Chase Tinker & The House of Magic (11 page)

He groped his way along a dark hallway. "I
knew I needed a map," he muttered as he wandered into a large,
shadowy room. It had a damp, earthy smell. The moonlight glistening
through the many windows made it possible to see all sorts of
plants that looked more like terrifying, grotesque monsters than
bushes and shrubbery. This was clearly not where he wanted to
be.

Turning to leave, he paused. "Wait a second,"
he said, frowning. "Isn't this just like my dream?" But before he
had a chance to figure out anything else, he was grabbed from
behind and hoisted into the air. His heart gave a crazy jolt.

"Hey! Let me go!" he shouted. "I can't
breathe, you jerk! Put me down right now!"

With his arms pinned to his sides, he kicked
and squirmed, but all the wiggling only caused him to be squished
tighter as whoever held him began swinging him back and forth. This
was unbelievable!

"I need help! Can anybody hear me? Help!
Help! Please?"

"Chase? Is that you?" The room filled with
light.

"Janie!" bellowed Chase. "Am I glad to see
you!" He looked down. "I—what—" Curled around his chest were thick,
green tendrils, and looking back, he gasped at the tree-trunk-size
stem of a gigantic plant.

Janie leaned against the doorframe and
smiled. "Got yourself into a little predicament, hm?"

"I was looking for the kitchen and ended up
here." He couldn't take his eyes off the bizarre thing holding him
captive. "And plants aren't supposed to grab people!"

"Great-Great-Grandfather Fergus was a
botanist and he experimented a lot," she said. "He enchanted the
singing plant trio too. This is his
cuddleupus
. It's a good
thing I heard you yelling or you might've been stuck here in the
greenhouse all night." She stepped into the room just as the plant
decided to twirl Chase around and then roll him up and down as if
he were a yo-yo.

"Yiiiikes!" yelled Chase. "This sucks! Make
it stop!"

"Don't worry," she said. "I'll get it to
release you. It only has to be tickled in the right spots." Nimbly
dodging waving tendrils, she reached underneath the thick
appendages and ran her fingertips up and down them. The plant
loosened its strangling grip.

Chase fell to the floor, but he recovered
quickly and scooted out the door. "That's easy for you to do," he
grumbled, rubbing his sore arms. "You weren't tied up and ready to
become its next juicy meal."

"Don't be ridiculous, plants don't eat
people," she said as she joined Chase in the hallway. "The
cuddleupus
only likes to play and hug."

He stared into the room and shuddered before
backing away. "Whatever. I'm never going in there again."

"One day you might," said Janie as they
headed to the kitchen. "That's the Time-Travel Room."

"Time-travel!" he exclaimed, goggling at her.
"Is that possible?"

"In
that
room it is."

"Have you tried it out?"

"No," she said, shaking her head.
"Grandfather says time is not something to be messed with. It sure
would be a cool way to see history first hand, though, wouldn't
it?"

"Yeah it would," said Chase. "Much better
than reading dusty old textbooks."

Later, after digging through the refrigerator
and finding a few chicken legs and carrots to gnaw on, he found his
way back to his bedroom, after only five wrong turns.

He shook his head as he climbed back into
bed. Now, on top of everything else, he had even more to think
about. Time-traveling. Hugging plants. And dreams coming true. Wow,
if the rest of the summer was anything like today, he'd better
prepare himself.

U
nbelievable!
thought Chase as he trudged down a staircase.
Lost again
.
"How in the heck does anyone find their way around this place?" he
muttered. Rounding a corner, he stepped right in the middle of a
small red carpet. It jumped up like a giant grasshopper and zipped
down the long hall.

"Hey! A
real
flying carpet?" he
exclaimed as he bent his knees and flung out his arms to stay
standing.

The rug flew over a table. He ducked to avoid
bashing his head on the ceiling. He and the carpet soared around
several corners and up a staircase. Moments later, the crazy carpet
hurtled through a round doorway and into a room where Chase thought
he saw tiny, sparkling fairies buzzing around in a meadow, but
before he had a chance to get a better look, he was already zooming
from the room.
Fairies?
Yeah, right
, he thought.
Like those really exist
.

