we do, now?” asked Running Girl’s uncle. He sounded even more worried than before.
And that’s when I remembered Brian.
“What about Brian?” I asked, feeling sure I was on the right track. “Couldn’t he tell us where Kim is?”
Frank, the chauffeur, looked even more uncomfortable. “He can’t,” he replied. “He doesn’t know.”
I looked at him, my eyes bulging. “You mean you already talked to him?”
Frank nodded. “Yes, but not today. The last time I saw him, he told me something was going to happen to you, but he didn’t know when, where, or even what.”
“But couldn’t we ask him anyway?” I said.
After clearing his throat, Frank replied, “Not at the moment.”
“Why not?”
“Because right now, number 29 and his mother are in a passenger jet flying 30,000 feet over the Rockies.” Double boogers, I thought! “But I think I know someone else who might be able to help.”
Chapter 30
He went on to tell us about number 15. He said he was a kid about my age, who lived not too far away.
“In that case,” said Kim’s uncle, “maybe you should go and get him, and bring him back here fast so we can use him to help us find my niece.”
Frank nodded, “I will. In the meantime, why don’t you stay here with number—I mean, David, and I’ll be right back.” Then he turned and walked out of the room. A moment later, I heard our apartment door open and close.
“I hope he’s correct about this kid being able to help,” said Running Girl’s uncle to no one in particular.
“I agree,” replied Father Carmel.
So did I. But even as I sat there wondering who number 15 was, and what kind of powers he had, I looked at mom. She still seemed kind of worried. That’s why I asked her if I could have a glass of soda? I wanted to try and take her mind off what was happening, even for a little bit.
“You stay right there,” she said, “and I’ll bring it to you.”
“No, that’s OK,” I told her. “I’ll come with you into the kitchen.” But when I tried standing up, the room kind of spun a little, and I had to sit back down on the side of the bed.
“See,” she said, coming over and sitting on the bed beside me. She pulled me into a hug. “You’re not ready yet.”
“Yes, I am,” I said, while trying to wriggle out from under her arms. I made it; and this time, when I stood up, the room didn’t spin, so I was able to walk without falling over, though it was like I was some old person in a hospital or someplace. All three of them followed me into the kitchen, looking like they were ready to catch me if I fell again.
Chapter 31
After we got into the kitchen, I asked Running Girl’s uncle, “So how did you know where I was?”
“It was your chauffeur friend’s idea,” he said. “After that incident with your bed, he thought you might return here even if you were hurt or unconscious.”
“What about your bed?” asked mom. She was standing in front of the refrigerator with the door open, staring at me. I knew she wanted me to explain it to her, but it was like I didn’t know what to say. Luckily, Kim’s uncle came to my rescue.
“He had a bad dream and ended up teleporting both himself and his bed up to the roof of your building.” He must have read my thoughts.
Mom’s eyes got as big as basketballs. “You did what!?” she exclaimed.
Before I could answer, Father Carmel said, “Now, don’t get all weird about it. As you can see, both he and his bed are perfectly fine.”
Instead of saying anything, I just nodded, then reminded mom about the soda I had asked for.
“Oh, yeah,” she replied, and turned around to reach inside the fridge for a bottle of coke. That’s when the doorbell rang.
Was Frank back already, I wondered?
Chapter 32
Not quite.
Instead of Frank and number 15, it turned out to be Running Girl’s father and mother.
I’ll have to admit, I was kind of shocked to see him sitting there in his wheelchair. To get up to our floor, they could use the elevator, but how did she manage to get his wheelchair up the front steps of our building?
While I was thinking about that, it dawned on me someone was missing. “Where’s Jenny?” I asked them.
Running Girl’s mom replied, “We left her home with your friend, Benny. They’re watching a movie together.” Which one? I wondered, as I saw her look behind me and ask, “Have you heard anything yet?”
When I turned around, I saw that both Father Carmel and Max had come into the room. It was starting to get really crowded in there.
“Not yet,” replied Running Girl’s uncle. “But that chauffeur guy went to get someone he thinks can help.”
“Good,” replied Running Girl’s father, as he began to unzip his heavy winter jacket. He didn’t sound too happy, despite what he said.
That’s when our doorbell rang again.
This time, for sure, I thought it must be Frank. I was right, it was. Except, when he stepped into the room, I got a shock! The kid with him was someone I knew. Well, I didn’t really know him, but he was someone I had seen at the Boys and Girls Club.
“This is number 15,” said Frank, indicating the boy with bright red hair who was standing beside him.
Chapter 33
The kid, who looked a little bit like Danny on the Partridge Family, was wearing a blue and grey winter jacket, blue jeans and black, high-top sneakers. I thought it interesting that when Frank said number 15, the kid looked up at him like maybe he’d said something wrong.
“Sam,” the kid said, as he turned back to face us again. “My name is Sam Kahill.”
“Hi Sam,” I said, smiling.
“Is he the one who’s going to help us find my daughter?” Running Girl’s father asked.
Frank nodded. “Yep,” he said and actually smiled a little! Could you believe it? “Number 15—I mean, Sam here has a very useful talent.” He put his hand on the boy’s shoulder. “He can see through just about any object or surface.”
It dawned on me what he had said. “You mean he has X-ray vision like Superman?” I asked.
Frank nodded. His smile even got a little bit bigger.
“How will that help?” asked Running Girl’s father.
Frank replied, “I will use him for reconnaissance. We’ll fly over the area where I believe number—I mean, your daughter is being held, while Sam here scans for her presence.”
Mom gasped. “You mean you can fly?” she asked, sounding astonished.
“That’s one of his powers,” I said to her.
“He can also remain invisible,” said Running Girl’s uncle. Mom must have felt totally blown away by all of this.
“But what happens if you do locate her?” continued her father. “Suppose she’s being held in a jail cell, or somewhere underground? How will you get to her?”
Frank replied, “That’s where number 23 comes in.”
“I’m number 23,” I said, half turning to face the others. And then it hit me what he just said. “You mean I’m going, too?” Suddenly, I was feeling both excited and a little scared.
Frank nodded. “Once Sam here locates their position, I’ll use you to teleport all three of us inside.”
“Does this mean you know where she’s being held?” asked Running Girl’s mom. I guess she was hoping he knew.
“Not the actual building,” replied Frank. “But thanks to your husband’s brother, I think I know which area of the city to concentrate on.”
“Somewhere in the warehouse district near the airport,” said Max.
Frank nodded. “Correct.” Then he turned to me, and looking straight into my eyes asked, “You ready?”
Chapter 34
“NO!” mom almost shouted. Startled, I jumped. But then she added more calmly, “Not until he puts on his jacket. It’s cold out there.”
I rolled my eyes and moaned, “Ah, mom!”
“Never mind,” she demanded. “You just stay right here; I’ll be right back.” Then she disappeared into my bedroom.
Looking at Frank, the chauffeur, and Sam, I rolled my eyes again, expecting at least one of them to show that he agreed with me. Instead, I got no reaction from either of them.
Mom came back right away, carrying the same jacket I had been wearing earlier. She must have taken it off me when she found me lying on my bed.
She helped me put it on (as if I really needed her help), then zipped it all the way up. “I don’t want you catching cold, especially, if you’re going to be flying around the city all night.”
Frank told her, “I don’t think you have to worry about that; once we’re airborne and invisible, none of us will feel the effects of the cold.”
Mom glanced at him. “Well, I’ll feel better this way,” she said. Then turning back to me, she patted the pockets of my jacket. “There’s gloves and your knit ski cap in there, too, just in case you need them.” Again, I wanted to moan. Instead, I kept quiet.
At this point, Father Carmel spoke up. “If none of you mind, I’d like to say a little prayer for their safe return.”
When nobody said anything, he began the prayer. “Dear Lord, please keep David, Sam, Frank and . . .”
“Kim,” replied her father.
“And Kim safe,” he said. “Make their mission successful; and, if it’s your will, make sure the bad guys get their comeuppance.” He ended the prayer with an, “Amen.”
I smiled to myself as I heard at least two voices echo his “Amen,” then Frank asked me, “You ready, now?” I nodded. “OK, why don’t you teleport us up to your roof and I’ll take over from there.”
“I got a better idea,” I told him, as I stepped forward and grabbed one of his big hands and one of Sam’s smaller ones.
Chapter 35
The roof lights of the Stellar Building had not come on yet. I guess that’s because the sun had not gone down completely.
“You really like this place, don’t you?” said Frank, the chauffeur, after I let go of both his hand and Sam’s. He had kind of a chuckle in his voice.
“Yep,” I said nodding.
“Where are we?” asked Sam, looking around.
“We’re on top of the Stellar Building,” I told him. “It’s the tallest building in the city.”
“And closer to the airport,” added Frank. “Good choice.”
“Thank you,” I said, feeling proud of myself.
Then Frank went on to explain, “So this is how we’re going to do this. I’ll hold on to the both of you, one in each arm. Don’t worry, you won’t fall; once you’re invisible, you won’t hardly weigh anything. Number 23—” I looked at him— “I mean, David, I want you to keep holding Sam’s hand while we’re reconnoitering. Sam, I want you to use your X-ray vision to scan the buildings where we’re going. Then, like I said before, once you spot where she’s being held, I’ll have David here teleport us inside the facility.”
“But how will I know which building or room she’s in?” I asked him.
Frank replied, “By holding onto Sam’s hands, you’ll be able to see what he sees.”
“You mean I’ll have X-ray vision, too?” I asked, then felt totally stupid. Of course, I’ll have X-ray vision. I’ll be holding Sam’s hand, the same way Kim had me hold her hand while we walked through the glass doors at the bookstore in the mall, or had Benny run with her like the Flash.
“Buy the way,” I said to Sam. “What’s your other power?”
“I can fix things, like toys and stuff that are broken.”
“How?”
He shrugged. “I just touch them while I look inside at what part is broken and the next thing I know, they’re not broken any more.”
Immediately, I thought of Benny’s rifle. “Where were you when I needed you?” I said to him.
Sam frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Nothing,” I said, waving my hand. “I’ll tell you later.”
Then, Frank asked us, “You two ready?” I looked at him and nodded. “OK, then, come and stand close beside me—David on my left, Sam on my right.” We did. “Now, I’m going to put my arms around both your waists.” He did. “Now, I don’t want you two to get scared, but I’m going to make all three of us invisible before we take off.” Which he did.
I thought teleporting two or more people together felt weird. You should try becoming invisible. It was like I was suddenly filled with helium—like I might float away if I wasn’t tied down. I got so shook up for a moment that I grabbed his coat, and held on like a bear.
Frank must have known what I was feeling, because he said, “Don’t worry, you’re not going to float away. Just relax and try to enjoy the ride.” Easy for him to say.
“OK, here we go!” he announced, and the next thing I knew, we were in the air flying!!
Chapter 36
It was great! And like Frank said, because I was invisible, I didn’t feel the cold at all, not even a slight breeze. . . Wait a minute? . . . Invisible?
“Why can I still see us?” I asked him.
Without looking at me or Sam, he replied, “Because, you’re inside my sphere of influence. (Sphere of influence?) Anyone outside sees nothing, but inside, we can still see ourselves.”
I guess that made sense, I thought, and then went back to enjoying the ride.
Like I said, it was great! It was like swimming without water. It made you think you could do almost anything. Now I knew how Superman or Peter Pan must feel, except we weren’t flying level; our feet were hanging down.
Luckily, we weren’t going too fast so I could see a lot of stuff. From where we were, many of the buildings looked like toy buildings, and the people looked like ants. As for the cars and trucks—well, I felt as if I could pick them up with my fingers, though I’d have to be careful; I wouldn’t want to squash them.
For a moment, I glanced around the front of Frank at Sam. He must have been enjoying himself, too, because I saw him smiling. Then suddenly, I remembered where we were going and why. It made me a little scared and sad at the same time. What were they doing to Kim? And why had they tried to kidnap me, too?
I thought back to the movie I had seen with Benny—the one about the scientist who turned into a shark. The army guys in charge had wanted to do experiments on the scientist after he became a shark. Was that what they were doing to Running Girl; sticking her with needles?
I shivered slightly, thinking that would have been me too had I not been able to teleport back to my room while unconscious. And then, I thought of what Kim’s sister, Jenny, had said about getting her own super powers because of a transfusion. Was that the reason they had wanted us—to get our powers?
I was about to ask Frank when, suddenly, we stopped. “We’re here,” he said, as we hovered in mid air like three balloons.
Chapter 37
Sure enough, below us was the city’s airport with its buildings, and runways all lit up, and jet planes taking off and landing. Along side it were a lot of long metal buildings, some of which must have been the warehouses Frank had talked about.
Using Sam’s X-ray vision, which was like looking through a wide hole with fuzzy edges but clear inside, we began checking out the buildings, but saw no sign of Running Girl anywhere. Where was she?
After checking several more buildings, I was beginning to worry we’d never find her. But then we came upon a building, smaller than any of the others. It had a tall metal fence around it and lots of barbed wire along the top of the fence.
“I bet this is it,” I said to Frank. I was pretty sure; it looked like the type of places I’d seen on TV—you know, where the bad guys bring the people they kidnap and keep tied up.
“I hope so,” replied Frank.
We hovered there a moment, but still saw no sign of Kim—in fact, no sign of anyone. And then, suddenly, a door in a wall opened and a man carrying an Army-looking type of rifle stepped out.
While we watched, he looked around a little, then pulled what looked like a hand held police radio from his belt and began talking into it.
“There must be a basement of some kind below that floor,” said Frank.
Sure enough, when Sam pushed his X-ray vision further, we could see a long hallway and a whole bunch of rooms off of it.
And then we saw the rest of the bad guys.
Chapter 38
They were in a room filled with a bunch of scientific-looking stuff, like I’d seen in movies and on TV. But that’s not what caused a jolt of fear and surprise to shoot through me like a rocket. Two of the men looked up at the ceiling and I realized I knew them. One was the guy with the briefcase who had been on the bus with Benny and I. The other man standing next to him was the other Frank—the one I had seen in the park.
Both were standing next to Kim, who was lying with her eyes closed on a long metal table while still dressed in the same pants and shirt she had on before. A thin tube was running from one of her arms up to a plastic bag nearly full of what looked like blood hanging off a thin metal pole next to her. Immediately, I wanted to fly down there and yank the tube, which I knew was attached to a needle, out of her arm.
On the other side of her was a large metal box with several wires coming out of it. They were attached to small, round, white dots that were stuck all over her head and neck.
I barely had time to wonder about the dots when I saw the man from the bus look around at two other men who were standing further behind him, each holding an Army-looking type of rifle. I don’t know what he said to them, but the two men did something with their rifles, then reached up to the tops of their heads and pulled down weird-looking binocular type things over their eyes.
The next instant, the lights in the room went out, and it became totally dark.
Chapter 39
I kind of knew that my powers could sometimes act on their own, but still, what happened next kind of caught me a little by surprise.
The moment the lights went out, I teleported us down into the room (I didn’t even have to think about doing it; it just happened). At the same instant, the lights in my body came on full blast. They were so bright, both Frank and Sam let go of me and covered their eyes. So did the two guys with the binocular-like glasses; except the way they grabbed at the glasses and tried to rip them off, you would have thought their faces were on fire.
I later learned the glasses were called night vision goggles. They allowed people wearing them to see in the dark; but when I turned on my lights, for the two men with the glasses, it was worse than trying to look directly into the sun. It blinded them and really hurt their eyes.
