Arcade and the Fiery Metal Tester

by Rashad Jennings

  I put my fingers to my mouth and I whistle. I’m not a great whistler, though. It always sounds like a dying squirrel or something. But Loopy knows the sound.

  We both stand there on the ice, looking up at the massive tree, while skaters whizz by. Workers are installing lights on all levels of the Rockefeller Christmas tree.

  “If he’s up there, he’ll come out. I’m the only one in the world who whistles like that.”

  “And that’s a very good thing,” Zoe says.

  We wait and we watch. I whistle again.

  Zoe puts her fingers in her ears. “Come out, Loopy, and save my eardrums.”

  And then we see him! On the tallest level, of course!

  “Loopy! Come down here, boy!” I yell at the top of my lungs.

  Woof! Woof!

  He turns and runs toward the middle of the tree. I can’t see him anymore.

  “Come on, Zoe! We have to get to the base of the tree, ASAP!”

  I grab Zoe’s hand and we run off the ice. Well, at least Zoe does. I just slip again and slide head first like a baseball player into home plate. I do this several times till we reach the exit.

  “Arcade! This way!” Zoe waves her arms and runs around the ice rink, up toward the monster-tree construction site.

  How many lights do they use on this thing, anyway? Over 50,000. You read it in New York City: A Coffee Table Tour.

  I’m finally able to pull myself off the ice and make some tracks. I run as fast as a person can when weaving through New York City crowds. Most of the people are taking pictures of the tree and not trying to move out of my way. I whistle again, but it’s drowned out by the sounds of honking horns, construction vehicles, and workers hammering up in the tree.

  We finally reach the base. Well, as close as we can get. A short barrier keeps us from it.

  “Excuse me, sir? Can I come in there? My dog is on the top level of the tree.”

  The security guard looks at me and laughs. “A dog? There are no dogs up there. Just construction elves.”

  “Are you sure?” Zoe says. “He’s a little shih-poo, and he’s wearing a head camera.”

  “A head camera?”

  “Yeah! And he’s taking pictures for his Picture Post account.” Zoe tries to show him on her phone but it’s all glittery. “Sorry. My phone is broken.”

  The security guard looks confused, but he pulls out his phone. “I’ve got Picture Post. What’s his username?”

  I take a deep breath. “@LoopDogNYC.”

  The man pokes letters on the phone, and then grabs his head. “What?!?” He turns the phone so I can see it. Loopy’s posted a picture from the top of the tree, looking down at the ice. There’s a kid sprawled out on his stomach.

  I laugh. “Yes! That’s me!”

  The security guard hollers up to the workers in the tree. “HEY, GUYS! You got a little dog up there anywhere?”

  One of them calls down. “We did but he booked it outta here! He ran off that way, toward the ice rink!”

  I look, and there he is. In the middle of the ice. Looking back at me!

  Woof! Woof!

  “LOOOOOOOPY! STAAAAAAAY!”

  Loopy takes off.

  “Now you did it, Arcade,” Zoe says. “Loopy never stays.”

  “Oh, yeah! I forgot! Come on!”

  We run back down toward the ice. “Have you seen a little dog?” We ask people in the crowd as we run by.

  “Yes!” An older woman standing near the railing points her thumb away from us. “He went that way, toward Times Square. He had a little camera on is head. He was so cute. But you better hurry! He’s quick!”

  Chapter 34

  Not Fair, Times Square

  “He’s gonna get squashed in all that traffic!” I grab Zoe’s hand and we huff and puff across 50th Street, turning south on 7th, toward Times Square. We run right into a huge crowd, holding up signs and yelling. NYPD officers stand around the crowd, watching carefully.

  “Oh, no! It’s a protest!” Zoe stops and tries to catch her breath.

  “A protest? That’s dope! I wonder what they’re protesting?”

  “We can Google protests from six years ago later. Right now, we need to figure out a way to get through.”

  I grab Zoe’s sleeve. “Come on, we’ll go around!” We run back to 50th, and this time we cut south on—you guessed it—Broadway.

  “Ugh! I’m NOT a fan of Broadway!” Zoe yells as we weave around the tourists who are gawking up at all the theater signs.

