Puddlejumpers (27 page)

They reached an oak platform suspended on ropes of hemp over a gorge that led even deeper into the earth. A torch embedded in the wall provided a shadowy light. When Ernie crossed onto the platform, it swung precariously under his weight, and, for a moment, he was afraid the ropes might snap and they would tumble into the blackness, never to return.

At the edge of the swaying platform, a lone Puddlejumper was moistening the rock wall with a sponge affixed to a birch pole. She was taller than the others and had long white hair. Runnel called out her name. When Pav turned and saw Ernie, her eyes filled with tears. Ernie watched as she put down her pole and came toward him. Gazing into his face with piercing green eyes, she touched her heart, then stood on tiptoe to touch his. It was the same way he'd said good-bye to Nate, and now he understood why.

As Ernie's eyes adjusted to the light, he began to see the most astonishing creature in the texture of the rock. It was a face two stories high. A woman's face, the same one from his dreams. Her emerald eyes twinkled for an instant, and Ernie gasped in wonder, disbelieving he could be under the scrutiny of such an awesome creature. She seemed to be in pain, her respiration a mournful wheeze. Pav returned to her care, using the sponge to circulate water trickling down her forehead to her eyes, nose, and mouth.

Summoning her strength, the stone being began to speak an ancient tongue only understood in the primordial deep. Her words reverberated in a cacophony of sound that encompassed every language spoken since the beginning of time. To Ernie it felt like a wave of energy brushing against him, until the most extraordinary thing happened. As her words echoed off the canyon walls, suddenly he could understand. She was MotherEarth. He listened in astonishment.

“Wawaywo
—your return brings hope to the Kingdom.” She paused to gather her breath, then spoke again. “Listen close, for there is very little time. The river is dry and my little ones are nearly gone. Only you can save them, only you can bring back the rain.”

Pav gave the pole to Cully, then, with a sense of urgency, began to grind colorful minerals from pouches on her belt using a mortar and pestle.

The voice of MotherEarth rumbled through the rocks, and Ernie could hear her say, “You must make the journey into the Most Dark and plant your Crystal Acorn where the fire burns hot and forever.”

Overwhelmed by it all, Ernie murmured, “I don't understand.”

“You will.”

MotherEarth persisted while she still had the strength. “Go to the place where my little ones are suffering and dying.”

A chill ran down Ernie's spine as he remembered the ladder in Holsapple's cellar that led into the oval chamber where he'd found the injured Runnel. He swallowed hard.
I saw a red glow outside the porthole. Was that the fire!
He tried to stop his hands from shaking.

“I can't go there,” he pleaded.

MotherEarth insisted, “You must. You were chosen.”

“But I'm just a kid. They'll kill me if I go back there,” he said, unable to hide his desperation. “I think they already killed my friend.”

Pav added a single wheat grain to her ground powder, then caught a water droplet trickling from MotherEarth's chin. She stirred her concoction with a wheat shaft. To Ernie's dismay, she motioned him to bend down. When he did, she took the Crystal Acorn from around his neck. He watched as she pried off its cap, then poured her muddy brown concoction into the hollow.

“Matuha kalo-lo,
” Pav announced as she presented the potion. Root and Runnel, Buck, Cully, and Chop all pressed eagerly around him.

“Drink and become one of us,” said MotherEarth.

“Matuba ka-lolo,”
they repeated, telling Ernie it was time to sip the Acorn so that he would become a Puddlejumper—not only in spirit, but in body, too.

Finally Ernie understood the purpose of his Crystal Acorn. He wanted to help them, he really did, but they were asking the impossible. “I can't,” he stammered. “I think I have a dad now. I might have a home.”

“This is the way home,” she replied softly, her voice weakening.

Runnel tugged on his sleeve with an imploring gaze. He looked at the others impatiently waiting for him to drink. It felt like one of his old crazy dreams, but this time he couldn't wake up. All he could think about was Russ and the farm. He had to find Russ. He needed to explain and make everything right. At last he found his voice, but all he could say was, “I'm sorry.”

With an ache in his chest, he set his Crystal Acorn on the platform. He was giving up the treasured totem he'd worn his entire life. The Puddlejumpers murmured, their sadness rippling across the Deep Down like the rustle of dead leaves.

The whole canyon shook as MotherEarth rasped,
“Wawaywo
—only you can bring back the rain.” Her energy spent, MotherEarth closed her eyes. Cully dabbed her forehead with the moist sponge. Ernie looked to Runnel and Root, but they were too disappointed to look back.

“I'm really sorry, but I have to go,” he said quietly.

He picked up a lantern and started up the winding stair.

Ernie was trudging across the sand of the grotto, wondering if he could even find his way back to the surface, when a tiny hand slipped inside his own. Chop nodded reassuringly, then led him up the roots of the giant oak. He escorted Ernie past the stone hut to a far knoll where there was an entrance to a tunnel. It was rarely used, and the going was difficult along the eroded floor. When the flame died in the lantern, Chop released a few fireflies, and they went up the steep slope in near darkness. And in silence.