So it was easy for me to do what I did without even thinking, which was instantly teleporting myself in front of both men, grabbing their guns, and then, being careful to take only their weapons, teleporting myself and the two guns up to the roof of the Stellar Building. After dropping the two riffles, each of which felt a lot heavier than Benny’s pellet gun, I hopped back into the room, just as the lights came back on and the man we had seen upstairs came rushing in.
Only this time, it was a little different. Instead of carrying his army rifle, which he had slung over his shoulder by a strap, he was holding a square-looking pistol, which he already had pointed in my direction. I had about a half second to try and decide what to do next when my powers decided for me.
In the blink of an eye, I teleported the man and his pistol to what I was pretty sure was the top of the Stellar Building (it smelled the same) and then returned to the room; except it happened so fast, I wasn’t sure that’s where we had gone. All I knew was in front of me was now an empty doorway.
Chapter 40
“What did you do with him?” I heard Frank say behind me.
I turned to look at him. “Huh?”
“I asked what you did with that guy?”
“I think I teleported him to the top of the Stellar Building,” I replied. “But I’m not sure; I didn’t get a chance to see where we were.”
Frank paused a second to think, then replied, “Well, never mind about that now. What I want you to do next is take number 15 and go back to your apartment.”
Suddenly, I felt my stomach drop. “Why?”
“Because I don’t need your help any longer. I can finish up here by myself.”
“But—”
He held up a hand. “Just take Sam and go!”
I glanced at Sam, and then at Kim lying on the table. I didn’t want to go. I wanted to stay and help, but Frank was the grownup in charge and I was just an eight-year-old kid. So, I started to walk over to Sam. But then, I got an idea.
Turning to the other Frank, who was still rubbing his eyes a little, and staring at him real mean-like, I said in voice I hoped sounded like Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry, “If you ever come near me, or my mom, or my friends again, I’ll teleport you to the top of the North Pole! And you, too!” I added, pointing to the man from the bus standing next to him. He didn’t say a word. He just nodded and stared at me like I was some kind of bomb ready to explode, which made me feel really great.
That’ll fix them, I thought.
Then, ignoring the both of them, plus the two men who had been wearing the goggles and were still trying to see again, I went over to Sam and touched the sleeve of his jacket. “You ready to go?” I asked him.
“You bet?” he replied. He sounded like he was really glad to be getting out of there.
Before leaving, I took one last look at Running Girl. If anyone else had seen her, they would think she was just asleep. But I knew better, which was why I still wanted very badly to go over to her and yank that needle out of her arm and wake her up. Instead, I did what Frank, the chauffeur, had said to do; I teleported Sam and myself back to mom and the others, who were waiting for us with all kinds of questions.
Chapter 41
“Where’s Kimmie?”
“Is she all right?”
“Where’s the chauffeur?”
“Are you two OK?”
Both Sam and I nodded together.
“Why didn’t you bring her back with you?” That was her mom who asked me that question.
“She’s still asleep,” I told her.
“But you should have brought her back anyway?” It was her father this time who spoke.
What could I say? I really didn’t want to explain to him about the wires, and the needle, and the tube leading up to the bag with her blood in it.
Instead, Sam explained it for me. “They were taking blood out of her,” he said, as calmly as if he was talking about a TV show he had seen.
Running Girl’s mom gasped.
I looked at her, and when I saw how worried she was, I decided I’d better explain it after all. “They were using a transfusion to take some of her blood. I think they wanted her powers.”
Glancing at her father sitting there in his wheelchair, I saw him look down a moment.
Then her mom asked again, “But she’s all right, isn’t she?”
I nodded.
“Thank God!” said Father Carmel, while mom made the sign of the cross.
“So, where’s the chauffeur now?” asked Running Girl’s father.
“He’s still with her,” I told him.
“But why didn’t all of you come back together?”
“Because he told us to go on ahead. He said he didn’t need us any longer.”
“But—”
“Now, don’t be too hard on the kids,” interrupted Max. “After all, they were just following orders.” He smiled at me, but I didn’t feel very much like smiling back.
That’s when mom asked, “Do you two kids want anything to drink?” I knew she was just trying to keep the situation as normal as possible.
Sam nodded immediately, while I took a moment to look back towards my bedroom. What I really wanted was to teleport back to the room where Kim was and see how things were going.
Instead, I followed mom and the others into the kitchen.
Chapter 42
The soda tasted almost like Alka-Seltzer to me. And if that wasn’t bad enough, our little kitchen was beginning to feel way too crowded with Kim’s father’s wheelchair, as well as the rest of the grownups in it. They were all sitting around the table drinking coffee and eating some of Mrs. Hanover’s cracker snacks, as well as pieces of pound cake mom had bought at the store. Meanwhile, Sam and I stood by the counter with our sodas and our own pieces of cake.
“So do you live with your parents?” mom asked Sam after a while. She definitely was trying to keep it normal.
After taking a sip of his soda and swallowing the rest of his piece of cake, Sam shook his head and said, “It’s just me and my mom.”
Wow, I thought! He’s just like me!
“So where’s your father?” mom asked.
Sam stopped drinking and replied, “He got killed in a car accident a couple of years ago.”
Mom’s face dropped like a rock. “I’m so sorry,” she said, sounding really sad.
At the same time, my insides went all kinds of squishy. Way too much bad news, I thought. What I needed was some happy news for a change. So, that’s when I made my decision.
Putting down my drink and my piece of cake, I announced, “I’m going to use the bathroom.” Then without waiting for anyone to say anything, I walked out of the kitchen and into the living room and then into the bathroom. After closing the door, I disappeared.
Whoa! Why was it so dark in here, I wondered as I turned on the lights in my hand and shined them toward the table where Kim lay?
Except, she wasn’t there! The table was EMPTY!!
Oh, no! Had she been kidnapped again!?
Spinning around, I shined my lights into every corner of the room. No one was there, not even Frank. Where had they gone, and what were they doing to her this time?
My stomach felt like it had rocks in it. I stood there thinking—was Kim in danger again? Was someone else trying to get more blood out of her? What was I going to tell her parents?
I felt like I wanted to disappear myself, but I knew I couldn’t do that. There was only one thing left to do; so, returning to our bathroom, I rinsed my hands, flushed the toilet, then went back into the kitchen. Except, the moment I saw Kim’s father sitting in his wheelchair, I knew I couldn’t tell them. Instead, I went over to the counter and picked up my drink, then continued to sip it as if nothing had happened. All the while, I kept wondering, not only what had happened to Kim, but how had Frank and the others disappeared so fast?
Glancing up, I saw Max looking at me. He knew! But before he could say anything, our phone rang.
Chapter 43
Mom got up to answer it. I saw her expression change (her eyebrows bunched together) as she asked, “How did you know they were still here?” Then she listened some more, and I saw her eyes get big. “She is?” She sounded excited.
“What happened?” asked Kim’s father.
“Is it about Kimmie?” her mother wanted to know.
I saw mom nod and say into the phone, “Okay, I’ll tell them, but—” And then she stopped and looked at the receiver, like it had just bitten her or something. “He hung up on me,” she said, as she put the phone back on its hook.
“Who did?” asked Running Girl’s mother.
“The chauffeur,” mom replied. I felt my stomach tighten, but not from fear. Then mom continued explaining to her parents. “He says they have your daughter and she’s all right, but they want to keep her overnight for observation.”
“Who’s they?” asked her mother.
“I think it’s the agency,” replied Max. I turned to look at him. He went on to explain. “They want to make sure everything’s Okay with her before they bring her back.” I wondered if he knew that for sure, or was only guessing?
“But why do we have to wait until morning?” asked Running Girl’s mom. She seemed upset.
That’s when Father Carmel spoke up. “I’ll tell you what,” he said, “why don’t the three of you go back to your house and wait there for the child’s return—just in case they bring her back early.”
It would have been a great idea if they had brought her back early. Unfortunately, they did not.
Chapter 44
By eleven the next morning, there was still no sign of Running Girl, unconscious or otherwise. How did I know? Benny and I were at her house. We had gone there earlier; Benny had wanted to help her father make more toys. That’s what he had been doing all the day before, while I was lying on my bed knocked out and Running Girl was still in that room with the bad guys, who were trying to steal her powers.
Her mother, in the meantime, had gone to the restaurant, but kept calling her father to ask if there was any news yet. Max was at Hardy’s. Before he left, he told Benny and I that if we wanted, we could come over later and he’d make us some onion rings like he promised the first time.
Meanwhile, I was playing checkers with Jenny, but was having a hard time trying to concentrate. I kept thinking about Kim, wondering where she was and what they were doing to her?
Finally, when I couldn’t stand it any longer. I said to Jenny, “I’m going to see if I can find Frank, the chauffeur, and ask him about your sister.”
“Why, do you know where he is?” she asked me.
“No,” I said, while putting on my jacket, “but I do know where he lives.”
Chapter 45
I wasn’t surprised to see the curtains to Rickie Conners’ bedroom closed (I was standing on her balcony). But I sure as heck was surprised after I teleported down to the ground, and went around to knock on the door of what I assumed was Frank, the chauffeur’s room.
“What the . . . what are you doing here?”
It was Sam. He had answered the door, and was now standing there holding it open like this was his house I had come to.
“I’m visiting,” he replied, seemingly not even the least bit surprised to see me.
“Who?” I asked him, “Rickie?”
He shook his head. “Her parents.”
Her parents???
My mouth felt like it had gone numb on me. All kinds of questions were swirling around inside my head, but no words were coming out—at least, not right away.
Finally, I managed to ask him if he had gone home the night before? He nodded. “And Father Carmel drove you there, right?” Again, he nodded. “But . . . but, how did you get here?”
Before he could reply, Rickie’s mom, who had suddenly shown up behind him from who knew where, put a hand on his shoulder and said, “Oh, I see we have company.” I looked from her to Sam and back, my stomach feeling almost as turned around as my head. “David,” she said smiling, “I’m so glad you’ve come.”
“Why?” The word just kind of popped out of my mouth.
The way she was smiling at me reminded me of the way the nurses at the doctor’s office smile at you just before they stick you with a needle. “Because we need to reactivate your tracker,” she explained.
Almost without thinking, I reached over and rubbed my arm where I thought the tracking thingy was. Then looking at Mrs. Conners, I shook my head.
“Now, don’t be afraid,” she said with the same kind of smile. “It won’t hurt.”
“I’m not so sure about that,” I replied, as I began to slowly back away from the both of them. My stomach continued to feel like it was on a carnival ride.
Then, before either of them could make a move, I teleported out of there.
Chapter 46
I didn’t have to explain to Kim’s sister or Benny who Sam was. Her parents had done that the night before, after they had gotten back from our place. But a half hour later, after I teleported over to Kim’s house to get Benny, he did ask me what it was like to fly?
“It was great!!” I said. “I felt like a giant bird floating over the city. Everything and everyone was so small, I felt like I could pick them up with my fingers.”
Benny smiled. “And what about being knocked out? Did you feel anything? Did you have any dreams?”
“I honestly don’t remember.”
“What about those bad men who took my sister?” asked Jenny. “Did that chauffeur guy beat them up?”
Once again, I had to admit I didn’t know.
“I hope so,” she said, punching the air with her fists like a boxer.
“Never mind about the bad men,” said her mother, giving Jenny a kiss on top of her head. “Go brush your teeth, and get into your pajamas, and I’ll come in later and read to you.”
Read to her?? I was surprised that Jenny was still being read to. Couldn’t she read on her own? But then I thought, maybe, this was just something they did— the same way mom and I sometimes said our prayers together. Of course, that was different.
What wasn’t different, though, was the way Benny reacted the next morning after I got back from the Conners’ house and asked him if he still wanted to go to Hardy’s and have the onion rings Max had promised us?
“You bet!” he replied. Then after apologizing to Kim’s father, he practically flew up the stairs to get his coat.
“I’ll call my uncle and let him know you’re on your way,” said Jenny while I waited for Benny to zip up his jacket. I too was excited, but not because of the onion rings; I had something to tell Max.
Chapter 47
“You made up your mind, yet?” Benny asked me while I pretended to stare at the menu on the wall.
“Hold up,” I told him. “I’m trying to decide.” I heard him sigh next to me.
What I was really doing was mentally telling Running Girl’s uncle all about what had happened when I went to the Conners’ house and found Sam there. I saw his mouth twist into a little frown. To someone else, it might have looked as if he was upset with me, because I was a kid who couldn’t make up his mind about what he wanted to drink.
Finally, after I was done telling him everything, I said, “Okay, I’ll take a Coke.”
“It’s about time!” exclaimed Benny.
I looked at him. “Well, I couldn’t make up my mind,” I said. “They have that new Cherry-flavored Coke, and I couldn’t decide if I wanted that, or regular Coke, or maybe a root beer.”
“Well, now that you’ve decided,” he said, “let’s sit down so Max can make us our onion rings.” Which we did at one of the tables in front of Hardy’s. I was a little surprised how so few people were sitting in the food area of the mall.
While we were waiting for our orders to arrive, Benny asked me, “So what is this Sam kid like? Does he play any sports?” I shrugged. “What about school? Which one does he go to?” Again, I shrugged, but thought about it.
“I have seen him at the Boys and Girls Club, so he must live somewhere near by.”
“I wonder if he likes onion rings?” said Benny more to himself than me.
I shrugged, but didn’t say anything. My mind was too busy thinking about all the things I had been wondering about earlier after seeing Sam at the Conners’ house?
Finally, our orders came and we dug in.
About half way through, I happen to look up and a smile the size of a bus crossed my face.
RUNNING GIRL!!
Chapter 48
She was walking down the hallway towards us, still wearing the same clothes as the day before. Yuck!
I don’t know why, but for some reason, I stood up. So did Benny. Almost immediately, my smile faded and the onion rings I had been eating settled in my stomach like a lump of clay; walking behind her was Frank, the chauffeur.
Max must have seen us stand up, because, suddenly, I heard him say real loud-like, “Kimmie!”
Coming out from behind the counter, he walked up to his niece and practically crushed her in a bear hug.
“You Okay?” he asked her after he let go.
“I am now,” she replied, nodding.
“She insisted on coming here first,” Frank said to Max.
Sounding like he really meant it, her uncle replied, “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
Then Benny said something that both surprised and shocked the heck out of me. He asked Frank if he, Benny, could go fly with him some time? I stared at him with my mouth open.
“What? Why not?”
“Because . . . ” I started to say.
But was cut off when Frank said to Benny, “You can, but only on one condition.”
“What’s that?”
He turned to face me. “If David here promises to let me re-activate his tracker.”
“What does that mean?” Benny asked me.
“I’ll explain it to you later,” I said to him. Then looking back toward Frank, I asked reluctantly, “When?”
He looked like he had to think about it for a moment, then replied, “How about you come by the house, say, Nine O’clock tomorrow morning?”
“Will Sam be there?” I asked him.
Chapter 49
Frank frowned. “Why would you ask me that?”
“Because he was there a little while ago.”
Frank’s frown turned into an expression of surprise. “You were at the Conners’ house?” he asked me.
Before I could reply, Running Girl’s uncle asked Frank, “Why did it take so long to bring her back to us?”
“Because, I was sick,” replied Running Girl. “I kept throwing up.”
“Why, what happened?” Her uncle asked Frank. I could tell he was not as happy as before.
Frank replied, “She had a bad reaction to the knockout drug they used. But, she’s Okay now; we’ve flushed it out of her system and everything’s fine.”
As if to prove it, Kim asked her uncle, “Can I have a grilled cheese sandwich? I’ve been thinking about them ever since I stopped puking.”
