Powerless

by Matthew Cody

  It was Rohan who broke it up. He stepped between the two of them and tapped Clay on the arm. Rohan calmly looked up at the towering Clay and said, “Clay? If you hurt Mollie, Eric will hear about it, you know he will. Are you prepared to ‘get into it’ with him, too?”

  Clay glared down at Rohan, his face red with anger and the veins in his temple ready to burst. He looked as if he wanted nothing more than to smash everything in sight, but he didn’t. Instead, he put his fists down, tossed Daniel his backpack and cursed under his breath.

  “Have it your way,” he said. “But no one stays a kid forever—not even Eric. I promise you, very soon things in this town are gonna change. Then you’ll all get what’s coming to you. You too, New Kid. Congrats, you just made my Enemies List.”

  With that, Clay stalked off down the road. Bud looked around anxiously and called, “But, Clay, we’ll miss the bus again! It’s the last stop and we’ll miss school! Dude, my mom will kill me!”

  Clay kept walking, saying nothing. Bud stood there for a few more seconds before chasing after him, taking the cloud of foulness with him.

  Mollie and Rohan watched them go in silence. Daniel wanted to shout or laugh or something, but the other two seemed so deep in thought, so full of worry, that he didn’t say anything. He just waited for the bus with his new friends, a million questions swirling around in his head.

  Chapter Three

  The Bridge

  There was definitely something a little strange about the kids of Noble’s Green.

  Daniel had seen girls stand up to bullies before, but that was usually because they were armed with the knowledge that the bully wouldn’t hit a girl. But Clay had been ready to fight Mollie, girl or no, and she’d looked ready for it. She had been willing to stick up for Daniel, someone she barely knew, even if it meant tussling with someone as strong as Clay Cudgens.

  Sitting in his new homeroom class on this, his first day at school, Daniel wished he were half as bold as Mollie Lee. He felt the stares of his new classmates, and all the attention was making him wish he could just disappear beneath his desk. Daniel had never considered himself a brave person to begin with, and he’d used up what little reserve of courage he had with Clay that morning. He was in full coward mode now.

  “Hey, Daniel.”

  He turned in his seat and saw Rohan sitting down at the desk next to him. To see a familiar face, even one he’d only met an hour ago, was an immeasurable relief.

  “Listen, at recess do you want me to show you around? Keep you from wandering into the elementary schoolers’ yard, stuff like that? I feel bad about what happened earlier, and I’d like to prove that this place isn’t always like that.”

  “Okay. Thanks, I guess.”

  “You see, Noble’s Green is a really small town, and great as it is, it’s more of a place that people move away from, not to. Understand?”

  “Kind of.”

  Rohan’s face broke out in a silly grin. “You know, you’re almost a celebrity!”

  “A lot of good it did me so far. I wouldn’t call getting knocked on your butt the celebrity treatment.”

  A couple of girls a few seats over looked Daniel’s way and started to giggle. Suddenly he longed to be back at the bus stop facing Clay and Bud—getting beaten up he could handle, but the whole girl thing, it was just too gruesome.

  “Hey,” Daniel said quietly, interrupting Rohan’s speech on the shortest route to the bathroom. “Tell me something—just how strong is Clay?”

  Rohan shifted in his seat, clearly uncomfortable. “Well, he’s pretty strong.”

  “Yeah, I was on the receiving end of that. He’s what? Twelve? Thirteen?…”

  “He just turned twelve,” said Rohan quickly.

  “Okay,” said Daniel. “My point is, he tossed me straight up into the air! A grown man couldn’t throw me like that.”

  Rohan shook his head. “No, no. You must’ve hit your head or something. From what I saw, he … he only shoved you a little. Your feet never left the ground.”

  He was lying, and doing it badly. What’s more, the whole conversation was obviously making him very uncomfortable. He kept stealing glances over his shoulder and had lowered his voice. Daniel was on to something. His detective sense was tingling.

  “Look, I didn’t imagine it! He tossed me around like a sack of pota—”

  “It’s impossible, Daniel! It’s like you said, no one’s that strong! No one!”

