Abby Carnelia's One and Only Magical Power (23 page)

Ricky and Eliza thought that Abby was crazy for wanting to escape from Camp Cadabra—or Calabra Pharmaceuticals, as they now knew it was called. But in the end, they agreed to join her.

They set their alarms for the middle of the night—“1:15 a.m. in the morning,” as Eliza called it. Nobody liked that idea much, either, but slipping out after most of the Calabra workers were asleep definitely seemed like the best idea.

By 1:20 a.m., Abby, Ben, and Eliza were all together in the lobby, leaning on the desk where Candi usually sat. But there was no sign of Ricky.

“Where
is
he?” Abby whispered.

“Why are you asking me?” Eliza whispered back.

“I'll bet he's still sleeping,” said Ben. “And I don't know how we're gonna wake him up without waking up everybody in the place.”

The three of them crossed the lobby toward the short hallway to Ricky's room. They tried to knock on his door loudly enough to wake him, but gently enough not to get anyone's attention.

There was still no answer. Abby got on the floor to call his name under the door. “Come on guys, help me out,” she said.

“Riccckkkeeeeeee! Rickeeeeeee!”
they all hissed together, crouched on their hands and knees. “Wake up!!”

They were still there, their faces pressed against the doorsill, when the door flew open.

It was Ricky, yawning and blinking in his Spider-Man pajamas.

“What are you guys doing on the floor?”

“Come on! Get dressed,” said Abby, standing up. “You were supposed to wake up and escape with us! Come on!”

Ricky worked his jaw up and down a few times, as though it were a little rusty. He rubbed his eyes. “What time is it?”

“We've gotta go, Rick,” said Ben. “We need you to come with us! Can you hurry up and get dressed?”

Ten minutes later, the four campers were out in the lobby of their living pod, standing by the double doors that opened onto the hallway to freedom.

“Okay, so tell us again how we do this?” asked Eliza. For once, she wasn't wearing a T-shirt that was six sizes too big. She was wearing a
sweater
that was six sizes too big.

Abby took a breath. “Okay, well, remember, our first worry is the motion sensors. It's those little round lenses right inside the hallway doors. If they see any movement in the hallway, the metal gates are gonna come down, and we'll be trapped like mice. That would
not
be good! So as soon as the hallway doors open, Ricky, you fog 'em up, okay?”

“I what?” said Ricky, still not entirely awake.

“Ricky, we went over this before. Use your power! Can't you do that? Can't you fog up glass from far away?”

“Oh, yeah,” said Ricky. “But I've never tried it on cameras.”

“Well, guess what? Tonight's your lucky night. But first, we've got to open the doors to the hallway. Ben, this is you.”

“Yes, captain,” he said. He pulled Candi's spare key card from his pocket. All four kids stepped back so they'd be out of the way when the doors opened—and not visible to the motion cameras just inside the hallway.

Ben swiped the card across the black box by the door.
There was a click, and the doors swung outward into the hallway.

“Okay, Ricky!” Abby whispered. “Do your thing!”

Ricky peeked into the hallway and saw the small round lenses mounted near the floor, one on each side of the hallway. As quietly as he could, he did his Spanish counting-by-twos while breathing in (and it's not easy to do that quietly).

“Dos, cuatro, seis, ocho, diez!”
he said.

The light was fairly dim, but Abby thought that she could see a silvery, misty reflection on the lens, which usually looked like a solid black circle. Ricky changed his focus to the lens on the opposite side and repeated his counting.

“I think he did it!” Abby said, beaming. “Good job, Ricky!”

Ricky beamed even more.

“So what now?” asked Eliza. If anyone in the world could actually act bored during a panicky, late-night escape from a secret scientific laboratory, it was Eliza.

“Now we have to get to the other end of the hallway,” Abby said. “The problem is the floor. It's pressure-sensitive, you guys. If you step on it, then you set off the alarm. This is all you, Eliza.”

“Yeah, great,” said Eliza. She had never been a fan of this part of Abby's scheme. “Couldn't we just pole vault?”

