by Bill Myers
“Yeah,” Zach said. “We had to keep the TV on so people would think we were still there watching it.”
“And you wanted it to be on some stupid football game.”
“Well, it was better than your America’s Top whatever it was.”
“It was the middle of spring, Zach. They don’t play football in the spring.”
“Details, details.”
Piper gave up on sighing and tried one of world-famous eye rolls. She still remembered that night vividly. Once they had decided on the TV show, an old CSI rerun, they had to push the car out of the garage without turning on the lights . . . or the engine. It was suppose to be so no one would hear them leaving. And, for the most part, they were pretty successful — except for the part of Zach pushing the car by holding on to the steering wheel. Actually, that wasn’t the problem. It was the horn on the steering wheel. The horn he accidentally pressed again and again, and again some more. The horn that managed to wake up the entire neighborhood and made every dog in the city begin barking.
So much for silence. Maybe that’s why this time Mom and Dad decided to leave without their help.
“Anyways,” Zach said, bringing her back to the present. “I’m betting it’s the same thing now. You know, them having to leave at the last minute.”
“Why won’t they ever tell us what’s happening?” Piper complained.
He gave another shrug. “You know what they say — we’re better off not knowing. At least for now.”
She nodded and looked back to Elijah. She knew there was a connection between their sudden moves and her little brother, but what?
Suddenly, her cell phone — which Zach had programmed for her — rang to the tune of “If I Only Had a Brain,” from The Wizard of Oz.
She pulled the phone from her pocket and checked the caller ID. It read Out of Area. She flipped it open and anxiously answered. “Hello, Mom?”
“No, it’s Cody,” the voice replied.
Her heart sank and swelled at the same time. “Uh . . . hi,” she stammered.
“So, what’re you up to?” he asked.
She swallowed nervously. The last thing she wanted to do was cut him off , but she didn’t have much choice.
“Listen . . . Cody. Now’s not such a good time. We’re kinda busy and — ”
“Where are you?” he asked. “I dropped by your place, but nobody was home.”
“Yeah . . . we’re on the way to my aunt’s in Pasadena. We took the bus.”
“The bus!” Cody exclaimed. “All the way out there?
Where are your folks?”
Zach pointed across the street. “There’s the house.”
“Uh, listen, Cody . . .” Just saying his name made her mouth dry. “I’m sorry, but I really gotta go. I’ll talk to you later.”
“Yeah, sure, but — ”
Piper cringed as she closed her phone on him.
“Where’s Dad’s car?” Zach asked.
“Maybe . . .” She cleared her throat. “Maybe he went to get pizza. We always have pizza when we come here.”
They moved across the street and up to the front door. Zach knocked and waited. Piper blew the hair from her eyes and reached over to ring the bell.
A moment later, the door swung open. The woman standing before them was in her thirties with long red hair and a strangely forced smile. “Hello. You must be Mike and Judy’s children.”
Zach and Piper exchanged looks.
“I’m . . . Elaine, a house guest of your Aunt Myrna’s. They went to pick up some dinner.” She opened the door wider. “Won’t you come in? They’ll be back anytime.”
Chapter Four
Extra Sausage
Cody stared at his cell phone. “She hung up on me.”
Willard, his geeky, overweight friend, replied, “Perhaps she is too enamored of your fabled charm to speak directly to you.”
Cody frowned. “And what would that mean in English . . . ?”
Willard translated. “Maybe she thinks you’re too hot.”
Cody shook his head. “Don’t be stupid.”
Willard smiled to himself. Cody was the best friend a guy could have. Thoughtful, modest, and always there when the chips were down. But when it came to girls, he was clueless. The guy had absolutely no concept of his incredible looks or the effect he had on girls . . . which is probably why they were all nuts over him.
Willard remembered the time in third grade when they were playing dodgeball and two girls were chosen to be captains. To say that they were each crazy to get Cody on their team was an understatement. To say that it involved screaming, a fist fight, and huge clumps of pulled-out hair on the gym floor when they were through was the least of it.
The fact that Willard was always chosen last was another truth. But one he was used to.
At the moment the two of them were working in Willard’s dad’s garage, tinkering on Willard’s latest invention. In the past he had created other mind-numbing devices:
ROCKET-POWERED BOWLING BALLS — a lot of fun, except for the holes they put in the back walls of bowling alleys.
MAKE-YOU-INVISIBLE ELECTRON BEAMS — a useful invention, except it only worked on skin and muscle, leaving folks walking around like human skeletons (not one of human kind’s more attractive features).
