Colonial Madness (15 page)

I'd just about lost hope when, in a book about rice, the author mentioned how the rice shouldn't have the husk removed. Doing so would take away the thiamin content, resulting in beriberi.

“That's it!” I got to my feet and turned toward the doorway. To my surprise, a small crowd had gathered to watch, including Eli.

“Thiamin!” I shouted. “I need foods rich in thiamin, like unhulled rice!”

Eli regarded me with a look of contempt. “We do not have rice in this section of the world.”

“Legumes have a lot of thiamin,” commented Aunt Zoe. “And there are plenty here.”

Eli whirled to face her. If looks could kill . . .

“Legumes, then!” I shouted. “I'd eat some legumes . . . once I figure out what they are.”

“Peanuts, dear,” said Aunt Zoe. “And beans.”

“Stop helping her!” shouted Dylan. “That's cheating!”

I looked to Eli. “All the note said was that we had to find the cure before sunset.”

He opened and closed his mouth several times and blustered before finally barking, “You're cured!” and fuming away. People followed him, muttering words of disappointment.

Our Christmas card list would definitely be cut down this year.

“Who's being loud?” Mom whined, and shifted in the chair to look at me. Then she seemed to realize where she was and sat bolt upright. “The cure! I've got—”

“No,
I've
got,” I told her, removing the cuffs from my ankles. “No thanks to you.”

Mom paused while rubbing her eyes. “Hey, I was in here all day—”

“Sleeping,” I finished. “While I, once again, had to be the grown-up and fix everything.”

“I didn't mean to fall asleep,” Mom protested, still talking. “I just had some tea with Angel and then came in here and . . .” She narrowed her eyes, my words finally sinking in. “Excuse me?”

“I'm always the responsible one!” I blurted before I could stop myself. “You never step up and act like an adult. Which is why we're even in this stupid contest, about to lose our home.”

Mom's face darkened to a storm cloud. “Oh, you'd better
take that back right now, little girl. The only thing I should be getting from you is gratitude for giving you life and keeping you alive every day.”

“Keeping me alive?” I repeated with a sharp laugh. “How many times have your clever ideas almost gotten me hurt or killed? I'd be better off on my own.”

I could see the muscles in Mom's jaw clench and hear her labored breathing, as if it were taking every ounce of her strength
not
to throw a couch across the room. Finally, Mom threw her hands up. “Fine! Bye. I hope you can find someone who puts up with your incessant nagging and dream killing.”

I just stood there for a moment, stunned by the harshness of her words. Mom had
never
said such mean things about me. Good moms weren't supposed to.

“I hate you! You're a terrible mom!” I shouted at her.

Her face softened as her expression slipped from anger to pain. Before she could even say anything, I sprinted from the room and out onto the property. Anywhere to get away from the worst mother in the world.

A
t that particular moment, there were only two voices I would have stopped for. One of them called out to me.

“Tori! Wait a sec!”

I stopped on the edge of the cornfield so Angel could catch up.

“I heard you found the cure. Congrats!”

“Thanks,” I said with a tight smile.

She studied my face. “What's wrong? You should be thrilled.”

“Thrilled that my mom can't be relied on for even the simple task of reading?” I snorted, and started walking farther from the manor.

Angel matched my pace.

“She hasn't been all bad,” she said. “She got the horses back from Dylan, she saved you when you threw fuel on the fire . . . .”

“The worst part,” I interrupted, “is I didn't even get to eat lunch, so there's no way I'll be ready for tonight's challenge.”

Angel reached into a satchel she'd slung across her body. “Here.”

She fished out a bundled cloth and handed it to me. Inside was a pile of plump blueberries.

“Oooh . . . I love you!” I told her. “Where did you find them?”

She pointed to the woods just beyond the cornfield. “There are bushes overgrown with them. I figured Mother Nature wouldn't mind if I helped myself.”

I popped a handful in my mouth. “You are amazing. I wish I had survival skills like yours.”

