You'll Like It Here (Everybody Does) (23 page)

“She just chuckled and said, ‘Okay, don't tell me, then.' ”

I'm glad that telling the incredible truth worked better for Mom and Gil than it did for Gramps in the barbershop.

“It's time for curfew,” Mom whispers to me and David, and I can see that she's nervous. “I hope all is well upstairs.”

In a few moments Tom is at our door counting heads.

“The police have been at the Gilmores' apartment all evening,” he tells us in his gossipy voice.

“Are they still there?” Mom asks.

“No, they just left, but I think …”

Tom doesn't finish his sentence. It seems that something has just occurred to him. He gives each one of us a funny look, then actually pokes his bony head inside the door of our apartment and looks around.

“You think what?” Mom says coldly to him.

“Maybe I should call them to come back and search here,” Tom says, then watches Mom's face closely.

“Why don't you do that?” Mom snaps at him.

Tom abruptly slams and locks the door. We fall against it.

“Do you think he'll do it?” David says.

“I don't know,” Mom says, “but we've got to get out of here ASAP.”

The Family Hour
has just come on when Jennifer and Gil sneak in through the glass doors.

“Please tell me Colin's here,” Gil says.

“Of course he is,” Mom replies. “Now we've got to hurry.”

The six of us gather quickly in the bedroom, where the Carriage is standing tall and as straight as an arrow before us. We get in, and Colin, Jennifer, David, and I settle on the floor along the back wall. Gil stands beside Mom. Mom quickly locks the Carriage door and lights up the control panel. Her fingers begin to move over the keyboard.

“Farlands!” she says out loud. “Vacation 65. Room 204. Here we come!”

We hear a gentle swoosh. The Carriage is in operation. It's uncanny, but at that moment I think I hear
noises moving through our apartment, as if someone is coming. But the Carriage is soundproof, I tell myself. It's only my imagination playing tricks on me. Surely I'm just remembering the last time we were about to leave in the Carriage. I guess I'll never know for sure, because Mom strikes the palm of her hand against the bar that reads
OPEN THE GATE
.

Cries of astonishment follow as the Carriage is enveloped in a white vapor and we move swiftly through the gate and into another dimension. On the other side, we can see nothing but black space around us. Not one twinkle. But we can see each other by computer light. For a long time the only sound is the hum of the Carriage.

When the Gilmores find their voices, they speak in whispers, like they're afraid somebody's going to hear them. Then we all break into excited chatter. In the middle of the conversation—
Whoosh!
—the Carriage settles onto a level surface.

When the vapor clears, we see that we're in a place resembling a hospital room. And there's Gramps sitting on the side of a bed looking at us with a huge smile on his face! He's fully dressed and ready to go. He says something, but we can't hear him.

Mom gives one brief, clipped order to us, her passengers. “Stay where you are!” Then she flings open the door and runs to Gramps. They hug each other. “I was so scared for you,” she says with a tremor in her voice.

“I was a bit scared myself,” he says, then laughs way too loud and too long. When he speaks again, he slurs his words. “When that Lewis fellow said ‘Make room for the
Carriage,' I knew we'd be flying tonight! And it looks like the whole gang is flying with us!” He throws up a hand to us. “Hey, y'all! As they say in North Carolina.”

“Dad!” Mom says. “Are you loopy? Have they drugged you?”

“I reckon it was the cookie,” he says. Then he burps, touches his mouth, and giggles.

“What cookie?”

“They forced me to eat the thing. I didn't want it.”

Mom seems alarmed. “How long ago was that?”

“Oh, maybe an hour. But don't worry, it was only an appetizer.” He laughs uncontrollably.

“Appetizer?” Mom says. “What do you mean?”

“The main course will be coming in that door any minute.”

“What's the main course?”

“A hypodermic needle as big as my arm.”

“Then let's get out of here!” Mom says, and takes Gramps by the hand.

“Okay, just one more passenger,” Gramps says. Unsteadily he gets down on his knees and peeps under the bed. “Here, kitty, kitty,” he calls. “Here, kitty. You can come out now.”