Max asked her, “Are you sure?” She nodded real hard. “Okay, then, one grilled cheese sandwich coming up.” Then he left to go make it.
That’s when Frank said to me, “And I’ll be seeing you around nine tomorrow morning, right?” I nodded, but wasn’t really looking forward to it.
Then, after he walked away, Benny and I, plus Kim sat down at our table, where Benny and I continued to munch on our onion rings. Between bites, Benny asked Kim what it was like?
“What do you mean?”
“What was it like to be knocked out?”
She replied, “I don’t remember any of it; I was asleep, and then after I woke up, I was puking my head off.”
I was thinking of asking her what the agency had been like, but then decided it really wasn’t that important. But Benny did ask me about the trackers. So, I explained it all to him.
“I wouldn’t want any tracking thingy inside me,” he said between bites of his rings. I couldn’t help but smile when I heard him say the word thingy.
Eventually, Max came over with Kim’s sandwich. Then, after putting it in front of her, he asked me if I would help him a moment in the back room. Not thinking twice about it, I got up and followed him into the room where they kept all their supplies.
As soon as the door closed behind us, he turned to me and said, “He lied, you know.”
Chapter 50
“Who, Benny?”
“No, the chauffeur.”
I felt confused. “Why, what did he say?”
Max looked at me really serious-like. “When he said Kimmie had a bad reaction, he wasn’t telling the whole truth. She almost died.”
As grownups say, my heart leaped into my throat. “She what!?”
“Her heart stopped and they had to shock it the way they do in hospitals.”
The floor under me felt like it was melting away. I touched one of the shelves to steady myself and asked Max, “But she’s alright now, isn’t she?”
He nodded. “Yes, but there’s more.” What else, I wondered? “When you mentioned Sam, I got a whole blast of images from the chauffeur’s mind. It turns out he and Sam’s mother are dating.”
“You’re kidding!” I said, my eyes bulging.
Max shook his head. “But that’s not all,” he continued.
I looked at him. “Why, what else is there?”
“That girl, Rickie, the Conners’ daughter?” I nodded. “I think I know why they made her lose some of her memories.”
“Why?” I asked him, calmly, but I really, really wanted to know.
“Because what happened to Kimmie I think was supposed to happen to her.” Now I felt both scared and confused. Max went on to explain. “When the chauffeur said Brian didn’t know what was going to happen to you, he was telling only part of the truth. Brian had told him that if Rickie Conners kept hanging out with you, she was going to die.”
Once again, the floor felt like it was melting under my feet. But then, I thought of something. “But why didn’t I get sick, too?” I asked him.
He shrugged. “You must be different, somehow.”
I couldn’t imagine how?
Eventually, I would find out.
Epilogue
After that day, Benny and I found ourselves hanging out more and more at the Johnson’s house (that was their last name, by the way). Right away, I found out that Kimmie/Running Girl had a wicked sense of humor. She liked to play peek-a-boo with me while I was in the bathroom. I’d be doing my thing when suddenly, she’d pop her head through the wall and say, “Boo!” Embarrassed the heck out of me the first couple of times, but then, I got her back. The next time she did it, I stood up and turned so she could see my entire front, especially my thingy (and I wasn’t talking about my tracking thingy).
“Ewww!” she said, and pulled back real fast out of the wall. That will teach her, I thought, smiling to myself.
Speaking of my tracking thingy. The next day, I went to see Frank, like I promised I would, so he could turn it back on again. He used something that looked like a gun with lights, and had my arm feeling like I had been punched. Afterwards, while rubbing my arm where it had been zapped, I asked him if he knew why I had been left on the steps of St. Michael’s instead of in a hospital or an orphanage like the others?
He thought about it a second and said, “Often, when companies who make medicines come out with a new one, they try it out first by giving some people the real medicine, while others fake stuff. They want to see how both groups react. That’s what the agency did with you and a couple of others. They wanted to see what would happen if you were abandoned without resources.”
“And what happened?” I asked him.
“The other two weren’t as lucky as you.”
“Why not?”
“Because the people they ended up with weren’t as nice as your mother.”
My stomach fell; I knew what he meant. I had seen the way some grownups treated their kids, adopted or not, and it wasn’t pretty.
“So what happened to the other S.E.E.K.s with the bad parents?” I asked him.
“To them—nothing, but to their parents . . . Well, let’s just say, they were re-adjusted.”
You mean, like Rickie Conners, I thought, but didn’t say it. Instead, I asked him if she was going to be in school when it started up again on Monday?”
“Yeah, why wouldn’t she be?” he replied.
I hunched my shoulders. “I don’t know—maybe because her parents are still not sure whether or not we should hang out together?”
I looked at him, hoping he’d say that was all over with now that the bad guys had been taken care of. Instead, he replied, “Well, now, that’s for them to decide, isn’t it?”
I felt my stomach drop again. Why did it have to be this way? Why couldn’t Rickie be made to remember again and everything go back to the way it had been before? After all, it wasn’t my fault the bad guys had tried to kidnap Kim and I. Besides, they were gone now (at least, I hoped so), so there shouldn’t be anything else to worry about, should there be?
Just before I left, Frank said to me, “Now that we have your tracker back on line, you think you can try and stay out of trouble for a while?”
I looked at him. “I’ll try,” I said, then teleported back to the Johnson’s where Benny was happily helping Running Girl’s father make toys. He really liked doing it; and to be honest, he wasn’t half bad.
Meanwhile, as the days passed, I kept working on my comic book. I still planned, one day, to give it to Rickie Conners, especially if she still couldn’t remember, but now, I had a chance of having more than one copy to hand out. That’s because after Kim’s father heard about what I was doing, he said he knew someone who had a copy machine who might be able to make me a few copies for free.
“Thanks,” I told him, then went back to learning from Kim how to play poker with money. Except, we weren’t using money; we were using buttons and matches, which I kept loosing really fast.
As you can imagine, I got pretty frustrated, but not so much because I was loosing, but because of what Kim did every time I did lose my buttons and matches. She’d rub her hands together and laugh like the Wicked Witch of the West.
After about the fourth time, I said to her, “The next time you do that, I’m going to teleport you to the top of the North Pole.”
Of course, I wouldn’t really do something like that—at least, not on purpose, anyway.
S.E.E.K.s(Tom Di Roma)
S.E.E.K.s
Chapter 1
It turned out, they didn’t freak, and it was more than just a drop of soda.
Right after I got there, Kim’s mom, who kind of looked a little bit like Kim, even though she was much older (about mom’s age), and wasn’t oriental, handed me a large glass of coke, then sat with me and Kim’s father at the dining room table. The first thing she asked me was what my mom did for a living?
Just as I was about to answer her, I saw quick movement out of the corner of my eye. Caught off guard, I turned around to see who it was, and in the process, almost knocked over my entire glass of soda. I caught it before it could fall over completely, but a lot of the soda spilled out onto the plastic tablecloth.
As a little kid in someone else’s house, I was expecting to get yelled at. Instead, Kim’s mom acted like it was nothing. She calmly waved her hand in the air, almost as if she was shooing away a fly, and replied, “Don’t worry about it. We have accidents like that here all the time.”
“I’m so sorry,” I said, as I grabbed the napkin that had been put under the knife and fork near me, and tried sopping up the quickly spreading liquid. The napkin got soaked almost immediately.
Luckily, Running Girl, who was the person who had startled me, came to my rescue. She said, “I’ll get it.” Then as I watched, she melted right through the wall and into the kitchen, returning once again (through the wall) almost immediately with a handful of paper towels, which she used to wipe up the rest of the spill.
I guess that answered any questions I had about how much her parents knew about her powers, because neither of them seemed even the least bit shocked.
Once she was done, and had gone back into the kitchen, I assumed to throw away the wet paper towels, her father, whose wheelchair he had rolled up to the end of the table, said to me, “Kimmie told us it’s just you and your mom.” Looking older than Running Girl’s mom, but not as old as Max, her father had dark brown hair all streaked with grey, and skin that was all rough-looking, like someone had scrubbed it with a Brillo pad.
“Yes,” I told him. “It’s been that way since mom and Father Carmel—that’s our priest—first found me on the steps of St. Michael’s Church when I was just a baby. He helped mom adopt me.”
Kim’s father’s looked as if he was bothered by something. His forehead wrinkled and he said, “I wonder why anyone would do such a thing?”
“Do what?” I asked him, thinking he was talking about Father Carmel.
Instead, he said, “Leave a baby on the steps of a church?”
He wasn’t the only one wondering. Some day, I was going to have to ask Frank, the chauffeur, that very same question.
Just then, I heard a young girl’s voice behind me say, “Are we ready to eat yet?”
Even without turning around, I knew it was Running Girl’s younger sister, Jenny.
Coming around the other side of the table, she put an arm around her mother’s shoulders and gave her a quick hug. Then smiling like a kid who was about to have all the free pancakes she could eat (all of us were), she sat down in the chair next to her mom’s.
“We’ll eat as soon as your uncle gets here. He should be arriving any moment now.”
As if on cue, I heard the front door open and close and Max’s voice behind me say, “I’m home!”
Turning around, I watched as he took off his coat and gloves, and left them on the couch. Then, coming over to stand at the opposite end of the table from Kim’s father, he leaned on the back of the chair there and said, “So, when do we eat?”
“Right now,” replied Running Girl’s mom. Then she stood up. So did Jenny. Of course, Kim’s father couldn’t. I stood up, too, even though I wasn’t completely sure what we were going to do next.
“I hope you don’t mind serving yourself?” Kim’s mom said to me.
“Not really,” I said, as I followed her and the others into the kitchen.
Chapter 2
WHOA!
Her kitchen was bigger than our living room! She even had two side-by-side stoves, and a shiny metal refrigerator the size of a truck! But the things that really caught my eye the most were all the large metal trays that sat on what grownups call an island in the middle of the room.
Running Girl was there and had already taken off the tops from each of the trays. I couldn’t help but stare. Each tray was filled with food: scrambled eggs in one, pancakes and French toast in another, bacon and sausage in another. One was even filled with biscuits!
Next to the metal trays were glasses of orange juice, and some empty coffee cups. I guess they were waiting to be filled with coffee from the tall container they had on the stove. It was the same type of coffee pot I’ve seen in the kitchen at the church.
Finally, once I got over my shock, I asked Kim’s mom, “Did you make all this by yourself?”
“Not entirely,” she replied. “I had help from the people at the restaurant where I work. I’m a chef there. They all chipped in, then I brought everything here in our truck.”
“Wow!” was all I could think to say, as I watched everyone, even Kim’s father, grab a plate off the island, and start scooping out whatever they wanted from the trays.
I went for the pancakes, and sausage, and eggs, and a biscuit. I thought I’d save the French toast for later. Also grabbing a glass of juice, I followed everyone back to the dining room table. Max carried Kim’s father’s stuff for him.
I felt only slightly funny when I noticed no one said grace. They all just immediately dug into their food. I shrugged and decided to do the same, but I didn’t know which to start eating first.
Kim’s mom passed me the jar of syrup, which I poured all over my pancakes, just as someone rang the doorbell.
“I wonder who that is?” said Kim’s mom, as she got up to answer the front door.
Chapter 3
At first, I didn’t pay attention. I was too busy digging into my pancakes.
And then I heard Kim’s mom say, “Max, there’s someone here to see you.” That’s when I turned around.
You could have knocked me over with a spoon. It was Benny! What the heck was he doing here?
I felt a little nervous as I watched Max, who had gotten up, put his arm around Benny’s shoulders and guided him into the dining room. “Everyone,” he said, “I want you to meet Benito. He’s David’s friend. I invited him to eat with us, if you don’t mind.”
No one seemed to mind as they greeted Benny with big smiles. Seeing how happy they all were, made me feel a little more at ease.
Benny just stood there looking all kinds of shy, until Running Girl’s mom asked him if he wanted pancakes or French toast?
“Both,” he replied with a huge grin. Then, after taking off his coat and boots, he followed her into the kitchen. Meanwhile, Max sat down again and continued eating.
It didn’t take very long for Benny to return with his stuff. About a minute later, he and Kim’s mom came out of the kitchen with Benny carrying two of the plastic plates. One had pancakes and sausage on it. The other had a couple of slices of French toast, as well as, scrambled eggs and slices of bacon.
Benny wasted no time. As soon as he sat down in a chair next to me (Running Girl sat on the other side of me), he spread butter on both his pancakes and French toast, then poured syrup on both, sprinkled some cinnamon on them, and dug into them like he hadn’t eaten in a week.
“So,” said Running Girl’s mom, “you and David go to the same school?”
With his mouth full of food, Benny just nodded.
Then she said to me, “So you two must be real good friends?”
That stopped me. With my fork hovering just above my eggs, I looked at Benny. He only glanced slightly in my direction, mostly out of the corner of his eyes. Then, I looked at Kim’s mom and nodded. “Yeah, we live in the same building and walk to school together . . . He’s my best friend.”
This time Benny did stop eating long enough to look at me. Would he disagree? Was he still mad at me about the gun? I waited for him to answer.
Then, I saw him turn and look at Kim’s mom, and with a smile, he said, “Yeah, we sure are.”
Wow! I thought. He wasn’t mad at me, after all! But then a bad thought hit me. Could he be saying that just so the others won’t think there’s anything wrong? Max would know for sure. I wish I could ask him, but this was not the time and place.
Chapter 4
The rest of the meal went great. Everyone seemed to enjoy the food. I know I did! And so did Benny! Just to prove it, he went back for seconds on both the French toast and pancakes.
Then Running Girl said to me, “Want to go for a walk around the block?”
By then, I was almost as full as I had been on Thanksgiving, so I said yes. She asked Benny if he wanted to come along? He said yes, too.
Then Jenny announced, “I’m coming, too.” She turned to her mom. “Can I, mom?” Her mother smiled and said it was okay.
Running Girl must have been used to having her sister come along, because she didn’t say anything. So all four of us: Kim, Jenny, me, and Benny got our coats and stuff and went outside to start walking around the block.
A short ways into our walk, I asked Kim what her father did all day while her mother worked? It was strange for me to think of a grownup man not going to work like everyone else did.
Instead of Kim, Jenny answered. “He makes toys!” She sounded really proud.
A picture formed in my mind of Santa’s workshop. “You mean like Santa Clause?” I said to her.
Both she and Kim nodded. “Yep! But in his case, there are no elves to help him make the toys.”
I couldn’t picture all kinds of plastic toys being made by just one person, so I asked, “What’s he make them out of?”
“Wood,” replied Running Girl. “He used to be a carpenter before his accident. Now, he makes toys out of wood.”
“I’d like to see that,” I said and meant it.
“You can,” replied Running Girl. “When we get back, I’ll show you his workshop.”
That’s when Benny said something that kind of both shocked and surprised me, mostly because I couldn’t figure out how he even remembered it.
“By the way,” he said, “your sister once said you can run as fast as the Flash. Can you really?”
Running Girl looked at her sister. “Did you?” Jenny shrugged. She turned back to Benny. “When?”
“Back when we first met at the mall.”
That’s what I meant. It was so long ago (at least, it felt that way), I was surprised he could even remember that far back.
“So,” said Benny to Running Girl. “Can I see you run?”
Kim’s brown oriental eyes got big and I could tell what she was thinking—should I?
I replied, “You might as well; he already knows about me.”
When I turned toward Benny, he was looking back and forth between Kim and me. He had a confused look on his face. “What does that mean?” he asked.
