Brass Monkeys (39 page)

“Is that the part where I need the clear head and all that?”

She smiled ruefully. “Exactly. But that part won’t happen until you get home.”

I stared at her in surprise. “Then I’ll need to know the memory secret, right?”

“You will. And I’ll let Perkins explain all that later in town. I’m sending him, along with Toddwilly, Eddie, and his Tat friends, to help you with the loading.”

I glanced over at the sleigh. “So what about Jack and the others? Are they coming home with us? And what about Ming?”

“Jack and his friends are still very ill, and I’ll need to get them back to the Blue Grotto right away. The water there should bring them back to full health. Then I’m sure they’ll return to their own lives on the surface. As for Mingley, she and her two cronies will go with us. I’m hoping that’ll keep the Stormies from attacking us. I said
hoping
because the Stormies are unpredictable.”

She drew a deep breath. “And now, Billy, I’m afraid it’s time to say our final goodbye.” She held out a slim hand and I shook it, trying not to hang onto it for too long this time. A great lump rose in my throat because I knew I’d never see her again.

“Goodbye, Adjana,” I said.

She gave me a last look, then touched her heart. “Goodbye, Billy.”

Just then a Grotto teacher rushed up and whispered something to her. She nodded at the man and he hurried off. She turned back to me with a grim look.

“You’ve got to hurry now and get your people on the trucks. We’ve just received word that a large Stormie army is moving this way from the city. They have long-range weapons that won’t be stopped by our music. You’ve got to leave immediately and take a back route in.” Without another word, she rushed over to the band, gesturing at the director as she went. He nodded, then brought the volume of the Grotto band up to a thundering level.

Slowly, the School of the Brass Monkeys started to crumble. I raced over to the Stormie trucks where Perkins and the others were already loading the Grindsville people, and watched with Harriet as the ugly building came down.

First, the haunted-looking belfries came crashing Earthward, making the ground shake. Then the ten-story structure began swaying like some great beast. It seemed to be splitting in the center, and this wrenching movement sent up a strange death wail on the desert air. The walls bowed out, the insect-eyed windows blew out with loud bangs, and suddenly the whole crazed structure gave way and came down with an explosive roar.

“Well, that’s the end of Ming and her rotten school,” I said to Harriet.

“I hope so,” she replied, but I saw doubt in her golden-brown eyes.

A few minutes later, with added help from Alvin and Weeser, we had the Grindsville people nearly loaded. A few teachers and a couple of the former student spies were refusing to board the last one. They were still dazed, but they obviously hadn’t gotten their last dose of Zorca and had begun acting ornery and difficult.

“We’ll get them on, don’t worry.” Perkins told me. “They’ve all had their Grotto water, and they’ll lose their fur on the ride home. By the time they get there their attitudes will change and they’ll be fine. Plus, they won’t remember a thing!”

Just then a Tat rushed up with a message for Ray.

“For me?” said Ray. He took the piece of paper from the Tat and opened it.

A look of amazement passed over his face. “Holy Crow,” he said. “It’s from Adjana, and she wants me to stay and do a mission for her.” He glanced at me, a smile creasing his face. “What do you think? She says the mission will take the nerve of a Hulk.”

Right then I knew he was a goner. “Go for it,” I said. “The old Hulkster.”

“Do it, Ray,” added Harriet. “She needs all of us.”

He nodded. “You’re right. And you know what? I like her a lot. And what the heck, I don’t have anybody to go home to anyway.” He turned to the Tat. “Tell Adjana I’d be happy to do the mission and I’ll be right with you.”

The Tat grinned and hurried off.

“Well, I guess this is goodbye,” said Ray. He held out his hand. “Always buddies, Bumpus-man?”

I took his hand. “Always. No matter what.”

Ray had tears in his eyes. “Goodbye, Harriet.”

She hugged him and that really made a mess of him. “Oh boy,” he said. “I gotta go, before I get really stupid.” He pulled away from Harriet and rushed off.

Goodbyes always bother me, and somehow Ray’s really made me sad. I guess it was lucky I had work to do because that helped a little. A few minutes later we had the last person on board the trucks. Or we thought we did. Principal Plumly jumped off at the last second, and it took two Grotto teachers to wrestle him back aboard.

