Story Time (25 page)

Dr. Austin was jubilant. "Excellent, Ashley-Nicole! I knew we could count on you."

Bud added, "That's my honeybun!"

Ashley-Nicole pointed out to them both, "Of course, collateral damage could be a significant factor."

Bud adjusted his neck brace. "How's that, honeybun?"

"Innocent bystanders could get killed."

Dr. Austin and Bud looked at each other. "That's not good," Bud commented.

"No," Dr. Austin agreed. "Ashley-Nicole, what can we do to protect, say, three people here in the room when the Laser Cannon does its job?"

Ashley-Nicole tapped her two pointer fingers together. "Hmm." She looked at the Technon men. "Here's what I think we could do."

Both engineers started writing. "We will have Technon install a safety barrier of a periplastic that is very hard, has opaque properties, and is reflective on its energized side only."

Dr. Austin and Bud both nodded appreciatively. Then Dr. Austin asked Bud, "What did she say?"

Bud turned to Ashley-Nicole. "Honeybun, what'd you just say?"

"Oh, Daddy! Technon will install a protective wall for us. It will be like a two-way mirror. That way we'll be able to see what happens when the Laser Cannon hits the target."

Dr. Austin clapped his hands together. "Oh! Good. That's good." He pushed on the rotating door and gestured them all out. "In fact, it's perfect. The perfect plan!"

Kate and George waited for thirty seconds. Then they grabbed their striped uniforms and retraced their steps, up to the roof and down to the County Commission Room.

They had hoped to slip back in quietly, but Cornelia spotted them from the dais. She interrupted Susan Singer-Wright by calling out, "You two! How did my new uniforms fit?"

Kate and George froze; then they turned toward Cornelia. George started to shake, but Kate steadied him with her left hand. With her right hand, she answered for them both by sticking up her thumb and smiling hugely, like she had just pulled out a plum.

That evening Kate was very surprised to hear that June had called Mrs. Brennan and had invited her and Molly to dinner. She was annoyed, though, when the doorbell rang and June came out of the bathroom with her hair still wrapped up in a towel.

Kate snapped, "You're the one who invited them, June. Didn't you know what time they would be here?"

June ignored Kate's comments and, to Kate's further mortification, answered the door as she was. She shook hands with Mrs. Brennan and told her, "I'm June Melvil, Kate's mother. I should have invited you here over a year ago. Please forgive me."

"Don't be silly," Mrs. Brennan answered. "We're all busy people. It's nice to finally get together."

As they walked into the parlor, June confessed, "I haven't been that busy I haven't even had a job until recently. Now I'm working at the library to help pay for Kate's fees."

Mrs. Brennan replied, "Perhaps Kate has told you: I worked there for years. I was the director of Library Services."

"Yes, I know. I'm also embarrassed to say that I still have an overdue library book."

Mrs. Brennan laughed. "Don't worry about that. Just wait for a Library Forgiveness Day."

June, Molly, and Kate all looked puzzled. Mrs. Brennan asked, "Have none of you ever heard of a Library Forgiveness Day?"

Kate answered for the group, "No. Never. What is it?"

"It's an idea to get books back. A good idea, I think. Libraries set aside a day when they are willing to forgive all the fines that are owed to them."

June was surprised. "No matter how much?"

"No matter how much."

"But then the libraries don't get their money," Kate said.

"No, they don't. But they get something that is more important to them. After all, libraries aren't about fines; they're about books."

Kate commented, "That's pretty cool."

George came in through the back door and joined them in the parlor. June took the opportunity to stand up and excuse herself, saying, "I'll be back in two minutes."

Mrs. Brennan smiled a welcome to George. Then she fished a large white envelope out of her bag. "It's funny, Kate. Until our conversation the other day, I hadn't thought about Pogo in years. And now, this very morning, I received this."

She turned around the envelope to show that it was a FedEx overnight package.

Kate leaned forward. "What's in it?"

By way of answering, Mrs. Brennan dumped out the contents. Kate, Molly, and George beheld a flood of pages from children's books. The pages were isolated, unrelated, and from dozens of different books. They tumbled out in all sizes, conditions, and colors.

