Authors: Lisa Rowe Fraustino

Tags: #Technology & Engineering, #Mining, #Family, #Action & Adventure, #Environmental Science, #Mines and mineral resources, #Juvenile Fiction, #Family life, #Mysteries & Detective Stories, #General, #Supernatural, #Science, #Twins, #Fiction, #Soil pollution, #Brothers and sisters

The Hole in the Wall (13 page)

BOOK: The Hole in the Wall

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“On the road to Exton. In fact, I can recommend a lovely new development near there that has homes for sale in your price range. Four bedrooms, two and a half baths . . .” He lifted the rucksack. “Take this money, Claire, and buy yourself a better life on the other side of town. Heck, set up a shop in the mall.” His voice was sincere. Patient. Enticing.

The rucksack emptied out onto the table. Wads of Bens spilled in all directions, a mass of green faces.

“You’ve sold me,” said Pa.

Ma turned an angry look on him, shook her head, and ground out her cigarette.

Odum kept talking. “What’s your dream, Claire? Can you look me in the eye and tell me you don’t have a dream that can come true when I wave this magic wand?” He picked up a stiff hundred, waved the bill around, and handed it to Pa.

Pa sniffed it. “Abracadabra and presto!”

“Here’s what I think of your dirty money, Mr. Stanley O-dum Mud-o,” I whispered in Barbie’s ear as I folded one of the bills into a paper airplane. Then I looked at Pa, scared he would flip, but he hadn’t seen me. Too busy staring at the bill in his own hands.

Ma ignored the money, glowering at Odum as she paced along the kitchen counter, trailing her hand along the edge.

“If you don’t want to live in that development near the mall, Claire honey, we could move to that lake on the other side of Exton, closer to your work,” Pa said sweetly. “Remember how much fun we used to have taking the kids camping at the state park over there?” He gave Ma the ol’ Daniels eyebrow. Then I felt like a real jerk for using it on Miss Beverly.

For once the brow failed. Ma worked her jaw like a baseball player getting ready to spit a wad of chew.

“We can’t afford to move to that yuppie neighborhood. It’d take a fortune just to pay the property and income taxes. This is a pile of cash, but it’s no dream come true.”

Boots Odum shifted his chair to the side, opening the circle to Ma. “There’s more where this came from.”

“Really!” said Pa.

“You think everyone has a price, don’t you?” Ma said disgustedly. Her hands trembled as she knocked her pack of cigarettes on the counter and took one out. Boots Odum offered a lighter but she waved it away and lit her cigarette on the flame of the gas stove. “Stan, how about you just pay to send your nasty mine water somewhere else? Then replace my laying hens, repair the water damage to our home, and leave us alone.”

“Yeah!” I blurted without thinking.

Pa looked up at me in surprise, as if I was a boil on his bottom he’d forgotten existed until he sat down. “You kids get outta here right now! This ain’t none of your business.”

Barbie was already on her feet. I started to go with her, but then I saw the phone on the wall and remembered Jed. If we moved, he’d have no place to come home to. We’d have no castle to remember building with Pa. No way to get to the Hole in the Wall ever again. Ma was right. No amount of money was worth losing those kinds of things.

“No,” I said again, even though I knew what I’d be in for later. Pa didn’t abide back talk.

“No? No what!” His face twisted something ugly.

“No, it’s my life too, and I don’t want to leave.” I sat back down. Barbie, looking terrified, hovered at the stairway. But she didn’t leave the room.

Me and Pa glared at each other, breathing hard, until Ma put her hand gently on his shoulder. “Your son has a point, Craig.”

Pa shrugged her hand off. Suddenly the house fell so quiet, the refrigerator sounded like a bulldozer.

Boots Odum cleared his throat. “Well, I guess I’ll leave you folks to talk it over.”

He calmly collected his cash and went to the door. Which Barbie lunged ahead of him to yank on. It took her a few tries, with Boots looking embarrassed. He reached his bionic hand out and back and out and back, as if he wanted to do the job himself, until the door finally jolted open with a wooden scream.

