The Wright 3

by Blue Balliett

  If there was one thing Petra hated, it was being criticized for being a girl. A tiny flame of anger began to sizzle inside her.

  The three stood quietly as Black Glasses headed back downstairs. Thin Head picked up a hammer, and after snorting, “Be good, kiddies, and keep your mouths shut,” he went across the hall. Tap-tap-tapping and the squeaking of wood came from below, and Tommy recognized the sounds he’d heard faintly last night.

  Fire it … All three kids guessed this meant setting the house on fire. Can’t keep these three little birdies … Were they really planning to burn down the Robie House with three kids tied up inside?

  If the kids hadn’t been together that night, they might not have been able to be as strong, but as they stood there, hearts pounding and brains racing, all three reached the same angry conclusion: They wouldn’t give up.

  Petra had an idea. “Sir? Is it okay if we pray?” she called to Thin Head.

  There was an exaggerated sigh. “Please yourself,” he barked back.

  “N-T-N-R-N-Y-N L-E-L-S-L-C-L-A-L-P-L-E-L,” Petra said in a slow monotone. She emphasized every other letter in each word, hoping that if she only used one pentomino for the bread in the Wright Sandwich Code, they could communicate aloud.

  There was a short silence, and Thin Head called, “Hey! That ain’t English.”

  “It’s Romanian Latin. We learned it in school. It’s called the Chant for Lost Children,” Petra called back, hoping Thin Head hadn’t studied Latin and wasn’t Eastern European.

  Tommy said, “I-R-I-O-I-O-I-F-I.”

  Then Calder said, “N-A-N-S-N-K-N V-T-V-O-V Z-P-Z-E-Z-E-Z.”

  After figuring out what Calder had said, Petra cleared her throat. “Sir? I have to use the bathroom. Bad.”

  “Jeez!” the man bellowed, stomping into the room. “He would leave me to babysit you, wouldn’t he?”

  Wisely, the three said nothing. As the man untied the strip around their waists, they stood meekly. Petra even ventured a grateful smile. The man untied her hands.

  “Ours, too?” Calder asked. “Just while she’s in there?”

  “You try anything when I untie your hands, you’ll be sorry,” he said to the boys. “Understand? Face to the wall while she’s using the john.”

  The boys nodded, eyes on the floor.

  “Don’t lock the door!” the man ordered as Petra walked into the bathroom.

  As soon as she sat down noisily on the toilet seat, pants still on, there was a wild scuffling and grunting in the bedroom. She jumped up and ran back in. Thin Head was bent over double, clutching his middle. While Tommy frantically wrapped the man’s head like a mummy with strips of fabric, Calder clung to his back in a fierce hug, bouncing and sliding as Thin Head tried to throw him off. Petra rushed over to help, adding her weight to Calder’s, and Thin Head stumbled to his knees. Tommy tied a quick knot and hopped to one side.

  Calder let go of Thin Head, and Petra let go of Calder. He ran to open one of the casement windows while Petra staggered backward, lost her balance, and hit the wall. Thin Head was now back on his feet and pulling at the fabric on his eyes and mouth. At the sound of the thump, a groping arm lunged in Petra’s direction. Tommy stomped his foot, and Thin Head swung the other way.

  Calder slipped through the window, reached back inside for Petra’s hand, and pulled as hard as he could. She shot through, landing on her knees, and Tommy followed. They scrambled over metal flower boxes and dropped onto the roof above the living room.

  A wild, angry shouting came from inside the house, and Thin Head’s body squeezed out the window after them, his black-net mask now sitting on his head like a crooked sock hat. “Punks!” he choked. “Little creeps!”

  Black Glasses, who had been out in the garage during the scuffle, heard the kids landing on the roof. He ran to the front terrace and looked up from below. “Come on down, kids!” he called softly. “I’ll catch you!”

  Calder, Petra, and Tommy hurried to the end of the closest ridge, their feet sliding on the rounded tile. They couldn’t go any farther without falling.

  “Help!” Petra’s voice came out in a squeak.

  “Help!” Tommy and Calder echoed, but no one was in the street.

