On Friday we saw the Eiffel Tower, but even though Uncle George offered to take us up in it, none of us wanted to go. Looking up at it—how high it was! how narrow at the top!—all of us, even Annie, began to feel dizzy. We'd never suffered from vertigo before, the fear of heights, but we suspected such a thing could come upon a person suddenly and with no warning.
Those were the days. As for the nights and all those parties, although we saw different sights each day, the nights were all the same: Rebecca cornering Crazy Serena, us hearing fragments of Rebecca's questions and accusations—"Frank Freud ... the Wicket"—and then hearing Crazy Serena call Rebecca "wretched child."
We admired Rebecca for choosing a goal and sticking to it—something other than suggesting our parents might be dead each time one of us mentioned their disappearance—but it didn't look to us like she was getting anywhere in the getting-the-truth-out-of-Crazy-Serena program.
Sometimes we wondered if we'd ever get the truth
about anything, or if there even were any great truths to be had.
One other thing that was the same about those nights: Petal under the bed.
Some bad things, we realized, never changed.
***
And then it was Saturday, the day of the wedding of Aunt Martha to Uncle George.
It was a gorgeous day, the kind of day we imagined every bride dreamed of, even though we couldn't imagine ourselves dreaming of a wedding day. The sky was a blue crystal with little puffy white clouds, and the very air smelled like every flower in the world, only not too strong, which would have been annoying.
Aunt Martha looked gorgeous in her gown and veil when she came by to ask us to wish her luck before the ceremony. It was to take place in one of the chateau's two ballrooms, and the reception afterward would take place in the other.
As for us, we may not have been wearing floor-length gowns with huge trains trailing behind us, but in our party dresses and accompanied by our cats, we thought we looked pretty spiffy too.
It would all have been so perfect, if only...
"Please come out from under there," Aunt Martha begged, getting down on the floor, gown and all.
We realized it then: for a relative, she was a genuinely nice woman.
"I don't want to get married without you there," Aunt Martha went on.
"You barely knew us before this week," the muffled voice said.
"I know," Aunt Martha admitted, "but now I can't imagine my life without you. And I certainly can't imagine getting married without you, without all of you there. It must be so awful for George. I don't mean about marrying me, but doing so without Queen and Lucy by his side. I mean, I think we can all acknowledge that Serena is hardly a consolation prize."
She had a point there, although we were still confused. Who was Queen, and what did she have to do with everyone else?
"C'mon," Annie said to Petal. "Don't disappoint Aunt Martha."
"We can't afford to get a nice relative mad at us," Durinda said.
"Keep doing that—" Georgia started.
"—and we won't have anyone left," Jackie finished.
"Does anyone else ever think," Marcia commented, "that the only purpose we all serve in the others' life stories is to help the person who's in the spotlight at the moment become the best version of herself she can be?"
"No." Rebecca rolled her eyes. "No one thinks that. No one in the whole world thinks that."
"You have to come, Petal," Zinnia said. "I think I'm going to have a Big Moment today with these flowers, and it won't mean half so much without you there."
"C'mon," Annie said again. "If you come down to the wedding, I won't try to stop you if you want to spend the whole time with your eyes squinched shut babbling weiofyoihfaifihweiw. But please don't spoil the day for Aunt Martha."
"Ohhhhhh, fine." Petal at last consented.
***
Large crowd made up mostly of strangers. Organist playing old-fashioned songs. Frilly lace-edged white socks that kept slipping down our ankles.
Not exactly our idea of a good time, but Aunt Martha looked happy enough as she stood beyond the entrance of the aisle some way behind Zinnia.
"Oh, I wish Mommy and Daddy could be here," Annie said.
"It seems wrong, them not being here," Durinda said.
"I know," Georgia said. "It's Daddy's sister waiting to come in."
"And Mommy's brother waiting for her in front of the altar," Jackie said.
"It's too bad they both disappeared when they did," Marcia said.
"Yugfawliuefa," Petal said.
