The Quest for the Kid

by Adrienne Kress

  “Well, what are we waiting for?” asked Julia, smiling at them all. “The show must go on!”

  And with that she swept out into the spotlight to mighty applause. Evie looked at Sebastian.

  “What?” he asked.

  “Thank you,” she said.

  “No problem,” he replied.

  “That was weird.”

  “Yeah. That was really weird.”

  The show was done. Evie sat alone in the audience on one of the hard seats, her knees bent up into her chest, her chin on them. Sebastian had gone off to say goodbye to Orson, and the rest of the team was working with the opera’s tech crew to unbolt the set from the top of the submarine. She was watching them now. They were small out on the giant cloud stage, running around.

  She was feeling unhelpful, but sometimes too many people helping was worse than too few. Besides, the team knew how to work together and had quickly fallen into old roles, Doris shouting orders and the rest following them. It was curious to observe, because for the first time Evie kind of realized: the team was a family in its own way.

  The Kid was the happy-go-lucky rebellious teenager. Doris was the studious one. Benedict and Catherine seemed kind of like their parents. Who was Alistair, then? Her stomach clenched. He couldn’t be the team’s grandfather. Not when he was her grandfather.

  The idea made her feel a little jealous.

  She shifted in her seat, folding her legs underneath her. The clouds looked two-dimensional with the stage lights off and the work lights flooding over the water. The lightning bolt was lying on its side on the shore. The magic was gone. It felt a little depressing. But it wasn’t. Her thoughts just made it seem that way. She tried to rally herself: this was exciting! This was the last step before they went to save her grandfather! And she’d get to travel in a submarine. How many kids could say that?

  But she thought back to that afternoon, to Sebastian getting to speak with his mom, to Doris saying bye to Mia, and now watching the team all together. It was getting harder and harder to push away the lonely feeling. And when this adventure was over, everyone would return to their families. As they always did. Like the kids at the Wayward School did at the end of the year. Or at holidays.

  No. No. Things would be different this time. This time when it was over she would have someone to return to as well. Or to journey on with. This time she’d get a family too.

  That thought, finally of all the thoughts, helped force the unease out of her body, and her shoulders were able to relax down from around her ears. The stage no longer seemed dull, but neat. Watching the technicians up on ladders and the unfurling of thick black cables onto the stage like hanging vines was really cool.

  “Hey, Evie,” said Catherine, coming over to her.

  “Hi,” replied Evie.

  Catherine stood beside her and observed the activity as well. Several small boats were darting in and out to deliver technicians to parts of the stage, and one of the larger clouds was being towed to shore. Everything was falling apart for the opera while things were coming together for her.

  “Are you okay?” asked Catherine.

  “I am,” replied Evie, looking at her. She wasn’t used to Catherine checking up on her. She felt a familiar feeling, like they were back in Australia. A connection. “Are you?”

  Catherine nodded.

  “This all must be unusual for you,” said Evie.

  “It is what it is,” replied Catherine, and Evie truly believed that the animal expert was perfectly satisfied with that fact. Maybe both of them actually were okay. For once. “I’m sorry again for how I acted in LA,” Catherine said. “I’m trying to figure out how to be around adults and kids at the same time.”

  Evie nodded. She didn’t need another apology, but she felt like Catherine maybe needed to make it. “That’s okay. Everything worked out.”

  “Not yet,” said Catherine.

  Evie laughed a little to herself. It was true, not everything had worked out yet, and it was important to be specific around Catherine. But Evie wasn’t going to let that stop her from feeling a sense of victory. The last of the set was being cleared off, and in front of them the water was empty, still, and silent. It looked so different without the giant clouds. Larger, like it went on forever.

  “Hey, they want us on board,” said Sebastian, coming over to them.

  They walked to meet him halfway. “Did you say bye to Orson from me?” asked Evie.

  “I don’t know how I’d do that. He doesn’t understand English,” replied Sebastian, furrowing his brow.

  “Oh. Well, maybe you could have told him in Portuguese, then?” asked Evie with a smile.

  “He doesn’t speak…anything….Oh.” Sebastian sighed. “Oh, okay. I get it.”

  Evie laughed out loud this time. The old Catherine and the old Sebastian. It felt like everything was getting back to where it needed to be. It felt like the strangeness in LA had evaporated since they had found Doris. She thought about Alejandro, about his warning. About the question of loyalty. About people being complicated.

  Maybe it hadn’t been a warning but a kindness. To tell her to be more patient with people. They aren’t all good or all bad. They make mistakes. Even Evie made mistakes. Sometimes.

  They walked along the sloping grass to a small dock hidden behind where the orchestra had sat. Benedict was waiting for them in a small motorboat, and they climbed into it. They didn’t go anywhere, though. Just sat.

  “What’s going on?” asked Sebastian.

  “We need to stand by,” replied Benedict.

  “For what?” asked Evie.

  She watched as Benedict squinted into the dark, and she followed his gaze. There was nothing to see. Even the horizon was invisible in the distance.

  And then.

