Chase Tinker & The House of Magic (21 page)

"Happy Birthday, Chase," said Grandfather,
slapping Chase on the back as they walked toward the bar. "Ah, to
be young and carefree again. I remember my 13
^th
birthday
as if it were yesterday. Thomas and I share the same birthday, you
know. He was one year younger. That evening, for our birthdays, he
teleported the two of us to Paris for a celebratory meal—in a quite
expensive restaurant, mind you. The food was superb. Afterward, he
disappeared to frolic around the city and forgot about me. While he
went off to gallivant, I spent the rest of our birthday washing
dishes and scrubbing floors to pay for our meals." Grandfather
chuckled. "It took me quite some time to forgive him for that one.
Thomas was a rascal."

Grinning, Chase took a plate and began
loading it with a burger and fries. "It sounds like he did a lot of
teleporting too. By the way, Grandfather, what was your one power
before you became Keeper of the House?"

"I never told you? It was shielding."

"How can your study be the Shielding Room if
you're alive?"

"It was your Great-Great-Great-Great Uncle
Virgil's power too," said Grandfather, filling his own plate.
"Through the years powers have repeated themselves. After all, the
world has only so many magical abilities to go around."

"I hadn't thought about it," said Chase,
heaping pickles and tomatoes on his burger, "but it makes sense. Is
there a Telekinesis Room?"

"No, you children, and Clair and Benjamin,
have been the only ones with your powers, so far," said
Grandfather.

"Does a repeated power make a new room or
become part of the old one?"

"Sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't.
If it joins with an established room, it makes the room even more
powerful."

Grabbing their drinks, they joined Andy at a
table next to Persephone, Janie and Clair.

"It's a good thing you followed Maxwell,
Chase," said Aunt Clair, shooing away the lights zipping around
their table.

"Yeah," said Janie as she slipped the ferret
a bite of tomato. "Or one of us would've had to go find you and
that might've ruined the surprise."

"Were you surprised?" asked Andy. He grinned,
ketchup smeared across his chin. "I promised Mom I wouldn't give it
away."

Chase reached into his drink and plucked out
the blue twinkling light swimming in it. "Good job, shrimp. I
didn't have a clue," he said, flicking it away.

Persephone leaned over and kissed Chase on
the cheek. "Happy Birthday, Chase," she said sweetly.

He blushed several shades of red and smiled
goofily, almost falling off his chair. "Gee, thanks, Persephone."
Turning away, he glanced down at his food and silently yelled at
himself.
Man, what a dork I am!
'Gee, thanks,
Persephone', how lame is that?

After lunch, Anne lit the candles on the cake
and they sang "Happy Birthday", loudly and off-key.

"Okay, blow out your candles, and don't
forget to make a wish," said Anne. "Remember, don't tell us what it
is, or it won't come true."

Chase immediately wished for a way to somehow
defeat their Dark Enemy, and a little side-wish for Persephone to
maybe like him some day. He took a deep breath and blew out every
single candle.

Andy was practically bouncing out of his seat
all through cake and ice cream. "Open my present first!" he shouted
when Chase finished his last bite.

"Okay, okay! Hand it over." He ripped open
Andy's sloppily wrapped package. Inside, he found a pair of
sunglasses. "Yes! Thanks, Andy. I wanted a pair of these."

"Put them on!" said Andy. "Say '
Now I see
it
' and you'll see what happens."

Chase slipped on the glasses. "
Now I see
it
," he said, and found himself staring through the wall and
into the next room. "Wow! I can see through the wall." He gazed
around the room. "And that wall. And the soda bar, and the
table."

"Wait a minute," said Janie, narrowing her
eyes, "if you can see through the walls, maybe you can see through
clothing too."

He gave her a teasing smile. "Hmm, blue
underwear?"

"They're pink. Ha! So you can't," she said
smartly. Then she blushed, realizing what she'd shared with the
group, who were all smiling at her. "Oh, for heaven's sake! You are
not funny, Chase." She crossed her arms and stuck her tongue out at
him.

"So how do I make it stop?" he asked.

