The Trimoni Twins and the Shrunken Treasure (15 page)

“Are you guys okay?” Wiliken yelled up to them.

“We're fine!” Beezel shouted.

Edwin the gorilla began to slowly lower the bookstore to the floor. As soon as the model was deposited in the middle of the square, the girls darted out the front door. Beezel kept a wary eye on
Edwin as she followed her sister over to where Wiliken stood.

“I can't believe you're both okay!” Wiliken said as he gave them both a big hug.

“We're fine,” Beezel told him. This was nice, getting hugged by Wiliken twice in one day. Beezel could smell his shampoo. It was a spicy smell, and very pleasant. But then she remembered Hector was missing. And poor Uncle Hoogaboom was taped to his chair with a gag in his mouth.

“Now what?” Wiliken motioned with his head toward Edwin the gorilla, who was standing very still behind the bookstore.

“He looks like King Kong,” Mimi said.

Pulling back from their group hug, Beezel said, “I told Edwin we would change him back.”

“Well…” Wiliken eyed the gorilla. “I think you might want to wait a little while. And I think you need to make him something a little bit smaller, just for our own safety.”

“Make him a clam, too,” Mimi suggested. “That way he won't wander off.”

“I suppose you're right.” Beezel pointed at the gorilla.

Edwin the gorilla covered his face with his hands.

Ka-poof. Edwin was a clam. In the girls' shrunken state, Edwin the clam appeared to be about the size of two large mixing bowls stuck together.

“Stay there!” Mimi commanded. “We'll be right back.” She turned to Wiliken. “What should we do now?”

“Let's go help Hoogaboom first,” Wiliken said. “And on the way we'll keep an eye out for Hector, okay?”

Beezel was beginning to worry. Where was Hector? She looked down the Prinsengracht. So many of Uncle Hoogaboom's models had been destroyed. And it was too quiet.

But then a small sound broke the silence. It was a little sound. A metallic tinkle, coming from the direction of the church.

“
Now
what?” Wiliken said.

Beezel's throat closed. She couldn't answer him. She knew exactly what that sound was. She had heard it the first time she had come to Uncle Hoogaboom's shop.

Mew
.

Mimi looked at Beezel and her eyes widened in fear.

“Yep,” Beezel said. “It's her.” When Edwin and
Slear had come inside the studio, they had let Fieffie the cat in.

“Not Fieffie!” Wiliken pushed them inside the nearest house and closed the door, leaving just a crack to peek through. “Let's stay in here for a minute. I don't want her sneaking up on us—and I don't want to end up as cat chow.”

“But what about Hector?” Beezel said.

“Shh, wait, listen,” Wiliken interrupted. “Do you hear something?”

“I don't hear anything,” Mimi said.

“Listen carefully,” Wiliken said. “It's coming from the same direction as Fieffie's bell. It's a high-pitched sound … like … like …”

“Like someone is screaming!” Beezel opened the door and raced toward the sound of Fieffie's bell. As she ran, it occurred to her that the first time she had met the cat, it had been chasing her. Now she was chasing it.

She heard someone yelling. It was coming from the church! Beezel dashed across the market square to the unfinished model and through the opened front doors.

“Hector?” she yelled. “Are you in here?”

“I'm up here above the scaffolding!” Hector
answered. “This cat has me trapped in the choir loft!”

Wiliken and Mimi ran in after Beezel. “Where is he?” Mimi said.

They looked up. The inside of the building was under construction. It was an intricate framework consisting mainly of exposed wooden beams and columns. But there was one area of the choir loft that was semifinished. A ladder led straight up to an opening in the platform. Every now and then, Beezel caught sight of a large cat's paw swiping across it.

“Hector!” Wiliken called up to him. “I'll climb up the scaffolding and draw her out!”

“Don't do it, Wiliken!” Hector said. “She's a fast one. She almost took my shirt off when she chased me up here!”

“We'll come up and ka-poof her!” Beezel yelled up.

“No!” Hector yelled. “She's waiting right by the entrance there. If you climb up, you're done for!”

“Where are you, Hector?” Mimi yelled. “Are you safe?”

“I crawled behind a stack of lumber,” he shouted down. “She can't get her claws in here. I'll be fine.
Just leave me and go help my uncle. Then he can come get his blasted cat out of here!”

“I think he's right,” Wiliken said to the twins. “It's the safest thing to do.”