  Then I spot something. “HEY! There’s Dad’s show!”

  We stop for a moment to look. It’s hard to tell if it’s a large or small theater by the front of it. The marquee is cool. Old-fashioned style, with lights all around the elevator-door shaped sign. And in the middle, in rounded letters, it says:

  Manhattan Doors—A Musical

  I smile. “I’m proud of you, Dad.” A lump forms in my chest. No, wait . . . something lumpy has fallen on my chest!

  Uh-oh.

  * * *

  Glitter rains down. I try to wave it away. “NOOOOOO! I haven’t found Loopy yet!” Golden elevator doors appear on the sidewalk, right there in the middle of bustling New York tourists, who walk right through them on their way to their many destinations.

  A golden coin slot juts out from the center of the doors. Zoe stands close to me. “I don’t see Loopy anywhere.” She stares at the doors. “I don’t suppose we can stall, can we?”

  I shake my head. “The one time I tried to stall, I almost didn’t make it back.” I look down and pull the token off my chain. “The lady said that I’m supposed to trust the tester. But with each disappointment, it’s getting harder and harder to do that.” The token snaps and sparks. And now, so does the coin slot.

  Zoe pats me on the shoulder. “Go ahead, throw it in.” She tilts her head toward the coin slot. “We’ll find him. Maybe not this time, but soon.”

  I look around one last time, just in case the little furball is somewhere close by. Nope. I flip the coin up and watch it tumble into the slot. The doors open, and I stifle a sob as we enter.

  Not fair, Times Square. You have my dog.

  Chapter 35

  Golden Plans

  After we returned, Zoe and I sat quietly on the front steps of our brownstone, trying to figure out our next move.

  “So let’s review,” Zoe said. “You can control the token, but not till it heats up, right?”

  I inhale and exhale deeply. “Seems like it.”

  “And you’ve been specific each time with your requests.”

  “I have, but Loopy’s still lost. Do you think the token is punishing me for something?”

  “Punishing you? That’s ridiculous! What do you need to be punished for? You haven’t done anything wrong. You’re one of the most caring and helpful people I know.”

  I glanced over at my sister. “Would you mind recording that so I can play it back whenever you need to be reminded of it?”

  She pushed me in the arm. “Record what? I didn’t say a thing.” She laughed under her breath.

  I laughed along with her. But then a thought hit me. There were a couple of people who I could help that I had been ignoring.

  The Badgers. They asked me to redeem them.

  I bolted to my feet. “Zoe! I think I know what I need to do!”

  She stood up next to me. “What?”

  “I need to bring the Badger brothers back.”

  “Oh, no. No, no, no, Arcade! The Badger brothers don’t deserve to be saved after all they’ve done!”

  “But don’t you see? I’ve been acting just like them. I’ve been greedy and sneaky and . . . what did you call me? Self-absorbed! Why should I expect the power of the token to help me, if I withhold its power to help them?”

  Zoe plopped back down and buried her face in her hands. “Arcade, I hate this! If you bring them back here, who knows what they’ll do! They want your token, and they’ll stop at nothing to take it away from you.”

/>   “So? What if I just give it to them? They’d leave me alone then, right?”

  “But they’d abuse the power.”

  I shrug. “And that would only hurt them. As for me, I’d just go back to being the ultra-cool person I always was.”

  “Without Loopy and Doug. And then you wouldn’t have the token to help you get them back.”

  “And Flames will never make it back to the Beijing Zoo.”

  “Well, you could always get on a plane to China and deliver him yourself. You don’t need the token for that. Sure, it would take a while. You’d have to save for the plane ticket, convince Mom and Dad—”

  “THAT’S IT, ZOE!”

  “What’s it?”

  “You just gave me an idea of how to bring the Badgers back but keep them away from me for a while.”

  “How?”

  I stood up and walked down the stairs. “I’ll tell you while we go feed Flames. I just have to make sure I’m super specific when the time comes!”

  * * *

  “We’re getting low on shrimp again.” I dumped a bunch in a bowl in Doug’s kitchen, and then Zoe and I made our way up the stairs to the extra bathroom. Zoe pinched her nose as we walked in the door.

