Story Time (18 page)

Cornelia ran a yellow tape measure from Kate's hip to the top of her knee. "You're about the same size as Heidi. Perhaps Heidi has an old frock in the Goodwill bag. I'll see. Go back to your seat."

Kate looked out at her classmates again. She posed for them on one leg, her arms thrown back, like Peter Pan about to fly from the Darlings' nursery window. Then she hopped down from the stool and walked back to her seat, bowing and smiling at the stunned Mushroom Children.

Cornelia did not call up any other students from the class. She handed Reading 8 another slip of paper, growled, "Read this," and left.

Reading 8 first read the note silently. Then, exhaling relief, she read it aloud. "Everyone involved in Heidi Whittaker Austin's
Orchid the Orca
performance must attend a compulsory rehearsal on the roof. Immediately."

Kate closed her test booklet and gathered her belongings.

Cornelia ran the
Orchid the Orca
rehearsal like a cross between a Broadway show and an army boot camp. In between words of encouragement to Heidi, she shouted orders at June, Kate, and Pogo.

June had been told to set up folding chairs for the audience. She was apparently doing a bad job, as Cornelia had to stop the rehearsal twice to stomp over and show June the correct way to do it.

Kate and Pogo had been dispatched downstairs to fetch two items—a black cart to hold books and a rolling refrigerator to hold cans of soda.

When Kate and Pogo exited the service elevator in the basement, they encountered the gaunt frame and bloodless face of Dr. Cavendar. He was inside die library shipping/receiving area, standing over a rolling refrigerator and peering through its glass top.

Kate stole a glance at Pogo and then said timidly, "Mrs. Whittaker-Austin told us to bring the refrigerator up to the roof."

"This refrigerator is not currently available," Dr. Cavendar replied. "It is being defrosted. You must locate the other one and bring that upstairs."

Kate and Pogo moved away sideways, afraid to turn their backs on him. As they rounded the corner, Pogo whispered:

"Doctor Foster went to Gloucester
In a shower of rain."

Kate answered, "You can say that again."

They located the second refrigerator in the Protein Lab. Pogo started to wheel it away, so Kate suggested, "I'll look for a book cart."

Kate walked back up to the lobby and found an empty cart. She wheeled it into the service elevator and pressed the button for the roof. But before the doors could close, a hand slid in, causing them to reopen.

The hand belonged to Whit. He looked Kate up and down, and then stepped into the elevator. He stood a mere foot away from her as she again pressed the button for the roof. He said, "You know, I'd really like to press your buttons."

Kate looked at his eyes, then at his right foot. "Oh my god!" she shrieked. "A tarantula!" She stomped her heel down on his foot with the unleashed power of her accumulated rage. Whit's eyes bulged out like a cartoon frog's.

Kate smiled evilly. "Or maybe it wasn't."

The elevator doors opened onto the roof and Whit hobbled out. Kate stayed behind, struggling to get the cart moving over the black cinders of the rooftop.

Cornelia stopped rehearsal to shout, "You with the cart! Get out of the way! You're distracting Heidi."

Kate wrestled the cart toward the back wall, where Pogo stood with the refrigerator. But Cornelia again bellowed at her, "Where are you going now?"

Kate stopped completely. "I guess I don't know."

"Then don't go anywhere! Don't rattle a book cart across a roof while an artist is trying to perform. Stay put until you're told what to do."

Kate did as she was told. Shortly after, Cornelia announced that rehearsal was over.

While everyone else fled downstairs, Pogo bounced from foot to foot in front of Kate and motioned for her to stay behind. As soon as they were alone, they ran to the mushroom cap, ducked under, and descended the ladder. Pogo turned on the lantern, opened the door, and whispered:

"Rub-a-dub-dub
Three men in a tub
And who do you think they be?"

Kate whispered back, "Show me, Pogo. Show me who they be." Kate followed her into the hiding place behind the bookcase, puzzling over her latest rhyme. She figured it out as soon as three men—Dr. Austin, Bud Wright, and Dr. Cavendar—pushed open the secret door on the far wall.