Outside on the steps he turned to face us, the wind whipping his hair to the far side of his bald spot, his nose blooming red. “Claire, you know the value of what I’m offering. It’s for your own good, trust me!” He sounded almost desperate when he said that. As if there really was more to it than business.

Then his face reset to powerful mode and he said, “Craig, when you can get your wife to talk sense, we’ll talk dollars.”

“Get off my property!” cried Ma, shutting the door in his face.

As soon as the truck motor revved outside, Pa pushed his chair back and got up, his hands on his belt, fingering the buckle as he glared at me. I knew what was coming. I made myself small in the corner and covered my head with my arms.

“All right, Mr. No. You had to go and make me discipline you. When are you ever gonna learn to respect your elders?”

Through my fingers I watched the leather slide through the first loop as he pulled on the buckle.

“Oh, stop that, you big bully,” said Ma, grabbing the tail end of the belt. “I’ve had enough of you taking your frustrations out on these kids.”

Barbie was about to shoot up the stairs, but Ma caught her by the arm and pulled her close, facing out. Barbie’s face was all pinched and twitching like a cornered rabbit that sees the fox creeping up on her.

Then Ma pulled Pa around by the belt so he was facing her. He seemed even more surprised than angry. Ma had never defied him around us kids. They always stuck together, which usually meant Ma getting behind Pa. Well, now she was in front of him.

“Look, Craig. Look at your perfect daughter.”

“Claire, you better—”

“Listen to me. I got something to tell you. See the fear in her eyes, Craig? She’s so scared of you she’ll be having nightmares tonight, only you won’t know because you’ll be passed out drunk while she’s screaming and crying.”

Pa scrunched his face at Barbie, then turned back to Ma. “You got no business dragging the kids into this, Claire. You’re the one who’s always saying—”

“I’m not finished, Craig. Just listen.” Suddenly she had me out of my corner, locked against her chest, her heart throbbing in the back of my neck.

In the mirror on the opposite wall she looked like one fierce mother hen with her wings sticking out. I crossed my arms over the real chick. It didn’t really show under the two hoodies I had on. During all the Odum excitement I’d forgotten about Celery. She felt right at home on my stomach, and it enjoyed having her.

“Look at Sebby, your beloved son. Oh, he made you the happiest man on earth the day he said his first word, and it was
Pa-pa-pa.
He adores you back, or he would, if he wasn’t trying so hard to hate you so you can’t hurt him anymore.”

Pa glared at me, then doubled his glare back on Ma. “Are you trying to tell me I don’t love my kids? You’re cracking under the strain, Claire. You need help.”

“Funny, I was just gonna say the same thing about you.” Ma’s chin dug into the top of my head. I felt the vibrations of her voice in my skull as she talked, and it felt good. It helped me not to cry. Barbie was crying, softly.

Pa took the Lord’s name in vain and said, “Are you done yet?” The phone rang. Nobody moved to answer it.

“No! You got one more person to look at, Craig, and it can’t be Jed since you already chased him away. It’s you. What happened to the man I married? The gentle and funny and responsible man? I want him back, or I want you out.” Her voice wobbled around but she held the words together.

Pa was pacing, pacing as she spoke. For the first time in my life I wondered if he would hit Ma. I puffed my chest out to get in his way.

“Now you done?” His words were clipped. The phone rang on, a shrill scream.

“Yep. Your turn, Craig. I’m listening.”

But Pa didn’t say another word. He yanked the door open and slammed it behind him. Ma let us loose. Barbie ran upstairs. I got the phone.

It was Grum, wondering if anyone planned to pick her up or if she should get in line at the homeless shelter.

As soon as Ma left to get Grum, I pulled out Odum’s glasses and put them on, mimicking his big smile. I was glad to have something to take my mind off the big scene that had just unfolded.

The house didn’t look any different through the glasses. Except it had even more cracks in the walls. Wait, those were the cracks in the lenses.

I stepped outside. The yard looked the same as it had an hour ago. I scanned the gore. No difference. Then I turned in a circle and looked all around, up and down the mountainside our yard is tucked into. Same. Same. Whoa, different! In a puddle of water next to Jed’s castle, I saw a faint blink. And another. And another. It made a swirly pattern of colors, maybe a yard long and an inch wide. Like a graffiti doodle swimming along. Unbelievable!