“Kim is one of us,” I said.
I could see right away he knew exactly what I was talking about. His eyes got really huge. “You mean she’s one of those babies the scientists made?” I nodded. “What about her sister?” He motioned toward Jenny, but continued to look at me. I shook my head.
“But, I’m expecting to get my own super powers any time now,” she announced.
Now, it was my turn to be amazed and confused at the same time.
Kim said almost casually, “I’ll explain later.”
I nodded.
Then Benny asked, “So how fast can you run?”
I was just about to answer him when Kim replied, “You want me to show you?”
I thought she meant we would watch while she ran around the block or something like that. Instead, I was surprised when I saw her reach for one of Benny’s glove-covered hands.
Chapter 5
“You’re going to run with him?” I asked her. I couldn’t help be amazed.
“Yeah, it’s fun!” Jenny replied. “We do it all the time!”
I looked at her. She was grinning like the wall clock shaped like a cat I had when I was five-years-old. “You’ve run with your sister?” I asked her. She nodded.
“When?”
“Mostly at night.”
Then Running Girl replied, “Just like you can teleport people (and really big things, I thought as I remembered what had happened with me and my bed), I can make people run as fast as I can.” Then she turned to Benny. “You ready?” He nodded, but didn’t really look ready. “We’ll go slow at first then pick up speed.” Which is what she did by having Benny run along side of her at normal speed, while she held onto his hand. Then, they quickly picked up the pace until they disappeared in a blur.
Luckily, where we were standing on the sidewalk, there seemed to be no one around and no cars driving by. Only parked cars. I guess that’s because all the grownups were inside their houses, some of which were still decorated with Christmas lights, getting ready for New Year’s Eve.
Since it was just Jenny and me standing there alone on the sidewalk, I decided to ask her what she had meant about getting her own super powers?
She replied like it was no big deal. “Dad’s been reading a lot about this lately. He says I can get powers like Kim’s.”
“How?”
Jenny shrugged. “I don’t know; it has something to do with our blood.”
“You mean like drinking it?” I asked, thinking about all the vampire movies I had ever seen.
Double yuck!!
She shook her head. “No, he said they do it with a trans . . . trans . . . ”
“Transfusion,” I finished for her.
“Yeah, that’s it!”
Yeah, I knew exactly what she was talking about, and it involved being stuck with needles! I shivered. But then I wondered—could they even do that?
While I was thinking about what Jenny had said, Running Girl and Benny came back.
Chapter 6
It was weird watching them come to a stop. It was like when a movie in the theaters gets stuck. Sometimes the film will slow down in jerks before it comes to a complete stop. That’s how Kim and Benny looked. Suddenly, they were in front of me looking like they were part of a movie that was slowing down frame by frame.
Once they did stop, Running Girl let go of Benny’s hand. Then he bent over as he tried to catch his breath. He was breathing hard while she looked like she’d only been walking and wasn’t even tired at all.
“How was it?” I said to Benny.
He straightened up. Then between gasps said, “It was great! Now I know how the Flash must feel when he runs!”
I smiled at him. Yes, it was great having super powers, I thought. What wasn’t so great was having to hide them from everyone.
“So what’s your other power?” Benny asked Running Girl between breaths. “David said you guys have two powers.”
Running Girl glance at me for a second. She was probably wondering why I had told him, but then she said to Benny,” I can walk through walls.”
“That’s neat, too!” replied Jenny, sounding all kinds of happy.
Once more, I glanced at her. She was smiling like a clown in a circus. Suddenly, off in the distance, I could hear a lot of deep booms and see flashes of light coming from beyond the buildings.
“What’s that?” Benny asked.
I smiled, because I knew. They were shooting off fireworks in the park, even though it wasn’t midnight. The TV news had said they wanted to do that so everyone could see the fireworks, and not have to wait until real late to watch them.
I turned to the others. “That’s fireworks in the park; you guys want to go see them?”
Chapter 7
Benny replied, “I’d love to, but by the time we get there, they’re going to be over.”
I think all three of us looked at him like he was a dummy.
I said, “You just ran with Kim like the Flash. I don’t think it will take very long.”
Benny looked down like he was embarrassed. “Oh, yeah,” he said. “I forgot.”
I said to Kim, “Why don’t you and your sister run there and I’ll teleport Benny.”
But Benny surprised me when he asked, “Can I run with Kim again and you take her sister?”
I looked from Running Girl to Jenny and back again. “You want to?” she nodded. “Then okay,” I said, as I reached for Jenny’s glove-covered hand. But then a thought hit me. If she came with me, would she get sick like mom did?
I started to let go of her hand when she said, “Come on, let’s go!”
I guess it would be alright, I thought. After all, she has been running with her sister and obviously, she hasn’t gotten sick yet. So, once more, tightening my grip on her tiny hand, I said, “Close your eyes and we’ll be there in a second.”
She did as I said.
“Why are we here?” She asked after she opened her eyes and looked around. We were standing on the rooftop of a building overlooking the park.
“I just wanted to make sure the coast was clear before we teleported there. Wouldn’t want anyone to see us arrive.”
Just as I said that, I saw Running Girl and Benny appear from around the corner. Wow! I thought, they must have been really booking it!
Next, picking out the same spot I had used before (it was in the middle of a small bunch of trees), I told Jenny, once again, to close her eyes.
“Why?” she asked.
I shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t want you to get dizzy or sick.”
“I won’t,” she said, sounding positive she wouldn’t.
I wasn’t so sure, but I teleported us down to the trees anyway.
“That was neat!” said Jenny after we stepped out from the middle of the small group of trees, and waited for Running Girl and Benny to catch up to us.
Chapter 8
The park was really crowded. There were people all over the place—some standing, some sitting in chairs they had brought with them. Even the guys with the food carts were there, selling hot chocolate and coffee, as well as pretzels and other stuff.
The four of us were standing off to the side closest to the street, and not very far from where Jenny and I had arrived. The fireworks themselves were great, but the bangs some of them made when they went off were so loud, you could feel it in your stomach. They kind of hurt your ears, too. More than once, I saw Jenny cover her ears with her hands.
About five minutes after we got there, I turned around to see if I could spot Rickie Conners anywhere amongst the crowds. Of course, that would be almost impossible. Besides all the people, mostly everyone was in the dark. There was some light from one of the street lamps, but not from the Christmas tree. They had already turned off the lights on the tree so everyone could enjoy the fireworks.
Disappointed, I turned back around. I kind of missed seeing Rickie, even if I couldn’t talk to her.
Then just before the show ended, I turned around again, still hoping I might spot her. Instead, I saw someone else—someone who made my stomach feel as if I had just swallowed a whole scoop of ice cream in one shot: the man who wasn’t from Child Services! He was standing next to a group of people directly behind us. I could see him because of the light from the street lamp.
Talk about making my stomach jump! I couldn’t stop staring at him. That’s when I realized he was talking to someone. There was a man in a heavy winter jacket standing right next to him; and even though they weren’t looking at each other, I could see the man who wasn’t from Child Services nodding his head like he could hear what the other guy was saying. He was also smiling. There was something about the way he was smiling that made my stomach feel even more weird.
Running Girl must have noticed, because she asked me, “What are you looking at?”
“Nothing,” I said, turning around again.
“What?” she asked, “I couldn’t hear you.”
“Nothing,” I said again, shaking my head and waving my hand to let her know it wasn’t important.
She just shrugged, and turned around front again. But I couldn’t help glance back, one more time, at the man who wasn’t from Child Services . . . except, he wasn’t there! Where had he gone? I kept looking around, but couldn’t see him anywhere.
Finally, I decided he must have left, so I turned around to enjoy the rest of the fireworks, which were really great!
Chapter 9
“So you kids must have gone for quite a long walk!” Kim’s mom said after we got back. I wasn’t sure if she was just joking with us, or she had actually been worried because we’d been gone for so long.
“Not really,” replied Jenny, while we were still taking off our coats and stuff. “After we walked for a little bit, we went to see the fireworks in the park.” She seemed almost as happy and upbeat as she had been right after the fireworks had ended and we all started walking home.
I had to wait for a lot of the people leaving the park to get past us before I could teleport all four of us back to where we’d started out on the sidewalk near Running Girl’s house. Talk about a weird feeling! I thought teleporting two people at once felt strange. Try four. I felt like a wad of Silly Putty being stretched in all four directions at the same time.
“Well, I hope you kids didn’t run all the way,” said Kim’s mom.
“No,” replied Running Girl. “David teleported Jenny, while I ran with Benny here.”
“Yeah, it was wild!” exclaimed Benny. “I felt like the Flash!” He was grinning like a loon.
At this point, Kim’s mom asked us if we wanted a piece of the four layer chocolate cake she had baked for us.
I felt funny refusing her, but I had to. I was still stuffed from supper.
“Kim, Jen?” she asked. Both the girls said in a little bit.
“First, David wants to see dad’s workshop,” explained Kim.
“I’ll have a piece,” replied Benny happily. It figures
So, while he stayed upstairs eating cake, I followed Kim and her sister down the stairs and into the basement where their father had his workshop. Their father didn’t come with us down the stairs, of course. Instead, he used a small dumbwaiter-like elevator in one corner of the kitchen to get his wheelchair down into the cellar. It was kind of sad, but at the same time, kind of neat to watch.
Chapter 10
“So, how do you like it?” Kim asked after she turned on the lights.
I’ll have to admit, I was blown away. I had expected to see maybe a few wooden toys, but nothing like this. There were dozens of toys everywhere: trains, and planes, and cars, and boats, and soldiers, and . . . It really did look like something out of the North Pole. There was also a set of wooden shelves filled with all kinds of books. I wondered if any of these were the ones Running Girl had been stealing for him.
“What does he do with all of this?” I asked her, as I stared open-mouth at everything.
“Some of my stuff is taken on consignment by the stores around town,” I heard her father say, as he rolled his wheelchair closer to us. I wasn’t sure what “on consignment” meant, but I didn’t care; I was too busy staring at everything. “Of course, I wish I could keep most of it so the girls would have plenty of toys to play with, but Martha would have a fit if I did that.”
I looked at him and saw that he too was staring at the toys, but in a different kind of way. He seemed almost sad.
But I had no time to think about what that meant, because, that’s when Jenny announced, “Dad lets us play with his toys all the time.”
I stared at her for a second or two. Somehow, the picture of Running Girl playing with toys just didn’t seem right to me, and yet . . . .
Chapter 11
“Why don’t you go closer,” I heard her father say.
I did and began looking at all the toys like they were pieces from a buried treasure someone had dug up. I couldn’t believe an actual person had made all these. They looked so perfect, especially one very realistic-looking car I saw sitting in the middle of Kim’s father’s workbench, which seemed shorter in height than the workbench I had seen in Benny’s uncle’s house, and also had a bunch of tools hanging on the wall behind it that I couldn’t even begin to tell you what they were used for.
The car, in the meantime, was a convertible that had been painted all shiny blue and had chrome-like plastic pieces for bumpers, and a grill, and hubcaps. Even the seats and dashboard were painted to look real.
“How did you do this?” I murmured, as I studied the car like it was some kind of really expensive toy.
“It took me a long time,” I heard him say. Then he said something that made me turn and look at him astonished. “You want it?” he asked me.
My eyes bugged out, and I said to him, “Are you serious?”
Sitting in his wheelchair like Santa Claus, he smiled at me and said, “Yes, I’m serious.”
Looking back at the car, I nodded my head without saying anything.
“Good,” said her father. “I’ll put it in a box for you.” Which he did, along with some tissue paper, and then, all four of us went back upstairs.
When I got there, I saw that Benny was just finishing up his piece of cake; unless, of course, it was really his second piece.
“You ready to go?’ I asked him. I wouldn’t want your parents to get all worried about you.”
Benny nodded and said, “I’d better call my father first so he can come and get us.” Benny’s father had been the one who had driven him to Kim’s house.
“No need,” I told him. “I’ll just teleport us to the roof of our building.”
“But what do I tell my father when he asks how we got home?” He sounded a little worried.
That’s when Max, who had just come out of the bathroom, spoke up and said, “Just tell him I drove you.”
Chapter 12
After putting on our coats and boots, we both said thank you to Kim’s mom for all the food. “It was great!” I told her. Then I said a thank you to her father for his gift.
“You’re welcome,” he replied smiling. Then, he added, “Come by any time if you want to play with any of the toys.”
Imagining his workshop as my very own toy store felt really good! But, of course, I had another reason for coming there—Running Girl!
“I will,” I told him.
Then Max spoke up. “Hey, if you two kids want to come by the mall tomorrow around noon, I’ll have one of my guys cook you up a mess of free onion rings.”
When I heard that, I almost gagged. The idea of the man who wasn’t from Child Services cooking for me didn’t make me feel very good. But then Benny turned to me and asked, “You want to?”
I didn’t want to disappoint him, so I said yes.
This made him happy. “Great!” he said. He turned to Max. “See you tomorrow around noon.”
That’s when I reached for his arm and asked him, “You ready?”
He nodded and didn’t look frightened this time. So, after forming the clear image of the rooftop of our apartment building in my mind, I felt the slightly sluggish sideways pull as in the next instant, we were there.
Chapter 13
But when I let go of Benny’s arm, he said to me in Spanish, “It’s broken, you know.”
For a fraction of a second, I held my breath; I thought he was talking about his arm. But then it hit me. He was talking about his gun.
“You mean the riffle you stole from the toy store?” I said to him in Spanish.
He looked down as if he was embarrassed, but then said, “I had to.”
“No, you didn’t,” I told him. “I would have gotten you another gun.”
Even though I could barely see his face (the only light was coming from a small bare bulb above the door that lead off the roof), I saw Benny’s eyes get big and he asked, “You would have?” He sounded amazed.
I nodded.
That had been my plan from the beginning, ever since his first gun had gotten stolen. I decided I was going to get him another one, the same way I had gotten him the sneakers after his father had lost his money.
But even though I had planned to steal the gun for him, when Benny asked me, “So, can we go now and get it?” I felt kind of funny. It was one thing for me to decide on my own to want to help him. It was another thing for him to beg me. It was just like what Father Carmel had warned me about. That’s why I tried putting him off.
“I don’t know,” I said. “There might not be any more left.”
Benny looked at me, his forehead all wrinkled. “Well, we won’t know that for sure until we check it out, right?” I had to agree with him. “So, let’s go!” he insisted.
I tried to think of another excuse, but couldn’t, so I said to him, “Okay, but stay close to me, just in case there’s someone around and we have to leave in a hurry.”
Benny made a face. “There won’t be anyone around. It’s New Year’s Eve. They’ve probably all gone home.”
“Well, you never know,” I said, thinking about all the times I had run into the police while teleporting.
Only this time, it wasn’t a police man we had to worry about. It was a police dog!
Chapter 14
And it was a big one, too! It looked almost as big as a dinosaur standing there glaring at us.
Now, you’re probably wondering how it knew we were there? That’s easy. The moment we arrived, Benny said out loud, “Why are we here?” We were standing in front of the shelves with all the art stuff on them.
I shushed him. “Someone might hear you.”
“Who?” he asked even louder. “There’s no one here.” Which is exactly when we heard it—the taping of nails on the floor to the right of us, and the low but threatening growl.
I don’t know about Benny, but both my heart and my stomach leaped up into my throat.
Slowly, we both turned towards what was obviously a dog growling. And there it was—a huge German Shepard, standing not more than ten feet away from us. Fear shot up my back and front like a rocket, and I found myself frozen where I stood.
