Story Time (14 page)

In harsh whispers, Cornelia conferred with the Technon Industries men, waving her arms and pointing her large finger from one to the other. Finally, she addressed the audience. "I am told by the professional weapons developers at Technon Industries that Whit's invention is far too destructive to demonstrate here today. But they want me to tell you that he
is
the winner, by unanimous vote, of the Technon Industries Science Fair."

Cornelia gave the two-handed applause sign.

"By the way," Susan then added, "little George Melvil gets the Honorable Mention ribbon, which was awarded to him a few minutes ago in his classroom."

George caught Kate's eye across the lobby and dangled a small ribbon for her to see.

Cornelia smiled proudly. "Now comes the moment we have been waiting for: your Technon Industries Science Fair winner, Whit Austin."

Whit stepped forward and launched into another speech about his grandfather and his great-grandfather.

Kate walked over to George, who was seated with his science 6 teacher and classmates. She said, "George Melvil? You're wanted in the office for a picture with your Honorable Mention ribbon."

Science 6 smiled nervously, but he made no objection. George hopped up and followed Kate. He whispered, "What was that about?"

"Do you really want to hear this speech?"

"I'd rather have slivers of bamboo shoved under my fingernails."

"Me, too. Let's get the flying machine and get out of here."

June was waiting outside the office with the rope already coiled up and ready. Kate and George grabbed the rest of the equipment, and the three of them hurried out. Kate waited for June to say something about the incident with Whit.

June did not.

Kate decided that she would not, either.

When the Geo Metro pulled into the driveway, the right side of the duplex was shaking noisily.

George turned to Kate, puzzled. "What are Ma and Pa doing here now?"

The noise stopped as soon as Kate, George, and June got out of the car. Ma and Pa stepped out onto the front porch in their clogging gear. Pa pointed at George, and Ma called out, "How'd you do at that genius science fair, Georgie? Did you win again? I bet you did."

George walked over to them while Kate and June unloaded the car. He reached up through the porch railing and handed his mother the ribbon. "I won this."

Ma and Pa started to whoop.

George interrupted them. "Wait a minute. Why are you home so early?"

Pa raised up his shoulders sheepishly. "That big lady, that Mrs. Whittaker-Austin, she told us to get out"

Ma picked up the story. "She said we was bothering you kids too much, so she changed our hours."

"She switched us to the graveyard shift," Pa said. "Midnight to six. I guess there ain't nobody to bother then."

"That's right," Ma cackled. "There ain't nobody to bother in a graveyard! Except the ghosts!"

George's eyes suddenly filled with tears. "Listen: I don't want you two working as janitors, on a graveyard shift, just so I can go to that place. I don't want that."

Ma waved his objections away. "Go on, Georgie! It don't matter to us. And it's only three nights a week"

Pa agreed. "It's not gonna interfere with our clogging at all."

"No. This is not right. I don't want this."

Ma and Pa both laughed through his protests. As they went back inside, Ma said, "You just keep winning those ribbons and passing those big tests, Georgie."

"You'll be in a genius college soon," Pa added.

All George could do was repeat, "This is not right."

George spent that night brooding. He thought about Kate's treatment at the
Orchid the Orca
auditions. He thought about his own treatment at the science fair. He thought about how shabbily Ma and Pa and June were treated all the time. Just before the stroke of midnight, he came to a decision.

Starting the next day, George stopped doing well on his standardized tests. He stopped writing good five-paragraph essays. George's seat slowly but surely began to slide downward through the rows in his classrooms.

George had made up his mind. He wanted out.

Early Friday morning, during the first part of
The Montana Math Assessment,
Kate received a note telling her to report to Cornelia on the roof.

As soon as Kate stepped off the service elevator, Cornelia cornered her. "Today is the first-ever Story Time on the Roof. Everything must go perfectly for Heidi. You will make sure that it does. You can start by getting the cart of books from Walter Barnes. Do you understand?"

Kate assured her, with calm detachment, that she understood. She went down to the first floor, where she found Walter Barnes asleep. She wheeled his cart away quietly and brought it upstairs.

