Story Time (24 page)

Kate stared at him. "That's an answer. But do you think it's the one true answer? Do you think that's really what happened?"

George could only shake his head. "I don't know. I'm just thinking out loud. Maybe there was only one ghost in the book. Maybe Cornell
really
got swindled. Maybe he only got one ghost for his money."

The back door to the left side of the house opened, and June stepped out. Everybody else froze. June told them, "You don't need to stop talking. I've heard every word you've said." She looked at the tall boy. "Hello, William. I'm June Melvil, Kate's mother."

William gulped. "Hello, ma'am."

June looked around the group. "It sounds like you kids are trying to scare yourselves. With what? A ghost story?"

George told her, without hesitation, "This is not a ghost story, June. This is real."

"How do you know it's real?"

"I saw it. I saw it with my own eyes."

"You saw what?"

"I saw a demon, or a ghost, enter a person, take over a person completely. Then I saw it leave. Into a book"

"That sounds really crazy, George."

Kate jumped to her uncle's defense. "Do you want to talk about crazy, June? How about this: Walter Barnes, Mr. Bud Wright, Heidi, Whit, and Mrs. Hodges. All of them picked up a book and started acting the same way. You saw them! How would you describe the way that they were acting?"

June answered her quietly. "Crazy?"

Kate slapped the porch boards with finality. "Thank you!"

George's eyes rolled up, as if looking into his own brain. "But here's the part that I don't understand: The demon can attack people out of any book, right?"

Kate answered tentatively, "Right."

"Any book with a holographic sticker on it."

"Right."

"So why can't it escape back into any book with a sticker? Why does it have to go back into that old
Mother Goose?
"

Kate shrugged. "Maybe it doesn't
have
to. Maybe it
wants
to."

June added, "Maybe he's looking for some—" But she stopped herself in midthought. She studied all the faces on the porch, one by one, culminating in Kate's. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't be eavesdropping on you. I shouldn't be intruding on your time. This should be your time only." Then she turned and walked back inside.

As soon as they stepped out of June's car on Monday morning, Kate and George spotted a police cruiser. Sheriff Wright was in the driver's seat, training a pair of binoculars upward at the Whittaker Building.

Kate followed the line of the binoculars to the roof. "Look! It's Pogo, Uncle George. I can see her up there. She's holding her power saw!"

George said, "Maybe she's threatening to jump."

"No, not Pogo." Kate shook her head. "She wouldn't do that."

"I have no idea what Pogo would or wouldn't do."

"She needs my help," Kate decided. Kate pushed her way past the Mushroom Children in the entranceway. She ran downstairs to Math 8 and told him, "They want me in the Protein Lab to test a new formula. I'll be gone all period."

Math 8 smiled his consent. Then he removed her test booklet from the day's pile.

Kate sprinted to the service elevator and pressed the button for the roof. Fear rose in her as she ascended the nine floors. She gritted her teeth, and stamped, and pounded her fist against the elevator's steel walls, urging it to move faster. When the doors opened, she burst out and ran toward the front roof wall, toward the spot where she had last seen Pogo. Then she heard a crash.

Kate stifled a gasp. But she had run only three steps more when she saw a black dress to her left. Kate skidded to a halt on the cinders and changed direction. "Pogo! Thank god you're all right."

The normally pale librarian was bright red with exertion. She looked at Kate and panted, "Do what's right with all your might." Then she leaned over the roof wall and pointed down.

Kate leaned, too, and looked over. She saw a swath of machine parts spread out all around the loading dock. Pogo reached under her dress and pulled out a brass plaque. It read
ASHLEY-NICOLE SINGER-WRIGHT,
SIXTH-GRADE SCIENCE WINNER.

Kate asked, "The Holographic Scanner? Is that the Holographic Scanner?"

Pogo nodded.

Kate looked down again at the hundreds of glass and metal shards, and red and blue snippets of wire. All she could think to say was, "So, that's the end of that. Huh?"

Pogo answered, "Jack fell down and broke his crown." Then she pushed away from the wall and sprinted toward the front of the building.

Elate took off running behind her shouting, "No, Pogo! Don't do it. Don't jump!"