“Don’t move!” I whispered to Benny, as the German Shepard continued to snarl at us, his teeth looking like dinosaur teeth. But did Benny listen to me?
Nooo . . . ! Out of the corner of my eyes, I could see him moving sideways a little.
“Don’t move!” I said to him again, but he continued to edge away from me.
I wanted to grab him so that we could both teleport out of there, but I couldn’t reach him; he had gone too far. That’s when the dog turned more towards Benny and started barking as well as growling. I just knew, any second, he was going to attack us. Maybe that’s why I did what I did next.
Chapter 15
Holding my hands up like claws, I roared as loud as I could, and jumped toward the dog.
It worked!
The dog flinched like someone who’d been scared silly and yelped. At the same time, he turned slightly sideways like he was going to run away. This gave me the chance to grab Benny, and finally, teleport us out of there.
“Why did you do that?” he asked, after we got back to the roof of our apartment building.
“Do what?”
“Get us out of there.” I couldn’t believe he asked me that.
“Because that dog was about to attack us!” I told him.
“So?”
“SO?!”
“You could have just made him disappear.”
“How?”
Benny shrugged. “I don’t know; what about my gun?”
I stared at him dumbstruck. “You’ve got to be kidding!” I said. “That dog was about to chew on us like two hotdogs, and you want to go back there and see if they have another gun!!”
Benny nodded.
Frustrated, I said to him, “I’ll think of something and go back later.”
Benny’s eyes grew wide. “You promise?” he asked. I nodded, even though I had no idea how I was going to get past that dog if I did. “You sure?” I nodded again. “When?”
“I don’t know,” I said, beginning to feel a little bit annoyed. “Later!”
“Okay,” he agreed. “In that case, I’ll see you tomorrow morning . . . with my new gun.”
Oh, boogers, I thought. He’s going to keep on bugging me until I get it for him, isn’t he?
Watching as Benny disappeared through the door that lead off the roof, I bent to pick up the box that held Kim’s father’s car from where I had left it earlier, then teleported into my room.
Chapter 16
“Mom!” I called, “I’m back!”
No answer.
Listening for a second, I realized I couldn’t hear any voices. I also couldn’t hear the radio playing. That’s when I turned on the light in my room, and saw the sheet of white paper with writing on it sitting on top of my bedspread.
Picking up the paper, I read the note, which I knew was from mom. I recognized her handwriting.
Went over to Mrs. Hanover’s to take her some food. Wasn’t feeling well, so didn’t make it for supper. Hope you had a good time.
Love,
Mom.
For a second or two, I felt a little bit scared. I hoped Mrs. Hanover wasn’t coming down with anything bad. Old people do that a lot. But then I thought this gave me the perfect chance to try and go back to the store to see if they had another gun for Benny, which I did, but . . .
When I arrived, I was standing, once more, in front of the shelves with all the art stuff on them. It was as if invisible hands had reached into my chest and were pulling me towards the shelves. I found myself wanting to grab everything in sight, but there was so much! I knew, at that point, I should have forgotten about the art stuff, and tried to sneak over to the shelves where the guns were kept, but I couldn’t seem to pull my eyes, or anything else, away from all those art supplies.
What should I take?
Should I go for the boxes of colored pencils? How about the boxes of just the number 2 pencils, or maybe the crayons? Maybe, I should try for a couple of the larger sketchpads, or the colored markers? Or maybe even one of the bendable lamps—even though I didn’t know where I would put it when I got home, or how I would explain it to mom?
While I was still trying to decide, I heard it again—the clicking of toenails on the tile floor somewhere nearby.
My stomach dropped. Not again, I thought!
Even though there were several small lights on in the ceiling, which made it easy to see, I thought, it was night! Didn’t that dog have a doghouse, or some place he could go and sleep?
Apparently not.
I knew I should have picked that moment to teleport out of there, but I wanted to get it over with, and see if they had another gun for Benny.
So, turning around slowly, I picked out a spot behind the dog and teleported there.
The growling stopped.
I could just imagine how confused that German Sheppard must have been. Where had I gone?
Unfortunately, because when I teleport to some place I can see, I end up facing in the same direction as when I start, which meant the dog was behind me. When I turned around to face him again, my boots squeaked on the floor, which made the dog turn around, too.
He didn’t waist any time. Barking like crazy, he started running towards me. Since I was near the crossways between two aisles, I looked sideways and teleported to a spot across from me, then to another spot further away, then immediately back to the first spot where I had been in front of all the art stuff.
This time, taking one last look at all the art supplies and feeling bad because I had to leave them behind, I made a beeline for the shelves holding all the sports equipment. I could hear the dog getting closer. Any second, I knew he was going to come tearing around one of the corners and attack me. So, quickly, squatting down in front of the bottom shelf, I checked to see what guns were still there . . . and almost swallowed my gum—except, I wasn’t chewing any gum.
The rifle wasn’t there! In fact, none of the guns were there! Either they had all been moved, or were sold out!
Benny was going to be so mad!
Before I could think of what to do next, the dog appeared around the corner. Then, continuing to run and bark like crazy, he jumped.
Chapter 17
Even after I was back in my room, I found I couldn’t stop shaking. That dog’s snarling face and the size of his teeth—I just knew, if I hadn’t been able to teleport out of there, he would have chewed me up for sure; which is probably why, instead of just thinking about it, I said out loud, “Talk about a close call!”
Wouldn’t you know it, mom picked that moment to come into our apartment.
She must have heard me, because she called out in Spanish, “David, is that you?”
Walking out of my room, and into the living room where our Christmas tree stood all alone in the corner with no lights on like the one in the park, I said to her, “Who else would it be?”
Mom smiled and replied, “I thought it might be your friend; you know, the one who can walk through closed doors.” She started walking towards me while I took off my coat and dropped it on the couch. “Speaking of your friend, how did your dinner go?”
“It was great!” I said from where I was standing.
Suddenly, mom stopped. Her smile turned into a slight look of concern. “Are you feeling all right?” she asked me. I nodded and asked her why? “Because, you look kind of pale.”
I sure as heck wasn’t going to tell her about the dog in the toy store, so I said, “I think I might have eaten a little too much.”
Mom’s smile returned. “In that case, I have just the thing for you.”
I had to moan. “Not the Alka-Seltzer!” I said to her. She always made me drink that funky-tasting Alka-Seltzer stuff whenever I wasn’t feeling too well.
Mom nodded, and headed for the kitchen to get a glass of water, and some Alka-Seltzer tablets she kept in a drawer.
Yeah, I could have just teleported out of there, but instead, I played the good son and followed her into the kitchen, where I watched as she plunked the tablets into the water, and they began to fizz. Then she handed me the glass. Both of us continued to watch as the fizzing tablets kept getting smaller and smaller. Then, not waiting for them to completely dissolve, I began to drink some of the liquid.
Chapter 18
YUCK!!
I shuddered. It was like drinking liquid sand. At least, that’s what it tasted like to me.
Mom just nodded and said, “Drink up.”
She watched as I drank some more, and made more faces. Then taking the glass from me, she asked, “So, what did you all have for dinner?” I thought she already knew.
“Wow! You should have seen all the food!” I said, as I went over to sit at the kitchen table. “Kim’s mom is a chef at one of the restaurants in town. She made enough food to feed half the block!”
Mom, who had sat down at the table, too, said with a smile, “Oh, yeah, that sounds like fun.” Then she asked, “So what does her father do for a living?”
I don’t know why, but I suddenly felt a little bit funny, even though there was no reason for me to feel that way.
I said to her, “He doesn’t have a regular job.” Mom’s smile seemed to fade a little. She probably thought I was going to say something about him getting into trouble with the cops. Instead, I told her, “He was in an accident and can’t walk.” Her smile disappeared totally. “He gets around in a wheelchair.”
Mom looked almost as upset as if I had told her that one of the kids in my class at school had died. I didn’t want her to feel bad any more, so I said to her, “But you should see what he does! He makes toys out of wood!” Which is when I remembered about the car in my room.
Chapter 19
“Wait, I’ll show you!” I said to her, then got up from the table and hurried into my room to get the box with the car in it. Then, coming back, I opened up the box and pulled out the car. I put it down on the table for her to see.
“Wow, David, that’s beautiful!” she said, while looking at the car like it was something from a jewelry store. She kept turning her head this way and that, but didn’t touch the car. It was almost as if she was afraid she might ruin it somehow if she did.
“Don’t worry,” I told her, you won’t break anything if you touch it.”
Mom glanced at me a moment, then finally picked up the car and began to look at it more closely. “This is really beautiful work,” she said. I had to agree with her. “You’re not going to play with it, are you?”
My stomach dropped. “Why not?” I said.
Mom stopped looking at the car and said to me, “Because, this is too nice.”
“So?”
She looked back at the car. “This is like something you put in a museum. In fact . . .” I saw her glance in the direction of the living room. “Why don’t you put it on the mantel.”
We have a fake fireplace in our apartment, just like some of the other apartments. Each fake fireplace has a grill inside it with some fake logs, and a mantel on top so you can put stuff on it, like trophies, or pictures, or flowers.
I felt all kinds of disappointment. “Ah, mom!’ I said. “Do I have to?”
She made a little face with her mouth. “Well, you don’t have to, but wouldn’t it be better to do that instead of breaking it by trying to play with it?”
I thought a moment. She was right. After all, she was a grownup and grownups are sometimes right.
“Ok,” I agreed.
“Good,” she said then got up from the table and carried the car into the living room, with me following her. I watched as she put it on the mantel then stepped back to look at it again.
“See how nice it looks there?” she said to me.
I nodded, but didn’t say anything. Then, suddenly, I remembered about Mrs. Hanover and asked if she was all right?
“Just a little stomach bug,” replied mom.
“Maybe she should take some Alka-Seltzer,” I said. I knew I was being smart-alecky, but mom didn’t say anything. Instead, she just glanced at me, then asked if I wanted to watch some TV with her.
The program we ended up watching was a movie about two six graders who got into trouble for smoking cigarettes. If you’re wondering, it did kind of remind me a little of Benny and I, except the kids in the movie didn’t live in an apartment building, and didn’t have crazy men with needles chasing after them. Still, though, I couldn’t stop thinking about Benny and what he was going to say when he found out I didn’t have his gun.
As it turned out, Benny being mad about the gun was the least of our worries. Something bigger was about to happen.
Chapter 20
After the movie, I fell asleep on the couch thinking mom was going wake me so we could watch the ball drop together. Instead, the next time I opened my eyes, I realized that what I was seeing on the TV was the morning news and not the eleven o’clock at night news.
Boogers!
A little annoyed, I looked over at the lounge chair and sure enough, there was mom, still sitting in it snoring away. No wonder she hadn’t woken me up.
Double boogers!
I got up to use the bathroom and when I came back, I saw she was awake. Realizing too what must have happened, she apologized, then asked me what I wanted for breakfast?
Not really mad any more, I told her cereal.
She looked at me, her eyebrows rising. “Not pancakes or French toast?” she asked.
I shook my head. “After last night, I think I’ll skip them for a little bit.
“Ok,” she said. Then while she made herself some coffee, I ate a bowl of Cheerios and had some toast. Then I went to take a shower. Afterwards, mom took her bath while I used that time to call Benny.
Was he mad about the gun? You bet, until I told him about my plan for getting the gun he had stolen fixed.
Benny sounded happy and asked me, “You think it will work?”
I shrugged, even though he couldn’t see me through the phone and said, “I don’t know for sure, but we can always ask.”
“In that case, you going to call right now, or what?”
Once again, I felt as if I was being pushed into something before I was ready. But I said yes anyway. Then after we hung up, I made the call.
Chapter 21
Running Girl’s father answered the phone. As soon as I told him who I was, he asked me how I was doing?
“Fine,” I told him, then, asked if he wouldn’t mind if Benny and I came over?
“No, not really, why?”
I went on to explain. “He got this pellet gun for Christmas, but suddenly, it’s not working any more.” A big, fat fib, I know, but what else could I say to him? “We were wondering if you might take a look at it and see if you can figure out what’s wrong.”
“Sure, I’d love to,” he replied. “When do you want to come over?”
This is when I hesitated. “Could we come over . . . this morning?”
For a second, I held my breath. I was sure he was going to say no. After all, it was New Year’s Day, and I knew a lot of grownups like to spend New Year’s Day watching football.
To my surprise, he said yes and didn’t even sound upset. Then he said, “How about in a half hour?”
“Great!” I told him.
Then he asked me a question, which not only took me by surprise, but had me feeling a little weird. “Are you two kids going to walk over here, or are you going to teleport?”
I didn’t know what to say. I hadn’t even thought about that.
I guess I was taking too long to answer him, because suddenly, I heard him say, “If you do teleport, do it into my workshop. I’ll leave the lights on for you.”
That woke me up. “You don’t have to do that,” I told him, “I have my own set of built in lights.”
I was surprised he didn’t ask me what I meant. Instead, he said, “In that case, we’ll be expecting to see you two in a half hour.”
“Ok,” I said then hung up and called Benny back.
I could tell he was happy to hear that Kim’s father had agreed to take a look at his gun. Then I asked him what her father had asked me, “How do you want to go there—walk or teleport?”
Benny didn’t even hesitate. “Teleport!” he exclaimed, like it was the greatest thing in the world.
You know what? I kind of had to agree with him.
Chapter 22
Running Girl greeted us at the door to her father’s workshop.
“Cool!” she said when she saw the lights I had turned on in my hands so Benny and I could see our way up the stairs without tripping.
“Yeah, cool,” I said as I looked back down at my hands and turned off the lights. Benny had also thought they were cool.
Then both Benny and I began to follow her through the kitchen.
“Dad’s in the dining room waiting for you,” she said.
Suddenly, I felt kind of funny, like maybe we had done something wrong by making him wait. “I’m sorry he had to wait,” I said to her.
“No problem,” she replied over her shoulder. “He’s been reading the newspapers.”
Sure enough, when we walked into the dining room, there was her father, his wheel chair pulled up to the table, and the morning newspaper lying open in front of him. I couldn’t see what section he was reading, but there seemed to be a lot of ads.
He smiled when he saw us. “You two kids don’t look any worse for the wear,” he said.
I frowned; I had no idea what he was talking about. He must have realized how confused I was because he said, “I mean you don’t look sick or anything after all the food you ate last night.” He was looking directly at Benny when he said this.
I imagined Benny must have felt a little embarrassed. I know I would have been, but then, Kim’s father pointed toward the gun in Benny’s hand and asked, “Is that it?” Benny nodded. He gestured for Benny to give him the gun. “So what’s wrong with it?”
Chapter 23
Handing the pellet gun over to her father, Benny explained about the rattling sound that was coming from inside. At this point, I kind of tuned out what he was saying; he had already told me all about this earlier. Instead, I said to Running Girl, “So where is everyone?” Except for her father, no one else seemed to be around.
“Mom had to go to the restaurant,” she explained, as she sat down on one end of the couch, her legs crossed under her. I sat at the other end. “Jenny’s in her room lying down. We think she ate a little too much last night. That’s why dad said what he did about the food.”
Immediately, I thought about Alka-Seltzer and its bad taste. “But you’re alright?” I said to her.
She smiled and nodded. “Uncle Max is at Hardy’s. He was going to have his guy cook us the onion rings later, but he couldn’t get a hold of him, even after leaving several messages.”
“What guy?” I asked, not sure I wanted to hear her answer.
She lowered her eyes a little, almost as if she was embarrassed to say it. “You know, that guy.”
