The Hole in the Wall (7 page)

Read The Hole in the Wall Online

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

BOOK: The Hole in the Wall
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With her shirt tucked in Barbie hopped to her feet and stood nose-to-nose with me, practically hyperventilating with anger.
“You know that isn’t a normal rock, Sebby! Rocks are cold, dead things. That one is
alive
! It’s
magic
! And magic’s
evil
! You have no business keeping it.”
“Come off it, Barbie.” I sat on the guardrail to get some space, catch my breath, and put the gore behind me, out of sight. “That rock is just doing whatever comes naturally. There’s no such thing as magic. Everything has a scientific reason. We just don’t always know what it is.” Jed was always saying that.
“Sebby! That rock is scary! It even scared you at first! What if it’s radioactive or something? It might cause cancer. You might grow three heads with snakes for hair. Have you thought of that?”
“If it was radioactive, Madame Curie, do you think Boots would be leaving it next to his fruit bowl? He has a ton of them lying around, his mother even said.”
“You’d better pick up your bike before it gets run over, Boots Junior.”
“Yeah, go ahead and change the subject just because you’re losing,” I said, but I must admit that I heard a motor roaring up the hill, and my bike sat in the middle of the road where I’d let it drop when I got off it.
I wheeled it to the curb just as two balding tires smoked to a stop right next to us. And between them, a rusty red pickup door with faded lettering:
CRAIG “JACK OF ALL TRADES” DANIELS
HOME HANDY MAN
CALL FOR THE MOST REASONABLE PRICES ON EARTH!
The window rolled down and Pa’s hairy fist spilled over the edge of it, holding a plastic baggie with an egg inside. “I wanna know what’s going on, boy.”
If my stomach didn’t already hurt before, it would now.
“I d-d—I have no clue what you mean, Pa.” Had he seen me fighting with Barbie? If so, I was in for it. Pa thinks boys should never hit girls, unless of course they’re fathers instilling discipline.
“You know exactly what I mean. I wouldn’t put it past you to set up this whole egg thing to get out of your chores in the morning. Slip the chickens some d-CON, maybe? I’ve heard what a hard time you give your mother when she gets you out of bed, you lazy good-for-nothing kid.”
How could he hear that when he was snoring so hard? But I didn’t ask. I leaned hard on my bike and looked out over the gore. It was better than looking at Pa’s eyes.
“Pa, I didn’t do anything to the chickens, I swear!”
“Well, your mother nagged me to drive two hours all the way over to the state university agricultural lab and drop off this petrified egg. They told her on the phone they’d try to figure out what’s wrong. If I get over there only to find out you’ve been pulling one of your tricks, you’re gonna wish you were never born!”
I already do. Did I say it, or just think it?
Pa leaned at me. I could almost feel his three-day beard scratching my nose. I held my breath so I wouldn’t have to smell his.
“What did you say?”
“I didn’t do anything wrong, Pa. I didn’t!”
Pa glared and nodded. “We’ll see about that, won’t we.” He thwacked the baggie against my head before he drove off.
As I rubbed the sore spot, the Shish halfway smiled. “Hey, Seb, Pa just left an egg on your head.”
I took that as an invitation to make up. “Sorry about . . . you know. I just really wanted my pebble.”
“Yeah, I owe you one,” she said, and took off coasting downhill to home. It didn’t take her long to pay me back, either. The moment we got in the house, she handed Ma the Abe Lincoln Miss Beverly had given her and said, “Mr. Odum’s mother is really cool. She gave us candy and fruit and let Sebby bring home a rock that you’re not going to believe.”
“Isn’t that nice,” said Ma as she squirted mustard on slices of canned meat. “I hope you didn’t spoil your supper, though.”
“Sebby, aren’t you going to show Ma your pebble?” Barbie smiled smugly my way.
I tried not to smile back. Little did she know.
“Sure,” I said, turning out my pockets. Blue balls of lint drifted out, but no rock. Because on my way inside I’d dropped it under the porch. Nobody but me would ever find it. Except for maybe Jed’s Stupid Cat, who was sitting under there guarding the house.