"You say '
Now I don't
'," said Andy.
"Aren't they cool? Grandfather helped me. I said I wanted them
enchanted like my hat, but with something different."

"Yeah. Great idea, Andy."

The next gifts were a reversible beanie from
Persephone, one side black and the other red (he slipped it on
right away), a new watch from Janie and Aunt Clair, a purple
bow-tie and matching socks from Grandfather, and a virtual reality
snowboard game from his mom.

"Wow, Mom, this is fantastic!" he said,
staring happily at the box.

"All right!" exclaimed
Andy. "Now you can learn to snowboard without breaking any
bones."

A
ll in all, it
was a pretty awesome party,
thought Chase, as he and the other
kids lounged on the beach two hours later. Delicious food,
excellent gifts, fun family and friends. And a kiss from
Persephone. He'd been beaming all afternoon.

"I can't believe you guys went to the attic
without me," complained Persephone, breaking into his reverie. "I
thought we were all for one and one for all."

Janie had just finished telling her how
they'd been able to enter the attic without ghastly things
happening, and everything they had learned from the Relic.

"They went without me too," said Andy glumly,
throwing a rock into the water. "I had to go searching for them. In
the dark. It was scary."

"We're sorry, guys. It was a spur of the
moment decision," said Chase. He propped his arm on his bent knee
and tried to look as cool as possible in his new shades. "You'll be
going with us when we travel back in time. That is, if you
want."

"And when will that be?" asked
Persephone.

"We're hoping Chase has a premonition dream
of him finding out the room's clues somehow, or maybe Andy. He is
in the same room after all," said Janie, rolling to tan her
back.

"That's right," said Andy, his eyes
brightening. "Maybe I'll have the premonition this time."

"But I've been having them, not you," said
Chase, "and I don't see any reason for me to stop."

"Have you guys gone into the room to look for
the clues?" asked Persephone.

"The Relic was so secretive," said Janie, her
voice muffled by her beach towel, "I doubt they're even there."

"We could still check it out," said
Persephone. "Let's go now."

Chase shrugged. "Couldn't hurt."

They jumped to their feet. "Maybe we won't
have to wait for a premonition!" said Andy.

On the way to the greenhouse, Chase thought
of something he hadn't given a thought to before that day. He
pulled his sunglasses from his pocket. "Hey, Janie, if Grandfather
can enchant different things with magic, why didn't he enchant
something for your mom to teleport her and my dad back here after
she found him?"

"You know, I've thought about that myself,"
she said. "My theory is, because she wanted to be captured, she
didn't want to have any extra Tinker magic for the Dark Enemy to
steal and use against us."

Chase sighed as he slipped his glasses back
into his pocket. "Yeah, that makes sense. We don't need them to be
any more powerful than they already are. But if she could've, maybe
my dad would be here too."

She patted his shoulder. "Hopefully our
time-traveling trip will fix everything."

Five minutes later, the four kids pushed open
the room's double doors and gazed into the Time-Travel Room.
Rainbow-striped flowers the size of beach balls had bloomed along
the far wall. Their bright petals cast shimmering reflections on
everything.

"How do we stop the
cuddleupus
from
attacking us?" asked Chase. At the moment, its long tendrils were
sprawled on the floor, but a loud noise was coming from the huge
stem.

"Is it—
snoring
?" asked Andy.

"I think so," whispered Chase. "Maybe we can
sneak in and take a look without waking it up. Janie, you and Andy
go that way." He pointed to the left. "Persephone and I will go
this way."

They tip-toed into the room and crept along
the one wall that wasn't made of glass. Even the high, sloped
ceiling had long skylights between each beam.

"Piece of cake," murmured Chase, sneaking
glances at the snoozing plant.

"I don't see any clues," whispered Persephone
as she ran her hands along the wall's smooth rainbowy surface.

"Come on," he whispered back, "let's check
between the windows."

They were sneaking past a tall plant with
red, heart-shaped leaves when one of its long vines slithered out
and tripped Persephone. She fell against Chase, who crashed into a
big, blue bush. The leaves began jingling like a thousand tiny
bells all ringing at once.