Dr. Austin spoke as they entered. "Let's meet in here, gentlemen. It's possible those Secret Service agents bugged my office." He sat behind the desk and flipped open a notepad. "As you know, we have purchased four hundred eighty cans of soda for the First Lady's visit. They are currently being stored in the back of Cornelia's Hummer. Someone will need to transfer them inside."

"What about that hobo that Cornelia ran over?" Bud suggested. "The judge sentenced him to do twenty hours of community service for assault. Let's put him to work."

"An excellent idea," Dr. Cavendar said. "We will get him to bring this soda in and load it in the refrigerator. In the process, we will get his fingerprints. We may need them later."

Kate and Pogo exchanged wide-eyed looks.

"Now, let's get this next part over with," Dr. Austin told Bud. "Bring in Hodges."

Bud slipped through the passage and returned in half a minute with an obviously terrified Mrs. Hodges.

Dr. Austin tried to put her at ease. "Please do not be alarmed, Mrs. Hodges. We must meet in here for security reasons. You are perfectly safe."

Mrs. Hodges rasped at him, "How long has this room been here?"

"I do not know."

"Why didn't my husband and I know about it?"

"Because no one knows about it. It does not exist on any blueprints. It was sealed upon Cornell Whittaker Number Two's death, and his will stipulated that it never be reopened."

Mrs. Hodges arched both eyebrows. "Then why was it reopened?"

Dr. Austin thought quickly. "Because the will, obviously, referred to the general public, not to his beloved family members."

Mrs. Hodges's eyes darted from corner to corner. "There is evil in this room. I can feel it."

Dr. Austin sighed. "How is this relevant to our current problems, Mrs. Hodges? More importantly, how is it relevant to the behavior of Walter Barnes last Friday?"

"That wasn't Walter Barnes. That was a demon."

"I do not believe that."

"But you will! You will have to!"

"Surely there is a more rational explanation."

Mrs. Hodges stepped to the edge of the desk. "Need I remind you, Dr. Austin, what happened in this library ten years ago?"

Dr. Austin fidgeted. "No one is at all sure what happened back then."

"My husband was! And he lost his life for it! Let me refresh your memory, Doctor. Children—dozens of them—and at least one adult, were possessed by demons. Demons who lived in books! It happened right here. Right in this building."

Bud laughed. "Sounds like one of them horror movies at Bud Wright's Dollar-a-Carload Drive-in."

Dr. Austin waved him to silence. "Let us say, for argument's sake, that I do remember something about that. Which I do not. Not at all. But let us say that I do. What could I do to prevent it from happening again?"

Mrs. Hodges set her bony fingers on the desk. "Throughout the centuries, demons have been destroyed by fire." She raised her eyes to the bookshelves and their leather-bound contents. "You must burn every evil book in this library, beginning with the books in this room."

Dr. Austin was appalled. "No, Hodges. No! These books are priceless. You're talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars!"

"Burn them!"

"Absolutely not!"

"Then you will pay a greater price." She spun and stalked back through the passageway.

Dr. Austin walked around the desk and looked up at the bookshelves admiringly. "Antiquarian books are a great investment. This collection may even be worth millions.
And
it's something to show to visiting dignitaries, like the president of the United States." He caressed a leather-bound book on a lower shelf. Then he led the other two men out and closed the door.

Kate and Pogo stood up. Kate pointed at the door the men had used. "Did I hear them right? Children possessed by demons? Is that what they said?"

Pogo looked away.

"Please, Pogo. You have to tell me. What was that all about?"

Pogo answered:

"It made the children laugh and play,
Laugh and play,
Laugh and play."

Kate demanded, "What did? Who did? What, or who, are you talking about?"

Pogo answered:

"For many a stormy wind shall blow
E'er Jack comes home again."

Kate thought hard about the rhymes. Then she heard a sound above her, a scraping on the roof. She and Pogo hunched down. Kate whispered, "Oh my god, Pogo, they've found the ladder!"

There was a pounding of feet on the iron rungs. Kate whispered again, "They've caught us!"

George called through the door, in a stage whisper, "No, they haven't. It's just me." He slipped into the passage. "You need to work on a softer whisper, Kate."