I am bowled all the way over when I see who comes crawling out from under the bed. It
is
Kitty.
My
Kitty!

There's surprise all around, but no one seems more wide-eyed than Kitty herself. Still dressed in her purple shirt, she looks at the Carriage, then at me, and is unable to say a single word, which I know is a first for her.

“I collided with her out in the hallway a while ago,”
Gramps explains to Mom. “Poor little kitten was scared to death. I told her to get in here.” Gramps has another giggling fit. “And … and I didn't have to ask twice.” He wipes his eyes on his shirtsleeve. “She said they were about to stick her with a needle when she bolted.”

Mom gives Kitty a quick hug and says, “You're safe now. Let's go.”

The three of them are about to move toward the Carriage when the door of Gramps's room flies open. Just as Gramps predicted, a nurse holding a large hypodermic needle comes in. At the sight of us, she stops in the doorway and stares.

“What on earth?”

From behind her, another figure emerges, and pushes past the nurse.

“I smell them! I smell them!” he screams. “It's the aliens!”

All my emotions rise up in my chest. OMG. I feel I must scream in Chromish or burst. It's the man with the purple birthmark again! No matter where I go, he barges into my life. Will I never be free of him? I swallow and breathe, swallow and breathe.

A broken handcuff dangles from one of his wrists. At the sight of the Carriage, he's momentarily discombobulated. Gil leaps from the Carriage and blocks the nurse and the madman from coming any farther.

“Get in!” he yells to Mom.

From inside the Carriage, David is also yelling, “Come on, Mom!”

That's when bedlam breaks loose. The nurse begins to
scream, an alarm sounds, and two uniformed guards rush in. Once inside, they stop in their tracks and stare, obviously too confused to make a move.

The madman finds his voice again and starts yelling, “I told you so! I told you so!”

And before Gil can stop him, the man has slugged Mom right across the side of the face. She falls like a rock, and it's obvious she's out cold. Mom? Mom. No, Mom, no!

The pressure bubbles up into my throat, and the panic begins to move into my vocal cords and my mouth—my tongue! I am about to explode into a fit. But I don't. Instead I listen to a new but somehow familiar voice that comes from deep inside me.

“Calm, Meggie, calm. Remember you are true blue now. And at a moment like this, nobody needs a hysterical kid.”

It's my own voice. It's the bigger me.

Yes, now is the time for a cool head, and action!

Everything happens at once. Gil punches the madman with all his might and sends him reeling into the wall. He lands on his face and stays there. The nurse and the guards back away from Gil, and Colin, David, Jennifer, and I tumble all over each other trying to help Mom.

We fall out the doorway of the Carriage, then half carry, half drag her to safety. Gramps is stumbling around trying to help, but he can't get out of his own way. When we get Mom to the Carriage entrance, Jennifer and I crawl inside, then tug Mom in while Colin and David push. She's still unconscious, and lies like a lump of clay in the middle of the Carriage floor.

Oh, Mom, please move. Please open your eyes. Please be okay.

In the meantime Gil continues standing his ground, preventing anybody from getting close to the Carriage. And surprisingly, nobody makes a move toward us. The nurse has dropped the needle on the floor, and the guards are bug-eyed with amazement. It's like they're watching a suspenseful movie and can't wait to see what happens next.

Kitty's eyes are darting from one person to another. I gesture for her to come into the Carriage, and she leaps at the chance. Gramps stumbles in behind her, followed by David. The madman begins to move.

“Come on, Dad!” Colin yells. “Everybody's in!”

Colin climbs aboard, and Gil backs slowly toward the Carriage door, keeping an eye on the people in the room.

The madman scrambles to his feet and begins hopping around like a Mexican jumping bean. “I told you so! I told you so!” he cries over and over again.

Suddenly one of the security guards finds the presence of mind to take a swing at Gil, but his efforts are no match for the adrenaline pumping through Gil's veins at the moment. He dodges the blow, forcefully pushes the guard away, and then falls through the Carriage doorway. Gramps, who is closest to the door, somehow finds the wherewithal to pull it shut and fasten it securely.