There were so many questions Ernie wanted to ask.
What happened when I was a baby? Why did you choose me? How did I end up in Chicago?
His brain hurt from everything he should have asked when he'd had the chance. Now it was too late because, without MotherEarth's help, he and Chop couldn't understand a word each other said. So he started to think about what would happen when he got back to the farm. He couldn't wait to tell Russ who he really was. Now Russ would have to believe him about the Holsapples. And protect him. Somehow.

He was still daydreaming about it all when the tunnel ended in a snarl of dried brush. Chop found the opening and they slipped into a cave where a drilling rig for an underground pump station rattled loudly. Chop pointed above to the sunlight, then touched Ernie's heart before disappearing back to the Underneath.

Ernie climbed the rig to the surface. It was twilight now, and he found himself in the middle of the Holsapple wasteland. He clambered out of the pit and took a deep breath. It was bittersweet relief to be in the fresh air again.

He heard the car before he saw it. Ducking behind the derrick, he watched the black Cadillac approach along an access road, then veer across the field until it stopped beside an abandoned mine shaft. Axel popped open the trunk, then Angus reached in to retrieve a sledgehammer, a signpost, and a coil of rope. Ernie watched Axel pound the signpost,
DANGER, KEEP OUT
, into the ground. Angus tied one end of the rope to the post, then tossed the coil into the hole.

The back doors of the Cadillac swung open and Harvey Holsapple and Dicky Cobb got out. Holsapple supervised as Cobb lifted a lifeless body out of the trunk. He slung it over his shoulder and limped to the mine shaft. Ernie shuddered. Even from a distance there was no doubt it was Joey. Holsapple chortled as Cobb dumped the body down the hole. He said something and they all laughed. They were trying to make it look like Joey had fallen into the mine. Satisfied with their ruse, Holsapple, Cobb, and the twins slunk back to the Cadillac and sped away.

Ernie waited until the car was out of sight before running to the mine. About ten feet down, he saw Joey's crumpled body. He grabbed the rope and slid to the bottom of the shaft. He rolled her over. Her eyes were closed and her skin was pale. He brushed the dirt from her face and the hair from her eyes.

“Please don't be dead, please,” he whispered, putting his ear to her heart. He couldn't hear a thing. He covered his face and tried not to cry. His head ached.
It's all my fault.
He wished he could take it all back. He wished he'd never set foot in Holsapple's house. He wished he'd never left Chicago.
Why did this have to happen?

A tiny finger gently tapped his shoulder. He looked up. It was Runnel, with Root right behind her. Before he could speak, they jumped on top of Joey's chest. Runnel drew back her eyelids to check her pupils. Root put his ear to the girl's nose, listening. They looked to each other, then to the night sky and wailed,
“Hooty-hooooooo!”

The call rang out across the Warbling River plateau and echoed all the way to Kingdom Come.

CHAPTER THIRTY SIX

Dearly Departed

A
FULL MOON ROSE
over the farmhouse as Ernie ran to the porch and looked through the screen door. “Russ? It's me—I'm back!” he called. “Russ? You home?”

When no one answered, Ernie motioned to the field. Buck, Cully, and Chop led a white-tailed deer out of the wheat, hauling the body of Joey Woodruff on a bed of pine boughs. Root and Runnel took turns hopping up and down on Joey's chest while Pav, kneeling on the girl's forehead, squeezed air from a milkweed pod into her nose.

Once they reached the porch, Ernie struggled to lift his blood brother in his arms and carry her inside. The others followed, except Buck and Cully, who hurried back to the field to keep watch for Troggs.

Teetering beneath Joey's weight, Ernie managed to reach the crib room, which was still a disaster from the twins' destruction. He laid her lifeless body on the collapsed bed. He thought she looked sad, her T-shirt torn, her body scratched and bruised.

Pav scooted onto the mattress and began mixing pinches of hornet stingers, moth dust, poison ivy root, and a wolverine's eyetooth from pouches on her belt into a coffee cup. The final ingredient was a dragonfly wing.

Runnel motioned for Ernie's hand and, without warning, stabbed his thumb with a thorn.
Ouch!
She pricked Joey's thumb and pressed the bloody wounds together, then bound them with a shaft of wheat. She met his worried gaze with a reassuring smile, pretending not to notice his trembling hand.

In the kitchen, Root stood atop the stove with a dozen burned matches scattered at his feet. Fire of any kind made Puddlejumpers jittery, and fire from a giant iron contraption, like a stove, made them even more nervous. He struck his last match over the burner, then Chop cranked the gas. The flame surged and both Jumpers vaulted to the top of the fridge for safety. This time the flame held. Chattering excitedly, they jumped onto their jury-rigged ceiling pulley and lowered a kettle onto the burner.

The sheriff's car sped down the dark two-lane state highway. Tom Dashin checked his rearview mirror. In the backseat, Betty huddled against Russ. They'd been back to the Holsapples', over to Gram and Gramp's, the Goetzes', and into the little town of Circle, but no one had seen Joey since the day before yesterday. No sign of Ernie Banks, either.