Angel shrugged and did her best to look modest. “I guess my parents rubbed off a little.”

I swallowed and headed into the forest. “I want some more.”

Angel gave me a dubious frown. “The challenge will be coming up soon.”

“Exactly. And I need sustenance. I'll pick some real quick, and then we'll go back.”

She nodded. “Okay, real quick.”

“Make a path,” I told her as we pushed into the woods. Dozens of blueberries went from the stem to my mouth as we walked.

“Do you have an extra cloth I can put more in?” I asked. Even if I was mad at Mom, I knew she'd love some berries too.

Angel reached into her satchel again, removing a small handful of items. “Nope. Nothing I can spare.”

I looked at the items she clutched in her hand. Among them were some purple flowers.

“Is that lavender?” I asked, taking a sprig and sniffing.

“Uh . . . yeah.” Angel put everything back in her bag. “I found some growing wild and thought I'd put them in my room. Pretty, right?”

I stared at the petals for a moment.

“Tori?”

“How did you know I threw fuel on the fire?” I locked my eyes on Angel's. “Mom and I didn't tell anyone, and we were the only ones outside when it happened.”

Angel blinked at me. “I heard Dylan bragging about his prank.”

I shook my head. “He wouldn't admit to sabotage. It might cost him the game.”

She shrugged. “Well, I found out somehow.”

I held up the lavender. “I read about this today. Do you know what it's used for?”

Angel shifted the weight of the satchel on her hip. “Sometimes people use it in cooking.”

“Cooking tea?” I asked her. “Cooking tea that puts people to sleep?”

“I guess . . . .” Angel grabbed my arm. “We should really get back to the others.”

“You!” I jerked free of her grasp. “All this time,
you
were the one sabotaging me and my mom. Not Dylan!”

Angel forced a laugh. “Tori, don't be ridiculous! I'd never do anything like that.”

“Sure you would,” I said, my mouth set in a line. “You really want your mom and dad to get off your case about living the natural life. You hate it. If you don't win this, they're just going to make you try even harder when you get home.”

Angel shook her head twice and then let out a huge sigh. “Fine! I was the one sabotaging you and your mom. And yes, I really need to win this. You have no idea how insufferable my parents are going to be otherwise!”

“Unbelievable!” I threw the lavender sprig at her. “You know how bad my mom and I need the money! How could you?”

Angel twisted her hands together. “Tori—”

“Don't talk to me, you . . . you
witch
. If we lose this and my mom loses her business, it's all on you!” I turned around, took five steps to the right, and paused.

“I still think you're a witch, but . . . which is the way out?”

Angel squinted and pursed her lips. “I think . . . that way?”

She pointed at a path so overgrown with foliage, there was no way we'd just come through it.

“Fine, if you want to keep playing your little game.” I crossed my arms. “I'll just go wherever you go.”

Angel shot me a dirty look and then stepped past me. I followed her in silence as we climbed over logs and swept plants aside. At one point she stopped and I noticed something on the ground.

“Is one of your legs shorter than the other?” I asked.

Angel sighed. “Why, Tori?”

“Because we just walked in a huge circle.” I pointed down at the lavender sprig I'd thrown at her earlier.

Angel stared at it. “Huh. We may be lost.”

“What?!” I cried loud enough to startle a nearby bird from a tree. “I thought I told you to make a path!”

Angel looked at me, wide-eyed. “I thought you said ‘makeup app'!”

“
Why
would I say ‘makeup app'?”

“Because I like makeup and I miss technology!” Angel screeched.

I tilted my head back and tried to see a patch of sky, hoping
to figure out where the sun was, but the ceiling was nothing but tree branches and darkness. “Okay, well, use your survival skills to get us out of here.”

Angel stood transfixed.

“Please tell me you're recalling survival knowledge and
not
peeing yourself,” I said.

“I can't get us out of here,” she whispered. “I get lost at the mall.”

I sighed and rubbed my eyes. “Is that why you went for a pretzel once and came back with a security guard and a balloon?”