I look around. Are we all here? Did everybody get inside? Yes! We're in a pile, but we're all here. The people outside still are doing nothing, except for the madman, who continues to rant.

Gil is holding Mom's head. She opens her eyes briefly. A huge lump is rising on the side of her face. Has that awful man broken my mom's pretty face?

“We're safe, Mom,” I whisper to her before she closes her eyes again.

“Is she okay?” Kitty says in a tiny voice.

“She'll be fine—in a little while,” Gil says.

And how long is a little while? Nobody knows, but all eyes go to Gramps. He's lying against the wall, humming, with a silly grin on his face. Even without the Carriage, he has gone into space.

“He's too drunk to drive,” David says.

“What now?” Colin asks.

More people have come into the room. They surround the Carriage and stare at us through the transparent walls.

“She'll be woozy when she wakes up,” Gil says, “but she'll be able to fly. We'll help her.”

“Who're you kidding?” Colin says, seeming disgusted. “We can't wait for her.”

I think at this moment I would enjoy punching his lights out.

The madman is now pounding on the side of the Carriage, and the other people ignore him. They act like we're the freak show instead of him.

“Why hasn't somebody put him back in handcuffs?” I say angrily. “Or at least muzzled him?”

But nobody seems to notice that I have spoken.

“Colin's right,” David says. “We can't wait for Mom. I
don't think the Carriage will keep us safe forever. We really need to get out of here.”

I crawl out from under all the legs and go to the control panel.

“I know how to search for the coordinates,” I say.

“The whats?” somebody says.

“The coordinates. It's a set of numbers.”

I look up and see the purple birthmark about a foot from my face.

He can't hurt you, Meggie, I tell myself. Ignore him.

“You don't know how to fly this thing,” Colin says, and I find he's standing right beside me.

I don't answer him. I have to concentrate. I search for the first number.

“Meggie.” David speaks up from somewhere. “Do you know what you're doing?”

“Yes, I do. Now, don't interrupt me.”

I find the first two numbers.

The madman is screaming right in my face. I can hear a muffled roar, but I can't make out his words, thank goodness. There must be at least a hundred people in that small room by now, and all eyes, inside and outside the Carriage, are focused on—guess who? Me.

With fierce concentration I punch in the third number.

“David,” I hear Colin say. “Don't you think you should stop her?”

“No,” David answers. “If she says she can do it, she can.”

Thank you, David, thank you.

I find the fourth and fifth numbers and enter them.

Three more numbers. The Western Province. Ask for a secluded landing site. Hit the bar.
OPEN THE GATE
.

The Carriage moves smoothly through the gate and takes us into another dimension.

“I think you did it, Meggie!” David cries excitedly.

Yes, we're through the first hurdle. I can only hope that my calculations for the Western Province are right.

“I wish I could have seen their faces when we disappeared,” Jennifer says with a nervous giggle.

“How do you know we're going in the right direction?” Colin asks me.

“I
don't
know for sure,” I say hotly, “but you know what, Colin, I did my best.”

It finally occurs to me that David was right about Colin. He's way too old for me.

I sit down beside Kitty and find that she's trembling.

“Don't worry,” I whisper, and put an arm across her shoulder. “We're safe.”

“I'm not worried a bit,” she says to me. “I'm just so excited I'm about to bust!”

“You're not scared?” I ask her.

“Scared?” she says. “Did you see the needle that nurse was holding? Now,
that's
scary! She was gonna use it on Gramps. They had one for me too, till Gramps snuck me in to hide under his bed. Said for me not to worry, that Meggie B. was coming for us both. Then I knew I was saved.”

Mom groans and tries to sit up for the third time, but once again Gil makes her lie still.

“Take it easy,” he tells her. “You're safe.”

Enough time has passed that we've settled comfortably on the floor. Kitty and I, Jennifer and David, and Mom and Gil are in pairs. Colin is slouched under the control panel, while Gramps is still beside the door, sleeping it off against the wall. Kitty has peppered me with a million questions.