Jacob Wonderbar and the Cosmic Space Kapow (23 page)

Dexter stepped away and his smile faded as he thought about his mom. “I gotta go, guys.”

Sarah grabbed his hand. “We're going together.”

They ran toward Dexter's house, and though he was worried about Dexter's mom, Jacob couldn't help but wonder how much trouble they would be in. There weren't police officers around Dexter's house, and he realized they must have gone home for the day. News crews would probably show up soon and want to interview them about their mysterious disappearance.

They reached the door to Dexter's house and nearly collided into it when it swung open. Dexter's mom peered down at them, her hair in its customary bun. She looked perfectly healthy.

“Mom!” Dexter shouted. “You're not in the hospital!”

“The hospital? Why would I be in the hospital?” Dexter's mom frowned at Jacob. “Jacob Wonderbar, is this another one of your pranks?”

“But ...” Dexter said. “Aren't you ...”

“No ‘buts,'” Dexter's mom said. “It's time for you children to get on home.” She pulled Dexter inside and closed the door.

Sarah's eyes were wide. “What just happened?”

“I ... I don't know.”

“I should go home,” she said. She gave Jacob one last hug and said, “See you, Jake.” She ran toward her house.

Jacob walked home slowly. He imagined the hysteria that would await him when he arrived. His mom would probably cry, and he hated seeing his mom cry. He wondered if there was a way of entering that wouldn't result in screams and burst eardrums. He stared at his door and summoned his strength. He could do this. He knew his mom would simply be overjoyed to see him. He opened it and walked in.

“Mom, I'm so sorry, I—”

“That was fast.” He saw his mom sitting at the kitchen table, sipping some apple juice.

“Fast?! Are you ...”

“No more corndogs, kiddo. If you want more food, there's leftover tuna surprise in the fridge.”

“I ...”

“You can watch a half hour of TV, but then it's bedtime, okay?”

“I ...”

“No arguing, Jacob! Half hour and then it's bedtime. I have to go upstairs and check on the Asian markets again, and when I come back, I want you in your pajamas and ready for bed.”

No time had passed, he quickly realized. His mom wasn't surprised in the least to see him.

It wasn't possible. There had to have been a mistake. He wondered if he had imagined the whole thing.

He reached into his pocket.

He felt his dad's pipe.

“Hey Mom!” Jacob shouted.

“Hmm?” she asked from the top of the stairs.

Jacob thought about telling her everything, about finding the pipe and meeting the king and what the stars looked like when he spacewalked. “I'm sorry I made you miss your meeting.”

His mom smiled. “Thanks, Jacob. That was a very mature thing to say.” She kept walking. “You're still grounded though.”

G
ood morning, class,” Mrs. Pinkerton warbled.

“Good morning, Mrs. Pinkerton,” the class repeated.

“Class, there has been a slight ... change of plans. Your teacher Miss Banks has ... well ... she won't be here for a while. I'll be your teacher until further notice, so
get used to it!
” She rapped the table with her ruler, and every spine in the class snapped to attention.

Jacob, Sarah, and Dexter looked around at one another, smiling but a little bewildered. Jacob hoped that Miss Banks would be okay on Planet Paisley.

Mrs. Pinkerton cleared her throat, giving Jacob goose bumps.

“Today we're going to discuss the solar system. Jacob Wonderbar, could you please tell the class which is the smallest planet in the solar system?”

“Numonia,” Jacob said confidently.

Dexter buried his face in his hands and tried not to laugh. Sarah cackled.

“I hear they have nice space dust though,” Jacob added. His classmates laughed nervously, ready for one of Jacob's pranks.

Mrs. Pinkerton glided over to Jacob's desk, and he caught a whiff of her breath, which happened to have been heavier on burned coffee than rotten eggs that morning. “Do you think this is a joke?” She tapped her ruler against her palm as if she were considering using it as a weapon.

“No ma'am,” Jacob said, trying to keep a straight face.

“Because we both know that Numonia is not
in
the solar system.”

“So you've heard of Numonia?”

Mrs. Pinkerton's eyes narrowed and she cleared her voice. “Why, uh, no. As a matter of fact, I have ... Numonia you say?” She leaned forward and said, “Well played, Mr. Wonderbar. Or should I say,
Voonderbar
?” His classmates laughed when she said it, but a shiver went down Jacob's neck.

Mrs. Pinkerton slowly walked back to the front of the class and glared at Jacob. “You'd better watch your step.”

She then launched into a detailed lecture on the planets of the solar system. Jacob noticed in particular how she seemed to relish talking about how unremarkable the sun and Earth were compared to the vast variety of other stars and planets throughout the universe.

The bell rang an agonizing hour later, and at recess, Jacob, Dexter, and Sarah huddled together. Kids were bustling around, chatting and playing soccer, but Jacob felt like he hardly knew them anymore. They didn't even realize there were spaceships that flew far into outer space and planets full of wacky space humans. But he wasn't about to tell his classmates. They'd just think he was insane.

“Dexter, your mom really isn't sick?” Jacob asked.