But to Kate's great relief, Pogo stopped at the mushroom cap and sat on it, like a frog on an aluminum toadstool. She reached down, picked up a red-and-black power saw, and cradled it in her arms like a favorite doll.

Kate joined her silently for a moment and listened to the sounds of the street below. Then she asked, "Pogo, what do you do with that saw?"

Pogo hugged the power tool tighter.

"I mean, do you suddenly wake up somewhere and realize that you just sawed something?"

Pogo nodded yes.

"And when you do, do you always have the
Mother Goose
book with you?"

She nodded yes again.

"So, it was the demon? The demon was making you saw things?"

Pogo answered:

"Jack be nimble, Jack be quick"

"You always call the demon 'Jack' Did he tell you to call him that?"

Pogo nodded and added:

"It made the children laugh and play,
Laugh and play,
Laugh and play."

Kate smiled. "Yeah. I'm sure." Then she added sternly, "But Jack did bad things, too. And he made you do bad things."

Pogo moved her mouth to answer, but then the stairwell door banged open, revealing Bud Wright and his brother.

Pogo set down her saw. She whispered:

"There's a big fat policeman
At my door, door, door.
He grabbed me by the collar,
He made me pay a dollar."

Bud and his brother advanced ominously. The sheriff held out a paper and attempted to read from it. "Miss Poga-Poga-zoo-ski. I've got a warrant here for your arrest."

Kate spoke for her. "Her arrest? That's ridiculous. What for?"

"For the attempted murder of Mrs. Mildred Hodges by sawing through a railing."

"
Attempted
murder?" Kate sputtered. "You mean, Mrs. Hodges is still alive?"

The sheriff looked at Bud, who answered, "Of course she's alive. She's fine. Doc Cavendar got her back on her feet in no time."

"But she fell eight stories to a marble floor!"

"She had a little fall. It just knocked the wind out of her, that's all."

"If she's fine, then where is she?"

Bud grimaced behind his cervical collar. "How am I supposed to know? Maybe she took a day off."

"She never takes a day off."

Bud indicated to his brother to get busy. "You'll have to take that up with Dr. Austin, kid."

The sheriff handcuffed Pogo and pulled her off the aluminum cap. He told her, "You have the right to remain silent..."

Kate watched the two men march Pogo away. Then, with her heart pounding and her mouth cottony dry, she bent back the cap and slipped down the ladder. She pushed through the door and returned Cornell Whittaker Number Two's diary to its shelf—its now-empty shelf.

At the start of fourth period, Science 8 read an announcement: "Dr. Austin has canceled school tomorrow. He wants all students to watch the news to learn about the First Lady's historic visit to the Whittaker Magnet School and to write a five-paragraph essay about it. He also wants you to point out to your friends and relatives that the Whittaker Magnet School is the only school in King's County ever to be visited by a First Lady of the United States."

Science 8 then walked back and handed Kate a separate printed announcement from Susan Singer-Wright. It read, "All involved in the performance for the First Lady must report to the County Commission Room immediately."

Kate got up to leave; Science 8 smiled.

Kate rode upstairs, entered the County Commission Room, and turned to walk toward the back. But she saw that the last row was occupied by three people and an assortment of medical equipment.

Heidi and Whit Austin were seated on a bench against the wall. Between them sat an elderly nurse dressed in white tights, a white uniform, and a white triangular hat. Heidi's eyes were two large black circles, like a raccoon's. She had an ice pack affixed to her jaw, held in place by a Velcro sash. Whit had an IV pole next to him, with a hanging bag, from which a clear liquid was dripping. He stared straight ahead, openmouthed.

Susan Singer-Wright began the meeting with a quick rap of the gavel. She led the group through a rereading of the timetable for the First Lady's visit. The only new business came when Cornelia entered the room with a shopping bag.

Cornelia took the microphone and announced, "Since certain students who are part of the patriotic tableau cannot afford the Whittaker Magnet School uniforms, I have designed a special costume for them for this performance. Would the students who cannot afford uniforms please come forward."

Kate caught George's eye across the room. He shrugged at her and started to the front, so Kate did the same.

Cornelia reached into a shopping bag and pulled out two sets of yellow silk pants followed by two sets of purple-and-yellow-striped shirts.