  “Rohan Parmar, do you have something you’d like to share with the rest of the class? Considering that it is nine o’clock, class has started and you are, for some reason, still talking?”

  Mr. Snyder, Daniel’s new homeroom teacher, had appeared at the front of the class. Daniel had taken an immediate dislike to him. Although he’d been perfectly nice to Daniel when they’d met earlier, there was something in the way he looked at you that just seemed … mean. He held his nose a little too high in the air and squinted a little too hard.

  “Uh, no, sir, Mr. Snyder. I was just telling Daniel here how to get around.”

  “Well, while I’m sure that Daniel appreciates your hospitality, please save the tour-guide act for after class.”

  “Yessir.”

  “Well, now that I have the floor in my own class, I would like to welcome our newest student, Mr. Daniel Corrigan. Daniel has come all the way from Philadelphia to our little town. I trust that you all will make him feel welcome. Now, if you would please open your textbooks. We are going to begin with a little review of statistical graphs….”

  As Daniel cracked open his book, he was relieved to see that the rest of the class had apparently already grown bored with him and were now focused, painfully, on the lesson at hand. All except for Mollie Lee. He spied her near the front of the class, giving him a sideways stare, her face unreadable.

  Daniel sank even lower in his seat, his chin nearly level with the top of the desk. Any lower and he’d melt into the floor.

  At that moment the classroom door flew open and … something came through. It was roughly boy-shaped, but this thing was soaking wet and covered in filth. Its clothes were streaked with mud and it smelled like the bottom of a lake.

  And it was smiling a big, bright smile.

  For a moment, no one said anything.

  “Eric Johnson!” Mr. Snyder said, finally. “What … how dare … for goodness’ sake, boy, you are soaking wet!”

  The boy wrung a bit of greenish water from his shirt. “Yeah, about that … I had a little spill on the way here. But I made it on time, didn’t I?”

  The class broke out into a fit of giggles. Everyone, Daniel noticed, except Mollie and Rohan. They saw what was coming.

  Mr. Snyder’s face turned purple with rage. “In fact, Mr. Johnson, you are late! And you will NOT be let into my class looking like that!”

  “I’m really sorry, Mr. Snyder. I’ll go and change into my gym clothes.”

  “And then you will go to the principal’s office. You will not come back here.”

  “But, Mr. Snyder, I tried to get here on time, I really did.”

  “And again, you failed. I’d call your mother and have her come and pick you up, but that would be a waste of time, wouldn’t it?”

  When Eric answered, it was little more than a whisper. Any hint of a smile was gone, and his mouth hardened into a solid line.

  “My mom’s at work.”

  “Of course she is.” Now Mr. Snyder smiled, but there wasn’t any warmth in it. In that one grin, he confirmed all of Daniel’s earlier misgivings about him. Mr. Snyder was just another bully.

  “Now off to the principal’s office with you. I don’t want to hear another word.”

  Eric turned and headed for the door. Then Daniel saw him mouth something to Mollie. It looked as if he were saying “tangled leak.” Daniel wished he were better at reading lips.

  “Now, where were we?” said Mr. Snyder, smiling once again. “Ah, yes, statistical graphs …”

  The next morning Da
niel played with his cereal as pieces of a puzzle whirled around in his brain. But he couldn’t fit them anywhere. He looked up only when his father let out one of his low whistles that usually meant “that was a doozy.” His parents were discussing something in the paper.

  “It’s darn lucky no one was seriously hurt,” Gram was saying.

  “It really is a miracle,” said his mother.

  “Not quite a miracle,” said Daniel’s father, looking at the paper. “Says here that the police suspect that the couple was actually rescued by a passerby. The driver of the car had vague memories of being pulled out of the car and lifted from the bottom of the river! Can you believe that?”

  Gram shook her head. “They should’ve condemned that thing years ago. I’ve always said that the Tangle Creek Bridge is nothing but a death trap….”

  Gram kept talking but Daniel was no longer listening. He was picturing Eric standing there in his dripping clothes and smiling that big, proud smile. A piece of the puzzle popped into place.