Oh, him, I thought, nodding. I was glad he wasn’t going to make us the onion rings. Having him serve them to us would have crept me out.
At this point, I heard her father say, “Come on, let’s go down into my workshop and see if we can’t fix this thing.”
When I turned to look, Running Girl’s father was backing his wheelchair away from the table. Then turning around in a circle, almost as if he was attached to a pole, he began wheeling his chair toward the kitchen. Benny followed close behind. He was carrying his rifle.
“You want to go and watch them?” I heard Running Girl ask me.
I turned back to her and shook my head. “No, not really; besides, I think I have something to tell you.”
“What’s that?” she asked.
Chapter 24
“I think I might have seen your guy in the park last night,” I said, as I glanced back toward the entrance to the kitchen. By now, both Benny and her father had disappeared inside.
“You mean Frank?” she asked.
For a second I thought she was talking about Rickie Conner’s chauffeur, but then it hit me who she meant. A slight chill ran through me. “Is that his name?” I asked.
“Yeah, why?”
“Oh, nothing,” I said. “It just seems like there’s a lot of grownups these days with the name Frank.”
“So what was he doing?” she asked me.
I thought back to what I had seen. “Besides watching the fireworks? . . . I think he was talking to someone.”
“Do you know who?” she asked me.
I shook my head, then said what had just popped into my mind for a second time since the night before. “I know this might sound crazy, but I think he might have gotten his memory back; that’s why your uncle can’t find him.”
She frowned. “Why do you think that?”
I shrugged. “I’m not sure exactly, but there was something about the way he looked last night . . .”
And then she asked me a question, the answer to which I really didn’t want to even think about. “Do you think if he did get his memory back, he might try and hurt your mom again?”
Having already decided it might be possible, I said, “I think so. Yes.”
Running Girl was quiet for a second. Then standing up, she held out her hand and said, “In that case, if you want to go back and check on her, I’ll come with you.”
“You don’t have to,” I said.
She smiled. “But, I want to.”
“In that case, thanks,” I said, then stood up, too. It felt great to have her want to come along with me. “We’ll teleport into my room,” I said as I reached out for her hand.
“I hope she’s alright,” Running Girl said, while giving my fingers a little squeeze.
“So do I,” I replied, thinking her skinny but strong hand felt really good in mine.
Chapter 25
“Mom!” I called, after letting go of Running Girl’s hand. I went into the living room. “Mom!” No answer, so I headed for the kitchen. She wasn’t there either. My stomach felt like it was riding on an elevator again.
“Maybe she went over to one of your neighbors,” I heard Running Girl say behind me. I had forgotten for a second she was there. When I turned, she was smiling, but I was too scared to let her smile make me feel better.
Then, just as I was about to ask her if she knew where else we could look, I heard the toilet flush. I hurried into the living room, just in time to see the door to the bathroom open up and mom step out. Boy, was I glad!
“Oh, David, I was wondering if that was you I heard.” Then she spotted Running Girl and smiling said, “High.”
“High,” Running Girl replied back.
Instead of asking mom if everything was OK—I didn’t want to scare her—I said, “I was just going to show Kim my comic book.”
Running Girl turned and looked at me. I could tell she was surprised, but didn’t ask what I meant, thank God!
Then, mom said to her, “You’ll like it. He’s a really good artist.”
I could feel my face getting warm.
“Oh, yeah?” said Kim, her eyebrows rising in a silent question.
“Come on, I’ll show you,” I said and started walking back toward my bedroom.
That’s when mom said, “If you kids want anything to drink, there’s soda in the fridge. In the mean time, I’ll be over at Mrs. Hanover’s. I want to look in on her and see how she’s doing.”
“Okay,” I said, then without thinking added, “Be careful.”
Chapter 26
Before mom could ask me what I meant, I hurried into my room and closed the door. Running Girl was right behind me.
“So, where is this comic book?” she asked.
I turned to her. “I’ll show it to you later. Right now, I think we should go and tell your uncle about Frank.”
She looked at me surprised. “Why?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know for sure, but if he did get his memory back, then maybe your uncle will know what to do next.”
Running Girl looked like she was trying to decide if I was right or not. Finally, she said, “OK.”
I grabbed her hand. “We’ll head for the room where you guys keep all your supplies.”
The supply room was pitch dark when we got there, but this time, I didn’t have to turn on any of my lights. I knew right where the door-handle was from the last time I was there.
“Let me take a quick peak first,” I said to her before she could do it herself, but when I did . . . “Boogers!”
“What’s the matter?” Running Girl asked, as I pulled my head back into the darken room.
“It’s not Max.” I felt really disappointed.
“Then who is it?”
“That teenage guy.”
“You mean Henry?”
“If that’s his name?”
“Well, uncle Max has to be here somewhere,” she insisted.
“I hope you’re right,” I said, as she reached past me and pushed open the door.
“Come on, we’ll find out from Henry where uncle Max went.”
Chapter 27
“Where’s uncle Max?” Running Girl said to Henry after we came out of the back room.
Henry looked at us as if we had just appeared out of mid air. Actually, we kind of did.
“Where did you two come from?” he asked, his eyes as big as two pancakes.
Instead of answering him, Running Girl repeated her question. “Where’s uncle Max?”
“Uh . . . uh . . . he’s somewhere around. Why?”
“Where?”
Poor Henry must have felt like he was standing in front of the school principal. “I think he said he was going to Sears to see what they had for sale.”
“Thanks,” replied Running Girl. Then to me she said, “Come on, let’s go find him.”
As we started to walk away, I heard Henry say, “But how did you two get in there?”
Once again, Running Girl ignored him. Instead, the both of us hurried out of the eating area and began heading down the hallway toward the bookstore and Sears.
And that’s when it happened . . .
Chapter 28
We were passing a couple of stores that had gone out of business when I heard a noise that sounded like a metal and glass door being opened, and then a man’s voice, kind of low, saying, “Hey, kids.”
We both started to turn when something really big and sharp hit me in the side of the neck. It hurt so bad, I couldn’t breathe, let alone scream.
Reaching for my neck, I felt something huge sticking out. At the same time, I heard that same voice say in a hurry, “Catch them before they fall.” Fall? Fall where, how?
After that, the floor started to sag like melting cheese, then the next thing I knew. . .
“I think he’s finally waking up,” I heard a woman say.
“Thank God!” replied someone else—a man?
Because I had my eyes closed, I wasn’t completely sure who these people were who were talking, but the woman sounded a lot like mom. So, opening my eyes, I lifted up my head a little and looked around. Sure enough, there was mom standing by my bed! . . . My bed? . . . But also, to my amazement, there was Frank, the chauffeur, Father Carmel and Running Girl’s uncle, Max!
“How did you all get here?” I asked, still feeling like I was half asleep.
“Your mom called me,” replied Father Carmel.
“I thought you were sleeping,” mom explained, “until I saw that thing sticking out of your neck.”
What thing, I wondered, as I reached for the side of my neck. My arm felt stiff and ached a little on the inside near where it bent, but I still managed to touch my neck. When I did, I found a huge lump there, which also ached!
“You were hit by a tranquillizer dart,” said Frank. He must have seen the surprised look on my face, because he went on to explain, “Whoever tried to kidnap you used it to put you and number seven to sleep.”
“Speaking of number seven,” I said, as I tried sitting up a little. I could barely move. My whole body felt like it weighed a ton. “Where is Kim?”
“That’s what I’d like to know,” replied Frank. “When I lost both your signals at the same time, I’ll have to admit, I became a little worried.”
I felt a little bit confused. Signals? What signals? And then I remembered— oh, yeah, that tracking thingy in my arm—the same arm that ached as if it had been punched.
“After you both stopped transmitting,” he said, “I came to the mall to try and find you—”
“And that’s when he ran into me,” Running Girl’s uncle interrupted.
I looked at him. Instead of his usual happy self, he looked worried. In fact, they all looked worried.
“So what happened?” asked Frank.
Chapter 29
And that’s when I began telling him and the rest about seeing the other Frank in the park the night before, and about what I thought might have happened to his memory.
After I finished, mom stared at me, her eyes all worried-looking. “Are you saying this is the same man who tried to kidnap us?” I nodded. “Then . . . then, what happened? How did he get his memory back?” All I could do was shrug.
Mom looked around at the others, but when no one answered, she asked, “Do you think he might try and come after us again?”
I wasn’t sure who she was talking to, but it was Frank, the chauffeur, who answered her. “I don’t think so; but if it will make you feel any better, you and your son can come and stay at the agency.”
Although I had been curious about what the agency looked like, I didn’t think I’d feel very safe there.
Luckily, Father Carmel had a better idea. “No need,” he said. “David and his mom can stay with me at the rectory. We have plenty of extra rooms for when priests and nuns come to visit.” Now, that did make me feel safe.
At this point, Running Girl’s uncle spoke up. “That’s fine, but what about my niece? You said their signals stopped?” I could tell he was worried.
“Yes,” replied the chauffeur, looking even more concerned. “And that’s what disturbs me; because in order for that to have happened, the person or persons who tried to kidnap these two (he motioned toward where I was sitting up in bed leaning against the wall) would have had to know about their trackers and how to disengage them. Only someone from the agency would know that.”
This time, it was Father Carmel who seemed upset. “You mean, it was one of your own people who did this?” he asked.
Looking as if he’d been caught doing something wrong, Frank nodded and replied, “Apparently.”
“So what do we do, now?” asked Running Girl’s uncle. He sounded even more worried than before.
And that’s when I remembered Brian.
“What about Brian?” I asked, feeling sure I was on the right track. “Couldn’t he tell us where Kim is?”
Frank, the chauffeur, looked even more uncomfortable. “He can’t,” he replied. “He doesn’t know.”
I looked at him, my eyes bulging. “You mean you already talked to him?”
Frank nodded. “Yes, but not today. The last time I saw him, he told me something was going to happen to you, but he didn’t know when, where, or even what.”
“But couldn’t we ask him anyway?” I said.
After clearing his throat, Frank replied, “Not at the moment.”
“Why not?”
“Because right now, number 29 and his mother are in a passenger jet flying 30,000 feet over the Rockies.” Double boogers, I thought! “But I think I know someone else who might be able to help.”
Chapter 30
He went on to tell us about number 15. He said he was a kid about my age, who lived not too far away.
“In that case,” said Kim’s uncle, “maybe you should go and get him, and bring him back here fast so we can use him to help us find my niece.”
Frank nodded, “I will. In the meantime, why don’t you stay here with number—I mean, David, and I’ll be right back.” Then he turned and walked out of the room. A moment later, I heard our apartment door open and close.
“I hope he’s correct about this kid being able to help,” said Running Girl’s uncle to no one in particular.
“I agree,” replied Father Carmel.
So did I. But even as I sat there wondering who number 15 was, and what kind of powers he had, I looked at mom. She still seemed kind of worried. That’s why I asked her if I could have a glass of soda? I wanted to try and take her mind off what was happening, even for a little bit.
“You stay right there,” she said, “and I’ll bring it to you.”
“No, that’s OK,” I told her. “I’ll come with you into the kitchen.” But when I tried standing up, the room kind of spun a little, and I had to sit back down on the side of the bed.
“See,” she said, coming over and sitting on the bed beside me. She pulled me into a hug. “You’re not ready yet.”
“Yes, I am,” I said, while trying to wriggle out from under her arms. I made it; and this time, when I stood up, the room didn’t spin, so I was able to walk without falling over, though it was like I was some old person in a hospital or someplace. All three of them followed me into the kitchen, looking like they were ready to catch me if I fell again.
Chapter 31
After we got into the kitchen, I asked Running Girl’s uncle, “So how did you know where I was?”
“It was your chauffeur friend’s idea,” he said. “After that incident with your bed, he thought you might return here even if you were hurt or unconscious.”
“What about your bed?” asked mom. She was standing in front of the refrigerator with the door open, staring at me. I knew she wanted me to explain it to her, but it was like I didn’t know what to say. Luckily, Kim’s uncle came to my rescue.
“He had a bad dream and ended up teleporting both himself and his bed up to the roof of your building.” He must have read my thoughts.
Mom’s eyes got as big as basketballs. “You did what!?” she exclaimed.
Before I could answer, Father Carmel said, “Now, don’t get all weird about it. As you can see, both he and his bed are perfectly fine.”
Instead of saying anything, I just nodded, then reminded mom about the soda I had asked for.
“Oh, yeah,” she replied, and turned around to reach inside the fridge for a bottle of coke. That’s when the doorbell rang.
Was Frank back already, I wondered?
Chapter 32
Not quite.
Instead of Frank and number 15, it turned out to be Running Girl’s father and mother.
I’ll have to admit, I was kind of shocked to see him sitting there in his wheelchair. To get up to our floor, they could use the elevator, but how did she manage to get his wheelchair up the front steps of our building?
While I was thinking about that, it dawned on me someone was missing. “Where’s Jenny?” I asked them.
Running Girl’s mom replied, “We left her home with your friend, Benny. They’re watching a movie together.” Which one? I wondered, as I saw her look behind me and ask, “Have you heard anything yet?”
When I turned around, I saw that both Father Carmel and Max had come into the room. It was starting to get really crowded in there.
“Not yet,” replied Running Girl’s uncle. “But that chauffeur guy went to get someone he thinks can help.”
“Good,” replied Running Girl’s father, as he began to unzip his heavy winter jacket. He didn’t sound too happy, despite what he said.
That’s when our doorbell rang again.
This time, for sure, I thought it must be Frank. I was right, it was. Except, when he stepped into the room, I got a shock! The kid with him was someone I knew. Well, I didn’t really know him, but he was someone I had seen at the Boys and Girls Club.
“This is number 15,” said Frank, indicating the boy with bright red hair who was standing beside him.
Chapter 33
The kid, who looked a little bit like Danny on the Partridge Family, was wearing a blue and grey winter jacket, blue jeans and black, high-top sneakers. I thought it interesting that when Frank said number 15, the kid looked up at him like maybe he’d said something wrong.
“Sam,” the kid said, as he turned back to face us again. “My name is Sam Kahill.”
“Hi Sam,” I said, smiling.
“Is he the one who’s going to help us find my daughter?” Running Girl’s father asked.
Frank nodded. “Yep,” he said and actually smiled a little! Could you believe it? “Number 15—I mean, Sam here has a very useful talent.” He put his hand on the boy’s shoulder. “He can see through just about any object or surface.”
It dawned on me what he had said. “You mean he has X-ray vision like Superman?” I asked.
Frank nodded. His smile even got a little bit bigger.
“How will that help?” asked Running Girl’s father.
Frank replied, “I will use him for reconnaissance. We’ll fly over the area where I believe number—I mean, your daughter is being held, while Sam here scans for her presence.”
Mom gasped. “You mean you can fly?” she asked, sounding astonished.
“That’s one of his powers,” I said to her.
“He can also remain invisible,” said Running Girl’s uncle. Mom must have felt totally blown away by all of this.
“But what happens if you do locate her?” continued her father. “Suppose she’s being held in a jail cell, or somewhere underground? How will you get to her?”
Frank replied, “That’s where number 23 comes in.”
“I’m number 23,” I said, half turning to face the others. And then it hit me what he just said. “You mean I’m going, too?” Suddenly, I was feeling both excited and a little scared.
Frank nodded. “Once Sam here locates their position, I’ll use you to teleport all three of us inside.”
“Does this mean you know where she’s being held?” asked Running Girl’s mom. I guess she was hoping he knew.
