Story Time (12 page)

"She is. She's a darling. But quiet."

"Very."

Mrs. Brennan turned pages until she found a photo. "Here is Miss Pogorzelski as a little girl. She's posing with her father in his workshop."

Kate studied the picture. It showed a miniature version of Pogo standing next to a very old man. She was holding a book; he was holding a power saw. "What was Pogo like then?" Kate asked.

"She was, as you might imagine, a very quiet child. She was keen to read nursery rhymes, as I recall."

"Did she have any friends?"

"No. Not that I ever saw. She had Cornelia, but you would never call her a friend."

"Who's that?" Molly asked.

Kate answered, "She's Cornell Number Two's daughter."

Mrs. Brennan turned to a newspaper clipping. "Cornelia managed to get in the newspaper quite often." The clipping showed a color photo of a young Cornelia in front of a display of
Heidi
books. She was dressed in a white frilly outfit, and she held a staff with purple-and-yellow ribbons, but she looked miserable.

"Unlike Pogo, Cornelia could never keep her mouth shut. She was not born with a library voice. She used to bellow like a moose whenever she talked. That's what her father called her, in fact: 'the Moose.' It was sad really. I think Mr. Whittaker truly disliked Cornelia. And he truly hated Jimmy Austin. I can tell you that."

It was Kate's turn to ask, "Who's that?"

"You would know him now as the eminent Dr. J. Kendall Austin."

Mrs. Brennan pointed to a photo of herself standing next to a short, skinny teenager with long hair and big square teeth. "Jimmy Austin was a kid from the community college. He used to shelve books, like Pogo; he used to work the checkout desk, like Walter Barnes. He was always scooting around the stacks. And he was always writing term papers for some mail-order college that nobody had heard of. Mr. Whittaker used to call him 'the Mouse.'"

Next was a black-and-white newspaper clipping with a large wedding photo. It showed a young Dr. Austin, now with short hair and a dark beard, standing next to Cornelia. She was seated, wearing a flowing, expensive-looking white gown, but she still looked miserable. Mrs. Brennan commented dryly, "So the little mouse married the big moose."

Mrs. Brennan closed the book. Her tone turned cold. "Jimmy was always ambitious. He got his master's degree by mail; then he got his doctorate online. He chased after whoever could forward his ambitions, like those Technon people. The day he married Cornelia, Mr. Whittaker got him appointed deputy director of Library Services.

"Soon after, don't ask me why, strange things began to happen in the library. Otherwise well-behaved children would act like wild creatures. People assumed that the children were just acting out. Then it happened to an adult, and that was another matter.

"Rumors started flying. People said the library was haunted by a ghost or a demon of some sort. The Reverend Mr. Hodges arrived on the scene, claiming expertise in all things demonic. He announced that there was indeed an evil presence in the Whittaker Library Building. And that evil presence was ... me."

Kate and Molly gasped together. "I had always opposed the partnership with Technon," Mrs. Brennan explained. "And I had always seen through little Jimmy and the scheming moose.

"Jimmy found an old photo of me doing a Story Time, dressed like a funny witch for
The Little Witch's Halloween Book.
He went before the County Commission and denounced me as a corrupter of youth. The commission was then, as it is now, composed mostly of Technon people. They were eager to pin the blame on someone. They forced me to resign from my job."

"Why didn't you tell them to go to hell?" Molly asked indignantly.

"Don't talk like that, Molly."

"Sorry."

"The reason I spoke no such vulgarity was that they threatened to go public with the photo and to fill the newspapers with lies about me and my family. I knew they were capable of doing just that, so I left. I don't know. Looking back on it, perhaps I should have had a stronger backbone."

Mrs. Brennan shuddered and closed her eyes. Then she stood up. "Anyway, I'm sure you girls have more important things to talk about than the Whittaker Library. Good night to you both." She went upstairs, leaving Kate and Molly sitting in front of the scrapbook.

Molly held up one finger. "Okay, here it is. You just need to do something to get kicked out of that place. Come down with some weird sociopathic disease or something."