Finally, there was the ever-popular AUTOMATIC HAIR CURLER — a hit with the girls, except that it fried their hair and made them permanently bald.
Now Willard was working on his latest . . . the HELIO-HOPPER. It was made of three big ceiling fans — one on top to work as helicopter blades, and the other two on opposite sides to steer it. Below the fans were two side-by-side wheelchairs to sit in. And on the bottom of the chairs were plenty of springs (just in case the fans didn’t work so well).
Cody’s frown deepened as he said, “I’m just afraid Piper might be in trouble.”
“Why’s that?” Willard said as he returned to tightening the bolts on the helio-hopper.
“She said they took a bus to Pasadena.”
Willard agreed. “That alone is an indication of something being incorrect.”
Cody nodded. “Who would take a bus to visit their aunt all the way to Pasadena without their parents?”
Willard continued to tinker.
Cody nodded to the hopper. “I wish that thing was working so we could fly over there and check on her.”
“You are in luck.” He tightened the last bolt and looked up. “I believe we are ready for our first test flight.”
“Cool!” Cody exclaimed. “Start her up.”
Willard climbed aboard the helio-hopper and turned the key. It gave a grinding noise until the engine coughed to life.
“All right!” Cody shouted.
That was the good news. Unfortunately, there was also a little bad . . .
The whole machine leaped suddenly into the air and crashed down onto the floor. Then it leaped higher and crashed harder.
“What’s going on?” Cody yelled.
“It appears to be over-oscillating!”
“What does that mean?”
It shot up, nearly hitting the roof. “It means you better hurry and get on before we take off !”
Once again it slammed to the ground. This time Cody jumped into the empty chair just before it shot up and grazed the ceiling.
“Hang on!” Willard shouted as they crashed back down. “I suspect the next couple leaps will be the ones!”
“The ones for what?” Cody yelled.
Again they slammed into the ceiling. This time the wooden planks gave a sickening CRACK before the helio-hopper fell back to the floor.
“The ones for what?” Cody repeated.
Again, they shot up, hitting the ceiling with such force that it finally gave way. The wood splintered into a thousand pieces as the boys and machine shot through the roof and up into the sky.
Piper stood at Aunt Myrna’s doorway beside Zach and in front of Elijah. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but something
was stopping her from entering.
Maybe it was the forced smile on the woman’s face — a smile that looked more painted than real.
Maybe it was the fact there were no cars parked out front — not Aunt Myrna’s, not Dad’s.
But she suspected the real reason was that Elijah had grabbed the back of her belt and held her, not letting her go inside the house.
“Please,” the woman repeated. “I really think it’s time to come in, don’t you?”
“Oh, yes,” Piper agreed. Once again she tried moving forward, and once again Elijah held her back.
Finally, she turned to him. “What is the matter with you?”
The little guy gave no answer but narrowed his eyes and pulled even harder.
Just then the phone rang from inside the house.
“Oh, that must be your parents now,” the woman said.
Zach stepped inside. “Probably calling to see what we want on our pizza,” he offered.
Piper looked at her little brother and decided she’d had enough. She reached back, grabbed Elijah by the hand, and pulled him inside with her. “Tell them I want extra sausage,” she said.
“Yes.” The woman smiled painfully as she shut the door. “Extra sausage.”
By now, Willard and Cody were fifty feet in the air — dipping and diving, spinning and twirling — all the time hanging on for dear life.
Cody yelled, “Can’t you — WOAHH, WHAAA, WOOO — steer this thing?!”
“Of course!” Willard shouted back. “Just as soon as I get a little — WOOO, WHAAA, WOAHH — practice!”
And practice he did as they dove this way and that, then that way and this . . . barely missing trees, telephone wires, and more than one angry seagull.
After twenty or thirty minutes of these fun and games, Willard finally started getting the hang of it.
“Isn’t this cool?” he shouted.
Cody would have been happy to answer, but he was too busy hanging his head over the side of his chair, trying not to throw up. When he finally looked over to Willard, he saw his friend managing the controls with one hand while at the same time pressing buttons on a small box.
“What’s that?” Cody yelled.
“My GPS tracker!” Willard shouted.
“Your what?”
“I believe there is a way we can find Piper’s location!”
“How?”
“With a few modifications to this device, it is possible to locate her cell phone signal and trace it.”
“Great!” Cody shouted. “That’s just — ” He wanted to finish the sentence, but it was more important he throw his head back over the side and hope there was nobody standing directly below him when he barfed.
Zach, Piper, and Elijah stood in the living room as the woman answered the phone.
“Hello, Mike? Good. The kids are here.” She looked at them and tried another smile. “Yes, they seem fine.”
Piper felt a wave of relief and smiled back.
The woman continued talking. “Yes, I’ll tell them.
Oh, and remember your daughter likes extra sausage on her pizza. Yes, we’ll see you soon.”
At last she hung up. “They’ll be here in a little while.”
“Great,” Zach said as he plopped down on the sofa.
Feeling better, Piper joined him. Only Elijah remained standing. “C’mon, Eli.” Piper held out her hands. “Come sit with me.”
But Elijah refused. Instead, he turned and walked back to the front door.
The woman tensed. “He’s not leaving, is he?”
“Nah,” Zach assured her. “He’ll stay with us.”
The woman continued to watch.
“You’ll have to excuse him,” Piper explained.
“Sometimes he acts a little . . . strange.”
“Yes.” The woman nodded, not taking her eyes from Elijah. “So I’ve heard.”
“Hey, pal,” Zach called. “What are you — ”
Elijah reached up and locked the front door with a loud CLICK.
Piper shrugged. “Guess he’s afraid of burglars.”
“Yes.” The woman nodded again. “That must be it.”
Suddenly the door knob rattled. Someone was trying to get in.
Zach rose from the sofa to take a peak out the window.
Concerned, Piper joined him.
“It’s probably just those annoying Girl Scouts,” the woman said. “They’re always trying to sell those awful cookies.”
But they were not Girl Scouts. Instead, one was a big hulk of a man with a funny face. The other was the skinny guy with the long, pointed nose that Piper had seen pulling out a gun in front of her house — the very same gun he was pulling out now!
Without a word, Piper spun around and headed for the kitchen.
The woman turned. “Is everything . . . all right?”
“Oh, yes.” Piper fought to keep her voice even. “I was just wondering — ” She silently motioned for Zach to follow. This time, for whatever reason, he decided to listen. So did Elijah. “We were just wondering if there was anything we could snack on while we waited?”
The woman looked unsure whether to follow them or unlock the door. She voted for the door. And that was all the time they needed.
Piper raced for the back kitchen door and threw it open. Her brothers followed right behind.
They leaped off the porch and dashed to the toolshed their dad had helped build a couple summers back.
Zach tugged at the shed’s door. “Locked!” he whispered.
They turned, searching the yard. Elijah pointed at the old RV beside the house some twenty feet away.
Zach nodded. “It’s worth a try.”
They ran to it and barely arrived on the other side when the porch light flooded the yard. “They’re out here!” the woman shouted.
“I knew she was up to something,” Piper whispered as she tried the RV door. It wouldn’t budge.
“Try jiggling the handle,” Zach said. “Maybe it’s stuck.” Piper tried again with no luck.
They heard footsteps coming down the porch stairs.
“What’ll we do?” Piper whispered. She spotted Elijah feeling under the front bumper. “Elijah!”
The voices began to approach.
“Look in that shed,” the woman ordered. “I’ll check the RV.”
“Elijah, what are you — ”
Suddenly her little brother held up the hide-a-key he’d found under the front bumper. Zach quickly grabbed it and unlocked the door. “Everyone inside,” he whispered.
They didn’t have to be asked twice.
When they were all in, Zach locked the door behind them. “Crouch down so they can’t see,” he whispered.
The voices drew closer.
Zach reached over and silently pulled Elijah out of the light streaming in through the RV’s windshield . . . just as the door rattled.
Piper caught her breath.
“It’s locked,” the woman called. “Shine your light inside.”
A flashlight beam blazed through the windshield. Piper pressed flat against the wall. So did Zach and Elijah. They watched, frozen, as the beam moved across the floor and walls.
Another light appeared through the side window. Piper prayed silently as it crept toward them. They were going to be spotted any second.
Zach motioned them under the kitchen table. Piper nodded. It was their only hope. Silently, Zach and Eli darted under it without a problem.
But Piper was a fraction too slow. The beam caught her arm and she froze. It passed her, hesitated, and then darted back.
Chapter Five
Hide-and-Go-EEK!
On its next pass through the RV, the beam caught the edge of Piper’s arm just as Zach grabbed her and dragged her under the table.
The light continued to shoot back, then forward, then back again, just inches from them. But it found nothing.
All while this happened, the red-haired woman continued yanking and pulling at the door.
Piper prayed quietly. She threw a glance to Zach and noticed he was doing the same. But not Elijah. Instead, the little guy was sitting there actually grinning. Weird.