Then a disturbing silence occurred, and we don't mean the pause before the Wedding March. It was the silence created by Rebecca not saying "or died," given what Marcia had said before Petal had said "Yugfawliuefa."
We all looked around us, filling with a worry and dread worthy of Petal.
Where was Rebecca? We were sure she'd come into the ballroom with us, and yet now she was nowhere to be seen.
"She's missing," Marcia said, "but there's someone else I don't see in the room either."
As soon as she said it, we saw she was right.
Crazy Serena wasn't in the room.
"Maybe she went to the bathroom?" Durinda suggested.
"I don't think that's where Crazy Serena is," Jackie said, "although she is in France."
"I don't think it's a coincidence they're both not here," Georgia said. "I have the feeling something evil is going on." Georgia knew something about evil.
"Do you think Crazy Serena has abducted her?" Petal finally piped up, having opened her eyes and ceased to babble.
"That's exactly what I think," Annie said gravely. "I think Crazy Serena has taken Rebecca, for whatever reason, and the only way to get her back is for you to use your power. Read Crazy Serena's mind. Figure out where she's taken Rebecca and what she plans to do with her. Read her mind, Petal. Please."
Petal reeled back in horror at the very idea of using her power to peer into the dark reaches of Crazy Serena's crazy little mind.
But then Petal did something we could never have imagined her doing, not in a million years.
She stopped reeling backward and instead came forward, forcefully.
"Stop the wedding!" she shouted.
ELEVEN
Okay, it was a little melodramatic, we grant you that. But who could blame Petal? Her sister had been abducted. Her aunt had done the abducting. How could a wedding take place until we got Rebecca safely back?
But hang on here.
Did we really want her back? Hmmm...
Oh. Right. Of course we did.
We looked at Petal and couldn't quite believe what we were seeing, what we were hearing.
In the history of the universe, no Huit had ever been more likely to refuse the call to adventure than Petal. She'd already refused it once, when she refused her power after its arrival, and we'd assumed she'd go on refusing it throughout eternity, and what sort of person does that? Maybe Georgia had once refused her gift when it arrived too early, but none of us, not even contrary Georgia, would refuse her power. Except for Petal.
And yet now...
"No one in our family," Petal spoke clearly, "has tormented me for as long or with such glee as Rebecca. She's made me feel stupid and she's made me feel small. But none of that matters now. She's my sister. I have to do this, no matter how much it scares me."
And then Petal tilted her head at an angle and began spinning around slowly as though she were leaving no stone unturned in her quest to read Crazy Serena's mind, as though she were trying to catch the frequency of all of France.
"Got anything yet?" Georgia wondered.
"She's still tilting and spinning," Annie said in a hushed voice.
"Now?" Georgia wondered. "Anything?"
"Shush," Durinda shushed. "She needs to concentrate."
"How's it going over here?" Pete asked, drawing closer, Mrs. Pete next to him. "Any—"
"Got it!" Petal cried, and please let us s
ay here that a Petal triumphant was a glorious thing to see.
"Where, pet?" Pete said urgently. "Where is she?"
"Oh no." The triumph in Petal's eyes had died and she was back to looking horrified. "Crazy Serena's got Rebecca and she's taking her to the top of the Eiffel Tower ... and she's thinking of throwing her over the side!"
***
There were no taxis outside the chateau, we saw as we raced outside after Pete, Zinnia still clutching her basket of rose petals.
But there was a long limo, the one that was waiting to take Aunt Martha and Uncle George on their honeymoon.
"The Eiffel Tower, my good man," Pete directed the startled limo driver as seven Eights plus eights cats and the Petes piled in. "And step on it, please. We've got a little person to save."
That was enough for the limo driver, and he didn't even complain about the cats.
"Don't worry," Zinnia soothed Rambunctious, who was in her lap along with Zither. "We'll get to Rebecca in time."
The way that limo driver sped through the French countryside and into the city, you'd think the limo was a plane instead of a car; he got us to our destination in no time.