  Evie stared as the water began to ripple and then bubble, and waves were created as the water flowed down and away from the top of the submarine emerging from the deep. It gave Evie a tingle up her spine, not of fear but of excitement. A sense that this was both an ending to something and a beginning.

  Once the hatch door was fully out in the open, the water calmed, and there was stillness again.

  “Can we go now?” asked Evie, turning to Catherine.

  “In a second,” she replied, watching for something. So Evie watched too, waiting for something mystical maybe, something thrilling, something…special.

  The hatch of the submarine opened then, and the Kid could be seen grinning in the faint light from within.

  “All aboard, mateys!” he called.

  “You made it,” said the Kid as Evie hopped onto the floor of the submarine. It echoed her landing with a dull tin bonk sound.

  “It was just a ladder,” she replied with a smile. Certainly it was nothing compared to climbing down the inside of the Vertiginous Volcano.

  “True.”

  The other explorers had gone ahead, but she and the Kid waited for Sebastian to join them. Once he was in, the Kid hit a large yellow button on the wall and the hatch closed above with a loud shocking clang.

  “Follow me!” he said, and they did.

  Their steps were tinny as they walked. You definitely couldn’t stalk someone in here; you’d hear them a mile away. Probably a good thing, considering that the men in black were still after them. The corridor was narrow, and the ceiling low and made from a dark metal held together with huge bolts like someone had really taken the job of “this thing has to go underwater” very seriously.

  Then Evie realized that that someone was Doris, that she had built this whole ship. Evie was suddenly super-impressed. As they continued to make their way to the front, Evie was astonished by the size of thing. It hadn’t seemed quite so big on the outside.

  Soon they were in the main cabin. The “bridge.” Evie looked around. It reminded her of something
—the thick wooden table, leather chairs and couches, dark green painted walls—and then she saw the photos of the team, including her grandfather. That was it! It felt like home, or at least like the Explorers Society building that she now called home.

  The Kid marched ahead of them and hopped onto the raised platform by the large curved windows that gave the slight impression that the group was inside a giant fishbowl. He pulled at the drop cloth hiding something lumpy in the middle and uncovered a console of brass, with glass dials and a large leather swivel chair that turned a little with the enthusiasm of the reveal.

  “Cool,” said Evie.

  “Yes,” agreed Sebastian.

  The Kid sat down in the chair and swiveled to face them, grinning so widely that he looked pretty ridiculous. But it was nice to see him so happy.

  “The leather still fits the shape of my butt!” he said with enthusiasm.

  “Oh, Jason,” sighed Catherine as she walked around the console and handed him a notebook.

  “It does! It’s like coming home again!” he said, opening the book. He turned to the console, and with his back to them said, “Hello, old friend.”

  Evie smiled.

  He glanced over his shoulder. “You wanna come see?”

  Evie nodded, and she and Sebastian made their way up to the Kid, passing Benedict, who was unfurling a map on the long table, and Catherine, who was going over to help him. Evie and Sebastian climbed the two steps. Evie stared at the blackness before them. It was a little creepy, not knowing what was out there.

  Then she came up behind the Kid, taking his right side, and Sebastian took his left. Up close she could see a series of dials behind glass and a large compass in the middle jiggling a bit when the Kid placed the notebook next to it. In front there were two large levers, one, it seemed, for each hand. There were also buttons that ran the length of the console. They glowed different colors.

  The Kid looked up. “Want to see something neat?”

  Evie nodded, and Sebastian said, “Sure.”

  The Kid pushed the large glowing blue button directly ahead of where Evie was standing. Suddenly it was no longer dark outside the glass. A bright turquoise blue shone before them, and a passing yellow fish stared at the windows in shock and swam off in haste.* In the distance, Evie could see some shapes, almost like she was looking at mountains along the skyline.

  “Whoa,” she said.

  “Headlights,” replied the Kid.

  “So what is that, exactly?” asked Sebastian, pointing to the book.

  “Some old notes I made back in the day. Funny to look at paper, isn’t it? Kind of nice, though. It’s been ages since I’ve driven this thing, so it’s some reminders, a little advice to myself. And of course a few numbers. Can’t go below sixty-three right here, see?” He pointed to the page in the notebook and then pointed to a dial on the left.

  “Okay, yeah. What’s that?” asked Sebastian.

  “Pressure. Outside the submarine. As you said, we don’t have the EM-7056 anymore, so we can only go so deep. It’s not a big worry. We’re at the level for a normal submarine at present. We can handle the pressure. But I’m used to being able to go way lower, so, you know, have to remind myself. Don’t want to kill everyone on board!” He laughed heartily at that.

  Neither Sebastian nor Evie did.

  He noticed that.

  “You kids have been through a lot, haven’t you?” he said, becoming serious.

  Evie nodded. “I mean, it’s been fun at times, and fun maybe after the fact. But sometimes…”

  “It’s been scary,” finished Sebastian.

  “Well, you guys are very brave, and very smart. And you’re lucky to have each other. You’re a good team.”

  Evie smiled and looked at Sebastian, who looked back with an expression that was kind of sad. She didn’t get it.

  “You guys should come up with a team name!” said the Kid, now smiling again.

  Evie’s gut twisted. “Oh,” she said.