The carpet careened up and down several more
halls and stairways. At last, it jerked to a stop. Chase
somersaulted off and belly-flopped onto the floor. "Holy moly!" he
wheezed out as he climbed unsteadily to his feet. "What a ride."
Following the scent of bacon, he bumbled his way to the kitchen
where he found the other kids finishing with breakfast.

"Geez you're lazy." Janie waved a half-eaten
hunk of toast at him. "We wondered if you were going to sleep the
day away."

He plopped onto a stool at the island counter
in the middle of the huge kitchen. "Weird dreams," he mumbled.
Glancing sideways at Persephone, he quickly combed his fingers
through his messy hair.

"We're making plans to explore the house
today," said Janie. "It'll be fun with the four of us."

"Don't you know the powers in most of the
rooms already?" he asked as he scooped scrambled eggs onto a plate.
He was hungry enough to eat the whole platter.

"Not even close."

"You and Persephone should've gone exploring
together," said Andy.

Janie shrugged. "We haven't had much time for
that, what with finishing school and other things."

Chase took a big bite of his eggs. "Your mom
is an awesome cook," he said to Persephone. "These are
excellent."

"She is a great cook," she answered, spinning
on her stool, "but even
you
could make a fantastic meal in
here."

"I don't know how to make anything."

"It's—"

"It's the house," interrupted Janie. "It even
puts magic into the food! It's impossible to undercook, overcook or
burn a single crumb in this kitchen."

Mrs. Periwinkle came through the door,
rattling a tray of dirty dishes. "I got your mother to drink a
little juice," she said to Janie as she dumped them into the
sink.

"How's she doing?" asked Chase.

"Same as yesterday," said Janie. "I don't
know when she'll be able to tell us what happened. I'm worried she
has amnesia and won't remember me."

"That girl is in a bad way," said Mrs.
Periwinkle, shaking her head. "I don't imagine she'll be ready to
talk to anyone for a long time."

"Have you called James to tell him what
happened?" asked Persephone.

"Yeah, but no one answered," said Janie. "I
left a message."

"That's right, Grandfather mentioned James
yesterday," said Chase. "Why isn't he here now?"

"He lives with our dad," said Janie. "In
Chicago. Dad came over from England to go to college here. He met
Mom there, and then they got married kind of young. They divorced
when I was five and James was seven. He wanted to live with my dad
and I stayed with my mom. James is supposed to be here in August.
But it won't matter if she doesn't recognize us."

She slumped against the bar and nibbled on
her toast.

"Where do you and Aunt Clair live?" Chase
asked, snatching up some bacon and toast and making a sandwich for
himself before Mrs. Periwinkle cleared everything away.

"In San Francisco. Mom's a graphic designer
there," she said.

Persephone hopped off her stool and grabbed
Chase's arm. "Come on, you guys. Are we going to sit here all day
yakking or are we going exploring?"

"Uh, exploring, of course," Chase mumbled
around a huge mouthful of sandwich.

"Hey, Janie, how come you've never been here
until your mom left?" asked Andy as they tromped from the kitchen
and headed up a staircase.

"Mom's always been really mad about what
happened between Grandfather and Uncle Ben," she said, glancing
over her shoulder at him. "She thought Grandfather should've been
more understanding. But at least he always came to see me on the
holidays."

"You're lucky," said Andy. "So you always
knew you were magical?"

"Sure. My mom never tried to hide it from me.
I know, you'd think I'd be better at my power. But Grandfather says
it's one of the most difficult ones, and I've never practiced
much."

"What power does your brother have?" asked
Chase.

"I don't know," she said. "I've never asked
him, and we haven't seen each other in a long time. I don't want to
talk about it, okay?"

The boys' eyes met. No matter what, Chase
couldn't imagine not seeing his little brother all the time. "Yeah,
no problem," he said.

Halfway through the third flight of stairs,
they found their way blocked by a huge, sparkling mirror.

Chase stared at their reflections. "Now what?
It's a dead end."

"This is one of the secret doors you'll find
around the house," said Persephone.

