The Battle for the Castle (3 page)

In the distance he heard the blow of the whistle. “That's it!” Jason cried. “Get ready,” and before the words were out of his mouth, the freight train came around the corner.

The engineer blew his whistle again when he saw them. “Wave at him,” Jason called. “As if we're just little boys excited about the train.”

William and Jason jumped and waved. The engineer saluted them and blew his whistle again as he put on the brakes to slow down for the station. Suddenly the engine seemed to be on top of them, and it passed with a roaring rush of air that almost knocked William off his feet.

Jason looked over his shoulder as he started a long-legged lope beside the moving train. “The first boxcar has two ladders, one at each end,” he yelled. “I'll take the front one.” William fell into step behind Jason, trying to keep as close to his friend as possible.

When Jason turned to check again, William saw a wild look on his friend's white face that scared him more than anything else. The train had slowed down,
but still William thought it was going too fast. How could he swing his body up onto the ladder?

“Next car,” Jason screamed, and this time William looked over his shoulder too.

He stumbled, caught himself, and turned again just in time to see Jason grab the ladder. For the longest time, the bottom half of Jason's body swung back and forth underneath him like a dead thing, and William kept running, kept screaming at his friend to let go. By the time Jason had finally managed to haul his legs up behind him, William had missed his own ladder.

He slowed down and looked again. There was another double ladder coming, six cars down the line. He would get that one. He stretched his legs and tried to find some rhythm, some way of matching the train's heartbeat with his own. Up ahead he could see Jason's swaying body silhouetted against the sky as he inched his way across the top of his boxcar. William glanced back and counted cars. Two to go. He felt as if he had been running for hours. His heart was pounding so hard he thought it might blow right out of his chest.

Now he was shoulder to shoulder with the train. The steel wheels that thumped and clattered over the rails just a few feet below his face seemed to have become a part of him.

William looked back one last time, saw the ladder, reached out his hands, grabbed. He had it for a moment.
For a swift terrifying moment, he felt his body lift up off the ground, but then his hands began to slip and he let them. He couldn't do it. He didn't want to do it. It was a really stupid thing to do. At the last minute, he jumped as far away from the train as he could, but when he hit the ground, he began to roll back down toward the tracks. Sky, then rocks in his face, then sky again, and he finally stopped a foot from the tracks.

The train seemed to go on forever. He lay on the ground with his eyes closed, too scared to move away from the screech and rumble of the wheels, too scared to look up and see if Jason had made it, too scared to crawl to his feet and find his best friend on the opposite side of the tracks.

Maybe he should run away, jump up now while the train still separated them and get on his bike. Or maybe he could stay here on the ground and pretend he'd really been hurt. He put his hand up to his face. There was a bump on his forehead and a couple of gashes, but the blood around them was already drying.

With a final blast of hot cinder breath, the great roaring wall of the train was gone and the world settled back into place. William pulled himself to his feet and watched the back porch of the caboose as it shimmied its way up the line to Canada. There it went. The train he didn't jump.

He heard Jason first. From across the tracks, on the other side of the station, came the shrieking and whooping of a boy who had jumped the trains. William stood and waited. The noises of triumph grew closer and closer.

They saw each other at the same moment. Neither one of them spoke for what seemed like hours. Jason leaned over and dusted off his jeans. William pushed the hair out of his eyes. From now on, it will always be this way, he thought. Jason on one side of the world and me forever on the other.

“What happened?” Jason asked.

“I missed the first ladder because I was watching you,” William answered with a shrug. “And then I couldn't hold on the second time. My hand slipped.”

“It doesn't matter,” Jason said. “You can try it again next week.” But he wouldn't look at William. He started walking to the bikes and William followed him. There was a line running through his brain over and over again. First time's the only one that counts, first time's the only one that counts.

“You were great,” William finally said. Each word felt like a marble that he had to spit out of his mouth.

“Going over the top was the worst part,” Jason said, his voice excited again. “I thought there'd be something to hang onto up there. But there wasn't. Just
me and the roof of the boxcar.” William didn't answer.

“I'm going to the bike store to turn in those panniers. I need some new tubes. You want to come?”

“I can't,” William said. He was getting an idea. “I have to do some stuff at home. Can you come by my house afterward?”

“I don't think so. Dad is meeting me. He wants us to try to break our record up Snake Mountain.”

“I've got something really important to show you,” William said. “It won't take long.”

Jason gave him a queer look.

“It's the thing Mrs. Phillips sent me for my birthday. It does something special. I want to show you how it works.”

“Whaddya mean, something special?” Jason asked, settling his helmet into place. “It's just a little button.”

William hesitated. He couldn't say magic. It was a stupid, baby word. Jason was already giving him a funny look, a look that seemed to say, Hey, listen, I jumped the trains, I'm a busy man, don't bother me.

“Just promise me you'll come,” William said. “Promise me,” he said again, and he knew his voice sounded desperate.

Jason shrugged. “Sure. No big deal, okay. I have to bring you the new panniers anyway.” He flipped one
long leg over the bike seat and settled himself into place. “See you,” he said.

William waited until he had disappeared around the corner. Then he got on his own bike and pedaled as quickly as he could away from the tracks.

As soon as he got home, William went looking for the neighbor's big gray cat. He found her in her usual place under their front porch.

“Here, kitty, kitty,” he called in a soft singsong voice. “Come on out.”

She crept cautiously forward until he could sweep her into his arms. He was halfway up the attic steps when his mother called from below.

“William, where are you? Jason's here.”

“In the attic,” he shouted back. “Tell him to come on up.”

“They didn't have baskets for racing bikes,” Jason said in a loud voice as he tromped up the last set of stairs. “I got you a tool kit instead. I left it by your bike.”

“Great.”