Eddie and I lifted the back tailgate into place. While we were doing that, Adjana’s caravan of trucks suddenly pulled out with a lot of horn honking and that’s when it hit me: I hadn’t had a chance to say goodbye to Jack and the others!

I saw them sitting near the back of the lead truck as it passed, and I ran out screeching like a maniac, but with all the engine noise and dust, they didn’t see or hear me. I waved in a halting way, just in case they might look back, but they didn’t. A terrible hollow feeling swept over me, and for a moment I couldn’t move or even breathe.

The last truck of Adjana’s caravan swung past, and I saw Ming, Fundabore, and Strobe seated in the back. They were trussed up in tons of rope and looked angry and exhausted. Ming’s red hair hung down over her face and kind of swung with the motion of the truck. She spotted me now and straightened a bit. I saw a thin smile cross her lips. She began nodding and her pale blue eyes glittered. She never said a word, but nothing could have been clearer. It was like she was saying, “This isn’t over yet. We will meet again.”

With a shiver, I turned and ran for my truck.

On the way into town, it seemed like everyone wanted to talk about their adventures.

Eddie, O.D., and Fiddler wanted to tell me how they’d gotten everyone out of the Grotto in time for the battle. Adjana had already related that, but I tried to listen patiently as they explained how they’d attached the new rope to our old one and rigged up an elevator. Since it was news to Harriet, she wanted to hear the whole thing, starting with the evacuation from the Blue Grotto.

Then Alvin and Weeser chimed in with their story, which I’d already guessed at. They’d escaped during our battle in Ming’s school, but then the really hairy part had been hiding from the Stormies out in the Sand Hills until Adjana came along.

Weeser’s green eyes were wide. “I tell you, we were quivering, quaking, and—”

“Poopin’ our pants,” Alvin finished. “We were crawling around and making hidey holes at the drop of the hat. Man, I still got sand in my boxers.”

After a while, the voices seemed to blend into a single sound, and I found myself simply watching the others, nodding and smiling when they did.

Luckily, we didn’t see a single Stormie on our way into the city. We came in on a little-used road that angled into the roller coaster station from the west. When we arrived at the loading platform, we found only drones moving about. Most of them stood back and just watched us suspiciously, but some of the more gossipy ones told us a big Stormie army had just left the city, heading for Ming’s school. We had barely missed them.

“Load quickly,” cried Perkins, “because the Stormies will be back!” Then he divided us up, putting one person in charge of each car. Harriet had the car right next to me, but we had no time to talk. There was a lot of confusion and several times false-alarm cries of “The Stormies are coming!” rang out.

Eddie, O.D., and Fiddler worked on the roller coaster engine controls, trying to set them on “automatic.” Just as I finished loading, Eddie came rushing up to my car.

“We’re about done,” he called to me. “The Big Monkey should get you there, then return on its own. I hope!” He turned and ran up the line of cars toward the front and the engine. I could see his Tat buddies milling about, waiting for him.

Just then Perkins leaned in to tell me the Big Monkey would probably only go as far as the tunnel to the basement. “I’m guessing the Stormies have already removed their equipment from the school basement,” he said, “so you’ll have to unload in the tunnel. Also, they usually have the tunnel rigged to self-destruct later so that no one can find it. We’re not sure about the timing on that, so unload quick and get the people up the stairs and into the halls.”

“So, who’s doing all this work of unloading and blah blah?” I asked.

Perkins smiled grimly. “You alone, I’m afraid. You’ll be the only one carrying the memory secret. This is an historic moment because Adjana has never given it to a student before. But you have to have it, Billy, to do the last part of your mission.” He gave me a grave look. “And it’s up to you to guard the secret.”

I started to ask him what the secret was, but there was a disturbance up the line of cars. Plumly again! That ridiculous man had gotten loose and was running down the loading platform, screaming, “I’m not going! I’m not going!”

Perkins, Toddwilly, and a few others ran after him, but then stopped.

“Let him go!” Perkins yelled out. “He’ll make a perfect Stormie!”