“Hurry, Beez!” Mimi said as she tugged Beezel's sleeve. “Let's go get Uncle Hoogaboom.”

But Beezel knew exactly what it felt like to be trapped by Fieffie. She remembered the terror she had felt, and didn't want to leave Hector there a second longer. Besides, what if Fieffie found a way to get to him? She shuddered at the thought.

“No, Mimi,” Beezel said. “I'm going to climb up and ka-poof that cat.” She started toward the scaffolding.

Mimi grabbed Beezel's arm. “Hey, wait! I have a great idea!” She slipped off her backpack and took out the small plastic container. She opened it up and carefully spilled the ladybug into her hand.

“Gumdrop?”
Beezel said. “But what if Gumdrop un-ka-poofs to the same scale as us? She would look like a little worm to Fieffie. That won't scare her.”

“Don't be silly. Of course she won't look like a worm,” Mimi said smugly. “She'll change back to her
original
form. That's how the magic works. She'll be five
feet
long when Fieffie sees her.”

“You know what?” Beezel said slowly. “I think
you're right!” She looked at Mimi with admiration. “Good thinking.”

“Uh, guys, what exactly
is
Gumdrop, originally?” Wiliken asked.

“A boa constrictor,” Mimi said.

“A
boa constrictor?”
Wiliken ran his hands through his hair. “Well, I've got to give you girls credit, you aren't boring.”

“I think we'd better find a hiding place,” Beezel said. “Because if Mimi's right, Gumdrop is going to be one
big
boa constrictor.”

“Gumdrop,” Mimi told the bug, “you know how much you love to tease cats.” She held her up. “There's one right up there, sweetie. See her? Go give her a good scare.”

Mimi set the ladybug down on the floor and pointed at it. Ka-poof. The gigantic boa constrictor that writhed across the floor in front of them looked to Beezel like an undulating oil pipeline.

Wiliken, Mimi and Beezel quickly hid behind a half-built wall.

“Hector!” Mimi cried out. “Don't worry! Gumdrop is coming to save you!”

“GUMDROP?” Hector yelled back. “Oh, that's just fine! That's just
peachy!”

The big snake spotted the motion at the top of the platform. She wound herself around the scaffolding and started her slow circular climb toward Hector and Fieffie.

Beezel winced as the big snake's head got near the opening. The end of Fieffie's tail flicked in and out, in and out.

“Oh dear,” Mimi said. “Gumdrop really doesn't like anything waved in front of her face.”

The snake nipped the cat's tail. The cat yowled and turned to face her attacker, teeth and claws bared. But at the sight of Gumdrop, it was as if a bolt of electricity shot through the cat's body. She leaped over the snake's head and flew all the way down to the floor. Fieffie was out of the church before Gumdrop could turn her head to watch her.

“Um, Mimi,” Beezel said, pointing up, “Gumdrop is going into the opening where Hector is.”

“I'd better ka-poof her,” Mimi said nervously. “But I don't want her to fall, or fly away, or eat any of us …” She twirled her hair.

Beezel watched more and more of Gumdrop disappearing into the opening.

“What should she be …?” Mimi's voice drifted off.

“MIMI!” Hector yelled. “Get this snake out of here right now!”

“Hector! You know I can't
think
when you're yelling at me!” Mimi yelled back. She chewed on her lip.

Wiliken tried to help. “How about a camel?”

Mimi shook her head.

“A fox … a porcupine?”

Mimi shook her head and twirled her hair faster.

“A slug,” Beezel said as she pointed to Gumdrop. Ka-poof. The snake changed into an enormous slug. To their shrunken group, Gumdrop seemed to be a two-foot-long tube of moving slime. The slug made its way slowly into the opening.

“Wow, that's one hefty slug,” Wiliken said. “How come it's so big?”

“Well, I guess the ka-poofing magic can only change Gumdrop into an animal that is on the same scale that she is,” Beezel explained. “Mimi ka-poofed Gumdrop back to her original size, which looks huge to us while we're shrunk. When I changed her into a slug, the slug is the size it would be in relation to Gumdrop, not us.”

“Wow,” Wiliken said. “You're pretty smart,
aren't you, Miss Beezel?” He playfully punched her in the arm.

Beezel blushed and stammered, “S-s-sometimes.”