  Tangle Creek Bridge.

  Chapter Four

  The Incident at the Observatory

  For the next several days Daniel watched Rohan, Eric and Mollie very closely. In turn, they watched him. On the day after the bridge accident, Daniel followed Mollie home from school, only to turn around and find Rohan following him. Daniel had been standing across the street from Mollie’s house, waiting for her to … well, he didn’t know exactly, but he was sure she was up to something strange … when he’d heard a sneeze behind him. Sure enough, there was Rohan, looking miserable in a patch of pollen-dusted wildflowers. When pressed, Rohan claimed that his dog, Shaggy, had run off, but Daniel knew better. Daniel had seen Shaggy and he was by far the oldest dog he’d ever met. Shaggy wouldn’t be running anywhere.

  Rohan was a bizarre kid, no doubt, yet despite everything the two were fast becoming friends. But Rohan’s behavior was definitely strange. Sometimes he would put on his nose clip or even stuff earplugs in his ears for no reason whatsoever. And Rohan had a tendency to zone out. He’d be in the middle of a heated defense of pirating over detective work and suddenly start staring off into space. Daniel had to practically shake him to get him to come back to earth.

  Mollie hung out with them occasionally, but she barely paid any attention to Daniel. Sometimes she would talk with Rohan about school or sports, but most of her time she spent with Eric.

  Eric. After the story of the rescue at the Tangle Creek Bridge, Daniel had decided that if there was a mystery to be solved here, the answer lay with Eric. He seemed nice enough—always smiling, always easygoing—but for some reason Daniel had been unable to work up the courage to talk to him. Daniel had noticed that Eric missed a lot of school, and he suspected that it wasn’t because of illness. Whatever the case, both Mollie and Rohan were fiercely protective of him. Whenever Daniel started to ask questions, they would quickly change the subject. If he pressed on, they would eventually get mad and just walk away. Daniel had the feeling that if forced to choose between their secrets and him, they’d choose their secrets.

  All of which put Daniel into a rather foul mood during those next few weeks. His gloom and the increasingly secretive behavior of his new “friends” meant that when the first field trip of the year came around, he was ready for it. The visit to the Mount Noble Observatory was the one thing he’d been looking forward to since coming to Noble’s Green. The observatory belonged to the university and had one of the most powerful telescopes in the country, as well as a planetarium complete with a laser-light star show. But best of all, the trip was a chance for Daniel to think about something other than his new stack of problems.

  When they arrived at the observatory, the students were given a half hour to tour the museum displays and gift shop. Like the rest of his classmates, Daniel was itching to blow his allowance on some souvenir junk, and was on his way to do just that when he saw Clay and Bud waiting for him outside the gift shop. As Bud looked his way, Daniel beat a quick retreat up a nearby staircase to avoid a potential pounding.

  When he reached the top, he found his way blocked. A large sign read “No Admittance—Exhibit Closed for Repairs,” and the hall was roped off with yellow caution tape. But he didn’t want to face Clay and Bud, and since there was no other way around, he slipped under the tape and went inside.

  The hall looked empty except for some sheets of drywall and a few power tools littering the floor. The room smelled of sawdust and fresh paint—just the sort of place that would play havoc with Rohan’s allergies. Although the electricity was off, the room was bright with daylight. It poured in through a giant hole in the outside wall, where the floor ended in a sheer drop. Peeking over the side, Daniel could see that they had started to erect scaffolding several floors below. Beyond that was nothing but empty air. It was a long way down the mountain from up here.

  In one corner of the hall, there was a large sheet of plastic, billowing in the wind. Behind it, Daniel found an intact exhibit, complete with dioramas and photographs, detailing the history of Mount Noble and the building of the observatory. Some of the photographs dated back to the beginning of the twentieth century, when Noble’s Green was just a burgeoning trade town. In one photograph, brown and blurry with age, a ragtag group of children stood with a bearded man dressed in skins and a fur cap. The caption read “Jonathan Noble and the survivors of the St. Alban’s fire. This photograph was taken after the survivors emerged from the wilderness of Mount Noble.”