  Now just steps away, Thin Head walked toward them in a half-crouch, arms wide. Sweat glistened on his face and neck. “Got you,” he snarled.

  Clinging to one another, the Wright 3 sank into a terrified heap. Tears ran silently down Petra’s face, and Calder’s teeth chattered uncontrollably. One of Tommy’s knees trembled so violently that it thumped up and down against the hard tile.

  Should they let go of one another? Could they survive a push? How had they ended up on a slippery roof, in the middle of the night, with an angry criminal?

  Petra thought of her family and of never seeing her words in print; Calder thought of his parents and of all the problem-solving he hadn’t yet done; Tommy thought of his mom and Goldman.

  And then something very odd happened. Either Thin Head’s knees buckled beneath him, making the roof look as though it rose in a wave, or the roof itself heaved upward. None of the three were ever quite sure what they had seen.

  Thin Head was suddenly airborne, his mouth open, his arms bent like stiff wings. He hit the roof on his side and rolled over and over down the north slope, clutching desperately at the tile. Every piece he grabbed pulled loose in his hand. He bounced across the gutter and vanished into darkness, accompanied by the crack-shatter of terra-cotta hitting the cement walk below.

  A grunt was followed by silence.

  “What the —” Black Glasses exclaimed. Heavy footsteps ran to see what had happened, and the kids heard a terrible screeching sound and the clang of falling metal. A cloud of debris and dust rose from the terrace. Again, there was silence.

  Slowly, ever so slowly, the Wright 3 let go of one another. No words came at first. Needing to know if they were safe or whether the men were coming after them again, they inched carefully along the ridge, glancing back at the open window and the dark house behind. Finally they spotted Thin Head lying on the walkway on the north side. Nearby, one of Black Glasses’s legs stuck out from beneath a pile of plaster and bent copper.

  “Oh!” Petra breathed, half-laughing, half-crying.

  “We’re safe!” Tommy whispered.

  “We’re alive,” Calder gasped.

  “Did you see that?” Tommy asked in a shaky voice.

  “What happened?” Petra and Calder asked at the same time.

  Tommy tugged on the tile around him, but nothing gave. Calder tried, too. Still nothing. He lifted his shoulders in a long, incredulous shrug.

  The three stood quietly, still trembling a little, still unsure of what had just happened. Petra reached down and patted the roof gently. “Thank you, house,” she whispered. She kissed one hand and touched it to the tile.

  A breeze rippled through the trees, and a wash of light danced across the third-floor windows, pausing at the casement where the kids had escaped. As they watched, the window swung slowly closed and the wrapped-candy shape in the center gleamed.

  The three kids were rescued in a fire truck bucket, and parents were called. Tommy’s mom had been having a late dinner with friends near the campus. Calder’s and Petra’s parents were at a party several blocks away. All were on their way. Dazed, the Wright 3 sat in a line by the sidewalk.

  Tommy dropped his head into his hands and covered his eyes.

  “What?” Calder asked.

  Tommy said abruptly, “Gotta tell.”

  “What?” Calder asked again.

  “I did find the fish here. I lied about the Japanese Garden. I was just so confused about what to do.”

  “You lied to us about lying?” Petra asked, looking at Tommy as if he were from another planet.

  “Why?” Calder asked.

  “I thought I had to,” Tommy said. “But now Black Glasses has the fish. Everything will be out in the open, and I’ll feel bad if everyone thinks I’m some kind of her
o. Since I trespassed and found it on this property, it probably belongs to the university, anyway. Now they can sell it, just like you said. If I told everyone I found it in the Japanese Garden, and then we tried to sell it for the Robie House, the Chicago Parks Department might take it and who knows what would happen then.” Tommy glanced at Petra and chewed his thumbnail.

  Petra, to his relief, didn’t get angry. “That’s pretty good thinking.”

  Tommy shrugged. “Finders have to think that way.” He paused and cleared his throat. “And the Wright 3 matters a whole lot to me.”

  Petra looked at him, her head on one side. “Me too,” she said.

  Calder nodded. He didn’t think he’d ever heard Tommy say as much about how he felt.

