Gatekeepers (18 page)

Jesse reached out and touched David's shoe. “I am so sorry, David.”

David sniffed. He wiped the back of his hands across his eyes. “There I go again,” he said with an embarrassed smile.

“Kid,” Keal said, “if I were you, I'd be bawling like a baby.”

From much closer to the house, Xander called: “David?

What's up?”

“Go on!” David yelled. “We'll be there in a minute!”

They listened for a response. When it didn't come, Jesse said, “When you're ready, I'd like to hear everything. Start at the beginning.”

David closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and started. He told about their drive to Pinedale, house hunting, setting foot in the creepy old Victorian for the first time. He told about discovering that the linen closet was a portal to the locker at school. His voice rose a bit when he recounted their discovery of the ante-chambers, the items within them, and Xander's trip to the Colosseum. He told about his own trip to the jungle world, where tigers and tribesmen tried to kill him.

At this point, David closed his eyes again. He bit his lip, tight-ened his muscles and his resolve, and went on: Waking up to Toria screaming that a man had been in her room. Mom getting taken, and how they'd all been beat up trying to stop Phemus.

“That's when we found out Dad had lied about the house. He had known about the portals and how dangerous it was.” David covered his eyes with his hand. “He just wanted to find
his
mother.”

Then they had vowed to stay in the house and rescue Mom, despite Dad's dad giving up on finding
Dad's
mother and leaving. He talked about setting up the Mission Control Center (“we call it the MCC”). Dad showing them what they could do in the clearing. Then Taksidian: his seeing David fly and David breaking his arm because of it. David going through the locker portal and finding Taksidian in their house talking to Phemus. Taksidian chasing him back through to the locker and how Xander and he had locked him inside. The doctor accusing Dad of hurting his kids. The town trying to evict them. Xander and he going to the Civil War world.

And then last night's events (“I can't believe it was only last night”): Dad getting arrested, Clayton coming through the locker-to-closet portal, Xander saying he'd found Mom.

“But he
hadn't
,” David said. “She'd left a message for us, but when I went back to get her, I got chased away . . .
shot
at . . .
again
.”

Jesse aimed watery, sympathetic eyes at David. And David thought that if a twig snapped, or a door burst open, Keal would jump right out of his skin. They sat like that, silent and listening to their own breathing and wind touching the treetops.

Finally Jesse took a deep breath. “You astound me,” he said. “Your bravery, your family's determination.”

David could offer up only a weak smile. He said, almost desperately, “Can you help?”

Don't say maybe. Don't say maybe. Don't say maybe.

“Yes, I can,” Jesse said.

It was what he had needed to hear since the moment the door had slammed shut on the bat and their mother's screams. This time, David's smile was genuine and big.

Jesse patted David's foot. “Let's get on with it, then, shall we?” He looked over his shoulder. “Keal?”

The man snapped out of some daydream, surely involving kidnapped mothers and evil villains. “Yeah, yeah,” he said, standing. “On with it.”

Worried eyes landed on David, and David understood that Keal was as clueless about what to do—what Jesse
could
do—as he was.

Keal scooped up Jesse. He stood there, waiting for David, who wasn't so sure his own legs would work if he tried to stand. He felt as though he had gone through all the events of the past week in the fifteen minutes it had taken to describe them. But he pushed himself up, and his legs did work. He fell in beside Keal and Jesse, and they walked to the house.

CHAPTER

thirty -nine

They found Xander and Toria sitting on the front porch steps.

“I told them everything,” David said.

“I know,” Xander said. He looked at Keal and Jesse, try-ing to read their expressions.

“Jesse said he can help.”

“
Can
you?” Xander asked the old man.

“Absolutely.”

Xander smiled at that. He rose and headed for the front door, Toria right behind him. David stopped at the bottom.

“What are you going to do?” David asked, though he had a pretty good hunch.

“Get Mom,” Xander said.

“You mean you're sending
Toria
to get her,” David said. “You can't do that.”

“Dae, we agreed. We said today, this morning, remember? It's always been about Toria going over.”

“But—” David turned to Jesse. “Toria's never been into another world. She thinks that because she's a little girl, she won't run into the same problems Xander and I did.”

Jesse looked up at Xander. “That may not be true, Xander. You've noticed a lot of aggression toward you in those other worlds, right?”

“Have we!” David said. “Everywhere we go someone's trying to kill us. I'm
twelve
. Do I look like a soldier? Do I look like a spy? But General Grant shot at me! And he wasn't the only one—”

Jesse was patting the air in front of him, telling David to calm down.

“You were wearing the wrong colors when we first went over,” Xander protested. “And in World War II, you walked into the middle of a firefight.“

Jesse waved his hand at Xander. “Boys! Yes, the circumstances you walk into have a lot to do with whether you're in danger. But it's more than that. You may
look
like you belong when you go over, but you don't. The people over there sense that. Like there's something not right about you.”

David thought about the hostile looks the soldiers in the Civil War camp had given him—even though they could see he was a child. And the tribesmen who had immediately thrown spears and shot arrows at him; he hadn't threatened them in any way.

He said, “See? Xander, they'll sense that about Toria. You can't let her go. Jesse, tell him!”

Jesse frowned. “David—”

David saw it in his face: he was about to agree with Xander! “Jesse, you just said—”

“David, if she gets in and right back out . . . it
would
be hard for those men over there to mistake her for a soldier.”

David's shoulders slumped.

Behind him, Xander said, “Come on, Toria.”

“Wait, wait!” David said. “Toria, you heard what Jesse said.

Do you still want to go?”

She made a face that said
Not really
. But she nodded.

“Your ankle! How can you go with your ankle like that?”

“I can walk,” she said.

“But you can't run. I haven't been in a world where I haven't had to run.”