I chuckled at this, but stopped quickly as the Big Monkey jerked abruptly, then slowly started forward. Harriet peered over the connecting door to the next car and waved excitedly at me. A couple of Tats, who obviously wanted to hurry and strap her in so they could get off the car, were trying to get her attention. I grinned at her and waved back.

Then in a flash, I remembered:
the memory secret!
I rushed to the side door of the car. “Perkins!” I yelled. I waved my arms at him. He was standing with Toddwilly and several other Grotto teachers. He turned and waved. I believe he thought I was simply calling out a goodbye.

“The memory secret!” I bellowed.

Even from that distance I saw his face turn white. He slapped his forehead, then broke into a frantic run. At first I thought he’d get back to me easily, but the Big Monkey accelerated rapidly.

“What is it?” I hollered. “Just yell it out!”

But I could tell he didn’t want everyone to hear it. He sprinted like a madman. He couldn’t have been more than a few yards away when he gave it up and called out the secret in a low, strangled voice. “Ringagong!”

I must have looked totally befuddled because he started to repeat it, but then stumbled and fell headlong.

I shook my head in frustration. How could I ring a gong? I didn’t have a gong! It made absolutely no sense. The Big Monkey picked up more speed, and I saw Eddie, O.D., and Fiddler as we rushed toward them.

They were yelling something that sounded like “Bumpus, you’re the man!”

“Tats forever!” I hollered as we raced by. I waved one last time and watched the figures of my friends recede behind us until they were tiny, then gone from sight forever.

We raced quickly out of the inner city. I saw a few elderly Stormies moving about in the suburbs, but they seemed too old and tired to act. The huge
MONKEYOPOLIS
sign that loomed over the tracks faded behind us, lost in a cloud of mist, and seconds later we roared into the tunnel.

I barely managed to stumble back to my cross and strap one arm in place before the car blasted nearly straight up. I had just enough strength to wrap my legs around the post. Luckily the trumpet was on the sling, or it would have been gone in a twinkling.

While my chin jounced painfully against the post, a bitter thought pinballed through my head:
now I would never finish the mission
. “But I wanted to!” I yelled out. “I promised!”

The roller coaster roared upward, and the tremendous g-forces began pulling on my face and body. I clenched my jaw tightly, fighting against the black wave that threatened to sweep me into unconsciousness. The thought that I would now simply forget the greatest adventure of my life was too much. After all, I had been chosen for this mission.
Chosen!
It had been given to me and I had fulfilled it, except for this last dumb part. I couldn’t let it slip away into the darkness. Couldn’t!

“Get a grip!” I screamed out. “Focus!” The roller coaster began a series of twists and turns that took my breath away. My body vibrated and my bones felt like they were being separated from my flesh. The black wave grew behind me and in front of me, but it hadn’t swept me under yet. Gritting my teeth in fierce determination, I turned to the one thing that had always saved me in moments of fear: music. Haltingly, nearly breathless, I began to sing the first song that came into my head—”Jingle Bell Rock.”

I could have chosen any one of fifty different songs—great ones—but in a way it was fitting to sing that song. I remembered it vividly from the day I’d first walked into the hair salon and seen Harriet sweeping the floor.

A couple of times I almost stopped. I thought the roller coaster was coming apart. But somehow I kept singing.

I finally did stop when the cars came to an abrupt halt and I clonked my head against the post. We were back! I sat there, momentarily dazed, listening to the steam escaping from the engine. I thought, okay, I don’t know what that sound is, right? My memory’s totally gone here. I’m a turnip.
But it wasn’t true
. I knew exactly what the sound was and I knew exactly where I was and what I had to do. More than that, I recalled everything about my great battle with Ming and the Stormies. I hadn’t forgotten a single detail. But how could that be?

I stood and began unstrapping my arm. While I was doing that, the answer came to me like a pure flash of light. I’d had the memory secret all along—
music
. Perkins had yelled out, “Sing a song!” Not “Ring a gong!” When the roller coaster had started upward in that frightening way, I had turned naturally to the one thing that always worked for me in moments of stress—the notes of some great song. Okay, so “Jingle Bell Rock” might not be the greatest song in the world, but it had done the trick. It had kept me focused and on top of that big black wave. I was home, and I remembered everything.