Mrs. Brennan explained. "It's Mrs. Hodges's secret collection. She razor-bladed every one of these pages out of a children's book"

Molly sputtered. "Why?"

"If she were here, she would say it was to protect you children."

"From what? What's on them? Anything good?"

Kate, Molly, and George rifled through the pile. But all they saw were witches, Halloween pumpkins, and friendly ghosts.

Mrs. Brennan grinned. "I thought you children might like to see everything that you missed growing up."

Kate asked her, "So how did you get this again?"

"It came from the library shipping room. From Pogo."

"How do you know it was from Pogo?"

"She included this note." Mrs. Brennan pulled out an index card. On it was written, in Pogo's neat hand:

See-saw, Marjorie Daw.
Jimmy shall have a new master.

Molly twisted her mouth. "What on earth does that mean?"

"I don't know," Mrs. Brennan admitted.

Kate thought for a moment, then she interpreted for them. "She's talking about what happened to you, Mrs. Brennan. She's saying she's sorry that you got driven out by the Austins."

Molly sounded doubtful. "Where do you see that?"

"You don't. You just have to know Pogo." Kate then looked at George, wondering how much she should reveal to the guests. She limited the news to "Pogo is gone now, too."

Mrs. Brennan raised her eyebrows. "No!"

"Yes. Pogo and Mrs. Hodges and Walter Barnes. Your entire staff is gone now, Mrs. Brennan, except for little Jimmy Austin."

"Why?" Mrs. Brennan shook her head, unable to comprehend. "What is going on in that place?"

Kate lowered her voice. "Mrs. Brennan, please. What do you know about Ashley-Nicole Singer-Wright? Who is she?"

A chill rippled across Mrs. Brennan's shoulders. "She ... she's a genius. A genius in applied science. She's the girl who put the Whittaker Magnet School on the map, I'll tell you that. She owned fifteen patents by the time she entered high school. Where, by the way, she only remained for two years. Every major university was after her. She chose MIT, I believe."

"She didn't look like a genius. She looked really ... normal."

"I suppose she is as normal as she could be, for a girl whose science fair projects are the deadliest weapons ever invented. The last thing old Mr. Whittaker did before he died was give Ashley-Nicole the school science fair ribbon. It was the third straight time she had won.

"He was very proud of her. He said in his speech that he could now die in peace because he had seen the second coming of his father, Cornell Whittaker Number One. Of course, that didn't sit too well with Cornelia. That's why she's been pushing that Whit creature so hard to be the new heir to the throne. But from what I've heard, he's an empty suit. The only things he invents are his accomplishments."

Kate laughed ruefully. "No argument there."

Mrs. Brennan looked up. Her mouth and her eyes both widened.

June had reentered the room.

Kate, George, and Molly soon all wore the same look of total surprise.

Kate spoke for them all. "What did you do to your hair?"

June's hair was no longer dyed blond. It had suddenly reverted to its natural brown. Nor was it combed to hide her face. It was brushed back behind her ears, just as it had been ten years before.

June explained. "Nothing. For a change. This
is
my hair."

"I think it looks good," Molly told her.

Mrs. Brennan added, "So do I."

"You may have seen me like this before, Mrs. Brennan." June turned to Kate. "And this may explain why it was so difficult for me to go back into that building, Kate. I used to bring you there every week. I was one of the founding parents of Toddler Time, now known as Story Time. It was something we loved to do together, my little girl and me."

"Good heavens!" Mrs. Brennan blurted out. "It was you!"

June turned back to Mrs. Brennan. "That's right. I was the grown-up who went crazy that day. They tell me I was swinging by one arm from a chandelier."

Kate and George leaned forward until they were nearly falling out of their seats.

June looked right at Kate. "We were sitting in a circle for Toddler Time. You and me and all of the other parents and their children.

"The book was
Peter Pan! Walt Disney's Peter Pan.
The Little Golden Book version. And it was your turn to hold the book and show the pictures. For some reason, you were too shy that day. You handed the book to me and said, 'You read it, Mommy.'