She simply stared at him, a tight little frown bending her lips.

David didn't care about being outvoted. He just didn't want his sister to go. Not there. Not to
any
of the worlds. But what more could he say?

Jesse said, “I'm sorry, David. Maybe the portal won't come around before we get back, but if—”

“Where are you going?”

“To get your daddy out of jail. I have experience with small-town authorities, thinking they can do anything they wish.”

“Xander!” David turned to his brother, then back to Jesse. “Tell them to wait. Dad can go get Mom. They don't know him in that world.”

“Thing is,” Jesse said, “I don't think they should wait. You mother being lost over there, taken against her will, without any way of finding the portal home—getting her out of there quickly is worth the risk. And given Toria's age and how short of a time she should be there . . .” He looked up to her. “Just in and out, right, young lady?”

“Yes, sir,” Toria said.

“David,” Jesse continued, “if you weigh the possibility of your mother disappearing forever against the possibility of Toria having some trouble, I think you'll agree. What I'm saying is: get her while you can, however you can.”

CHAPTER

forty

W
EDNESDAY, 3:28 P.M.

David stood rigid at the head of the third-floor hallway, his arms crossed over his chest. Jesse's points were hard to argue with, but Toria wasn't
his
sister.

Xander and Toria marched up and down the crooked hall, checking each antechamber for the Civil War items.

Come on, Dad. Where are you?

They'd been up on the third floor over an hour now. How long did it take to get Dad out of jail?

Xander looked his way, and David changed his worried face to an angry scowl.

“This would be faster if you helped,” Xander said.

“I don't want it to be faster,” David said. “I don't want it at all.”

Xander stopped, the handle of an open door in his hand. He said, “Well, don't get any ideas.”

“Like what?”

“Like trying to stop her from going over when we find the right portal.”

“At least wait until Dad gets home.”

“Nice try,” Xander said. “You know Dad wouldn't let her go.”

“Which should tell you something.”

“It does.” Xander opened a door, peered inside, closed it. “That Dad is so cautious, we might never find Mom.”

David bit his tongue. Xander wasn't going to listen to anything he had to say.

His brother frowned. “Come on, Dae,” he said. “When I was mad at Dad for lying to us about the house, you said we had to get along. Work together. You were right. I'm not mad at you for disagreeing with me now, but you're being pigheaded.”

“About Toria's life?” David said. “Yeah, I am.”

“You heard Jesse. What might happen to Toria is less awful than what might happen to Mom if we don't find her.”

“What's worse than death?”

“She's not going to die.”

Xander checked the antechamber closest to David, then headed back the other way. He said, “What if it takes days for Jesse to get Dad out, Dae? What if something happens to Mom while we're waiting? Could you live with that?”

Toria was hobbling from door to door, staying off her banged-up ankle as much as she could.

“Toria,” David said. “Don't do this.”

She walked toward him, making a sad face. “I don't like you and Xander fighting.”

“Then don't go. Tell him you changed your mind.”

“But Xander's right,” she said. “We need to get Mom, Dae. The people over there won't recognize me.” She touched his arm. “I'll be careful, and I'll come right back if it gets scary. I promise.”

David went to the landing. It looked as though a bomb had gone off at the base of the stairs. The two walls had collapsed into the second-floor hallway. Wires and studs jutted out from where the walls used to stand, and plaster dust covered it all.

“Got it!” Xander said.

The words hit David's gut like a one-two punch.

Toria shut the door she had just opened, looked at Xander standing in the doorway of an antechamber halfway up the hall. She turned back to David, fear on her face.

Both boys called to her at the same moment.

She went toward Xander.

Five minutes later, she wore both jackets, the Union blue over the Confederate gray.

Xander told her, “If you wind up on the Confederate side, switch them. When you get to the Union side, switch back. But you should come out in the woods right near the camp, so no sweat. In camp, take off the jackets and fold them up. Carry them like you're taking them to get cleaned or something. Your kepi too.”

He spun around, grabbed the blue hat from a hook, and pulled it down over her head. It covered her eyes, and she pushed it up.

“I think they're back,” David said, though he had heard nothing. He ran to the antechamber's hallway door. “Really,” he said. “Wait up and see.” He called out: “Dad!”

Behind him, the portal door opened.

Toria and Xander stood in front of the portal. Bright sunlight poured through, along with the odor of smoke and gunpowder. Out-of-focus trees and bushes drifted slowly past.

“It looks like the woods by the camp,” Xander told her. “Just like I said. Don't lose the clothes. They'll show you where the portal home is. They'll pull you toward it. It's that simple. You ready?”

“Toria,” David said.

But she had stepped through.

He ran to the doorway.

She was lying in tall, yellow grass—she must have tumbled when she stepped through. Nothing unusual about that.

He yelled, “Come right back if you don't find Mom right away!”

Toria squinted at him, and stood. “What?” Her voice wavered, as though caught by the wind.

“David!” Xander said.

The door struck him in the back. It always closed on its own after someone went through. It knocked him into the door frame and pushed him as forcefully as the grill of a semi truck.

Xander grabbed his arm and yanked. David spun back into the room, and the door slammed shut.

CHAPTER

forty -one

W
EDNESDAY, 4:09 P.M.

David sat on the bench, his eyes fixed on the portal door. His fingernails were absently scraping his plaster cast. He had flaked a groove into it and found some cloth gauze encased within. He fingers now flicked at this, tearing an ever-widening hole.

Xander paced. He walked to the portal door, spun, and walked through the opposite doorway into the hall. He marched back through and did it again.

Neither brother had spoken since Toria had left.

Finally David said, “It's been twenty minutes.”

“Almost,” Xander said, continuing his back-and-forth strolling.