Escape from the Drooling Octopod! (8 page)

Alana tilted her head sideways to think about it.
Good
and
bad
— did Alana even know what the words meant? Beamer wondered.

Beamer tried to see Alana as she really was. In fact, the more he looked at her, the less ugly she seemed. Once, they were both driving electric cars when they bumped head-on into each other. Beamer got a close look at her face. She definitely had the face of an old woman — a very old woman, like the old crone Snow White's stepmother turned into to give her the poisoned apple. He couldn't help taking a deep gulp.

Then it happened — the moment of doom Beamer had been afraid of.

“Do you think I'm pretty?” he heard Alana ask Scilla.

It was like Murphy Street had suddenly become Hiroshima. He was choking and coughing like he was in the middle of the mushroom cloud.

Scilla was turning pink — or was it green? She cleared her throat nervously, hemming and hawing. If she didn't think of something to say soon, she would probably shrivel up from the fallout.

“Not that I'd be as pretty as you are, of course,” Alana added before Scilla could say anything.

Beamer could tell from Scilla's expression that, however much she had come to like Alana before, she really liked her now. The trouble was that the mushroom cloud was growing, and Scilla still didn't know what to say.

Scilla was rescued from her dilemma by the patter of rain-drops on the window. You'd have thought those drops were the cavalry coming to the rescue. If he'd had a flag, Beamer would have waved it wildly, cheering till his lungs wore out.

“Hey, we'd better get going before it really starts coming down,” Scilla said quickly. “Thanks for having us over,” she said to Alana with a smile. “I've had a great time!”

“Me too,” said Beamer.

“No question about it,” added Ghoulie.

Scilla hesitated a moment then hugged her. Alana's eyes grew big with surprise and bewilderment. She had no idea how to react. Then Alana moved toward Ghoulie.

Ghoulie backtracked triple speed, disguising his retreat with a laugh and a crooked smile. “See you next time. Yessiree, just put up that flag, and we'll be back here in a flash!” Then he was in the hallway, making a quick run to the balcony window.

Fearing the same thing as Ghoulie, Beamer also made a quick exit. He took her outstretched hand and shook it like he was pumping water from a well. “Yeah, let us know, and we'll be back. Some day maybe you can come and visit us — well, maybe when we find a way to change your dad's mind . . . and . . . and a few other things.”

“Some things are just for girls,” Scilla said to Alana with a wink, “like hugs.”

Alana batted her eyelashes, trying to figure out what a wink was all about, but she nodded, seeming to get the gist of Scilla's comment.

“We'll see you soon. Oh, let me help a little,” Scilla said as she scurried about the room, putting things back the way they were. “We don't want anyone to know you've had visitors.”

“That's okay,” Alana answered, “I'll clean up. You'd better get going before you get drenched in a downpour.”

“Oh, yeah, right!” Scilla said. “Well, bye!”

Alana was right behind her when she ran out the door, and she was waving at them from the balcony when they disappeared into the canopy of leaves.

Sure enough, Scilla got grounded . . . for two whole weeks! Her grandmother could hardly speak to her, except through clenched teeth. Dashiell told their grandmother that it had been an accident. Once again, Scilla was about to be grateful for her stepbrother when he added that Scilla probably shouldn't have been playing near something as fragile as that lamp. Scilla wasn't sure she appreciated him coming to her defense. His other attempts to comfort Scilla involved describing his latest science project. Scilla thought it sounded familiar, but she couldn't quite place it.

After a week of listening to Dashiell brag about his accomplishments, Scilla gave in to doing a little bragging on her own. She told him about the caves full of fireflies and about Parker's Castle and its bizarre garden, about the miniature world in the cavern, Solomon's palatial mansion that looked like a train locomotive, and about the giant web. Dashiell gave her a doubtful look with each story, but that's what eventually ended her period of grounding six days early. Dashiell got their grandma to let Scilla show him the things she'd talked about. Her grandma had always taken Scilla's stories with a raised eyebrow or two — you know, the old “overactive imagination” explanation. She said as much to Dashiell, but he insisted that he wanted to see for himself.

Scilla was looking forward to gaining a little respect. Unfortunately, things didn't turn out like she'd hoped. First of all, the fireflies hadn't awakened from their winter nap, and the caves were dark and cold and dripping with water. At least the lamps worked, but Dashiell was unimpressed, believing that a battery-powered lightbulb was buried in that yellow-green liquid. Then Scilla couldn't find the way to the miniature world. The smirk on Dashiell's face did nothing to help her rising level of frustration. She finally got totally lost and had to call Ghoulie to rescue them by tracking her phone via GPS.

As if that wasn't enough, when they finally got back to the surface and into Ms. Parker's garden, it was all covered with plastic. She was having it fertilized and treated with bug killer. They coughed all the way to the iron gate. After she got home, Scilla sat in front of her mirror for a half hour waiting for her face to shrivel up from the toxic fumes. She was sure that her grandmother would be mad enough to bury her without even her name on the tombstone. Of course, her stepbrother's funeral would probably be on national television.

Ghoulie, who was still with Scilla after rescuing them from the cave, finally convinced her to take Dashiell the few blocks over to Solomon Parker's house. That way they could see his house and probably get him to let them into the miniature world. On the way, Dashiell talked about how he had been recruited by NASA and how he had discovered a new planet around a star that was later named after him. Ghoulie rolled his eyes.