"Please!" Kate waved the idea off. "They'd love to lack me out. Tomorrow morning. It's Uncle George they want. But as long as we live at the same address, Whittaker is my school district."

"Okay, then. George needs to get kicked out."

"How? He's their model student."

"He needs to come down with a bad case of the stupids."

"No. When George tries to act stupid, he's still smarter than most people." Kate shook her head. "Whittaker is George's place to shine. Before this, I'd always been the star and he'd always been the one behind the scenes. Now it's reversed."

Molly looked away, unable to think of anything else to say. The doorbell rang five seconds later. Molly opened the door to George. "June's in the driveway for Kate," he announced. "She asked me to come up and get her."

Kate called over to him, "Yeah. Come in. I'm almost ready."

George waited while Kate poked her head up the stairway and called a final "Good night" to Mrs. Brennan, who called back the same.

Molly hugged Kate good-bye for several seconds. "You'll get back to Lincoln soon," she told her. "I just know it."

Kate did not reply.

"And you'll get the part of Peter Pan. You just have to wish for it with all your might. If you do that, your wish will come true. Right, George?"

George thought for a moment and then answered, "No, I don't think wishing has anything to do with it. I think events tend to follow in a logical progression."

Molly rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Good night, Kate."

George spoke past Molly to Kate, "You wish to be Peter Pan, don't you?"

Kate answered seriously, "You know I do."

"Think about what you did to make that 'wish' come true. You worked hard to make yourself a singer and a dancer. You went to all the rehearsals; you performed small parts for two years.

"If you get back to Lincoln, Kate, and you audition for Peter Pan, the directors will see that you are clearly the most talented and the most experienced candidate. They will give you the part."

George paused to look at Molly. "If, the night before they announce the roles, you close your eyes and make a wish, you may spend the rest of your life believing that your wish had come true." He turned back to Kate. "But the fact is, if you had gone to sleep without making that wish, you would have gotten the part anyway."

June honked the car horn. George said, "We'd better go." He walked ahead of the girls out to the car.

Molly spoke to Kate in a low voice. "I don't care what he says. I believe that wishes come true. And you should, too."

"All I know is this," Kate told her brusquely. "I'm not going to Lincoln with you on Monday morning, I'm going to Whittaker. And I'm not going home with my mother and father tonight, I'm going home with just my mother. So I guess I don't believe in wishes coming true, either. If I really want good things to happen, and bad things to stop happening, it'll take more than wishing. I have to act. And I have to act now."

Kate's entire family arrived earlier than normal on Monday morning. Ma and Pa Melvil were there to begin their janitorial duties. Kate, George, and June were there to set up George's science fair exhibit in the library lobby. This time, George would attach his pulley system—designed to illustrate maximum lift with minimum resistance—to a second-floor railing instead of to an oak tree.

Kate carried in the Velcro bodice, while George dragged in the pulleys. June took charge of the long rope, laying it in loose circles outside the library office.

Pogo bounced around the edges of their group, eager to help in any way she could. She produced several tools from beneath her dress for George to use.

Kate could not have been less eager. "Why are you doing this?" she asked George. "You know they're going to give it to Whit."

"Why did you audition for
Orchid the Orca?
You knew they were going to give it to Heidi, but you tried anyway."

Kate shrugged.

George's bespectacled eyes twinkled. "That's why I'm doing it."

When the flying machine was fully operational, George and Kate left the pieces in place and started their school day.

Just before third period began, Cornelia entered Kate's reading class and stood in the back. She told Reading 8, "Don't mind me. I'm just here as an observer. I won't be doing anything. I'm kind of like an understudy in a Broadway musical."

Dr. Austin entered right after, accompanied by another new teacher. Reading 8 understood immediately what was happening. She packed up her few belongings as Dr. Austin approached to make her firing official.

He walked over to the list of test scores on the bulletin board, studied them, and told her, "You have been given the finest materials, the most expert guidance, and the highest salary in education. Yet you have not been able to raise the reading scores of your lowest student by even one point. In fact, they continue to sink, as if this student, this Kate Peters, were enrolled in some free public school and not paying an additional ten thousand dollars per year for her education. I suggest that you go back to a school where the students pay nothing and get nothing, for that is precisely what they will get from you. You are—"

Dr. Austin had been so caught up in his own rhetoric, he failed to realize that Reading 8 had already departed. He looked around, perplexed.

