The Madrona Heroes Register: Echoes of the Past (15 page)

“
You keep watching, see
what you can figure out. And don’t worry, if something happens
Cassie will probably do her disappearing trick anyway.”

Binny contemplated that for a second
and with a glance over at Cassie answered, “well at this rate the
only way she’s going to turn invisible is if its triggered by a
junk food overload. He just gave her huge bowl of potato chips.”
Binny was shaking her head in disapproval.

Zach looked at her with his eyes wide
waiting for permission.

“
Fine go. But please
hurry!” she urged. Binny settled in to keep watch.

Zach turned to go and then stopped
momentarily. “Binny?”

“
What?”

“
I’m sorry about before.
With Mom and Dad.”

“
Don’t bring that up now.
I’m still mad at you. It would just have been nice for them to
believe me and now they think I’m stupid or crazy.”

“
I don’t think you’re
stupid.” And then after a pause Zach added with a smirk, “Maybe a
little crazy though.”

“
Go get the steak. And
hurry up before I change my mind and get you in trouble for all
this!”

Zach sped off and Binny settled in to
watch, hoping the dog wasn’t a vegetarian.

§

The routine in the house hadn’t
changed. The man was doing something in what was presumably his
office and then would briefly check on Cassie every few minutes.
Periodically Cassie would need more paper for coloring and would
take more from the pile the man had left on the nearby kitchen
counter. The routine of it calmed Binny a bit until she heard
footsteps shuffling behind her. She turned around with a
start.

“
Hi.”

It was Penny. Her hands were in her
pockets and she had a look on her face like she felt bad about
something. Caleb’s words rang in Binny’s ears.

“
Oh, hi.” Binny offered
with a smile, and motioned for Penny to sit down next to her behind
the fence. “Are you ok?”

“
Yeah. Sorry I got mad.”
Penny settled down next to Binny with her legs crossed, her elbows
on her knees, and her hands propping up her face.

“
It’s ok. I get mad and
run off all the time. I’m really good at it.” Binny
joked.

Penny laughed. A moment passed, and
Penny picked up the conversation again. “I broke the
typewriter.”

“
Oh. I’m sure it can be
fixed.”

The girls looked at each other and
laughed some more knowing full well that there was no way that huge
pile of pieces was fixable.

“
I broke other stuff too.”
The resigned expression reappeared on Penny’s face.

“
Oh.”

“
Not on purpose of course.
It just happened.”

“
Of course.” Binny
reassured her.

“
No really, I just, I
just,” Penny seemed nervous about finishing her sentence. She
looked Binny straight in the eye and said, “I just touch stuff and
it breaks.”

Binny could see clearly that Penny was
opening up to her and felt bad that she hadn’t done the same
earlier. Binny yearned to make the girl feel better.

“
Oh, I’m clumsy too. That
skateboard I broke was the fourth one. I still haven’t told my
parents.”

Penny smiled briefly, but then turned
more serious, “No. Not being clumsy. Literally, I touch stuff, and
it breaks. It just started happening in the last couple of days.
Not always. Not every time. But a lot.”

Binny was paying rapt
attention.

Penny continued, “I touched the remote
control for the TV and it fell to pieces. I touched the ukulele my
Dad sent me and it just came apart. I didn’t drop it, I didn’t
smash it. I wasn’t rough with it. I just held it normally and it
fell into pieces. I was so upset. My mom told me to take a break
and write down my feelings. She even said I could use her old
typewriter. She knows I like the sound it makes when I type. But
now that’s broken too.” Penny fell silent for a few seconds but it
was clear she still had something on her mind.

Penny was back to looking at her
hands, “I think the only thing I’m good at is breaking things.
Breaking things into so many pieces that they can never be put back
together.” Penny looked up again. “When my mom and I moved here
from out-of-state, my dad didn’t come with us.” Penny started
crying. Big tears spilled down her cheeks.

Binny wanted to cry herself she felt
so bad for Penny. Binny went to put her arms around Penny and give
her a hug, but Penny shrank away from Binny’s touch. “No, no. What
if, what if I break you?”

The thought that she might
spontaneously disassemble into her component parts with fingers and
eyeballs lying around on the ground struck Binny as funny for some
reason. “I’m not a typewriter.” Binny responded with her chin set
indicating that this simply wasn’t a possibility. Penny laughed,
and Binny gave her a short but strong hug and said “See? I’m still
all put together.”

Binny wasn’t sure if it was the
reassuring words, or just getting her fears off her chest, but
Penny seemed to feel a little better. Binny added cheerily for good
measure, “And besides, I’m sure there’s a good use for a skill like
that.”

Penny smiled a bit at the last
comment. Once she had rubbed her eyes and dried her cheeks and her
nose with her sleeve she looked around and asked, “Um, what are you
doing here anyway?”

“
Well, it’s funny you
should ask.”

§

“
I’m in!” Penny responded
emphatically.

Binny had told her everything. It all
came spilling out of her, glad to finally have someone she could
talk to without getting into a fight. Cassie’s power. Trying to
tell her parents. The strange man’s interest in Cassie. Zach’s plan
to rescue their sister. All except for the part where Caleb told
Binny she could be more open-hearted with Penny. It didn’t seem
necessary to share that detail.