When Kate returned, Cornelia studied the contents of the cart and exploded. "That narcoleptic old fool! Where is it? Where is
The Three Billy Goats Gruff?
That's the one book that Heidi is reading, and it's the one book that is not on the cart! What is the matter with him? What is the matter with you? Now get out of here, and don't come back without it!"

Kate descended again to the first floor. She checked the shelves for
The Three Billy Goats Gruff.
Then she checked the computer catalog. No luck Her detachment soon gave way to fear of Cornelia's wrath.

Then she remembered where she had seen a copy of the book. It was in the secret room, on the Holographic Scanner.

She took Elevator #2 to the eighth floor. Then she crept up the stairs to the roof. She peeked out and saw that Heidi and Cornelia were far away, so she crept to the mushroom cap and bent it back. She slipped inside, closed it behind her, and climbed down to the bottom.

Kate was alarmed to find the door to the secret room open and the glow of a lantern seeping out from it. She stepped inside, not daring to breathe, but she relaxed when she saw Pogo.

Pogo was leaning over the face of the Holographic Scanner with a large envelope in her hand. Kate watched her slide a book across the glass and then pop it quickly, like a hot potato, into the envelope.

Pogo picked up the lantern and started out. But she pulled up in an openmouthed, silent shriek upon seeing Kate.

Kate whispered, "It's just me, Pogo. I'm sorry to startle you."

In reply, Pogo held up the manila envelope.

"I need to ask you a favor," Kate said. "I need to find a copy of
The Three Billy Goats Gruff
or Mrs. Whittaker-Austin might kill me. She's really on a rampage."

Pogo held the envelope higher. Then she spoke:

"Will you wake him? No, not I,
For if I do, he's sure to cry."

Kate struggled to understand. "What are you saying? Do you have the book?"

Pogo nodded yes.

"What? Is it in that envelope?"

Pogo bobbed and nodded some more.

"Okay, then, can I have it?"

Pogo shook her head no, vehemently. She pointed to herself, and then to the envelope, and then to herself again.

"You?" Kate interpreted. "you will give her the copy of
The Three Billy Goats Gruff?
"

Pogo nodded yes with bone-jarring enthusiasm. Then she pointed to the exit, indicating that Kate should leave.

Kate whispered, "Thank you," and slipped out. She moved swiftly and silently, retracing her steps back to the lobby.

Later, when she arrived back on the roof, she saw that Walter Barnes had relocated there. He was now sitting by the stairwell wall with his head leaning heavily against the white cement blocks. He held the remains of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in one hand. Kate placed a set of t-sound phonics worksheets on the cart next to him. As she did, she noticed a large manila envelope sitting there, too.

At five o'clock, parents and children started arriving for the first-ever Story Time on the Roof. They exited the service elevator to find a semicircle of folding chairs awaiting them, a cozy island of safety among the boards, nails, and tarps strewn near the still-unfinished stage. The adults took seats and pulled the smaller children onto their laps.

At precisely 5:15, the door to the stairwell opened. George walked out followed by a giggling line of Juku Warriors. As soon as the line halted, George announced, "We were supposed to spell a very large word for you today, but we decided that we would sing it for you instead. So here is how it goes."

George gathered the boys and girls on either side of him. Then, in a surprisingly confident voice, he led them in a spirited rendition of "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious."

George and the children bowed at the end, and the parents all laughed, whistled, and clapped.

Just after the noise died down, Dr. Austin, Cornelia, and Heidi emerged from the service elevator. Dr. Austin waved to the children and welcomed certain parents by name.

George took a seat in the audience as Dr. Austin joined the Juku Warriors. They began by reciting the forty-seven prefectures of Japan. When they reached, "Yamagata, Yamaguchi, Yamanashi," Dr. Austin began his pitch for the Whittaker After-School Preparatory.

He apologized for the construction debris, saying, "This rooftop project has disturbed things around here. That's for sure. But it will all be worth it. We will be hosting many more Story Times on the Roof, including one for the First Lady of the United States next month."

The parents broke into spontaneous applause.

"And, we hope, one for her husband after that," Dr. Austin added.