  There was more written there, something about the burning of an orphanage and how its children were all saved by a local trapper named Jonathan Noble. Daniel was just beginning to read about the suspected cause of the fire when he caught the whiff of something bad. Something nauseatingly familiar.

  “Well, if it isn’t Daaaaniel, all by his lonesome.”

  Daniel recognized the voice. It had the gravelly pitch of someone used to shouting.

  Clay was standing there in the doorway of the little history exhibit, blocking Daniel’s exit. His arms were folded in front of him, and he was wearing an ugly smile. Bud was off to the side, writing “BUD RULES” in black marker across one of the walls.

  This was a bad situation. Here Daniel was, in a place that was off-limits, with no teachers around, trapped with the two most dangerous kids in school. He didn’t even have Mollie to stick up for him now. This time he was on his own. He remembered Clay’s “Enemies List” and the thought made him queasy.

  “Where’s your girlfriend?” asked Clay, looking around.

  Something occurred to Daniel then, giving him a tiny bit of hope that he hadn’t had before—Clay was scared of something. He was being cautious, hesitant even. Maybe Rohan’s threat about Eric still had a hold on the little thug, and if Daniel used it to his advantage, he just might make it out of here in one piece.

  “She’s around,” Daniel croaked. He hadn’t realized it until now, but his mouth had gone dry. He wondered if they could see his legs shaking. Would they be satisfied that they had simply terrified him and leave it at that? Somehow Daniel doubted it.

  “In fact, Mollie and Eric are on their way up here right now, so you’d better get out of my way.”

  Then he did something either very brave or very crazy—he started walking straight toward them, as if they weren’t even there. The way he figured it, he had one chance—Clay and Bud were both bigger than him, and Clay was certainly way stronger, but they weren’t the brightest couple of kids. He needed to bluff them, and quick, before they recognized the lie on his face.

  Amazingly, it worked. Or at least it started to. Bud knitted his brow, clearly thrown by Daniel’s brazen approach, and backed up a step to the right, giving Daniel just enough room to squeeze by. Clay, however, stood perfectly still, watching Daniel pass. He looked as if he were thinking so hard it hurt.

  Daniel was maybe three steps past them when he heard Clay sneer, “Aw, this is bull! He’s up here all alone!”

  That’s when Daniel ran. He sprinted
as fast as he could on wobbly legs toward the stairs, not even daring to look back at the sound of footsteps pursuing him. He could feel someone’s hot breath on the back of his neck and tripped just as fingers grabbed at his shirt collar.

  Daniel skidded on his hands and knees and ended up in a pile on the floor, dangerously close to the exposed wall and the sheer drop down the mountainside. The bright sunlight was streaming in from outside, and Daniel shielded his eyes from the glare. He was dazed from his fall and blinded by the sun, but he could still hear Clay’s mocking laughter somewhere in front of him. He was trapped between Clay and the deadly fall. The air around him smelled strongly of rotting stink, of dead things.

  “Nowhere to go, New Kid. Might as well take what’s coming to you.”

  In a panic, Daniel got to his feet too fast and realized the room was spinning. He’d fallen harder than he’d thought, and now his vision began to go dark with spots. Stumbling and blind, he tried to back away from Clay’s taunting laughter.

  Daniel’s eyes started to clear just in time to see Clay make a desperate grab for him. Daniel lunged backward. But the look on Clay’s face suddenly changed. The cruel smile disappeared and his eyes went wide with fear. He shouted, “Wait! Look out!” but it was too late. Daniel was already taking another step back, but this time he found only empty air. Daniel’s stomach dropped out from under him as he tottered over and through the exposed wall, plummeting off the side of Mount Noble.

  All Daniel saw was the blurry shape of the scaffolding passing by him, and all he heard was the sound of blood pounding in his ears. Despite his panic, he found himself wondering whether he would feel it when he hit, or if he would just die instantly.

  Then he was no longer falling. Somebody had a hold of him, and that someone was floating in midair.

  He turned his head and saw Eric smiling back at him.

  “Hi, Daniel. I guess it’s time we talked, huh?”