  “Hey, Flamesy! Great to see you, bud! Want some shrimp?”

  Flames flapped his feathers and glided over to me.

  SQUAWK!

  “Zoe, look how orange he is!” I elbowed her in the side.

  “He’s getting big. We can’t leave him in here much longer.”

  “I know. He needs some sunshine too. You think we could take him out to the Ramble?”

  “The RAMBLE? How would we do that?”

  “Don’t know. Maybe transport him in Milo’s old cage that’s in the storage room. We could cover him with a blanket on the way over, and then find a secluded spot to let him out for a bit.”

  Zoe paced around the little bathroom. “That’s a nutty idea. I want nothing to do with it.”

  “But your goal is to watch birds in the Ramble. Don’t you want to work on your goal?”

  My phone rang. It was Doug requesting a face chat.

  I put down the shrimp, and Flames began to devour it. Then I clicked accept.

  “Hey, Doug! How’s it goin’, bro?”

  Doug was wearing a floppy sun hat. “It’s goin’ awful, Arcade. It doesn’t feel like Thanksgiving is just a week away. It’s hot here, and I’m getting a suntan. It’s weird. What are you doing?”

  I flipped the screen to show him our flamingo friend. “We’re feeding Flames, who is going through shrimp like there’s no tomorrow. Thankfully, Mr. Dooley’s brother keeps sending care packages. I think he must suspect something.”

  “That’s AWESOME! How’s Gram’s house? Besides the smell?”

  I could see the pain in Doug’s eyes.

  “It’s good, Doug. Nice, as always. I just wish you were here.”

  Doug sighed. “Me too. But hey. I’ll be there next week. It’s my birthday the day before Thanksgiving, and the care facility is going to make an exception and let me stay with Gram for a few days. We have another appointment with the social worker about something.”

  “THAT’S DOPE! We gonna hang out, right?”

  “We gonna hang out, right?”

  “That’s what I said.”

  “Yep, that’s what you said.” Doug laughed.

  * * *

  “Something’s goin’ down soon, Zoe, I can feel it!” I was jittery as we dug through the storage room to find Milo’s old cage for Flames. I had to sit down on an old stool to stop my hands from shaking.

  “I can’t believe Mom keeps some of this old junk of ours.” Zoe pulled out a photo album from a dusty box and flipped through it. “Huh. This is interesting. People actually printed out photos back in the day.”

  I stood up and walked over to look.

  “Hey, check this out.” Zoe pulled a white book out of the box and opened it. “Here’s Mom and Dad’s wedding pictures. They look like little kids!”

  Zoe pointed to a really nice picture of Mom and Dad coming back down the aisle after their wedding ceremony. “They’re positively glowing! Look at them!”

  I took the book from her. “Oh, brother. Quit being so mushy, Zoe.”

  “Well, take a look yourself.”

  I focused on the picture. Their faces did seem to glow.

  I guess love does that to people. But . . . wait a minute . . .

  I put my face closer to the picture. Pulled my glasses off my face to use my nearsightedness to my advantage. Yes, there was something else glowing. Mom wore a golden chain, and whatever hung on that chain was glowing right through her high-necked dress.

  The token around my neck sparked and jumped and sent a jolt of heat to my head. I grabbed the chain and pulled the token out from under my shirt. “Oh, man, here we go!”

  Zoe dropped the book. “You’ve got flames coming out of that thing, Arcade! It’s going to burn you!”

  I held it out as far as I could. “It’s never been this hot before, Zoe! What do I do?!?”

  Do I ask for Doug, Loopy, or . . . help for the Badgers?

  I licked my fingers and tried to touch the token. “It’s too hot! How am I supposed to get it off the chain?”

  Gold glitter swirled inside the storage room. It flew up my nose, in my mouth, and coated my eyelashes. Zoe began throwing boxes around, frantically searching for something. Finally, she handed me an old baseball glove from when I played T-ball. “Here! Pull it off with this!”

  I shoved the glove on one hand while holding the chain out with the other. As Zoe reached over to help me, Milo’s cage enlarged and turned into elegant elevator doors with shapes of flamingos etched in them.