"That's right!" exclaimed Janie. "I remember
Grandfather telling me about some of them." She tapped her finger
on her lips. "This must be the Self-Esteem Looking-Glass. You have
to look in the mirror and compliment yourself." Gazing at her
reflection, she said, "Janie, you have an adorable nose." She gave
Chase a push. "Now you say something."

He shoved his hands into his pockets. "Um,
Chase," he mumbled, hoping Persephone didn't think he was a total
dork, "you have, um, nice hair."

Andy laughed. "Nice hair. How lame is that?"
Chase glared at Andy as he took his turn at the mirror. "Andy, you
look way cool today."

Persephone barely held back her laughter as
she took her turn. "Persephone," she said, smiling and winking at
Andy, "you have nice hair."

The mirror rippled and melted away, showing
them the second half of the staircase.

"Very funny, guys," said Chase, between
clenched teeth. "Come on, Andy. Let's go."

He pulled his snickering brother up the
stairs. After a few more twists and turns, they stopped in front of
a tall, arched doorway.

"Let's try this one," said Persephone.

It was one of the house's round castle-like
turrets, furnished with several armchairs, tasseled footstools, a
table and lamp, and an old spinning wheel. Chase wandered to a
mullioned window and peered out. Grandfather was working in the
garden far below.

"Okay," said Janie, "Grandfather said the
clues to the magic are in the wallpaper."

Chase turned back to the room and began
studying the walls. The wallpaper was gold with blue stripes and in
between each stripe were pictures of chairs, lamps, shoes and
books. He looked closer.

"Hey!" he exclaimed. "This is Augusta's room.
I mean, look. All these drawings are moving somehow. Like this
chair, I think it's skipping. Grandfather said she made stuff come
to life."

"You know, I think you're right!" said Janie.
"This cute little teacup looks like it's dancing."

"How do we make it work?" asked Andy, pushing
a footstool with his toe.

"That, I don't know," said Chase. "There are
lots of words for things that are moving."

"Those are called verbs," said Andy
smartly.

"I know," growled Chase, glowering at him.
"But we probably have to say the right one, like when we say
Invisible
or
Shield
."

"Maybe we only need to tell them what to do,"
said Persephone. She pointed at the footstools. "
Walk,
footstools!
" The tasseled stools wiggled their stubby legs and
marched across the floor.

"You did it!" said Andy.

"
Play leap-frog, footstools!
" Without
missing a beat, the stools switched to jumping over and over each
other.

Janie's mouth dropped open. "What? How'd you
do that?" she cried. "No one told me you had powers."

"Grandfather gave Persephone a little piece
of magic," said Andy. "She's wearing it around her neck."

"What do you know, we knew something Miss
Know-it-all didn't," said Chase, looking smug.

"You knew too, huh?" Janie propped her fists
on her hips. "So, what, it's gang-up-on-Janie day?"

"No, it's not like that," said Chase. "You
act like you know everything. And for once, you didn't."

Janie narrowed her eyes. "That's real fine. I
only wanted to help you guys!" She pointed at the lamp. "
Bounce,
lamp! On them!
" The lamp leaped from the table and bounced up
and down on Chase's, Andy's and Persephone's heads and shoulders.
Its flowery, fringed shade flew into the air and dropped right onto
Chase's head.

"We're sorry! We're sorry!" they yelled,
dashing around the room as the footstools galloped behind Andy,
nipping his ankles. Lunging for the door, the three kids tumbled
into the hall, leaving the wild furniture behind.

"Great hat, Chase," said Andy as he rolled on
the floor, laughing. "You should've seen your face!"

"Me? What about you?" said Chase, joining in
the laughter. He yanked the lampshade off his head. "I've never
seen you run so fast."

"If you ask me, you both looked pretty
goofy," said Persephone.

Janie appeared in the doorway. "Uh…sorry I
lost my temper, guys."

"And I'm sorry I called you a know-it-all,"
said Chase. "It's just that…"

"…I am," she said, hanging her head. "I just
wanted to help. I'll try not to do it anymore, okay? If you guys
promise not to keep secrets!"

"Deal," said Chase.

"I really am sorry," said Janie as they
ambled down the hall.

"Aw, don't beat yourself up over it," said
Persephone, patting Janie's arm. "It was totally worth it seeing
Chase flapping around with a lampshade on his head."