“Uh-oh,” I said. “I must have lost it on the way home.”
Barbie looked disgusted. “Ha, ha, Sebby. You put it somewhere else. You just don’t want to show Ma. Cough it up.”
I shrugged my most innocent shrug with my palms up. “Why wouldn’t I show Ma?”
Ma put her gourmet supper recipe under the broiler, then stood up with hands on hips to face us. “What’s so special about this rock that you two are making such a big deal out of it?”
“It’s nothing special,” I said. “Just a plain old gray pebble. I only took it as a souvenir.”
Barbie growled. “Ma, that rock . . . !”
I crossed my fingers and wished she’d keep going. Let her try and explain all about the evil magic rock that made music and light displays. Then who would have the reputation for making up wild stories? This could be entertaining.
Barbie squinted at me, then rolled her eyes. “Oh, never mind.” She punched me hard in the arm on her way upstairs to do whatever she does when she gets away from me.
Now
we were even.
After dinner that night, Ma got her homemade cookies out.
There
was something to take my mind off everything else. I held my first one up to the bare light bulb over the table to study it and tried not to think about my aching stomach. The entrée of burned mustard-on-Spam hadn’t helped my belly any. I actually left some food on my plate. Ma asked why, I told her, and she gave me a shot of the pink chalk medicine. It helped a little. Enough to slip in dessert.
“I think that I shall never see, a thing as lovely as this cookie,” I said with dramatic flair. The cookie was round and pale yellow like the sun, no burned bottom, just the faintest ring of light brown around the edges, hinting at the possibility of a chewy middle.
Enough anticipation. I shoved half the thing in my mouth and chomped down.
The pain! The pain! It shot through my twelve-year-molars and cheeks up into my eyes. That cookie was a rock. “Yow!” I jumped up and ran to the mirror. “Ma, you broke my new teeth!”
In the background I could see Barbie staring strangely at her cookie. Carefully she put an edge in her mouth and nibbled. She nibbled harder. She twisted and gnawed and nothing happened to the perfect cookie. She made a face.
“Is this another one of your so-called jokes about my cooking?” Ma picked up a cookie and took a bite. “Ow!” She put her hand to her mouth and stared at the cookie forlornly. “But I timed them! They aren’t burned! What could have—oh!”
She put her head in her hands. “Oh no . . .”
“What’s the problem out there?” called Grum from the bathroom.
“Those godforsaken eggs,” Ma said. “There’s something wrong with them after all. They calcified in the cookies. I sure hope Stan Odum hasn’t tried to eat any of them yet!”
No wonder my guts felt like a bowling alley. I’d eaten two great big blobs of that cookie dough! I groaned at the thought of what I was in for. As Grum always says, “What goes in must come out.”
“I’m going to have to give his money back and get those eggs off him,” Ma was saying. “How on earth am I going to explain?”
If he ate the eggs, Boots Odum might wind up in the same predicament I was in. Ha! “Don’t bother,” I said. “It’s his own fault anyway. He asked for fresh eggs laid this morning, and that’s exactly what you gave him.”
A killer point, I thought, but Grum called, “Remember the Golden Rule.” Then the toilet flushed. It made me laugh, but I guess nobody else got the humor. Ma and Barbie frowned at me.
“What about the Dogstars?” Barbie said. “The eggs they traded yesterday came from the same batch you put in the cookies.”
“Dear Lord, that’s right!” Ma was pacing now. “I can call Stan Odum and warn him, but the Dogstars don’t have a phone. I’ll have to tell them in person.” She looked out the window and ran a hand through her hair. “But it’s already getting dark, and I don’t even know the way to their house. Do you kids?”
“We’ve never been invited,” said Barbie, shaking her head no. Um, well, me and Grum’s binoculars might have made the acquaintance. But that didn’t mean I’d know my way in the dark. I just shrugged.
“Guess I’ll have to go first thing in the morning, then,” Ma said.
“But what if they have eggs for breakfast before you get there?” Barbie wondered.