“Not the actual building,” replied Frank. “But thanks to your husband’s brother, I think I know which area of the city to concentrate on.”
“Somewhere in the warehouse district near the airport,” said Max.
Frank nodded. “Correct.” Then he turned to me, and looking straight into my eyes asked, “You ready?”
Chapter 34
“NO!” mom almost shouted. Startled, I jumped. But then she added more calmly, “Not until he puts on his jacket. It’s cold out there.”
I rolled my eyes and moaned, “Ah, mom!”
“Never mind,” she demanded. “You just stay right here; I’ll be right back.” Then she disappeared into my bedroom.
Looking at Frank, the chauffeur, and Sam, I rolled my eyes again, expecting at least one of them to show that he agreed with me. Instead, I got no reaction from either of them.
Mom came back right away, carrying the same jacket I had been wearing earlier. She must have taken it off me when she found me lying on my bed.
She helped me put it on (as if I really needed her help), then zipped it all the way up. “I don’t want you catching cold, especially, if you’re going to be flying around the city all night.”
Frank told her, “I don’t think you have to worry about that; once we’re airborne and invisible, none of us will feel the effects of the cold.”
Mom glanced at him. “Well, I’ll feel better this way,” she said. Then turning back to me, she patted the pockets of my jacket. “There’s gloves and your knit ski cap in there, too, just in case you need them.” Again, I wanted to moan. Instead, I kept quiet.
At this point, Father Carmel spoke up. “If none of you mind, I’d like to say a little prayer for their safe return.”
When nobody said anything, he began the prayer. “Dear Lord, please keep David, Sam, Frank and . . .”
“Kim,” replied her father.
“And Kim safe,” he said. “Make their mission successful; and, if it’s your will, make sure the bad guys get their comeuppance.” He ended the prayer with an, “Amen.”
I smiled to myself as I heard at least two voices echo his “Amen,” then Frank asked me, “You ready, now?” I nodded. “OK, why don’t you teleport us up to your roof and I’ll take over from there.”
“I got a better idea,” I told him, as I stepped forward and grabbed one of his big hands and one of Sam’s smaller ones.
Chapter 35
The roof lights of the Stellar Building had not come on yet. I guess that’s because the sun had not gone down completely.
“You really like this place, don’t you?” said Frank, the chauffeur, after I let go of both his hand and Sam’s. He had kind of a chuckle in his voice.
“Yep,” I said nodding.
“Where are we?” asked Sam, looking around.
“We’re on top of the Stellar Building,” I told him. “It’s the tallest building in the city.”
“And closer to the airport,” added Frank. “Good choice.”
“Thank you,” I said, feeling proud of myself.
Then Frank went on to explain, “So this is how we’re going to do this. I’ll hold on to the both of you, one in each arm. Don’t worry, you won’t fall; once you’re invisible, you won’t hardly weigh anything. Number 23—” I looked at him— “I mean, David, I want you to keep holding Sam’s hand while we’re reconnoitering. Sam, I want you to use your X-ray vision to scan the buildings where we’re going. Then, like I said before, once you spot where she’s being held, I’ll have David here teleport us inside the facility.”
“But how will I know which building or room she’s in?” I asked him.
Frank replied, “By holding onto Sam’s hands, you’ll be able to see what he sees.”
“You mean I’ll have X-ray vision, too?” I asked, then felt totally stupid. Of course, I’ll have X-ray vision. I’ll be holding Sam’s hand, the same way Kim had me hold her hand while we walked through the glass doors at the bookstore in the mall, or had Benny run with her like the Flash.
“Buy the way,” I said to Sam. “What’s your other power?”
“I can fix things, like toys and stuff that are broken.”
“How?”
He shrugged. “I just touch them while I look inside at what part is broken and the next thing I know, they’re not broken any more.”
Immediately, I thought of Benny’s rifle. “Where were you when I needed you?” I said to him.
Sam frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Nothing,” I said, waving my hand. “I’ll tell you later.”
Then, Frank asked us, “You two ready?” I looked at him and nodded. “OK, then, come and stand close beside me—David on my left, Sam on my right.” We did. “Now, I’m going to put my arms around both your waists.” He did. “Now, I don’t want you two to get scared, but I’m going to make all three of us invisible before we take off.” Which he did.
I thought teleporting two or more people together felt weird. You should try becoming invisible. It was like I was suddenly filled with helium—like I might float away if I wasn’t tied down. I got so shook up for a moment that I grabbed his coat, and held on like a bear.
Frank must have known what I was feeling, because he said, “Don’t worry, you’re not going to float away. Just relax and try to enjoy the ride.” Easy for him to say.
“OK, here we go!” he announced, and the next thing I knew, we were in the air flying!!
Chapter 36
It was great! And like Frank said, because I was invisible, I didn’t feel the cold at all, not even a slight breeze. . . Wait a minute? . . . Invisible?
“Why can I still see us?” I asked him.
Without looking at me or Sam, he replied, “Because, you’re inside my sphere of influence. (Sphere of influence?) Anyone outside sees nothing, but inside, we can still see ourselves.”
I guess that made sense, I thought, and then went back to enjoying the ride.
Like I said, it was great! It was like swimming without water. It made you think you could do almost anything. Now I knew how Superman or Peter Pan must feel, except we weren’t flying level; our feet were hanging down.
Luckily, we weren’t going too fast so I could see a lot of stuff. From where we were, many of the buildings looked like toy buildings, and the people looked like ants. As for the cars and trucks—well, I felt as if I could pick them up with my fingers, though I’d have to be careful; I wouldn’t want to squash them.
For a moment, I glanced around the front of Frank at Sam. He must have been enjoying himself, too, because I saw him smiling. Then suddenly, I remembered where we were going and why. It made me a little scared and sad at the same time. What were they doing to Kim? And why had they tried to kidnap me, too?
I thought back to the movie I had seen with Benny—the one about the scientist who turned into a shark. The army guys in charge had wanted to do experiments on the scientist after he became a shark. Was that what they were doing to Running Girl; sticking her with needles?
I shivered slightly, thinking that would have been me too had I not been able to teleport back to my room while unconscious. And then, I thought of what Kim’s sister, Jenny, had said about getting her own super powers because of a transfusion. Was that the reason they had wanted us—to get our powers?
I was about to ask Frank when, suddenly, we stopped. “We’re here,” he said, as we hovered in mid air like three balloons.
Chapter 37
Sure enough, below us was the city’s airport with its buildings, and runways all lit up, and jet planes taking off and landing. Along side it were a lot of long metal buildings, some of which must have been the warehouses Frank had talked about.
Using Sam’s X-ray vision, which was like looking through a wide hole with fuzzy edges but clear inside, we began checking out the buildings, but saw no sign of Running Girl anywhere. Where was she?
After checking several more buildings, I was beginning to worry we’d never find her. But then we came upon a building, smaller than any of the others. It had a tall metal fence around it and lots of barbed wire along the top of the fence.
“I bet this is it,” I said to Frank. I was pretty sure; it looked like the type of places I’d seen on TV—you know, where the bad guys bring the people they kidnap and keep tied up.
“I hope so,” replied Frank.
We hovered there a moment, but still saw no sign of Kim—in fact, no sign of anyone. And then, suddenly, a door in a wall opened and a man carrying an Army-looking type of rifle stepped out.
While we watched, he looked around a little, then pulled what looked like a hand held police radio from his belt and began talking into it.
“There must be a basement of some kind below that floor,” said Frank.
Sure enough, when Sam pushed his X-ray vision further, we could see a long hallway and a whole bunch of rooms off of it.
And then we saw the rest of the bad guys.
Chapter 38
They were in a room filled with a bunch of scientific-looking stuff, like I’d seen in movies and on TV. But that’s not what caused a jolt of fear and surprise to shoot through me like a rocket. Two of the men looked up at the ceiling and I realized I knew them. One was the guy with the briefcase who had been on the bus with Benny and I. The other man standing next to him was the other Frank—the one I had seen in the park.
Both were standing next to Kim, who was lying with her eyes closed on a long metal table while still dressed in the same pants and shirt she had on before. A thin tube was running from one of her arms up to a plastic bag nearly full of what looked like blood hanging off a thin metal pole next to her. Immediately, I wanted to fly down there and yank the tube, which I knew was attached to a needle, out of her arm.
On the other side of her was a large metal box with several wires coming out of it. They were attached to small, round, white dots that were stuck all over her head and neck.
I barely had time to wonder about the dots when I saw the man from the bus look around at two other men who were standing further behind him, each holding an Army-looking type of rifle. I don’t know what he said to them, but the two men did something with their rifles, then reached up to the tops of their heads and pulled down weird-looking binocular type things over their eyes.
The next instant, the lights in the room went out, and it became totally dark.
Chapter 39
I kind of knew that my powers could sometimes act on their own, but still, what happened next kind of caught me a little by surprise.
The moment the lights went out, I teleported us down into the room (I didn’t even have to think about doing it; it just happened). At the same instant, the lights in my body came on full blast. They were so bright, both Frank and Sam let go of me and covered their eyes. So did the two guys with the binocular-like glasses; except the way they grabbed at the glasses and tried to rip them off, you would have thought their faces were on fire.
I later learned the glasses were called night vision goggles. They allowed people wearing them to see in the dark; but when I turned on my lights, for the two men with the glasses, it was worse than trying to look directly into the sun. It blinded them and really hurt their eyes.
So it was easy for me to do what I did without even thinking, which was instantly teleporting myself in front of both men, grabbing their guns, and then, being careful to take only their weapons, teleporting myself and the two guns up to the roof of the Stellar Building. After dropping the two riffles, each of which felt a lot heavier than Benny’s pellet gun, I hopped back into the room, just as the lights came back on and the man we had seen upstairs came rushing in.
Only this time, it was a little different. Instead of carrying his army rifle, which he had slung over his shoulder by a strap, he was holding a square-looking pistol, which he already had pointed in my direction. I had about a half second to try and decide what to do next when my powers decided for me.
In the blink of an eye, I teleported the man and his pistol to what I was pretty sure was the top of the Stellar Building (it smelled the same) and then returned to the room; except it happened so fast, I wasn’t sure that’s where we had gone. All I knew was in front of me was now an empty doorway.
Chapter 40
“What did you do with him?” I heard Frank say behind me.
I turned to look at him. “Huh?”
“I asked what you did with that guy?”
“I think I teleported him to the top of the Stellar Building,” I replied. “But I’m not sure; I didn’t get a chance to see where we were.”
Frank paused a second to think, then replied, “Well, never mind about that now. What I want you to do next is take number 15 and go back to your apartment.”
Suddenly, I felt my stomach drop. “Why?”
“Because I don’t need your help any longer. I can finish up here by myself.”
“But—”
He held up a hand. “Just take Sam and go!”
I glanced at Sam, and then at Kim lying on the table. I didn’t want to go. I wanted to stay and help, but Frank was the grownup in charge and I was just an eight-year-old kid. So, I started to walk over to Sam. But then, I got an idea.
Turning to the other Frank, who was still rubbing his eyes a little, and staring at him real mean-like, I said in voice I hoped sounded like Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry, “If you ever come near me, or my mom, or my friends again, I’ll teleport you to the top of the North Pole! And you, too!” I added, pointing to the man from the bus standing next to him. He didn’t say a word. He just nodded and stared at me like I was some kind of bomb ready to explode, which made me feel really great.
That’ll fix them, I thought.
Then, ignoring the both of them, plus the two men who had been wearing the goggles and were still trying to see again, I went over to Sam and touched the sleeve of his jacket. “You ready to go?” I asked him.
“You bet?” he replied. He sounded like he was really glad to be getting out of there.
Before leaving, I took one last look at Running Girl. If anyone else had seen her, they would think she was just asleep. But I knew better, which was why I still wanted very badly to go over to her and yank that needle out of her arm and wake her up. Instead, I did what Frank, the chauffeur, had said to do; I teleported Sam and myself back to mom and the others, who were waiting for us with all kinds of questions.
Chapter 41
“Where’s Kimmie?”
“Is she all right?”
“Where’s the chauffeur?”
“Are you two OK?”
Both Sam and I nodded together.
“Why didn’t you bring her back with you?” That was her mom who asked me that question.
“She’s still asleep,” I told her.
“But you should have brought her back anyway?” It was her father this time who spoke.
What could I say? I really didn’t want to explain to him about the wires, and the needle, and the tube leading up to the bag with her blood in it.
Instead, Sam explained it for me. “They were taking blood out of her,” he said, as calmly as if he was talking about a TV show he had seen.
Running Girl’s mom gasped.
I looked at her, and when I saw how worried she was, I decided I’d better explain it after all. “They were using a transfusion to take some of her blood. I think they wanted her powers.”
Glancing at her father sitting there in his wheelchair, I saw him look down a moment.
Then her mom asked again, “But she’s all right, isn’t she?”
I nodded.
“Thank God!” said Father Carmel, while mom made the sign of the cross.
“So, where’s the chauffeur now?” asked Running Girl’s father.
“He’s still with her,” I told him.
“But why didn’t all of you come back together?”
“Because he told us to go on ahead. He said he didn’t need us any longer.”
“But—”
“Now, don’t be too hard on the kids,” interrupted Max. “After all, they were just following orders.” He smiled at me, but I didn’t feel very much like smiling back.
That’s when mom asked, “Do you two kids want anything to drink?” I knew she was just trying to keep the situation as normal as possible.
Sam nodded immediately, while I took a moment to look back towards my bedroom. What I really wanted was to teleport back to the room where Kim was and see how things were going.
Instead, I followed mom and the others into the kitchen.
Chapter 42
The soda tasted almost like Alka-Seltzer to me. And if that wasn’t bad enough, our little kitchen was beginning to feel way too crowded with Kim’s father’s wheelchair, as well as the rest of the grownups in it. They were all sitting around the table drinking coffee and eating some of Mrs. Hanover’s cracker snacks, as well as pieces of pound cake mom had bought at the store. Meanwhile, Sam and I stood by the counter with our sodas and our own pieces of cake.
“So do you live with your parents?” mom asked Sam after a while. She definitely was trying to keep it normal.
After taking a sip of his soda and swallowing the rest of his piece of cake, Sam shook his head and said, “It’s just me and my mom.”
Wow, I thought! He’s just like me!
“So where’s your father?” mom asked.
Sam stopped drinking and replied, “He got killed in a car accident a couple of years ago.”
Mom’s face dropped like a rock. “I’m so sorry,” she said, sounding really sad.
At the same time, my insides went all kinds of squishy. Way too much bad news, I thought. What I needed was some happy news for a change. So, that’s when I made my decision.
Putting down my drink and my piece of cake, I announced, “I’m going to use the bathroom.” Then without waiting for anyone to say anything, I walked out of the kitchen and into the living room and then into the bathroom. After closing the door, I disappeared.
Whoa! Why was it so dark in here, I wondered as I turned on the lights in my hand and shined them toward the table where Kim lay?
Except, she wasn’t there! The table was EMPTY!!
Oh, no! Had she been kidnapped again!?
Spinning around, I shined my lights into every corner of the room. No one was there, not even Frank. Where had they gone, and what were they doing to her this time?
My stomach felt like it had rocks in it. I stood there thinking—was Kim in danger again? Was someone else trying to get more blood out of her? What was I going to tell her parents?
I felt like I wanted to disappear myself, but I knew I couldn’t do that. There was only one thing left to do; so, returning to our bathroom, I rinsed my hands, flushed the toilet, then went back into the kitchen. Except, the moment I saw Kim’s father sitting in his wheelchair, I knew I couldn’t tell them. Instead, I went over to the counter and picked up my drink, then continued to sip it as if nothing had happened. All the while, I kept wondering, not only what had happened to Kim, but how had Frank and the others disappeared so fast?