“She's fine! I can't believe it. It was the same as before I left. I think the king cured her or something.”

Sarah cocked her head. “Can the king do that?

“I don't know, I just assumed because he's the king and all ... Anyway, when I got home she gave me and my dad a huge lecture about how used paper towels always go in the compost bin, so really I think she's fine.”

“Wow, that's great,” Jacob said.

“That
is
great,” Sarah said. “I was hoping I had missed my piano recital because I haven't had time to practice, but ... well, that is most definitely on.” A soccer ball from a nearby game rolled over toward them, and Sarah sent it back with a perfect, effortless kick.

“I'm still grounded too,” Jacob said. “I was kind of hoping my mom would be so overjoyed to see me that she would have forgotten about all of that, but she didn't even notice I was gone.”

Sarah grunted in agreement. “After I realized it was still a couple of days ago or whatever, I talked to my parents about cutting back on just a few of my extracurriculars to spend some more time with you guys.” She darted her eyes at Jacob. “I mean, because of my stress levels. I didn't even ask to quit everything, because I know I'd be bored if I did. I just want to cut back a little.”

“What did they say?” Jacob asked quickly. The idea of having more time with Sarah was terrifically exciting, and his heart was very anxious to know how fast it should beat depending on the news.

“不可能”

“What does that mean?”

Sarah sighed. “It means ‘no way' in Mandarin.”

L
ater that night, after finishing her homework and piano practice, Sarah slipped out her front door and walked down the street. She knocked on Dexter's door, Dexter successfully negotiated with his mother for a half hour of free time, and they walked together over to Jacob Wonderbar's house. Jacob smiled when he saw them and snuck outside when his mom wasn't watching. A couple of minutes later they were lying on their backs on Jacob's front lawn, staring up at the sky. Jacob and Sarah lay next to each other, their shoulders just touching, and Dexter was a few feet away.

Jacob looked up at the stars, twinkling and almost friendly, and it felt so incredible to think that he had flown among them just yesterday. Other than some light pollution from the city, it was basically the same canopy of dotted light they had seen out of spaceship windows or when it was night on Numonia.

Jacob squinted up to see if he could spot the Spilled Milky Way galaxy. It had seemed so impossibly huge when they were close to it, but the most he could see in the sky was a faint smudge that could have been anything.

Dexter giggled. “What do you think Mick Cracken is doing right now?”

Sarah smiled. “He's probably trying to figure out how to lock Princess Pointyhead in a basement somewhere.”

“I bet he's trying to find a diamond bigger than the Dragon's Eye so that he can steal that,” Jacob said.

“No way,” Dexter said. “I bet he's all depressed in his palace because he misses us so much.”'

Then things were quiet again except for the sound of crickets and frogs. Jacob ran his hands through the tips of the grass, which tickled a little and had the faintest bit of dew.

“If you could go back into space,” Sarah said, “would you do it?”

“I would,” Jacob said as casually as he could. “What about you?”

Sarah laughed. “I might buy a box of corndogs just in case the man in silver comes back.”

They both looked over at Dexter, lost in thought and staring up at the stars.

He smiled. “Definitely.”

Jacob looked at Sarah out of the corner of his eye, and then scrunched his body just a couple of millimeters closer. She did the same.

He closed his eyes and remembered what it felt like to whoosh around in space, breathing the faintly metallic air inside the spaceships and feeling the floor shudder as Praiseworthy went as fast as he could go. He could almost hear the quiet hum of the engines and feel the slight tug when they whipped around in a turn and could still remember the way passing planets looked like colorful crescents.

He didn't know if he would ever have the chance to fly through space again, but the twinkling stars would always make him remember that he had been there with his best friends.

And whether his dad was in outer space or Milwaukee, Jacob knew that his view was probably the same.

JACOB WONDERBAR
would have never made it off the ground if it weren't for my incredible crew:

 

NAVIGATION: N:
Innumerable thanks to my fantastic agent, Catherine Drayton, and my amazing editor, Kate Harrison, for always keeping me on the right course.

 

LOGISTICS:
Thanks to Heather Alexander, Patricia Burke, Lyndsey Blessing, Alexis Hurley, Nathaniel Jacks, and Charlie Olson for making sure things were always running smoothly.

 

DESIGN:
Thanks to Jasmin Rubero (interior), Greg Stadnyk (cover), and Christopher S. Jennings (illustrations) for making Wonderbar come to life.

 

FUEL:
Special thanks to Philz Coffee of San Francisco, whose delicious Jacob's Wonderbar Brew kept me going on many a Saturday morning.

 

GROUND SUPPORT:
I couldn't ask for two more incredible families, the Bransfords and the Presleys, and am constantly thankful for their love and support. Thanks also to Justin Berkman, Egya Appiah, Sean Slinsky and Holly Burns, Bryan Russell, Peter Ginsberg, Laura Blake Peterson, and all my friends at Curtis Brown Ltd.

 

CO-PILOT:
Alison Presley. I'll go anywhere in the universe as long as you're by my side.