Kate exhaled through gritted teeth. "You should talk. You came clunking down that ladder like three fat guys."

"I figured you would be in here. What happened?"

Kate's eyes glistened, and her words tumbled out. "It's just like I told you, Uncle George. This building is haunted by demons. Demons that live in books. Mrs. Hodges, Dr. Austin, Bud Wright, Dr. Cavendar, they all know about it. Whether they admit it or not, they know about it."

Kate took the lantern from Pogo and led George to the tall bookcase. "The demons may be right here, in this room! They possessed people ten years ago, and now they're starting to do it again."

George surveyed the book titles. "Why now?"

Pogo tapped him on the shoulder. She made a hammering motion with her arm, followed by a sawing motion.

George understood, and he translated for Kate. "The rooftop construction. The workers must have disturbed something, reawakened something."

Pogo jumped up and down. On one of her jumps, she snatched a book halfway off the top shelf; on her next jump, she pulled it out and down. She then laid it carefully on the glass of the Holographic Scanner.

It was an extremely old children's book, with a lavishly illustrated cover. George knew what it was right away. "That's
Perraulfs Mother Goose.
First London edition. Retail value approximately fifty thousand dollars."

Kate held her hands outward like they were gripping the sides of a ladder. "Uncle George, how could you know all that?"

"I told you before. It's on the Internet. Antiquarian books are a big business. People invest in them."

Pogo bounced up and down excitedly.

George stared at the Holographic Scanner and then at the shelves, perplexed. He pressed his hands to his temples. He asked, "What's weird about these books?" Then he answered himself. "These books are all antiques, yet they all have strips of holographic tape on them. Strips of Ashley-Nicole's sixth-grade science project supertape."

"So how does that tie in to the demons? What's the connection?"

George's eyes glowed irrationally. "The connection is this: The antique books got passed over the Holographic Scanner ten years ago. So maybe those books had demons in them. And the demons got out. And they have been living inside this machine ever since."

Kate jumped back from the scanner. Pogo did not move.

Then George shook his head in embarrassment. "No. No. That's crazy Forget it. I must be losing it."

George became so confounded that his eyes filled with tears. When Kate saw this, she walked over and put her arm around him. They stood for a long moment, just staring at the portrait of Cornell Whittaker Number Two in his black hat and robes.

Pogo stepped closer to join them.

"One misty, moisty morning,
When cloudy was the weather,
I chanced to meet an old man
Clothed all in leather."

Kate whispered to George, "She's told me this one before."

George looked up at the wall. "She's talking about him, Cornell Number Two."

Pogo continued:

"He began to compliment,
And I began to grin,
How do you do?
And how do you do?
How do you do, again?"

The three stared silently at the portrait for as long as they dared. Then they snuck back out into the evening, leaving the secret room in total darkness.

Thirty seconds later, a faint red glow began in the corner by the Holographic Scanner. Wispy white lines, dozens of them, appeared under the scanner's face, rising and falling beneath the quivering glass. They swirled together and broke back apart, in restless combinations, moving faster and faster, banging against the glass wall relentlessly, like prisoners determined to escape.

On Friday evening, Kate and Molly sat together on the back porch in the dusk. Molly was playing a mournful rendition of "Never Never Land" on her flute while Kate stared at the turning leaves of the big oak tree.

When Molly finished, she pulled apart the sections of her flute, placed them in the case, and said, "I hate to tell you this, but LoriBeth Sommers has been talking about you."

This snapped Kate out of her reverie. "What? What did she say?"

"She's telling kids that she has the lead in
Peter Pan
locked up, even if you do come back."

"Right. File that under
Never.
That girl lives in Never Never Land."

"It's so gross. She wears green tights to school every day now."

Kate simulated retching.

"It gets worse. She told Lisette that Derek Arroyo's been hitting on her."

Upon hearing that, Kate started pounding her forehead, slowly and rhythmically, against the wooden boards of the railing.

"And of course she's been bragging about singing the national anthem for the First Lady."

Kate immediately stopped fooling around. When she turned back to Molly, her face was drained of all color. "What?"