“Come on, Eliza,” chided Ben. “Be a good sport. And quick, before those lenses unfog.”

Eliza had never been good at being a good sport. “Okay, first of all, I'm not your trained dog. I don't levitate on command. Second of all, I told you: this isn't going to work. I can't balance when I'm levitating. It's like standing on marbles. I tip right over.”

“Please, Eliza. I know you don't do it on command; we're
asking
you. There's not going to be any way across that floor without you. And unless we get across that floor, we're staying here another week!”

“Eliza, please,” said Ben.

“Yeah! I used
my
power,” added Ricky with pride.

Eliza crossed her arms. “Well, I can't balance.”

Abby nodded. “I've been thinking about that. I was wondering if you'd ever tried levitating, you know . . . on your back?”

“On my back? Are you—That is the dumbest idea I ever heard!”

There was an uncomfortable silence. And it took Ricky to break it. “Why is that dumb? That way, you wouldn't fall down. You'd already be down!”

“It's going to work, Eliza!” said Abby, giving it one last try. “Look: you lie down, just like you're on a towel on the beach, okay? You're levitating just a tiny bit off the ground.
We give your feet a little push, and you glide across to the other side. That's it! If you touch the floor a little here and there, it's not gonna matter; the alarm only goes off if somebody is
walking
on it. Please, Eliza. We
need
you!”

Eliza sighed and looked into the hallway. “Well, it's never gonna work, but apparently you need to see that for yourself. Where do you want me?”

“Oh, you're awesome, Eliza,” Ben said. Abby and Ricky tried to offer her high fives, but Eliza wasn't interested.

“Okay, so, sort of lie down with your arms out, right here,” Abby said, indicating a spot right at the opening of the hallway.

Eliza lay down. “Okay, now what?”

“Come on, guys, help me out!” whispered Abby, squatting down by Eliza's feet. We'll have to give her a little push!”

The two boys kneeled and put their hands on Eliza's sneakers.

“Aim her straight, you guys. Eliza, are you ready?”

“Let's get it over with,” came the reply.

“Okay, Eliza. Now—you know—rise up! Think about those buffalos,” Abby said.

“Walking backward,” added Ben.

“Wearing diapers!” Ricky reminded her, giggling with glee.

“I
know
how to do it!” Eliza snapped.

If you were right down next to her, with your head against the floor, you might have been able to see that her whole body had lifted off the floor by just the tiniest little bit—about the height of a chocolate bar.

“Okay, guys!” said Abby. “One, two—”

“Wait!” said Ricky. “The camera! It's not fogged up anymore!”

It was true. The silvery sheen on the motion detector had almost completely evaporated.

“Well, juice it up again, will you?” Eliza said, a little bit crankily.

“Would you mind re-fogging it, Ricky?” said Abby. “Keep checking it, too. We can't afford to let it unfog until we're out of here.”

Ricky did his Spanish counting thing again, fogged the camera, and then got ready to push.

“All right, let's try this again,” said Abby. “Eliza, you up?”

“I'm up,” she said.

“All right, here we go: One, two, three—push!”

Abby, Ben, and Ricky pushed against Eliza's feet. Of course, they had no idea how hard to push; they had had very little practice launching eleven-year-old levitating girls down hallways.

If you tried to push a normal person across the floor,
you'd have to push very hard, because the person's body would rub against the carpet and not go very far at all. But if somebody were lying on a big skateboard, you wouldn't have to push nearly as hard. And if there were nothing between the person and the floor but air, you wouldn't have to push very hard at all.

But they realized that too late. They pushed Eliza much too hard. Her body, with her arms out like a T, zipped across the floor like a roller coaster going downhill. Her sweater dragged on the floor a little, and she wobbled enough to scrape the tiles—not enough to trigger the alarm. But before she even realized what was going on, she had reached the doors at the far end of the hallway—with her head.

WHACK!

“OW!” she yelled, thumping to the floor. She sat up, rubbing her head. “Jeez, you people! What are you trying to do, kill me?”