They clapped again.

Cornelia then stepped forward to take over the proceedings. Dr. Austin made his way toward the back In order to do so, however, he had to pass the sleeping figure of Walter Barnes. Hoping no one would see him, Dr. Austin nudged the book cart into Walter Barnes's leg, waking him up and, in the process, causing the manila envelope to fall to the ground. "Pick that up, Walter!" he hissed. "And for heaven's sake, stay awake."

Kate watched from ten yards away, leaning against the four-foot-high roof wall. She was planning on looking down at the river during Heidi's performance, but Pogo suddenly appeared beside her. Pogo was holding a second manila envelope under her arm. There was obviously a book inside this one, too, and she showed it to Kate. It was the antique
Perrault's Mother Goose.

Cornelia introduced Heidi loudly as "the winner of the very competitive
Orchid the Orca
contest. Heidi will soon play the part of Orchid the Orca for the First Lady of the United States. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, with no further ado, here is Heidi Whittaker Austin."

Heidi skipped out from behind the stairwell wall dressed as usual in her white crinoline. She waved to the children and called, "Who's ready for a story?"

The parents smiled and waved the children's hands for them.

"Today's story is called
The Three Billy Goats Gruff!
Do any of you know this story?"

Some of the children responded with bashful nods.

Heidi turned to select the book from the cart. Even from Kate's distant vantage point, she could see the look of exasperation on Heidi's face when she could not locate it. Heidi looked around for her mother, who, in turn, looked around for Kate.

Kate suddenly felt ill. She considered running for her life across the crowded roof. She considered a wild leap into the river. But she was spared having to make either choice by a sudden commotion.

Kate looked in the same direction as everyone else. Then she saw what they all saw.

There, posed in the stairwell doorway with
The Three Billy Goats Gruff,
was Walter Barnes. His jacket was now off, and his shirt was open, revealing a sallow, sunken chest. His tie was loosened and turned around, hanging behind him. He had drawn two large circles, apparently with strawberry jelly, on his cheeks. His eyes blazed maniacally behind his thick glasses and seemed to give off a red glare.

Kate looked at the adults in the audience. Most of them seemed surprised, but amused. Dr. Austin's eyes, however, opened wide in shock, while Cornelia's narrowed in anger.

The children drifted closer to their parents, their eyes still on the doorway, when, in a booming voice, Walter Barnes dropped the book onto the cinders and intoned, "Trip, trap! Trip, trap! Trip, trap! Who's that tripping over my bridge?"

The children all stopped moving and listened, instantly entranced by the sight of the character and the sound of his voice. Walter Barnes broke away from the doorway and strode among them—strutting, fretting, emoting every ounce of drama from the tale of the three billy goats and the ugly troll.

Kate watched Heidi walk off petulantly, sit next to her mother, and stare down at her feet. But everyone else on the roof watched Walter Barnes delightedly, totally absorbed in his virtuoso performance.

Walter Barnes finished with a great flourish, posing ramrod straight, like a comical statue. The audience, young and old alike, burst into enthusiastic applause.

He responded to the crowd's adulation with a brief encore, articulating slowly and deliberately, "Jack and Jill went up the hill."

Upon hearing those words, Pogo took off from her spot next to Kate. She scooted along the perimeter and disappeared behind the stairwell wall. Only Kate saw Pogo's hand reach out from behind the wall to deposit a book on the cart. An antique book, opened to a certain page.

Walter Barnes took a final bow. Then, as if it were part of the act, he leaned over and started to shuffle sideways, like a baggy-pants vaudeville dancer, toward the book cart. He moved in an unwavering line, as if the cart were an electromagnet and his head a metal ball. His head clanged into the cart, cushioned slightly by the opened book lying atop it. Then he collapsed into his seat, seemingly as deeply asleep as he had been before.

Kate looked around at the people on the roof. Clearly, no one had any idea what to do next. Dr. Austin continued to stare at Walter Barnes with his mouth open. Cornelia and Heidi continued to fume. Kate stepped away from the wall. She held her hands up high over her head and started to applaud. Immediately, all the kids and parents did so, too.