"Wait here for us, please," Pete directed as we all tore out of the limo so fast we left the doors hanging open behind us.
We had to hand it to Pete as we raced after him. Even in times of trouble he had good manners, remembering to say please to the limo driver like that.
At the base of the Eiffel Tower we stopped long enough to stare up at its terrifying height. We gulped at the thought of going to the top.
But then Petal rallied us to battle.
"Come on," she said. "We need to hurry. I just read Crazy Serena's mind, and she was thinking, 'In another few minutes, I'll never have to hear wretched Rebecca ask me another annoying question ever again.'"
We hurried, going up the Eiffel Tower until we came out onto the observation deck at the top.
Boy, it was windy.
"Stop right there!" Pete shouted, pointing an accusing finger at Crazy Serena as she heaved a bound Rebecca up in her arms and moved to the edge.
We did notice that Pete neglected to say please this time.
Crazy Serena turned to us, a nervous smile on her face.
"I wasn't going to do anything evil," she said, "really. We were just playing Mother and Child. It's a game we made up together. Tell them, Rebecca."
But Rebecca was saying nothing except "Whgfauvuwe," which she mumbled in a funny sort of way because there was a sock shoved in her mouth.
We were fairly certain we knew who had put that sock there.
"Step away from the edge and put the child down," Pete directed in a calm but firm voice.
Immediately, and to our great surprise, Crazy Serena obeyed.
But then we figured: Of course she did. Who would ever argue with a calm but firm mechanic?
"Now tell me why you did it," Pete said. "Why did you abduct Rebecca and why were you about to throw her over the side?"
"I already told you," Crazy Serena insisted. "I wasn't—"
"'Because Rebecca wouldn't stop asking me questions and she was driving me crazy, so I had to find a way to get her to stop,'" Petal piped up in a disturbingly Crazy Serena-like voice. Petal shrugged. "At least that's what was in her mind just then."
Crazy Serena studied Petal, stunned. "One of you can read people's minds now?" she said in a wondering voice. "What are you—a witch?"
"No, that would be you," Rebecca said right after Annie untied her and removed the sock from her mouth.
"Is it true?" Pete asked Crazy Serena. "Is that what you were thinking?"
Crazy Serena looked at him with pleading eyes. "It's exactly true. But surely you understand, don't you? Haven't you ever had a child pepper you with the same annoying questions over and over again so that you feel if you can't keep the kid quiet you'll go mad?"
"No," Pete said wearily. "I can't say as I've ever had that particular experience and I don't imagine I ever will."
Then he closed the space between them, grabbed her firmly by the elbow, and led her down the Eiffel Tower, the rest of us trailing behind.
When we got to the bottom, in a move we'd seen him make one time before, he gave her a slight push on the back, like he was starting a wind-up toy.
"One more time," he said. "Off you go. Get out of France. I kicked you out of one country and now I'm kicking you out of another. And if it comes to it, I'll kick you out of every country on the planet. Just stay away from my girls!"
It was an odd thing for him to say, we thought as we watched Crazy Serena hobble off, but then we realized: for however long our parents were gone, we were Pete's girls, and we were grateful for it.
"Thank you, Mr. Pete!" Rebecca hurled herself at him and gave him a big hug. "You saved me."
For the first time we realized that Rebecca, who'd never seemed to know what fear meant, had been scared.
"Anytime, pet," Pete said. "And I appreciate the appreciation. But you need to thank Petal for this one."
"Petal?" Rebecca spat out the name with her usual level of disgust.
"Yes," Pete said evenly. "Petal. She's the one who grew brave enough to use her power to read Crazy Serena's mind. If not for her, we'd never have known where to look for you. I doubt we'd have gotten here in time."
As frustrating as it was sometimes to have Rebecca for a sister, that was an awful thought.
"Petal?" Rebecca turned to Petal, confusion and wonder in her voice. "But I don't understand. I've treated you horribly since we were born. Why would you do anything to save me? You should hate me."