  “Now pull the token off with your glove and BE SPECIFIC with your request.”

  I reached up with the puffy leather fingers and, after a few fumbles, was able to pinch the token. It came off the chain, as usual, and it dropped in the netted pocket of my glove. Immediately, it started to burn through the leather.

  “Get rid of it, Arcade! Throw it in the coin slot!”

  “But Zoe, I can’t see a coin slot!” This had never happened before. There had to be a coin slot, right?

  Trust the tester . . .

  “Take us back to San Francisco!” I yelled. “To the year 1937. To the Badger brothers. I want to help bring them home!” Then, right as the token was about to burn a hole through the glove, I flipped it up in the air. It sparked and flamed. The words on the back—Arcade Adventures—glowed brighter than ever as the token fell.

  My old piggy bank sitting on the floor of the storage room turned gold and pulsed light. The token fell in the slot at the top.

  Here we go . . .

  I slapped my hands together, pulled them apart, and the doors opened.

  Chapter 36

  Badgering the Badgers

  The elevator is full of fog.

  Let me guess . . . San Francisco?

  Last time we were here, the doors opened up on top of the unfinished Golden Gate Bridge. This time, I was hoping to arrive a couple of years later, but where?

  Zoe drums her fingers on the side of the elevator. “I’m scared, Arcade. What if they’re staring us right in the face when the doors open?”

  “I never thought of that, Zoe. Thanks. Now I’m scared.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  “It must be a pain living in your brain.”

  The fog increases and the temperature drops inside the elevator.

  “I think maybe I’ve changed my mind about giving them the token.” I reach for my empty chain. It’s ice cold.

  “Good.”

  “So does that mean you’ll fight them with me?”

  “Always.”

  “Thanks.”

  Why aren’t the doors opening?

  Now the fog is so thick I can’t see anything.

  “Zoe?”

  “Yes?”

  “Stay close, okay?”

  Sh
e grabs my hand. “I got your back.”

  * * *

  A couple more minutes pass and the sounds of big band music—saxophones, trumpets, and trombones—fill the elevator. The doors open, the fog clears, and golden fireworks go off in the distant sky. We’re standing in a park. People are dancing, eating, laughing, and celebrating.

  Okay, this isn’t so bad.

  Everyone is dressed up, and I wonder if I’ll recognize the Badger brothers if I actually do see them. Someone taps me on the shoulder. I freeze.

  “Arcade?”

  It’s a woman’s voice, but it’s not Zoe. Zoe’s still standing next to me with a terror grip on my hand. She looks like she’s going to faint. I shake her hand off and turn around.

  I breathe a small sigh of relief. “Oh. It’s you.” I nudge my sister. “Zoe, meet . . . uh . . . the Triple T woman.”

  Zoe’s mouth drops open. The woman standing in front of both of us is the lady who I keep seeing and who Zoe never sees. She’s wearing her usual white sweat suit and the ball cap with the three glowing Ts on it.

  “Hello, Zoe,” the woman says. “You are a loyal sister to Arcade.”

  Zoe can’t say a word.

  The woman continues, “I know, you don’t always see eye-to-eye. Little brothers can be a real pain. And, by the way, a stop sign is an octagon, with only eight sides.” The woman grins at Zoe and then winks at me. “And in the grand scheme of things, does it really matter?”

  I nod. “Yes, it does!”

  She laughs. “I knew you would say that.” Then she tips her head to the side. “You caught them on a good day. I think they’ll be glad to see you. But I wouldn’t trust them just yet. Stay with your plan.”

  “Okay,” I say. “But what should I say to them?”

  “You’ll think of something.” She turns and vanishes into the crowd.

  “WAIT! I have questions!” Zoe yells, and she holds a hand out.

  “Too late,” I say. “She’s a fast one.”

  * * *

  I scan the crowd and see them. They’re wearing old-fashioned suits and hats. They clean up well. They are holding drinks, talking with one another, and looking up at the Golden Gate Bridge. I take small steps toward them, and Zoe follows. We get close enough to eavesdrop.