Unfortunately, this was not Scilla's day. All they ended up seeing at Solomon Parker's estate was the wall and gate. Solomon was away on a trip to visit the architect for the new trolley station. Meanwhile, his staff of servants was doing spring cleaning.

Scilla's expression was drooping severely when they got back to her house. Naturally, things would get worse.

11

Banished!

Now that Scilla was no longer grounded, Beamer told her they were overdue in visiting Alana. The flag had come and gone three times without them visiting her. The boys had worried about hurting the girl's feelings, but not enough to go without Scilla.

Again they talked about how they had to be careful with the girl. One thing Scilla was not going to do was brag. She'd learned her lesson. She didn't know how Dashiell got away with doing it so much, but she was turning off the spigot. “Show not tell” was her new catchphrase.

Alana greeted them like they were long-lost relatives. “Oh, I was afraid I'd never see you again!” she cried, almost in tears. “Every chance I had, I put the flag out, but you never came!”

Clearly the girl had been close to frantic. Suddenly Beamer was sorry that he and Ghoulie hadn't come over. They could have, at least, let her know that the problem had nothing to do with her.

“I worried so much,” she went on, now wiping a tear off her cheek. “Daddy would ask me what was wrong, but I couldn't tell him, of course. I felt bad about it. He gets so worried when I'm hurt or sad.”

Scilla got busy telling her what had happened. She had a very difficult time describing what the word
grounded
meant.
Is it possible that the girl has never done anything wrong?
For a moment, Beamer wondered if she was one of those “little miss perfect” girls.
No
, he concluded.
The girl is just so . . . innocent
— that was it! She was like a puppy or a kitten — completely
innocent!

She was about as excitable as a puppy too. She would play with such energy and giggle and laugh so hard that she would almost get out of breath.

This visit, they spent most of their time in the castle play-house. He and Ghoulie had suggested the idea when they found some play swords, shields, and helmets. Of course, they had to ignore the fact that they were pink. Beamer would yell from the highest tower how he would defend the castle to his last drop of blood, while Ghoulie would ride up to the castle calling out challenges. Yes,
ride
is what he did, and not on a stick with a horse's head. Alana had a real pony parked in a little corral at the corner of her yard. It was one of the few things around that wasn't pink.

What Beamer liked especially was the cannon. It sat on top of the castle wall and actually fired plastic cannonballs — pink ones, of course.

Alana seemed very happy to be a maiden in distress and to be rescued from imprisonment in one tower or another. She even found a Sleeping Beauty costume to wear. It was hard not to stare at the girl. Her face looked so out of place in the costume. Beamer could see the same reaction in the eyes of Scilla and Ghoulie and hoped that Alana wouldn't notice.

Naturally, Scilla would have none of this maiden-in-distress stuff. Nor would she ask politely to wield a sword. Once, when Beamer rode the pony up close to the castle, she suddenly swung out from behind the castle on a pink rope. She knocked Beamer off the pony, taking his sword and shield in the process.

Beamer was severely bummed by this and chased her and the pony all over the yard, up, around, and through the castle, while Ghoulie and Alana laughed and laughed. Beamer was hard-pressed to figure out what was so funny. That was when he learned there was such a thing as having too much fun. Alana suddenly jumped back and gave a little “eeek.” There, standing on the open stone patio outside the back door, was the nanny with the pointed nose. She didn't just look upset;
volcanic
might be a good description.

“What
aah
you children doing
heah
?” she asked on the verge of eruption. “I told you that Alana could have no
visitahs
! Get out of here right now
befoah
I call the police!”

“But Nanna,” Alana said, trying to defend them, “I asked them to come over.”

“Out! Out!” Ms. Warrington continued to scream as she scurried down the broad course of steps into the backyard.

Scilla threw down her sword and shield as Ghoulie scrambled around the winding steps of the castle and hopped on the pony behind her. They were going to have to move quickly to get out of this yard before the fire-breathing woman caught up with them. They galloped over to Beamer, who was still out of breath from chasing Scilla. Ghoulie reached down and hoisted him up by one arm, but Beamer somehow ended up sitting backward on the pony. Luckily it was a big pony, and Scilla weighed only a little more than a feather.

As they galloped toward the tree, Beamer yelled, “We weren't trying to hurt her. We were trying to be nice.” The lady's expression didn't soften. Beamer gave up, figuring they'd have better luck feeding candy to a vampire.

As they approached the tree, Alana was running toward them. “Please come back!” she pleaded with them. “I'll find a way.”

They lofted onto a couple of branches and swung into the tree as the horse ran under it. Beamer thought it was a pretty cool trick. He was wondering if they might have a career doing pony tricks in a circus. But then he saw Ghoulie hanging from the tree by one leg with his glasses on sideways. Ghoulie managed to scramble up out of the way just before the woman ran beneath the tree.

“Don't you
evah
come back!” she yelled up at them. “Do you
heah
me? The next time I will call the police!”

Beamer looked back as they climbed. He saw the woman take Alana into her arms. “
Aah
you all
raht
?” he heard her ask Alana. “What did they say to you?” Their voices grew fainter as the woman walked the girl back toward the house.