  “Oh?” asked the Kid.

  “I thought we were part of your team.”

  The Kid paused for a moment. A moment that felt a bit too long, and then his eyes widened and brightened. “Yeah! Of course. You totally are, of course!”

  “I mean, that doesn’t really work,” said Sebastian a little quietly.

  “Why?” asked Evie. They were totally part of the team. They belonged. They…did.

  “I mean, the name of the team is how many people are in it. And it’s alliterative. The same letter starts each word. So ‘Filipendulous Five’ makes sense. Filipendulous Seven…” He stopped talking when he made eye contact with her.

  “Ah, what’s in a name?” said the Kid, waving off the argument. “Anyway, I actually have to get to work here, so…” His voice faded and he stared at them.

  “I guess we’ll go, then,” replied Evie. She turned and looked toward the rear of the cabin. Catherine and Benedict were hunched over the map, and Doris was off somewhere tinkering. Evie felt a little useless, so she wandered over to the glass windows and sat down in front of them. The way the glass curved and how close she was to the ocean made it kind of feel like she was floating in the water too. A pair of jellyfish bobbed past her in a very chill manner.

  Sebastian sat beside her.

  “I’m sorry,” he said.

  “For what?” she asked. She squinted at the blue before her and saw an outline of a school of fish all swimming together in perfect unison.

  “For…” He paused. “You got upset.”

  Evie shook her head. “I’m not upset.” She was, though. She knew she was, but she didn’t like that she was, so maybe if she pretended that she wasn’t, she wouldn’t be.

  “Do you…Do you want to come up with a team name?” he asked. “Like, our team name, just you and me?”

  Evie had to look at him now. She was rather surprised. That was not a Sebastian thing to ask. It was too…creative.

  “No, that’s okay.”

  Sebastian glanced toward the explorers doing their various jobs and then back at her. “The Fearless Duo?” he asked.

  Evie guffawed then.

  “What?” asked Sebastian.

  “No, it’s cute that you want to do this. Okay. Well, we should probably make it like the Filipendulous Five, with the same letter at the start.” She was humoring him humoring her. It was strange. But also a bit fun.

  “So something that starts with D?” he asked.

  “Yeah.” Evie thought for a moment. “The Daring Duo?” she said.

  “Hmm…” Sebastian seemed unsure.

  “Come on. We’re pretty daring,” she said.

  “I don’t feel it. I feel like everything we’ve done so far was simply what had to be done.”

  “Sebastian! You’ve hung out of a helicopter on a rope! You played drums onstage in front of thousands!” How could he not see it?

  “But it was necessary.”

  “Not everyone would do that, you know.” Sebastian seemed super unsure. “They really wouldn’t.”

  “I guess.” He seemed more scared than anything.

  “Well, I think that’s our team name. I have decided.”

  “The Daring Duo?” asked Sebastian.

  “Yes.” She grinned at him. “The Daring Duo.”

  * And also in the water.

  “Okay. We’re ready to go! Everyone, seat belts!” announced Doris, appearing from a hatch in the middle of the wooden floor in front of the large table.

  Sebastian jumped at her sudden appearance and was up on his feet instantly. If there was one thing he believed in, it was being strapped down inside a moving vehicle. No one had to order him twice!

  The only problem was…“Where do we sit?” he asked.

  “Ah!” said Doris with that mischievous grin.
“Jason, if you please!”

  The Kid mirrored the grin with one of his own and then hit a yellow button on his console. There was a rumble from somewhere below, and then four chairs emerged from within the platform and rose next to the console, two on each side. They settled to a stop. And the rumbling ceased.

  “Cool,” said Evie, going over to one to check it out. Sebastian did too and noticed on closer inspection that one brown leather chair had an imprint of a fox on the back of it.

  He looked at the one Evie was staring at, and there was a camera tooled into the leather. They both made their way to the other side and saw a wrench on one and a compass on the last. Evie touched the imprinted material softly with her hand.

  “Would you like to sit in Alistair’s chair?” asked Doris, placing a hand on Evie’s shoulder. Evie didn’t say anything, just nodded. She carefully climbed into it and sat, her arms on the rests. A bit like a little queen. She smiled at Sebastian. “Sebastian, take my seat,” said Doris, pointing to the chair with the wrench imprint.

  “Oh no, that’s okay,” he said. Though, as he said it, he glanced around for where exactly he could sit that would be safe and had a seat belt.

  “No, please do. I have to stay with the engines and keep a close eye on them. I haven’t driven this gal such a distance in a very long time.” Doris wiped her forehead with a handkerchief and looked around the room with pride.

  “As long as you’re sure,” he said.

  “I’m sure, I’m sure. Sit, sit,” she said, and without actually waiting for his answer, she turned and made her way back to the trapdoor in the floor.

  Sebastian watched Evie, who seemed to be really enjoying sitting in her grandfather’s chair, and then he turned and climbed into his. It was a very comfortable chair, he had to admit, and it was hard not to put his arms on the rests as if he was on a throne. He peered down to one side and was thrilled to see a seat belt. He grabbed it and attached it into its other side.