Glancing up, I saw Max looking at me. He knew! But before he could say anything, our phone rang.
Chapter 43
Mom got up to answer it. I saw her expression change (her eyebrows bunched together) as she asked, “How did you know they were still here?” Then she listened some more, and I saw her eyes get big. “She is?” She sounded excited.
“What happened?” asked Kim’s father.
“Is it about Kimmie?” her mother wanted to know.
I saw mom nod and say into the phone, “Okay, I’ll tell them, but—” And then she stopped and looked at the receiver, like it had just bitten her or something. “He hung up on me,” she said, as she put the phone back on its hook.
“Who did?” asked Running Girl’s mother.
“The chauffeur,” mom replied. I felt my stomach tighten, but not from fear. Then mom continued explaining to her parents. “He says they have your daughter and she’s all right, but they want to keep her overnight for observation.”
“Who’s they?” asked her mother.
“I think it’s the agency,” replied Max. I turned to look at him. He went on to explain. “They want to make sure everything’s Okay with her before they bring her back.” I wondered if he knew that for sure, or was only guessing?
“But why do we have to wait until morning?” asked Running Girl’s mom. She seemed upset.
That’s when Father Carmel spoke up. “I’ll tell you what,” he said, “why don’t the three of you go back to your house and wait there for the child’s return—just in case they bring her back early.”
It would have been a great idea if they had brought her back early. Unfortunately, they did not.
Chapter 44
By eleven the next morning, there was still no sign of Running Girl, unconscious or otherwise. How did I know? Benny and I were at her house. We had gone there earlier; Benny had wanted to help her father make more toys. That’s what he had been doing all the day before, while I was lying on my bed knocked out and Running Girl was still in that room with the bad guys, who were trying to steal her powers.
Her mother, in the meantime, had gone to the restaurant, but kept calling her father to ask if there was any news yet. Max was at Hardy’s. Before he left, he told Benny and I that if we wanted, we could come over later and he’d make us some onion rings like he promised the first time.
Meanwhile, I was playing checkers with Jenny, but was having a hard time trying to concentrate. I kept thinking about Kim, wondering where she was and what they were doing to her?
Finally, when I couldn’t stand it any longer. I said to Jenny, “I’m going to see if I can find Frank, the chauffeur, and ask him about your sister.”
“Why, do you know where he is?” she asked me.
“No,” I said, while putting on my jacket, “but I do know where he lives.”
Chapter 45
I wasn’t surprised to see the curtains to Rickie Conners’ bedroom closed (I was standing on her balcony). But I sure as heck was surprised after I teleported down to the ground, and went around to knock on the door of what I assumed was Frank, the chauffeur’s room.
“What the . . . what are you doing here?”
It was Sam. He had answered the door, and was now standing there holding it open like this was his house I had come to.
“I’m visiting,” he replied, seemingly not even the least bit surprised to see me.
“Who?” I asked him, “Rickie?”
He shook his head. “Her parents.”
Her parents???
My mouth felt like it had gone numb on me. All kinds of questions were swirling around inside my head, but no words were coming out—at least, not right away.
Finally, I managed to ask him if he had gone home the night before? He nodded. “And Father Carmel drove you there, right?” Again, he nodded. “But . . . but, how did you get here?”
Before he could reply, Rickie’s mom, who had suddenly shown up behind him from who knew where, put a hand on his shoulder and said, “Oh, I see we have company.” I looked from her to Sam and back, my stomach feeling almost as turned around as my head. “David,” she said smiling, “I’m so glad you’ve come.”
“Why?” The word just kind of popped out of my mouth.
The way she was smiling at me reminded me of the way the nurses at the doctor’s office smile at you just before they stick you with a needle. “Because we need to reactivate your tracker,” she explained.
Almost without thinking, I reached over and rubbed my arm where I thought the tracking thingy was. Then looking at Mrs. Conners, I shook my head.
“Now, don’t be afraid,” she said with the same kind of smile. “It won’t hurt.”
“I’m not so sure about that,” I replied, as I began to slowly back away from the both of them. My stomach continued to feel like it was on a carnival ride.
Then, before either of them could make a move, I teleported out of there.
Chapter 46
I didn’t have to explain to Kim’s sister or Benny who Sam was. Her parents had done that the night before, after they had gotten back from our place. But a half hour later, after I teleported over to Kim’s house to get Benny, he did ask me what it was like to fly?
“It was great!!” I said. “I felt like a giant bird floating over the city. Everything and everyone was so small, I felt like I could pick them up with my fingers.”
Benny smiled. “And what about being knocked out? Did you feel anything? Did you have any dreams?”
“I honestly don’t remember.”
“What about those bad men who took my sister?” asked Jenny. “Did that chauffeur guy beat them up?”
Once again, I had to admit I didn’t know.
“I hope so,” she said, punching the air with her fists like a boxer.
“Never mind about the bad men,” said her mother, giving Jenny a kiss on top of her head. “Go brush your teeth, and get into your pajamas, and I’ll come in later and read to you.”
Read to her?? I was surprised that Jenny was still being read to. Couldn’t she read on her own? But then I thought, maybe, this was just something they did— the same way mom and I sometimes said our prayers together. Of course, that was different.
What wasn’t different, though, was the way Benny reacted the next morning after I got back from the Conners’ house and asked him if he still wanted to go to Hardy’s and have the onion rings Max had promised us?
“You bet!” he replied. Then after apologizing to Kim’s father, he practically flew up the stairs to get his coat.
“I’ll call my uncle and let him know you’re on your way,” said Jenny while I waited for Benny to zip up his jacket. I too was excited, but not because of the onion rings; I had something to tell Max.
Chapter 47
“You made up your mind, yet?” Benny asked me while I pretended to stare at the menu on the wall.
“Hold up,” I told him. “I’m trying to decide.” I heard him sigh next to me.
What I was really doing was mentally telling Running Girl’s uncle all about what had happened when I went to the Conners’ house and found Sam there. I saw his mouth twist into a little frown. To someone else, it might have looked as if he was upset with me, because I was a kid who couldn’t make up his mind about what he wanted to drink.
Finally, after I was done telling him everything, I said, “Okay, I’ll take a Coke.”
“It’s about time!” exclaimed Benny.
I looked at him. “Well, I couldn’t make up my mind,” I said. “They have that new Cherry-flavored Coke, and I couldn’t decide if I wanted that, or regular Coke, or maybe a root beer.”
“Well, now that you’ve decided,” he said, “let’s sit down so Max can make us our onion rings.” Which we did at one of the tables in front of Hardy’s. I was a little surprised how so few people were sitting in the food area of the mall.
While we were waiting for our orders to arrive, Benny asked me, “So what is this Sam kid like? Does he play any sports?” I shrugged. “What about school? Which one does he go to?” Again, I shrugged, but thought about it.
“I have seen him at the Boys and Girls Club, so he must live somewhere near by.”
“I wonder if he likes onion rings?” said Benny more to himself than me.
I shrugged, but didn’t say anything. My mind was too busy thinking about all the things I had been wondering about earlier after seeing Sam at the Conners’ house?
Finally, our orders came and we dug in.
About half way through, I happen to look up and a smile the size of a bus crossed my face.
RUNNING GIRL!!
Chapter 48
She was walking down the hallway towards us, still wearing the same clothes as the day before. Yuck!
I don’t know why, but for some reason, I stood up. So did Benny. Almost immediately, my smile faded and the onion rings I had been eating settled in my stomach like a lump of clay; walking behind her was Frank, the chauffeur.
Max must have seen us stand up, because, suddenly, I heard him say real loud-like, “Kimmie!”
Coming out from behind the counter, he walked up to his niece and practically crushed her in a bear hug.
“You Okay?” he asked her after he let go.
“I am now,” she replied, nodding.
“She insisted on coming here first,” Frank said to Max.
Sounding like he really meant it, her uncle replied, “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
Then Benny said something that both surprised and shocked the heck out of me. He asked Frank if he, Benny, could go fly with him some time? I stared at him with my mouth open.
“What? Why not?”
“Because . . . ” I started to say.
But was cut off when Frank said to Benny, “You can, but only on one condition.”
“What’s that?”
He turned to face me. “If David here promises to let me re-activate his tracker.”
“What does that mean?” Benny asked me.
“I’ll explain it to you later,” I said to him. Then looking back toward Frank, I asked reluctantly, “When?”
He looked like he had to think about it for a moment, then replied, “How about you come by the house, say, Nine O’clock tomorrow morning?”
“Will Sam be there?” I asked him.
Chapter 49
Frank frowned. “Why would you ask me that?”
“Because he was there a little while ago.”
Frank’s frown turned into an expression of surprise. “You were at the Conners’ house?” he asked me.
Before I could reply, Running Girl’s uncle asked Frank, “Why did it take so long to bring her back to us?”
“Because, I was sick,” replied Running Girl. “I kept throwing up.”
“Why, what happened?” Her uncle asked Frank. I could tell he was not as happy as before.
Frank replied, “She had a bad reaction to the knockout drug they used. But, she’s Okay now; we’ve flushed it out of her system and everything’s fine.”
As if to prove it, Kim asked her uncle, “Can I have a grilled cheese sandwich? I’ve been thinking about them ever since I stopped puking.”
Max asked her, “Are you sure?” She nodded real hard. “Okay, then, one grilled cheese sandwich coming up.” Then he left to go make it.
That’s when Frank said to me, “And I’ll be seeing you around nine tomorrow morning, right?” I nodded, but wasn’t really looking forward to it.
Then, after he walked away, Benny and I, plus Kim sat down at our table, where Benny and I continued to munch on our onion rings. Between bites, Benny asked Kim what it was like?
“What do you mean?”
“What was it like to be knocked out?”
She replied, “I don’t remember any of it; I was asleep, and then after I woke up, I was puking my head off.”
I was thinking of asking her what the agency had been like, but then decided it really wasn’t that important. But Benny did ask me about the trackers. So, I explained it all to him.
“I wouldn’t want any tracking thingy inside me,” he said between bites of his rings. I couldn’t help but smile when I heard him say the word thingy.
Eventually, Max came over with Kim’s sandwich. Then, after putting it in front of her, he asked me if I would help him a moment in the back room. Not thinking twice about it, I got up and followed him into the room where they kept all their supplies.
As soon as the door closed behind us, he turned to me and said, “He lied, you know.”
Chapter 50
“Who, Benny?”
“No, the chauffeur.”
I felt confused. “Why, what did he say?”
Max looked at me really serious-like. “When he said Kimmie had a bad reaction, he wasn’t telling the whole truth. She almost died.”
As grownups say, my heart leaped into my throat. “She what!?”
“Her heart stopped and they had to shock it the way they do in hospitals.”
The floor under me felt like it was melting away. I touched one of the shelves to steady myself and asked Max, “But she’s alright now, isn’t she?”
He nodded. “Yes, but there’s more.” What else, I wondered? “When you mentioned Sam, I got a whole blast of images from the chauffeur’s mind. It turns out he and Sam’s mother are dating.”
“You’re kidding!” I said, my eyes bulging.
Max shook his head. “But that’s not all,” he continued.
I looked at him. “Why, what else is there?”
“That girl, Rickie, the Conners’ daughter?” I nodded. “I think I know why they made her lose some of her memories.”
“Why?” I asked him, calmly, but I really, really wanted to know.
“Because what happened to Kimmie I think was supposed to happen to her.” Now I felt both scared and confused. Max went on to explain. “When the chauffeur said Brian didn’t know what was going to happen to you, he was telling only part of the truth. Brian had told him that if Rickie Conners kept hanging out with you, she was going to die.”
Once again, the floor felt like it was melting under my feet. But then, I thought of something. “But why didn’t I get sick, too?” I asked him.
He shrugged. “You must be different, somehow.”
I couldn’t imagine how?
Eventually, I would find out.
Epilogue
After that day, Benny and I found ourselves hanging out more and more at the Johnson’s house (that was their last name, by the way). Right away, I found out that Kimmie/Running Girl had a wicked sense of humor. She liked to play peek-a-boo with me while I was in the bathroom. I’d be doing my thing when suddenly, she’d pop her head through the wall and say, “Boo!” Embarrassed the heck out of me the first couple of times, but then, I got her back. The next time she did it, I stood up and turned so she could see my entire front, especially my thingy (and I wasn’t talking about my tracking thingy).
“Ewww!” she said, and pulled back real fast out of the wall. That will teach her, I thought, smiling to myself.
Speaking of my tracking thingy. The next day, I went to see Frank, like I promised I would, so he could turn it back on again. He used something that looked like a gun with lights, and had my arm feeling like I had been punched. Afterwards, while rubbing my arm where it had been zapped, I asked him if he knew why I had been left on the steps of St. Michael’s instead of in a hospital or an orphanage like the others?
He thought about it a second and said, “Often, when companies who make medicines come out with a new one, they try it out first by giving some people the real medicine, while others fake stuff. They want to see how both groups react. That’s what the agency did with you and a couple of others. They wanted to see what would happen if you were abandoned without resources.”
“And what happened?” I asked him.
“The other two weren’t as lucky as you.”
“Why not?”
“Because the people they ended up with weren’t as nice as your mother.”
My stomach fell; I knew what he meant. I had seen the way some grownups treated their kids, adopted or not, and it wasn’t pretty.
“So what happened to the other S.E.E.K.s with the bad parents?” I asked him.
“To them—nothing, but to their parents . . . Well, let’s just say, they were re-adjusted.”
You mean, like Rickie Conners, I thought, but didn’t say it. Instead, I asked him if she was going to be in school when it started up again on Monday?”
“Yeah, why wouldn’t she be?” he replied.
I hunched my shoulders. “I don’t know—maybe because her parents are still not sure whether or not we should hang out together?”
I looked at him, hoping he’d say that was all over with now that the bad guys had been taken care of. Instead, he replied, “Well, now, that’s for them to decide, isn’t it?”
I felt my stomach drop again. Why did it have to be this way? Why couldn’t Rickie be made to remember again and everything go back to the way it had been before? After all, it wasn’t my fault the bad guys had tried to kidnap Kim and I. Besides, they were gone now (at least, I hoped so), so there shouldn’t be anything else to worry about, should there be?
Just before I left, Frank said to me, “Now that we have your tracker back on line, you think you can try and stay out of trouble for a while?”
I looked at him. “I’ll try,” I said, then teleported back to the Johnson’s where Benny was happily helping Running Girl’s father make toys. He really liked doing it; and to be honest, he wasn’t half bad.
Meanwhile, as the days passed, I kept working on my comic book. I still planned, one day, to give it to Rickie Conners, especially if she still couldn’t remember, but now, I had a chance of having more than one copy to hand out. That’s because after Kim’s father heard about what I was doing, he said he knew someone who had a copy machine who might be able to make me a few copies for free.
“Thanks,” I told him, then went back to learning from Kim how to play poker with money. Except, we weren’t using money; we were using buttons and matches, which I kept loosing really fast.
As you can imagine, I got pretty frustrated, but not so much because I was loosing, but because of what Kim did every time I did lose my buttons and matches. She’d rub her hands together and laugh like the Wicked Witch of the West.
After about the fourth time, I said to her, “The next time you do that, I’m going to teleport you to the top of the North Pole.”
Of course, I wouldn’t really do something like that—at least, not on purpose, anyway.
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