I took the glasses off and looked again. Just a normal mud puddle. Glasses on, blink blink blink. Like a winding trail of Christmas lights ending at the henhouse.

The henhouse!

In no time I was inside there, emptying the shelves in the supply closet so I could scan the mildewed wall.

“Ohmygodohmygodohmygod!” I couldn’t stop saying it even though Grum’s voice in my head was telling me I was probably causing a car crash somewhere by distracting the Lord’s attention. Through the glasses I saw specks of color moving around in the jagged black half-snowflake shape.

“What? What is it, Seb!” The Shish had followed me.

“I’ll show you in a minute,” I said and pulled open the hidden door.

Immediately I saw one blink after another, all different colors in the rock cliff. Or was it in the chickens? I didn’t get a chance to figure it out because I felt an irresistible pull on my stomach—Celery? Yes, she must be trying to get back to her flock, somehow. Before I could get a grip on the doorway to hold myself back, she had pulled me right up against the wall with all the other chickens.

Now I could see that they weren’t just piled up—they were
stuck
there. Like magnets. I could also see that this wall wasn’t just one slab of mountainside. It was a stack of fieldstones like we’d dug out of the yard to make the castle—a retaining wall without mortar. Somebody must have built it. Maybe Pa, back in his masonry days? But why do that in a place that nobody would ever see?

“Sebby, get out of there!” Barbie cried. “You’re scaring me.”

I was scaring me, too. Kicking and screaming, I pushed against the rocks with all my strength. And down fell the wall, Sebby and all.

Luckily none of the rocks landed on my head. A chicken foot scraped my elbow, though. The air suddenly smelled strongly like Ma’s tooth-breaking cookies. Then I noticed a cold tug on my face. A breeze. This must be the entrance to a tunnel!

Barbie overcame her terror and leaned in to ask if I was all right.

“No! I lost the glasses!” I cried, groping around for them.

“Wait, I’ll find the flashlight so we can see what we’re doing.”

But I kept groping around and found the glasses first. Man-oh-man, I could hardly believe what I saw! I was looking down a long wall of blinking curlicues. It was like one never-ending paisley tie. And of course I had to find out where it led. It’s not as if I had a choice. Celery had the same idea. And so did Jed’s Stupid Cat. To my surprise, he came leaping in over the rocks, weaved a figure eight around my legs, and took off ahead of me down the tunnel.

The Shish chased after us with the dim flashlight bobbing. “Sebby, slow down. What are you seeing with those glasses? I want a turn!”

I would have been happy to slow down if I could. It was like the bird on my belly was flying me, even though she had rocks for wings, and the rock in my sock was helping. I’d forgotten it was there before, but now all of a sudden it was making me feel like that mythology dude with wings on his ankles. The feeling reminded me of that dream I’d had, being sucked off Pa’s shoulders onto an invisible carnival ride. My sister wouldn’t react well to hearing that I was being propelled by a force beyond my control, so I just ignored her.

“Argh! You are such a pain, Sebastian Alfred Daniels!” Her feet pounded faster and the next thing I knew, she’d ripped my ear off. Well, that’s what it felt like when she grabbed the glasses.

Without them, the walls fell into dark shadow, all normal in the bouncing halo of the flashlight. Barbie looked comical with those pearly glasses perched at a cockamamy angle with no dahlia bulb to hold them up. Her nose is more like a clothespin. She used her free hand to prop up the side with no arm, and then she started oh-my-godding at the colors, too.

The tunnel twisted like a giant wormhole through the same kind of stone as the Hole in the Wall. Water streamed along the lowest curves in the floor. In some places it collected in pools that we had to pick our way around or jump over. Jed’s Stupid Cat was great at avoiding the water. I just followed him.

“Where do you think this tunnel ends?” Barbie asked.

“Only one way to find out.” And my two flying escorts weren’t about to let me turn back, anyway. But I didn’t tell my sister that.

BOOK: The Hole in the Wall

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