"You're my sister." Petal shrugged. "Who would I be if I didn't save you?"
"But weren't you scared?" Rebecca went on. "Weren't you worried that the sky would fall or that it would rain for forty days and forty nights or that the world would just generally come to an end?"
"Of course I was scared, of all those things," Petal said. "I always am. I was scared every single second, for myself. But you're my sister. You're my sister."
And then, of course, Petal fainted.
***
"Gather her up and let's get going," Mrs. Pete said cheerily. "We've got a wedding to get to."
Back at the chateau, now that Crazy Serena was gone, the wedding went off without a hitch. You could even say it was boring, although it was a nice moment when Petal bravely took the basket with its few remaining rose petals from Zinnia, and Zinnia graciously allowed her to be the one to strew the aisle with them.
But then—once Aunt Martha and Uncle George had each said "I do" and kissed and we'd all had the chance to say, "Euwww!"—at the reception in the second ballroom things got exciting again.
We had never been to a wedding reception before, so we didn't know there'd be a table set up with little cards on it, each card with the name of a guest and an assigned table number.
It relieved us greatly to see that we and the Petes would all be at the same table together: table 8.
But then we started looking at the other name cards waiting to be claimed and we saw that nearly every card there was for a person with the last name Smith.
Huh. Who would have ever guessed there were so many people named Smith in the world?
Then we shrugged. They must all be relatives of Mommy.
We began scanning the cards to see if there were any non-Smith names, just out of curiosity.
That's when we saw one still there for Serena Smith.
"Sorry," Uncle George said, reaching over us. "Someone should have removed this earlier. Sorry again." He shook his head. "Serena's always been a bad egg."
We glanced at Rebecca out of the corners of our eyes. We knew all about bad eggs, because we had one of our own. Still, we loved our bad egg.
"Oh, hello!" Uncle George cried. "What are these doing still here? They're not coming."
We saw him hurriedly gather up about ten more cards. Before he put them in his pocket, we noticed that the top one said Ocho. Then we he
ard the sound of knives clinking against glasses, and Uncle George went off to kiss Aunt Martha again.
Euwww.
"Ocho?" Rebecca said. "Hmm ... I remember that from the Spanish words the Mr. McG tried to teach us. It means 'eight.'"
Eight? In Spanish? But that was odd. Our name meant "eight" in French.
"Never mind that now," Annie said, struggling under the weight of the Deluxe Perfect-Every-Time Hamburger Maker/Manicure-Pedicure Machine that she was carrying on her head. "Can we go find the presents table so I can put this down before it squashes me?"
We shrugged and followed behind her.
That's another thing they have at wedding receptions. In addition to the name-card table, there's a presents table.
We had no idea when such information might come in handy again, but most of us did think it was nice to know things.
"Ooh!" Zinnia clasped her hands together at the sight of all the pretty wrapped presents.
"Oof!" Annie exhaled, relieved to finally set our present down.
"Can we look at some of these before we find our seats?" Zinnia begged. "Please?"
"Suit yourselves." Annie waved an exhausted hand. Then she grabbed a napkin from a table that wasn't ours and wiped her brow.
We proceeded to ooh and aah over the packages, even those of us who weren't as obsessed with presents as others were. It was a wedding, and it seemed like another wedding thing people did.
We also studied the names on the gift cards to see who'd brought what, but we didn't see the names of anyone we knew, save on the card with practical cash inside it from the Petes.
"Look at that one in the back!" Zinnia said. "So big! So shiny!"
"I wonder who it's from?" Jackie wondered.
"We probably shouldn't—" Annie started to say as Zinnia strained to pull the big and shiny package from the back row. "Oh, here," Annie said instead, exasperated. "Let me get that for you. I am seven inches taller, you know."
Yes. We did know.
Annie looked over each shoulder to see if anyone else was looking before she reached, grabbed. "I just hope no one notices—" Then she saw something attached to the package that brought her up short.
Petal's Problems Page 7