The three other kids apologized, sincerely and as loudly as they could while still whispering. “I'm sorry, Eliza!” “We didn't know!” “Are you okay?”

Eliza, now safely on the part of the floor that wasn't wired to the alarm, glared at them for another minute, then turned around and pushed the far doors open. She could see the long, carpeted hallway that led to the building's main lobby—but suddenly she stopped.

“Wait—now what? Do I just go? How do you guys get over here?”

Ricky and Ben turned to Abby with an expectant look on their faces, ready for the next instruction. There was only one problem: Abby didn't have one to give them.

“I—I didn't think about this part,” she admitted.

“Well,
great,”
Eliza said.

“Is there a button over there, Eliza?” said Ben. “Something that turns off the floor?” He had seen Phil and other people walk that hallway without triggering any alarm, so he knew there must be a way to turn off the floor's pressure sensitivity. But whatever the control was, Eliza couldn't find it.

Eliza poked around the far walls and the double doors. She shook her head no. “Nothing here,” she said.

“Maybe we should go back to bed?” said Ricky hopefully.

“No, no, come on, you guys,” said Abby.

“Maybe
I
should just escape,” Eliza offered. “And I'll find a way to come back for you.”

“No!” said the other three, all together.

“We've come this far,” Abby added. “We can figure this out!”

“I don't know, Abby,” Ben said softly. “Only Eliza can get across the floor without sounding the alarm. I don't see how the rest of us are gonna get across.”

“You're right,” said Abby, suddenly confident. “Only Eliza can get across.” She turned. “Eliza! You have to come back!”

Eliza, now with a very sore bump on the top of her head, was not thrilled. “What are you
talking
about? I'm already across!”

“You have to come back. It's the only way,” Abby said.

“Who's gonna push me?”

“Just push with your feet. Kick off from the door frame.”

“And what then? What happens once I'm back over there?”

“I'll tell you once you get here!”

With an enormous sigh, Eliza lay down at the far end of the hallway, levitated herself, and gave herself a push. She glided smoothly across the floor and coasted to a stop—three feet from the end of the hallway.

“Help!” she hissed, desperately trying to keep the image of buffalo in her head.

Ben fell to his knees and reached out with his hand, but she was a few inches too far away.

“Maybe your leg?” said Abby.

Ben sat down, leaned back on his elbows, and stretched his feet out toward Eliza. He couldn't reach her armpits, but he managed to hook the toe of one shoe under her chin—and gave her a tug.

“Ee www!” said Eliza, despite herself. She sailed to the safe part of the floor just as she forgot to think of the buffalos—and she scraped down for a landing.

“Did you have to stick your stinky foot in my face?”

Ben stood up, brushing off his pants. “Well, actually, kind of yeah. Either that or leave you floating in the hallway until we all get caught.”

Clearly, this was not Eliza's favorite morning. And it was about to get worse.

“All right,” she said to Abby. “Now I'm back. What's your bright idea?”

“Now, I know you're not gonna like this,” Abby said as respectfully as she could. “I just want you to know that you're really the hero, Eliza. You're making this possible by generously using your power to get us out of here.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. What's your idea?”

Abby took a breath. “Okay. Well, is there any weight limit to your power? I mean, could it carry you
and
someone else?”

Suddenly, Eliza understood where Abby was going.

“Oohhhhhhh, no you don't,” she said, waving her hands in front of her face. “I am not going to float down that hallway with you guys sitting on top of me. No way. Forget it. I'm not some stinking flying carpet!”

The funny thing was, when she had floated across the
hallway floor, wearing that huge floppy sweater, Eliza had actually looked a
lot
like a flying carpet.

“Won't you consider it?” said Ben. “You're our only hope.”

“Yeah,” said Ricky. “Please?”

“When they write the history books,
you'll
be the one who saved the day,” Abby added.

Eliza glared at them. “You're all ganging up on me!”

“We're just asking,” said Abby gently.

Finally, Eliza gave a grunt of frustration—sort of a “HhhrrreeeeaAAAAAGHHH!!”—and lay down on her back again. “All right. But you people owe me
big time
.” She spread her arms out.