"Isn't there at least
one
normal plant
in this place?" said Chase. He glanced over his shoulder at the now
wriggling
cuddleupus
. ""Uh-oh. We better get outta
here!"

They tried to dart away, but the plant was
too quick for them. It yanked them across the floor and swung them
into the air, as if they were as light as feathers. Scrunched
back-to-back, the two kids kicked and struggled.

"Let—us—go!" screamed Persephone, pounding
her fists on the fat tendril.

Chase saw Andy and Janie huddled in a corner
on the far side of the room. "Run, Andy!" he yelled "Hurry! Don't
let it get you!"

Andy sprinted for the door, but halfway
there, he was wrapped in one of the tendrils and twirled around
until he was tight against the thick stem. Two seconds later, Chase
and Persephone were tossed to the floor.

Janie ran to help them to their feet. "Are
you guys okay?"

Persephone rubbed her elbow and nodded. "So
why'd it let us go?"

"Because it
likes
Andy," answered
Chase, as he watched the plant rock Andy back and forth as if he
were a newborn baby. It even hummed some sort of love song in
between high-pitched, girlish giggles.

"Get me out of here!" yelled Andy. He
twitched his arms and legs as the plant stroked his face and
tickled him under the chin. "I'm suffotating!"

"That's suffo
cating
," said Janie.

"Whatever! I don't care! Just hurry up! I'm
not having fun, you guys." The
cuddleupus
was now making
loud kissy noises. "Gross! Help!" hollered Andy, even louder this
time.

Chase grinned. "I don't know. We wouldn't
want to interrupt you and your new girlfriend."

"Chase! I'm gonna kill you!"

"Ha! Like I'm afraid of you."

"I'll tell Mom!"

"On second thought," Chase said, gesturing to
the girls, "let's save lover boy."

They crept forward and tickled the
love-struck plant. At last, it sighed and relaxed its hold. Andy
rolled down its long tendrils like a plump sausage link. As soon as
he hit the floor, he scrambled away on his hands and knees with the
other kids following close behind him.

"That's the craziest plant I've ever seen!"
said Andy from the safety of the hallway.

"But you two make such a lovely couple,"
teased Persephone.

"Yeah," said Chase. "You and
Miss
Cuddleupus
can get married and have little baby
Tinkerupuses
."

"You guys aren't funny!" Andy snapped.

"That's okay," said Chase, "because—thanks to
you, Andy—we now have a secret weapon to use against that monster."
He wandered down the hall, thinking out loud. "We can use its crazy
love for you to help us when we discover the room's magical words;
if I ever have a premonition of me finding them out, that is."

"I had a feeling those clues wouldn't be
there for just anyone to see," said Janie, trailing after him.
"After all, it's unwise—"

"Yeah, yeah, we know. It's not good to tamper
with time."

T
ime flew by at an
alarming rate with July rolling into August. The days were warm,
but it continued to rain off and on, and Chase still waited for
some sort of premonition. Something had to happen soon or the boys
would have to leave without getting things done. Chase hated to
think about going back to New York. Whenever he did, his stomach
did a weird, whirling flip. Even though he'd been living in the
Tinker house for only a short time, it felt more like home than the
apartment in New York City ever did.

His mom had left, rather reluctantly, the day
after his birthday with the promise to visit again before the end
of the summer. "And be careful!" she had shouted right before
vanishing with Grandfather.

Doctor Dan still came by often to check on
Aunt Clair. Chase thought he hoped to learn the secrets of the
house and Relic from his vulnerable aunt. He hadn't caught the
doctor snooping again, but maybe he was just a lot sneakier
now.

Chase also tried not to dwell too much on
everything the Relic had told them, but sometimes, like when he was
in bed at night, his mind would spin out of control. He'd end up
spending half the night awake, tossing and turning. No wonder he
hadn't yet had that darn premonition.

"Do you think you'll ever have a premonition
about the time traveling stuff?" asked Andy as they were getting
ready for bed.

"Beats me," said Chase. "But if I do, I wish
it would happen already. I hate waiting!"

"Maybe it's the kind of thing you can't have
a premonition about? Did you think of that?"