  The three were silent for a moment.

  “That fish has been lost and found a lot,” Petra murmured. “First Wright bought it, then he lost it … then you found it, then you lost it … Black Glasses found it and is about to lose it … and now it’s coming back to Wright.”

  “Yeah,” Tommy said slowly. “Maybe sometimes when you lose something, you end up getting something else. Only you can’t know about the second thing until you’ve lost the first.”

  “I like that,” Petra said. “Like losing is sometimes gaining. I’ll have to think about that.”

  “Sure,” Tommy said, sucking in his cheeks.

  All five of the Wright 3 parents were horrified when they found out what their children had been up to, and after the hugs there were several hours of lectures and angry exclamations that night. But the adults couldn’t stay upset for long — after all, their kids had saved a great home and a great work of art, something only Frank Lloyd Wright had been able to do before them.

  The Wright 3 were relieved to hear that Black Glasses and Thin Head were going to make it. As soon as they had recovered enough to talk, they were put under arrest and the pieces of the story fell into place.

  The men were brothers. Petty criminals who had always worked for a boss, they’d heard about the Robie House plans from an informer in New York. Being unemployed at the time, they decided to apply to the crew on their own, hoping to pocket what they could on the job — lamps were what they had in mind. They faked two sets of credentials and were hired.

  On their first day in the house, June 1, they heard the story of the jade talisman from Henry Dare. The young man was proud to be the great-grandson of the mason who had built the house with Wright. He wanted to be an expert, and was happy to share his family secret. After all, the house was coming down, and the fish was long gone.

  As the crew worked on plans for partitioning the house, they were told by the foreman about the tremendous value of the windows, and about the hazards of Wright’s wiring. Many of his houses, after all, had burned to the ground. They were warned to work slowly and carefully.

  An idea, a very greedy idea, began to form in the minds of the brothers. Their plan would be easy to execute: Sneak in at night, gradually loosen a few windows, and escape with their plunder as the house went up in flames. Because of the fire, no one would know which windows had been stolen. Now working for themselves, Black Glasses and Thin Head had connections, and planned to sell the Wright windows for a fortune.

  They hadn’t counted on the Wright 3 showing up. The brothers swore they wouldn’t have left Tommy, Petra, and Calder in a burning house, but the kids weren’t so sure. Can’t keep these three little birdies…. Those words weren’t easy to forget.

  On the afternoon of June 3, the day Ms. Hussey read the article to her class and the day Henry Dare fell, Black Glasses pretended to have left his wristwatch inside, and went back into the Robie House by himself as the crew drove away. The foreman, who was late for a dentist appointment, had let him in and instructed him to close the front door firmly when he left. In reality, Black Glasses was going back in to open the latch on a kitchen window so that he and his brother could return after dark.

  Looking out a first-floor window, Black Glasses saw a boy dash across the south-side garden. He watched as the kid knelt down, dug furiously for several minutes, and then hopped up with a small object in his hand.

  The boy was obviously thrilled, and ran into the apartment building next door. As Black Glasses stood puzzling over what he had just seen, he remembered the mason’s story about Wright’s lost talisman.

  Once out of the hospital, Henry Dare saw the sixth-grade demonstration on June 9 and talked with Ms. Hussey. He had quit the crew by then, and wanted to help save the Robie House. But besides that … well, the teacher was pretty interesting.

  When he asked her out on a date, she suggested a trip to the Art Institute. The moment Mr. Dare saw the Asian Wing, he thought of Frank Lloyd Wright’s talisman story. He decided to take Ms. Hussey on a mini–treasure hunt in the museum. He liked surprises himself, and was curious about what they might find. Besides that, he wanted to impress her.

  Black Glasses saw Tommy leave the apartment that morning. While he couldn’t watch the building every second, he knew Tommy often peered out his window, and the boy’s screen had been empty for over an hour. Black Glasses asked his brother to cover for him. He crept over to Tommy’s apartment, listened at the door, and broke in.

  It didn’t take long to find the carving. When Black Glasses brought it to Chinatown that evening to ask about its value, he was stunned by what he learned. The brothers would live like kings once they’d found the right collector to buy it.