George whispered to Kate, "They look like the uniforms of the Swiss Guard."

"Who?"

"The guys who guard the pope?"

Kate disagreed. "No. They look like the uniforms of the guys who guard the Wicked Witch of the West. Remember? In
The Wizard of Oz
? They had those stripes?"

"Yeah. Yeah. Those, too."

Cornelia handed one uniform to Kate and one to George. She was about to speak to them, but Susan cut her off with a delighted squeal. "Ashley-Nicole!"

Kate and George turned to the door and saw a smiling young woman enter, followed by two somber Technon Industries engineers. The young woman's blond hair was tied back in a ponytail. She wore black shoes and tights, a red plaid skirt, and a white blouse buttoned to the top.

"Well, by golly, look who's here," Susan bubbled. "All the way from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. And I thought you were decorating for some big homecoming mixer!"

Ashley-Nicole answered in a high voice. "I am, Mommy. I have to be back by tomorrow night."

"Tomorrow night!"

"Yes! I'm in charge of the balloons."

Bud Wright and Dr. Austin hurried over to greet her. Bud hollered, "Hi, honeybun."

"Hi, Daddy. What happened to your neck?"

"This? Aw, it's nothing. Thank you for getting here so fast."

"Anything to help, Daddy. You know that."

Dr. Austin took her hand and pumped it. "This school will always be indebted to you for coming, Ashley-Nicole." His eyes darted around the room. He lowered his voice. "How about if you and your father and I adjourn to my office."

Kate and George exchanged a knowing look and prepared to move out.

One of the Technon Industries engineers spoke up. "We will need to accompany Miss Singer-Wright to any meeting regarding Technon Industries products."

Dr. Austin looked at Bud. "You will? Well, all right. Let's all go, then."

Kate and George hopped up.

Kate announced, to no one in particular, "We'd better go try on these uniforms."

George said, "Yeah. I can't wait to see what mine looks like."

They exited casually, walking through the door clutching their new uniforms like prizes. At the foot of the stairwell, they turned to check behind them; then they took off running up the steps. They were crouching in place behind the low bookcase in time to see Dr. Austin lead his group of five inside.

Ashley-Nicole passed through the rotating door tentatively, but then she squealed with delight to see her old Laser Cannon again. The silver-and-black weapon now stood between the tall bookcase and the desk. The Technon engineers produced two legal pads and waited.

Dr. Austin got right to the point. "Ashley-Nicole, we want to use your Laser Cannon to solve a very specific problem."

"What's that, Dr. Austin?"

"We want to destroy a book and its contents."

Ashley-Nicole scrunched up her nose. "A book?"

"Yes. We want to destroy a book. One book in particular. A children's book."

"Can't you just shred it? Or burn it?"

"No. I mean, yes, we could just burn the book. But, you see, the
contents
of this book must be destroyed, too. I've given this a lot of thought, Ashley-Nicole. Surprise is the key element. The contents must be taken by surprise by the remote tracking feature of the Laser Cannon."

Ashley-Nicole adjusted a dial on the Laser Cannon. She asked flatly, "How far away will the target be?"

"It will be right here. In this room. On top of a cart."

"You said that the target is a book. Do you know the dimensions of the book?"

"It's a large children's book An antique. Maybe nine inches by twelve inches by an inch thick."

Kate poked George in the ribs. She whispered what he already knew. "
Perrault's Mother Goose.
"

Ashley-Nicole thought for a moment. "These 'contents' that you're concerned about, would they be vulnerable to the heat ray of a laser?"

"Yes, I believe they would."

Ashley-Nicole looked at the Technon engineers and winked. "Dr. Austin, I've done enough top-secret work to know that I shouldn't ask too many questions. So I will ask only one: Are you sure you need the Laser Cannon for this job? It's designed for use across a fifty-mile battlefield, you know."

"Yes, of course I'm sure. Absolutely. It's the perfect weapon for the job."

Ashley-Nicole winked at the Technon men again. "Okeydokey. I'll calibrate it for the job that you described. We'll need to make a few modifications, but I am sure we can destroy one children's book on top of one cart."