"That's all I remember. Until the fireman pried my hand loose from the chandelier and carried me down the extension ladder. Then I remember grabbing you and all our things and running from the library."

Kate was speechless.

June looked down. "Our world fell apart after that. Your father got called in at Technon. He lost his security clearance. He lost his job.

"Your father was very particular about things—his clothes, his cars, his wines. He was very particular about his wife, too. She couldn't be a raving lunatic who made a public spectacle of herself."

Kate was trying not to cry. She choked out, "Did you explain what happened?"

"Unfortunately, yes. I did. I told him the whole truth. I probably should have made up a story. I should have said that I had suffered a nervous breakdown or something. I think he could have handled that."

"Well, what did he say?"

June shook her head slowly, reliving the painful memory. "He said a lot of things. He said I was lying. He said I was on drugs. He said I had some genetic mental illness from Ma and Pa.

"Within a week he had packed up all his fancy stuff and moved out. He took that job with the American Schools Abroad Program, I suppose, to get as far away from me as he could."

George finally found his voice. "You, June? You were possessed? By Jack?"

June replied, with an intensity and purpose in her voice that none of them had ever heard before: "Jack and Jill went up the hill."

The sun rose in a bright blue sky on Tuesday morning, the morning of the First Lady's visit to the Whittaker Building.

June drove Kate and George downtown at 9:00
A.M.
Ma and Pa trailed behind in their van, transporting the other four members of the Tri-County Cloggers. All six cloggers were dressed head to toe, hats to boots, in their most spectacular outfits.

Kate and George climbed out of the Geo Metro at a distant parking spot along the River Road. They stared at each other's yellow silk pants and purple-and-yellow-striped shirts for a long moment, making horrible faces.

June locked the car and walked up to them, nervously tying and retying a black scarf under her chin. She was wearing a blue pantsuit that Kate did not recognize. June's face, beneath her natural brown hair, was white with fear.

Kate surprised June by taking her left hand. Then she took hold of George's right hand. She led them up the long hill to the Whittaker Building, moving grimly and silently, five paces ahead of the jangling sequins and clanging spurs of the Tri-County Cloggers.

The group approached a security checkpoint outside the main entrance. Agent McCoy himself stopped them. He compared their identification cards to a computer printout. Without a word, he undipped a velvet rope and indicated that they should proceed to the entrance. There, another agent opened the doors and watched them file past the fiery mosaic of
Andrew Carnegie in Hell.

Dr. Austin and his wife were in the lobby, busying themselves by making last-minute adjustments to the table display of
TBC: Test-Based Curriculum.

June untied her scarf, slid it off, and dropped it ceremoniously into a garbage can. With her restored brown hair and her rediscovered blue suit, she now looked exactly as she had on that fateful day in the lobby ten years before.

Dr. Austin stopped straightening his books and stared at her. His calm expression became troubled.

Cornelia looked up from the table and snapped at June, "Get upstairs and set out those folding chairs." She informed Kate and George, "Pogo's not here to help you. You'll have to cover her duties, too. You can start in the basement. Bring up the refrigerator with the soda cans."

George bristled at the rude treatment, but Kate took it in stride. She exchanged a quick smile and a wave good-bye with June. She walked toward the service elevator looking up and thinking of her mother in a whole new way—as the woman who had swung on the Whittaker Library chandelier.

As soon as they reached the basement, Kate and George spotted a cooler bearing a purple-and-yellow sign. The sign read
THIS ONE
! in Cornelia's large handwriting.

George said, "She forgot to add 'You idiots!'"

Kate picked up the sign and studied it with interest. "Uncle George? Why would anyone go to the trouble to do this?"

"I don't know." George thought about it. "To keep us from taking the wrong cooler?"

"Okay. But this one obviously has four hundred and eighty cans of soda in it. What's in the other one?"

"Nothing. Presumably."

"Then why bother writing a sign?"

George studied the sign, too. Then he smiled slyly. "Let's go find the other one."

They checked in the kitchen and in the furnace room with no luck. Then they snuck into old Mr. Pogorzelski's workshop. The second cooler was hidden in there, in a back corner, covered with a roofing tarp.