That made me remember something. “Cluster wasn’t in school today. Maybe she already ate some of those petrified eggs and they made her sick!”
Ma gasped and covered her mouth, making the worry in her eyes stand out. “We’d better go right now. You two come along and help me find the trail.”
“Do I have to go?” said Barbie. “I want to finish my homework so I can enjoy the rest of my weekend.” Good thing I already had barf medicine in my system. Of course Ma said she could stay home.
Ma grabbed a flashlight and we hopped in the SUV. She parked along the shoulder on the good side of Kettle Ridge, and we found our way to the trail Cluster emerged from every morning. Cluster called it the Trace. It had been made by animals in ancient times, she told us, and Native Americans used to follow it when they migrated. The Trace was well worn, but still not easy to follow on a dark and cloudy night this time of year. The ground all looked the same, covered by dead leaves and pine needles, with no summer growth around the trail yet. Plus it was slippery. Ma kept grabbing my arm and saying, “Watch your step, don’t fall.”
I didn’t say so, but I was a little scared. The woods smelled wet and rotten, like something had died. All around us we could hear rustling and the noises of animals doing their night things. There were bears in these woods, wildcats, possibly rabid foxes, porcupines that could quill us, skunks that could spray us. Our own breathing sounded loud in the deep quiet. It had turned cold, and that made everything seem louder. An owl hooted right over us, making both of us scream and jump and then laugh at ourselves nervously.
We walked about ten or fifteen minutes and then reached a steep hill. From there the woods opened into a valley meadow with a boxy shadow looming at the center, a building with soft lights barely glowing in a couple of the upstairs windows. A trickle of woodsmoke made gray curlicues in the black sky. They reminded me of the mildew stains in our house.
“Welcome to Zensylvania,” I said.
“Lovely,” Ma said. “Well, let’s hurry up and get this over with.” And she led the way downhill to the cabin. It had been handmade out of trees on the property. It made an awesome silhouette with logs jutting out at the corners.
“Oh, my goodness! I can’t believe this.” Ma aimed the flashlight at a shiny white square on the door. A sign, it looked like. A very familiar sign. You couldn’t go a hundred feet around the edges of ORC without seeing one just like it:
AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY
TRESPASSERS WILL BE PROSECUTED
ARMED PATROL ON DUTY 24 HOURS
VIDEO SURVEILLANCE IN PROGRESS
ODUM RESEARCH CORPORATION
“The Dogstars must have sold out,” Ma said in disbelief. “I thought they never would.”
I had a sinking feeling about that. “Cluster said the goons came to test the Zenwater yesterday. I bet it flunked.” Had it turned all colorful and foamy like the spring at the Hole in the Wall? Suddenly I felt scared for my friend.
“Whether it did or didn’t, I don’t see how they possibly could have moved out this quickly. And there are lights on upstairs. They must still be here.”
Ma poised her hand to knock at the door.
“Wait, Ma!” I shone the flashlight around searching for hidden cameras, but only saw animal eyes glowing from a tree. “Ma, you sure you want to knock? What if the people inside are Authorized Personnel Only?”
“What if they’re the Dogstars? I have to warn them about the eggs. Let Stanley Odum try and prosecute me for doing the right thing.”
At that, Ma swallowed hard and rapped loudly on the door.
7
We waited, listening for footsteps inside, and heard nothing but the wind in the trees and the roof settling. Bats swooped and rose in chaotic patterns. A puff of wood smoke wafted by, making me cough. Feeling the cold, I blew on my hands and jogged in place.
Ma knocked again. Still nothing. She reached for the doorknob. My heart quickened as her hand twisted.
The latch clicked. The door swung open with a long, spooky squeak. Ma shone her flashlight inside and screamed. My heart stopped. The Dogstars lay on the floor before us, moaning and frothing at the mouth, their skin splotched with colors like in the polluted spring at the Hole in the Wall.
No, my brain made that up. Must be all those horror movies Pa watched on the TV. Ma didn’t scream. She still had her hand on the knob. It didn’t turn. The door was locked. My heart restarted.

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