Angel nodded. “I don't have any survival skills. My parents have been doing it all. They're the ones who told me about the blueberry bushes.”

I dropped into a crouch and took several deep, calming breaths. We needed to approach the situation logically. “The good news is that we can't be too far from the property, so someone will eventually find us.”

“And the bad news?”

“We might be dead when they do.”

Angel whimpered. “I miss my phone. It has maps. And the number for the security guard at the mall.”

“Yeah, I don't think he'd be able to help us navigate the
woods, so we have to think.” I studied the trees around us. “Is there any way besides the sun to tell which direction we are?”

“The stars,” said Angel.

“I don't want to be here after dark,” I said. “Anything else?”

She shook her head. “Nothing that doesn't require sunlight.”

I thought for a moment, but nothing from my schoolbooks came to mind, and the only idea I could come up with was to wait for help.

“What would my mom do?” I muttered.

“She'd probably climb into the trees and live there,” said Angel. “Start a new dress shop, making leaf fashions for the woodland critters.”

I smiled. “Learn to speak chipmunk.”

“Maybe a little goose,” said Angel, pointing overhead. Somewhere above the forest a flock honked as it flew past.

I gripped her arm and gasped. “That's it! It's summertime!”

Angel looked at me quizzically and then suddenly mirrored my excitement. “Geese fly south in the winter, then back north in the summer!”

We quieted and listened intently to the birds.

“That way.” We both pointed the same direction and triumphantly began our return to the manor.

Even though I'd said I didn't want to be out after dark, the sun began to set and it became harder to see in front of us.
We were forced to rely on vague tree shapes to know where we were going.

Until we saw the lights sweeping from side to side. They were accompanied by voices. Several.

“Mom?” I shouted.

The voices stopped, and then, “Tori! Tori, thank God. Where are you?”

“And is Angel with you?” There was no mistaking Aunt Zoe's anxious voice.

“I'm here!” called Angel. She sounded close to tears.

I found her hand, and we moved quicker toward where we'd heard the others.

“Keep talking so we can find you!” I shouted.

“I'm so sorry, Tori!” called Mom. “You were right to be upset with me. I've been failing you this whole time.”

A lump formed in my throat. “No, you haven't!” I wheezed in a voice that was breathless with exertion and emotion. “You've been doing incredible things that I never could. You always have been.”

Silence from outside the woods.

“Mom?”

“Just get out here so I can hug you,” she said in a choked voice.

Finally,
finally
, there was a break in the trees and we could
see bright beams of light and shadowed figures behind them. Several of the lights dropped to the ground, their owners blotting out light from the others as they dashed toward Angel and me.

“Tori!” Mom threw her arms open and wrapped me in a bear hug.

It was the best hug I'd ever had. Even though we both smelled like public toilets.

“I'm sorry I said all those mean things,” I said.

“I deserved them,” she said. “I shouldn't have fallen asleep when something so important was at stake.”

I pulled away from Mom. “It's okay. It wasn't your fault.”

I turned toward Angel, who was still hugging her parents but had twisted her head toward me, eyes wide with uncertainty. Ever so subtly, she shook her head, but I couldn't let her take advantage of us anymore.

“Mom.” I took her hands. “Someone put lavender in your tea to make you fall asleep. The same person who added fuel to our water and spilled our cornmeal and did all those other nasty things.”

For a moment, Mom's forehead wrinkled. Then the wrinkles shifted to frown lines and she spun around to glare at Dylan and Uncle Max.

“You?!”

“No, no.” I tugged her fingers. “Dylan wasn't the bad guy. It was . . .” I couldn't bring myself to say the words, so I just nodded my head in Angel's direction.

At first, Uncle Deke and Aunt Zoe glanced around in confusion, wondering who I could be talking about. And then Aunt Zoe gasped, mouth hanging open.

“Wait . . .” said Uncle Deke. He held his daughter at arm's length. “Angel?”

Instantly, her gaze dropped to the ground.