  That night, the two of them came back to the Robie House to continue their work on the windows. It was Thin Head who found Tommy outside in the flower bed and blinded him with a camera flash, something he always carried for just such an emergency.

  The following night Thin Head had been waiting for his brother and taking a nap on the third floor when the Wright 3 broke into the house. He said he was asleep under a tarpaulin when he heard the kids running downstairs, so the steps that Calder, Petra, and Tommy had heard moments earlier were not his.

  Black Glasses and Thin Head were tried for attempted burglary, assault, and willful destruction of private property, and both went to prison.

  When John Stone, the president of the University of Chicago, heard what the Wright 3 had done to save the house, he was more than impressed. He was moved.

  Black Glasses had the jade fish in his pocket when he was pulled from under the debris on the night of June 16. Tommy explained to President Stone that he’d found the fish in the Robie House garden, and he hoped it could be sold to help with the renovation. Calder, Petra, and Tommy suggested that the university take it to the Art Institute for an evaluation. They did, and it was found to be worth a great deal of money.

  The university set up the Wright Fund and began plans for a massive renovation. When the press heard that the house had been saved by three children who had not only risked their lives but also found a real treasure and donated it to the cause, the money poured in. The house got more attention than it had since Wright had last saved it himself, almost fifty years before.

  President Stone announced that they would open the house to the public during restoration, in order to build up more funds and support, and that the university would create a small gift shop and a caretaker’s apartment on the site. The gift shop would carry Wright books and cards, and the job of running it would come with a small salary but the added compensation of the apartment.

  When Zelda Segovia applied for the job, the president was very pleased to discover that Tommy, his mom, and Goldman wanted to live in the house. He promised them the northeast side of the second floor — a giant kitchen, cozy living room, two small bedrooms, and their own entrance. And he said it was fine, once the house was finished, if they used the rest of it when it was closed to the public.

  Zelda Segovia dreamed of morning tea on a terrace, and Tommy couldn’t wait to be the first kid to live in the house since 1926. Goldman kept an eye on the restoration and waited patiently for the view from his own Wright window.

  Once the ex
citement had died down, the Wright 3 agreed that they had unfinished business: The part of himself that Wright coded into the Robie House hadn’t been found.

  After explaining their mission, the children asked President Stone if they could visit the house during the day. They wanted to invite Ms. Hussey, Mrs. Sharpe, and Mr. Dare. The president had heard Mr. Dare’s story about Wright’s code, and he agreed. Everyone was curious.

  On the morning of June 21 — oddly enough, the date the demolition was supposed to have begun — the president unlocked the front door of the Robie House and they all stepped inside. Mr. Dare pointed out some of his great-grandfather’s work on the fireplaces, and Ms. Hussey marveled at the poetry of Wright’s windows. President Stone shook his head and clicked his tongue happily, and Mrs. Sharpe examined everything with great care.

  In daylight, the colors of the art glass — cream, amber, sepia — traced delicate, plant-like forms on the streetscape outside. The kids hadn’t realized Wright’s ingenious plan for privacy: From the inside, the colors were muted, but from the outside, they shimmered like polished abalone, making it difficult to look in. The net they had seen at night shifted to a lacy screen during the day.

  Tommy circled around, grinning and practically hugging himself.

  Petra stood in the middle of the living room. She waited until the grown-ups were all in the dining room, and said to Calder and Tommy, “I brought one of my copies of The Invisible Man. I’m going to ask it for help in looking for the code.”

  Just days ago, Tommy would have teased her about doing this, but he only said, “Cool.”

  She pulled a copy of the book out of her back pocket, closed her eyes, and leafed back and forth through it. Pointing to the middle of a page, she opened her eyes and read:

  “IF A MAN WAS MADE OF GLASS HE WOULD STILL BE VISIBLE.”

  The Wright 3 looked at one another. “The only glass is in the windows,” Petra said.

  Mrs. Sharpe’s bony face peeked around the fireplace, her green eyes bright. “That’s correct. Remember when I said you have everything you need?”