“I'll be right there, sweetie!” Mimi called as she started to climb up the scaffolding. She stopped, glanced down over her shoulder to Beezel and smiled triumphantly at her. “See? I
knew
I should bring Gumdrop along. If it weren't for Gumdrop, Fieffie would have
eaten
Hector.”

Beezel shook her head and marveled once again at her sister's logic concerning her pet boa.

“Hey,” Wiliken said as he watched Mimi climb the scaffolding. “Is it always like this with you guys?”

Beezel nodded and giggled. “Pretty much, yeah.”

Mimi ka-poofed the two-foot-long slug into a ladybug the size of a small turtle. Wiliken climbed the scaffolding and helped Mimi carry Gumdrop safely to the ground. A shaken and relieved Hector appeared in the opening and began to make his way down as well.

While Beezel waited, she studied the interior of the church. She had never really thought about how Uncle Hoogaboom had made the models. She
guessed there was a lot of cutting and gluing involved. But what she saw inside the church told her a different story.

It looks as if real people are helping to build this
, she thought to herself.
Why would Uncle Hoogaboom need scaffolding at all? It just doesn't make any sense
.

Her eye caught sight of a bit of bright color on the floor against one wall. She picked it up. It was a crumpled red hat, well worn and covered in sawdust. Inside the hat Beezel found a wadded-up sandwich wrapper.

Sawdust and sandwiches
, Beezel thought.
Now
, that's
interesting
.

While they spent what felt like an hour untaping Uncle Hoogaboom from his chair, Beezel and Mimi took turns sitting on his shoulder and telling him about the treasure ship they had found inside the model of Pieter Riebeeck's house.

“Well, of course, that's what Pieter meant,” Uncle Hoogaboom said. “He couldn't have been plainer. He said it was in his den, didn't he, Wiliken?”

“He just didn't say which one,” Wiliken shouted up to Uncle Hoogaboom as he wrestled with the
sticky tape Edwin had used to bind his arms to the chair.

After they untaped his legs, Uncle Hoogaboom gratefully stood up and stretched. “Well, that was a close call all around, wasn't it?” he said as he peered down at the diminutive group at his feet. “Would you like me to unshrink you now?”

Beezel remembered something. “We left the treasure ship and the Shrinking Coin inside your house,” she shouted up at him. “Your
little
house,” she corrected herself.

“Don't forget the clams,” Mimi reminded her.

“Oh, that's right.” Beezel pointed behind her toward the corner of the Westerstraat. “They're over there.”

“Why don't you unshrink the girls first, Hoogaboom?” Wiliken yelled. “Hector and I will go get the treasure ship and the Shrinking Coin.” Hector and Wiliken headed down the Prinsengracht together.

“Ready?” Uncle Hoogaboom asked the girls. “Stand well away from each other. Farther.” He waved the twins apart.

“Wait!” Mimi yelled. She gathered up Gumdrop the ladybug and carried her to the far edge of the
market square. “I don't want to squish her when you un-zuuft me.”

Uncle Hoogaboom pointed to Beezel. Zuuft. Beezel was herself again. He pointed to Mimi. Zuuft. Mimi was her normal size again, too.

Mimi pointed to Gumdrop on the floor. Ka-poof. Gumdrop was a five-foot-long boa constrictor again. Mimi picked her up and draped her around her shoulders. “You did a great job today, Gumdrop.”

Wiliken, carrying the coin in the backpack, and Hector, holding the glass case that contained the Spanish galleon, approached Uncle Hoogaboom and the twins.

“Your turn now?” Uncle Hoogaboom asked them.

“You'd better take this first, Uncle!” Hector yelled as he held out the shrunken treasure ship.

Uncle Hoogaboom lowered his hand to the ground, and Hector set the glass case on his palm. “You know, Hector, I think I'm going to call the ship
Magdalena,”
Uncle Hoogaboom said as he stared at the tiny galleon in his hand, “since that's what it said on her stand.”

Hector helped Wiliken hold up the Shrinking Coin. “Take this, too, Hoogaboom!” Wiliken called.

Uncle Hoogaboom reached down, plucked the coin from Wiliken and Hector's hands and put it in his pocket.

“There now,” Uncle Hoogaboom said. “Are you two ready?”

Hector and Wiliken nodded.

“Move apart,” Uncle Hoogaboom said. “Leave some room between you for unshrinking.” He nodded. “There, that's enough.”