“I can't stay too long. Dad's going to be waiting for me.

“William,” his mother called again, this time from the bottom of the attic steps. “I'm going to town. I've left a big pot of soup on the stove. I want you to turn it off in an hour if I'm not back.”

“Yes, Mom.”

She started up the steps, and William slipped the cat into Jason's arms and stepped in front of him.

“Listen, while you're up here, you might check for holes.”

“Holes?” William said.

“I think there are mice or rats in the attic. Your father says I'm nuts, but I hear some animal scrabbling around up there at night. Look around, will you? Particularly down at the end that's over our bedroom.”

“Okay, Mom.” Maybe we should get a cat of our own, he thought to himself.

“Remember the soup,” she said.

“Sure, Mom,” he said, and finally she left.

Jason was still carrying the cat as he walked around the castle.

“I'd forgotten about this thing,” he said. “It's pretty amazing. Mrs. Phillips gave it to you, didn't she?”

“That's right.” William lifted the roof section and
felt around in the back of the bedchamber for the token. His fingers found the cardboard box, and he drew it out carefully.

“Put the cat down in the middle of the courtyard,” William said. “I need her to be trapped in one place. That way we'll be able to find her afterward.”

“What are you going to do to her?” Jason asked.

“You'll see. Don't worry. It won't hurt her.”

Jason lowered the cat, and in the small square of the courtyard, she turned around and around, sniffing the walls and poking her nose into the miniature doorways.

“Okay, now get out of my way,” William said as he held out the token. “I don't want to zap you too by mistake.”

“I wish you'd tell me what you're talking about,” Jason said as he took one step to the side.

“Janus,” William said in a loud clear voice.

“Where'd she go?” Jason asked.

“She's right here.” He scooped the little animal up from her corner by the kitchen and cupped his hands around her. “Come see.”

Jason gave him a wary look.

“Come on,” William said. “She won't bite.” The cat's tiny paws tickled the skin on his palms. He opened his hands just wide enough for Jason to see inside.

“I don't believe this,” Jason whispered. “She's still alive?”

“Sure.”

“This is really weird. How'd you do it?”

“Magic,” said William.

“Right,” Jason said. “Magic. Did you give her some pill or something?”

“Nope. It's this token, the little button Mrs. Phillips sent me for my birthday. One side of it shrinks things, the other side makes them big again. Go ahead, you can touch her.”

Jason hesitated. Finally he poked one finger inside William's hands and stroked the cat gently between its ears.

“This is the same cat that tried to jump Mrs. Phillips two years ago,” William said.

“Mrs. Phillips?” Jason asked.

“I zapped her with the token out on the sidewalk so she couldn't leave for England, and this cat almost ate her.”

“You did this to Mrs. Phillips?” Jason asked. “Made her this small?”

“Yes,” William said. “She lived up here in the castle for a week.”

“What did she eat?”

“I brought her stuff. And Sir Simon kept roasting mice for her on the spit, but I don't think she ever ate any.”

“Sir Simon?”

William looked at his friend. He wondered how much he could take of this story at once. “Here,” he said. “Put the cat back in the courtyard so I can zap her back to normal size.”

“I want to do it,” said Jason. Their eyes met. “Don't worry, I'll be careful,” he said. “How do I do it?”

William showed him how to hold the token with the god's smiling face pointing out. “You say the word J-A-N-U-S. I'm spelling it because you don't want to say it until you're ready. Make sure I'm out of the way.”

“You mean I could zap you?” Jason asked.

“That's right.” William wished he could take the token back from his friend.

Suddenly Jason swung around and pointed it at a chair.

“Janus,” he said loudly. Nothing happened.

“It only works on living things,” William said quietly. “I'll do it, Jason.”

“No, go on,” Jason said. “Put her back in the courtyard. I'll do it right this time. I promise.”

William released the tiny cat and snatched his hand away. Jason said the word, and suddenly the cat was bumping into the walls of the castle again.

“Amazing,” Jason said. He pulled his glasses down and peered at the token.

“Okay, I'd better put it away,” William said.

“Who is J-A-N-U-S?”

“The god who looks both ways in time. The month of January is named after him because he looks back at the old year and forward to the year to come.” William held out the box with the lid off. He was itching to grab the token. Suddenly it scared him that Jason knew about it. Now that Jason had jumped the trains, William wasn't sure of him anymore. “Hey, Jason,” he said, trying to sound casual. “I need it back.”

After another long look, Jason dropped the little medallion into its bed of cotton. William slipped the top on the box and stuffed it into his pocket.

“That is one powerful little item,” Jason said.

“I told you.”

“Now who's this Sir Simon? Did he really catch mice and roast them?”

“It's a long story,” William said. And now I wonder if I want to tell you, he thought. “You probably don't have time now. I mean, what about your father?”

“He's always late anyway. Just hurry up and tell me.”

The cat suddenly jumped over the wall of the castle and disappeared behind one of the trunks.

“Can she get out anywhere?” Jason asked.

“No, leave her alone. Maybe she'll find those mice
Mom's talking about.” William pulled over an old wooden box for Jason to sit on and a chair for himself. “I'll try to keep this short. Remember when Mrs. Phillips gave me this castle as a going-away present?”

Jason nodded.

“Well, she gave me one lead knight with the castle. His name was Sir Simon.”

“How did you know his name?”

“He told me. He came alive in my hand the first time I picked him up.”

“Of course,” Jason said with a grin.

“Look, I was right about the token, wasn't I?” William said.

“I guess so. I mean I keep trying to figure if there's some trick to it.”

“Go ahead, figure away. What? I grab the real cat and throw a little one into the courtyard. Where am I going to find a miniature cat anyway?”

“Okay, okay,” Jason said, putting up his hands. “Don't get so crazy.”