“
You believe me?” Binny
was a little bit surprised at Penny’s immediate support.

“
Of course. Why wouldn’t
I?”

“
But I just told you that
my sister can turn herself invisible.”

“
My mom believes in magic,
and so do I.”

“
She does? You
do?”

“
I think lots of things
are magical. And besides, you believed me, didn’t you?”

“
Binny thought for a
second and answered, “Yeah. I guess I did. I mean, I do. I believe
you.”

The girls went back to monitoring
Cassie and the man, waiting for Zach.

Binny, still looking through the gaps
in the fence said, “Penny, can I ask you something?”

“
Sure.”

“
Your dad – does he live
in an apartment?”

Before Penny could answer, the girls
heard a voice behind them. “I got it!”

Zach had arrived with the
bait.

11

“
What’s she doing here?”
Zach looked at Binny but motioned towards Penny.

“
This is
Penny.”

“
I know.” It was clear
Zach didn’t consider his question answered.

A nervous look passed between the
girls. Binny hastened to add, “She’s cool. She’s gonna help
us.”

“
You
told
her?” Zach was incredulous,
barely remembering to keep his voice down.

“
Yeah, and she believed
me.” Binny shot Penny a smile.

Zach had an exasperated look on his
face. “Ok. Fine. But no one else… ok?” He looked at both girls
waiting for their assent.

Both girls nodded seriously. Zach held
up the steak with a grin.

§

“
She’s got
pretzels
now?” The kids
were on their knees with their heads poking out just above the
fence so they could evaluate the scene in front of them. Zach
continued, “When did she get pretzels?”

“
The man brought her
pretzels when she finished plowing through the chips.” Binny
offered.

Zach was trying to formulate a
plan.

“
I want to get kidnapped
by this guy.” Binny and Zach swung their heads around to stare at
Penny. But in an instant both were trying to stifle their laughs
when they realized she was kidding.

“
We just need to figure
out how to keep the man in the other room so we can grab Cassie.”
Zach said.

“
He comes out to check on
her every five minutes and then heads back into the other room down
the hall on his phone call.”

“
OK. So we wait until the
man goes back to his phone call and then we move.”

“
Who’s going to distract
the dog with the steak?” Penny whispered.

“
Me.” Zach said,
resigned.

“
But you’re afraid of –
”

Zach shot Binny a look that stopped
her before she could complete her sentence.

“
As soon as the man gets
back on the phone, I’ll lure the dog away from the door with the
steak. As soon as the dog goes for it, you two go grab Cassie, and
we run home back this way through the alley.”

After a minute or two the man had made
his regular appearance to check up on Cassie’s eating and coloring.
She was apparently making acceptable progress on both fronts as the
man put the phone back to his ear, and headed down the hallway to
his office.

The plan was set in motion. Bending
down, Zach slipped through the partially opened gate. It didn’t
take long for the large dog to lose interest in his soggy tennis
ball at the sight of Zach entering the yard.

Binny thought Zach looked pretty
scared, but to his credit he stood his ground as the dog
approached. Binny didn’t think Zach’s arm holding the steak was
able to stretch any further away from him without being pulled out
of its socket.

The dog came forward to carefully
examine Zach’s offering, giving it a couple of sniffs. Everything
was going exactly as planned!

But all of a sudden, the dog lost
interest in the steak, instead deciding to examine Zach! Zach took
a step backwards. The dog followed. Zach wanted to get as far away
as possible from the dog and flung the bait into a far corner of
the yard. But the shaggy creature didn’t follow. It just took
another step towards Zach.

Zach had positioned himself such that
the dog was forcing him to walk backwards, right into view of the
man’s office!

There was no mistaking the look on
Zach’s face now. He was petrified.

“
The steak is
frozen.”

“
What?”

“
The steak is
frozen
.” Penny whispered
again.

“
Well of course it’s
frozen. He got it from the freezer.”

“
The dog’s not interested
in it
because
it’s frozen.”

Binny was immediately embarrassed at
their stupidity. The dog would be interested in a steak, not a
steak-flavored block of ice.

“
Zach’s running out of
room.” Penny sounded concerned. “We need to do
something.”

Penny was right. They needed to do
something before Zach freaked out and was seen by the man. Binny
scanned the yard, desperate to find something, anything to help.
And then there it was. The ball. The soggy tennis ball that had no
doubt spent hours, maybe even days or weeks lodged in that large
dog’s mouth. At one time it had been a bright yellow. Now it was a
mottled grayish-brown. Before she even realized what she was doing,
Binny had shot through the gate and was headed to retrieve the
ball. Penny followed.

The dog was now very confused. Should
he continue to stalk his current prey or go sniff the two girls on
the other side of the yard? As he was deciding, Binny raised the
ball in her hand trying to catch the dog’s eye. It was so wet and
slimy. She tried hard not to think about it.

When she had the dog’s attention,
Binny threw the ball to the opposite corner of the large yard,
urging the dog silently in her mind to fetch it. The dog bolted for
the ball, and Zach stood frozen for a moment, not believing his
luck.