Dr. Austin took a moment to regain his composure. Then he informed Kate's class and its new instructor, "You will not be testing today." He looked back at Kate. "Which must be a relief for some of you. You will instead report to the lobby for the first phase of the annual Technon Industries Science Fair."

Kate walked out last in the line behind the new Reading 8. After only a few seconds in the lobby, Kate had seen enough. The Technon Industries Science Fair was more pathetic than even she had imagined. There were only two exhibits on display.

The first invention bore a sign, in George's tiny printing,
THE FLYING MACHINE: A SYSTEM OF LOW-
RESISTANCE PULLEYS, BY GEORGE MELVIL, GRADE 6.

The second invention sat on a custom-made concrete block. It was a working model of Ashley-Nicole Singer-Wright's Laser Cannon. But according to its engraved bronze plaque, it had been modified. The plaque read
LASER CANNON WITH TRACKER, BY CORNELL WHITTAKER AUSTIN, GRADE 8.

A half dozen people wearing
JUDGE
badges sat between the exhibits. The dozing Walter Barnes was one of them; so were Susan Singer-Wright, Bud Wright, Dr. Cavendar, and two men in Technon Industries windbreakers.

Kate looked at the judges and thought,
It's all over.
But George was still game to try, so she did her best to look enthusiastic. George helped Kate attach the Velcro bodice, as they had done many times before. Then he tied the rope around his own waist.

Suddenly, an earsplitting whoop sounded across the cavernous lobby and echoed around the bookcases. Kate and George turned to face the source of the noise.

Ma and Pa Melvil were standing together by the lobby office. They were dressed alike, in purple pants and work shirts with
WHITTAKER MAGNET SCHOOL
stitched in yellow on the pockets. Ma was carrying a long-handled mop, while Pa pushed a tall metal bucket filled with soapy water.

"You go get 'em, Georgie!" Ma shouted.

Pa began, "Yeah, Georgie—" but he never got any further.

Cornelia bolted out from the office and confronted them. "That does it! You two. Get in here. Now!"

Ma and Pa looked at the floor. Then they shuffled into the office and out of sight.

George and Kate exchanged one quick, anguished look. But then they refocused and prepared again to demonstrate the flying machine.

Kate stepped back to gain some takeoff room. While she did, George took a quick look around for June. He spotted her cowering behind a nearby bookcase. He gave her a thumbs-up sign, which she could not return. He gave the same sign to Kate, who did return it. Then he took a giant step toward the judges, causing Kate to rise, magically, six feet into the air.

Kate struck a pose, like Mary Martin in
Peter Pan.
George coughed and cleared his throat, but none of the judges looked his way.

Suddenly, Kate felt a tickling sensation on her thigh. She looked down, expecting to see a fly or a mosquito. Instead, she saw Whit directly below. He had just touched her, and he was preparing to touch her again. She snarled, "Get your hand off me!"

Whit smiled slyly. He moved his hand upward again as if he hadn't heard her.

Kate twisted herself and looked around. She spotted June, standing only ten feet away. June was watching the whole thing. Her mouth was moving slightly, like she was trying to speak, but the rest of her body was paralyzed with fear.

Whit's hand gripped Kate's knee and started to rub its way upward, but it didn't get very far. With one great heave, June pushed her body forward, like a hiker in a snowstorm, staggering in an unsteady line, forcing one foot in front of the other across ten feet of lobby carpeting, until she crashed headfirst into Whit, striking him with enough force to drive him backward.

Whit looked astonished. He stared at June, open-mouthed. He continued to back away, in the direction in which she had knocked him, until he disappeared among the bookcases.

Kate twisted again to get a better view. She saw June beneath her now, apparently frozen in the place where she had struck Whit.

Then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw Pogo dart into the picture. Pogo bounced up and down in front of June, just inches from her face. Then she spoke: