Mei was mesmerized by the beautiful, swirling leaves outside the greenhouse. They showed a rainbow of colors and shapes that would catch in small whirlwinds, but they also reminded her of the urgency they were facing with the weather. She focused her attention back inside the greenhouse and the food in front of her and joined Frankie in eating her favorite picnic foods.
When they were finished Frankie turned a knob on the end of the bench and a motor started up. Mei looked at him, puzzled and Frankie patted the bench.
“It's a cooler too!” he explained. Mei shook her head in wonder.
They took everything off the bench and lifted the lid to reveal a multilevel cooler which they filled with the food dishes. They put the used dishes in the recycler. With still no word from Mei's dad or Frankie's mom they headed downstairs to see if they really could find the next hidden hallway.
Mei stood at the end of the hall waiting for Frankie to guide her as he looked through the end of the fish tank. Frankie was skeptical to follow a cat’s instructions, but sure enough, the cats were right. Mei found another hidden switch at the end of the hallway which opened a small door. So narrow, in fact, you had to turn sideways slightly to get through it. But once through the doorway, the hallway they entered was much wider. It slowly revealed itself with automatic sensor lights that brightened little by little.
Maow and Poo were the first to go through the small door into the hallway beyond only to immediately do a 180 and scamper back out the door nearly tripping up Frankie and Mei.
Too scary looking for us. thought Poo, as she and Maow headed for safer ground by the fish tank.
“Aren't you coming fraidy-cats?” teased Mei, catching her balance. “You can stay here or you can go back and keep an eye on things with Larry. The hallway and doors are open to our safe house if you want to go back. We can give you and Larry an update through NORA, before going any farther than the end of this hallway. Okay?”
Maow and Poo agreed and headed back down the first hallway to meet up with Larry. Mei turned back to Frankie and they entered the new hallway. The dim lights revealed a scary looking place indeed. The walls were all wet with moss. Cobwebs criss-crossed the hall with the look of a Frankenstein castle. Mei was sure that something bad was waiting for them at the other end and was about to say so when Frankie spoke instead.
“I don’t think there is anything bad on the other end if that is what you are worried about. But these cobwebs sure aren’t going to make finding out any fun. Hold on right here,” said Frankie. He turned back through the narrow door. “I'll grab a broom and we can clean these out of the way as we go,” he shouted over his shoulder.
Within a minute he was back with a broom in one hand and extend-a-box cable and a bag of wireless nodes in the other. He had a self-wind flashlight sticking out of his front pants pocket. Mei put herself in charge of the extend-a-box cable and wireless nodes making sure to secure a node on the hallway wall at each bend or every few hundred feet, whichever came first so that the wireless signal between the computers and CC’s wouldn’t be interrupted.
This time the hallway was much longer than the one Frankie discovered between his and Mei's safe houses. There was no sign of a shimmering doorway even after walking along for several minutes. Both Frankie and Mei were laughing after only a few minutes of walking though. Larry was filling the time by telling jokes through the baby monitor and was on a roll about where all the spiders had gone. Mei and Frankie hadn't seen a single spider in the new hallway despite the endless sea of cobwebs that Frankie had been swiping at.
“There once were some spiders whose webs made a loop
They never caught flies so they flew the coop
Watch out for bats, you might want to stoop
Which is worse? Cobwebs or bat poop?”
Frankie and Mei started giggling. They both shared visions of bats trying to fly through all those cobwebs and started laughing even louder.
It was a full thirteen minutes of steady walking before they reached the shimmering door. They had begun to doubt whether it existed and were relieved when they first saw bright cheery lights and colors shimmering on the other side. The long walk left them covered in dust and Frankie was tired from swinging the broom against all the cobwebs.
“Hey Larry are Maow and Poo there?"
"They're here but they must not have been too worried about you because they decided to nap instead of waiting for your call."
"When they wake up let them know that we're going through the next shimmering door to see if we can find the new safe house,” Mei asked.
“Will do,” replied Larry.
“If they decide to follow us tell them they have about a thirteen minute walk ahead of them.”
Mei and Frankie could hear Larry shouting at the cats, trying to wake them. He apparently didn't feel they needed another catnap. His bossy voice could be heard through NORA and RADAR. He was telling Poo, “No, you won’t be getting fresh water unless you want me to carry it over one drop at a time." It got Mei and Frankie giggling all over again.
“We're going through, everyone!” announced Frankie. He and Mei marched through the shimmering door, with cobweb covered broom in hand, and into a spotless hallway. They were standing on a highly polished marble floor. It reflected everything that sat on it which was mostly ornate furniture. Frankie couldn't remember ever seeing so much opulence in one place.
Mei quickly grabbed the dirty broom and shoved her hand back through the shimmering door, placing it in the damp hallway. She didn't want to be responsible for getting anything dirty in this amazing place.
“Holy cow! This is the hidden hallway? I hate to think how they furnish their regular hallway or the Grand house for that matter! Geez, I'm afraid if I move I'll get things dirty.”
Mei nodded in agreement and stepped back into the cobweb covered hallway. Frankie appeared a moment later. They didn’t say anything to each other while they cleaned themselves off as best they could. Once finished Mei gave Frankie a nod of approval and Frankie returned the nod after checking Mei for any lingering spider webs. Satisfied they were as clean as they could get, they turned and stepped back through the shimmering door to the immaculate marbled hallway once again. Mei had placed the connect-a-box cable across the shimmering doorway and got her bag of wireless nodes ready.
This time they could hear faint shouting from the far end of the hall. As they worked their way down the hallway they were careful not to brush against the detailed Indian tables, the intricately carved Chinese screens, the ornate statues and the rows of display cases, each displaying hundreds of small expensive objects.
As Mei approached the closed panel door at the end of the hallway she could hear two girls, shouting over the top of each other.
“I did know what Muffin was thinking! I could hear his thoughts.”
“Since when have you become the dog psychiatriss?”
“Psychiatriss?! That isn't a word. It's a psychee... psychee...psycho-therapist or something. Anyway I'm letting Muffin down from the greenhouse whether you believe me or not.
“I want to know what is going on,” said the other voice. They both sounded scared. “I..I could tell what Muffin was thinking too. Oh Jen, what are we going to do?! This is the scariest thing that has ever happened and Mom and Dad aren’t here to help us!”
“I know Jan but Muffin isn't scary. She likes us and wants to help us find Mom and Dad. She misses them too!”
Frankie joined Mei at the hidden door. They didn’t say anything to each other, but by a thumbs-up and sensing each others thoughts, they agreed to knock on the door and let whoever was talking know they were there.
Mei knocked gently and waited for the door to open. There was a sudden silence from beyond the door followed by a whisper that, had it been further away, wouldn't have been understood. Since it was an inch from Mei's ear which was pressed up against the door, Mei could hear the whisper plain as day. Mei spoke in a full voice.
“I'm not a ghost, as you were just discussing.”
Two gasps were heard from behind the door.
“My name is Mei and I am with my friend Frankie. We are stuck and hoping you might help us. There should be a very small switch, usually a small odd colored piece of wood on the wall where our voices are coming from. If you find it and press it, it should open a hidden door which we are standing behind. We need your help. We don’t have a switch to open it from our side.”
“How do we know you aren't the ones who stole..er… kidnapped our parents?”
“Do we sound like kidnappers? We’re probably your age.”
Suddenly the door at the end of the immaculate hallway swung completely open to an even larger and more immaculate hallway with two very small, in proportion, twin girls standing there in matching pink dresses.
“Or....maybe we’re a few years older,” said Mei as she looked down at the twins. I didn’t realize you were so young.”
“Yeah, whatever, where are our parents?!” said Jen and Jan at the same time. They both pushed between Frankie and Mei into the hidden hallway and looked around.
“This is definitely Mom's stuff,” said Jen, rolling her eyes in disdain and giving her sister a knowing look. Jan nodded in agreement.
"They must have gone this way,” she said while Jen headed for the shimmering door at top speed.
“Um... you might not want to go through there,” Mei shouted after Jen, just as her pink dress disappeared through the shimmering door.
A moment later a sharp scream suddenly filled the air as Jen reemerged through the door. Everyone raced to the shimmering door as she came through, covered in cobwebs and dust. She furiously brushed off the mess, stomping her feet in disgust.
“Thanks a lot!. You might have given me a warning!” shouted Jen directing her anger at Mei and Frankie.
“Hey I tried to stop you.” retorted Mei, who was having trouble stifling another giggle from coming to the surface.
Frankie didn't have the best first impression of the twins and was pleased to see Jen get her share of the lower cobwebs he missed his first time through. He knew he wasn't giving the twins a fair chance, so he took a deep breath and tried a different approach.
Using a soft voice he squatted down to the twin’s level. “We're looking for our parents too. We just walked a good ten minutes down that cobweb hallway,” he said as he pointed behind him to the shimmering door, “…and at the other end is my safe house. Unfortunately your parents aren't there. There is another hallway from there that connects to Mei's safe house and greenhouse. I’m afraid they aren't at her place either. We came all this way to see if our parents were here because they are missing as well. Maybe if we look together we can find all of our parents.”
Frankie and Mei both sensed Jen and Jan relaxing and could tell they were beginning to feel more hopeful about their situation.
“As long as we don’t have to get as dirty as you two are!” Jan burst out in laughter.
“Well I’m not going to help anyone until you tell us what is going on.” said Jen in a huff and she stomped back down the hallway and stood waiting for her twin.
“What's that wire going through the door?” asked Jan, more curious about the extend-a-box cable than supporting her sister’s tantrum.
“We are using the cable to connect our computers through the shimmering doorway and I'm using the nodes to keep sending the signal wirelessly down the hallways.” said Mei. She held up the bag of nodes and pointed to NORA for emphasis. “Maybe we can connect them up to your computer too," suggested Mei. "But first we'll tell you both the rest of what has happened.”
Mei and Frankie, with NORA's help introduced Larry and told the twins quickly what happened to them that morning. Jen and Jan were both amazed and a little horrified that they were speaking with a spider. But Larry slipped in a few jokes and had them laughing before they knew it.
The twins excitedly recapped their own experiences from that morning taking turns as they explained. They admitted sensing their dog Muffin's thoughts and were amazed that Mei and Frankie were experiencing something similar. They confirmed that their greenhouse was baking under a strong summer sun and they had had to turn on the AC to keep the plants from wilting. They too had been told not to leave the greenhouse or safe house for any reason.
Chapter 5
The Greenhouse Effect Page 7
