Yejun laughed, and then Cheese joined him. Soon all the Lost Boys were laughing and starting to walk again. “That’s no earthquake,” said Yejun.
“No?” asked Sebastian, not entirely believing him.
“No.”
Of course no explanation was offered, and so Sebastian’s fears did not go away. In fact they only increased as the rumbling got louder and louder. If it wasn’t an earthquake, then maybe it was a giant train barreling toward them in the tunnel? Right now it seemed the only possible answer.
Until a more plausible answer presented itself.
Suddenly they were no longer underground but instead were heading on an upward angle, their hallway turning into a kind of ramp. In front of Sebastian was darkness, and soon he was engulfed in it and the sound of rumbling. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust, and for him to realize he was backstage. And then, of course, the rumbling made perfect sense. It wasn’t just rumbling. It was feet. Thousands of feet stomping the floor. And voices, too. Voices chanting in perfect unison what Sebastian now knew was the Korean for “Lost Boys, Lost Boys, Lost Boys.” All this just there, just beyond the blackness.
Sebastian was maneuvered by Suwon a little farther along and then around a corner. There was nowhere for Sebastian to go, to run to. He was just pushed forward toward his doom. Suddenly there was light again, and Sebastian could see the stage. He could see the entire vastness and the darkness beyond the other side of the stage. He still couldn’t see the audience, but my goodness could he hear them! The stage was lit by shafts of light in purple and blue. Covering the back wall were over a dozen huge monitors that together created one giant screen. Right now they were showing images that dissolved into one another, images from some of the music videos Sebastian had seen. On occasion, the face of one of the boys would materialize, and then the crowd would stop its chanting for a moment to shriek and scream. It was kind of terrifying and awe inspiring. But mostly terrifying.
“Opera Boy! Over here!” called out Kwan, and Sebastian turned to see that the band and Suwon were standing in a tight huddle. He ran over to join them, holding the drumsticks tight to his chest almost like a security blanket. Once they had drawn him into the huddle, Kwan started to speak, first in Korean and then in English: “Here’s to an amazing show. To an amazing band. To an amazing family. Play well and have fun!” He put his hand in the middle of the circle, and the others did as well, including Sebastian. “Lost Boys,” said Kwan. And then the other boys said it too, and then, much like the audience, they chanted the band’s name, getting faster and faster, louder and louder, until they all whooped together and raised their hands as one. Sebastian couldn’t help but laugh with the rest of them, the energy was crazy-infectious.
And then, suddenly, the boys were off, darting away from the stage and into the darkness.
“What’s happening? Where are they going?” asked Sebastian, turning to Suwon, who grinned back at him.
“You’ll see,” he replied. Suwon placed what in any other set of circumstances would have been a comforting hand on Sebastian’s shoulder, but to Sebastian it felt like the kind of clamp the parking police put on the wheels of cars parked in the wrong place.
Sebastian stared ahead at the stage. The cheering of the audience had gotten louder and louder. It was a frenzy out there. On the giant screen, slowly, one by one, a picture of each of the boys materialized, until all five of their giant faces were grinning at the audience.
And then sudden darkness.
And then the crowd went wild.
“Thank you for this,” said Catherine as she sat in front of the small computer on the small desk in Ruby’s small office.
“Oh, it’s the least I could do. Again, I’m really sorry about my dad,” replied Ruby.
“It’s okay,” said Catherine, logging on to the Internet and staring intently at the screen.
Ruby smiled and looked around the room. Then she looked at Evie. “I don’t have much in here that’s entertaining. Uh…” She picked a book up off the corner of the desk and handed it to Evie. “One of Erik’s. I have no idea if it’s interesting or really boring.”
Evie nodded and took the book. She wasn’t sure why she needed it. After all, she was there to help Catherine find someone who could help them. But sometimes adults didn’t realize how important a kid was to the team, so she didn’t feel a need to say anything. She just stared at the book. The Care and Consideration of Fish and Other Aquatic Animals.
With a title like that, how could the book possibly be boring? thought Evie sarcastically.
She absentmindedly opened its cover while leaning over to see what Catherine had found.
“Any luck?” she asked.
Catherine shook her head. “The difficulty is that so many people don’t believe the town exists in the first place. They compare it to Brigadoon.”
“Where’s that?”
“I’m not sure. But it looks fictional and…” Catherine leaned closer. “Musical.” She sighed and then clicked the mouse a bit more. “What would be simplest is to hire a helicopter like those horrible men, but you can’t legally fly over the volcano.”
“Those men won’t care if it’s allowed or not. They’ll fight anyone who tries to stop them,” said Evie with resentment.
“Yeah, that’s the problem.” Catherine’s clicking was getting louder and harder, and though her face stayed the same calm version of itself, Evie got the impression the animal expert was getting frustrated.
Time to leave her alone, thought Evie. Or maybe it was more like it was time for Evie to be alone. Catherine’s anxiety wasn’t exactly helping Evie’s worried thoughts about Sebastian, and she was also still reeling from the lack of shark in the basement. Besides, she did her best problem-solving on her own. “Hey, I’m just going to sit outside for a bit, get some fresh air.”
Catherine nodded but didn’t say anything. She just kept clicking. Faster and faster, harder and harder. Evie backed away slowly through the open door, hugging Erik’s book to her chest.
Then she turned and walked down the hall, down the stairs, and out the front door. She paused for a moment and then decided to cross the street to the beach. This time there were actually people walking along the boardwalk, that older couple from breakfast the day before. Evie waved, and they waved back. As she stepped onto the sand, she heard a little gasp, and she turned around. The woman had her hand over her mouth. She looked scared.
“Be careful, dear!” said her husband. “There’s a shark.”
“I know,” replied Evie. Sharks don’t swim on sand, she wanted to point out, but it wasn’t really worth it. The couple was just being concerned.
And then she had to double-check her memory. Sharks don’t swim on sand, do they?
No, replied her memory.
Yeah, I thought not.
Evie strolled over to where the jungle spilled out onto the sand, and sat in the shade of a tall tree, facing the sea. She gazed out as far as she could, going over her grandfather’s letter in her mind, trying to solve the riddle. But her thoughts kept wandering to the little shark from the night before. Could it all have been a dream? Had any of it actually happened? It certainly had felt very real. No. Evie refused to think she hadn’t seen what she had seen. What would Sebastian have thought at a time like this? He’d have known he hadn’t been seeing things. There was a shark. And now it was gone. There was no such thing as magic, so the only reasonable conclusion was that somehow, at some point, the little shark had been moved. And now that she thought about it, maybe it had been moved because someone had seen her downstairs. She hadn’t exactly been quiet racing up out of the basement.
Yes. That’s what had happened. Someone had gotten rid of the shark, removed all evidence, including the little fish….
Fish.
A shark was a fish.
Evie slowly look
ed down at the book on her lap.
She opened the cover and flipped through the pages. It was as boring to look at on the inside as the title had been on the outside. For a book all about some of the most colorful and exotic creatures on the planet, the little black-and-white drawings every few pages hardly did them justice. The writing did even less—dry, purely scientific, with no effort to capture the reader’s attention or imagination, or really with any interest in whether a reader read the book or not. But as Evie flipped through it, she did find one very interesting thing. Notes in the margins. And paragraphs circled here and there. And as she flipped on, a story was unfolding, told not by the author of the book but by its reader. Someone was interested in how, in very practical terms, to take care of fish. Transport them. Keep them comfortable and safe.
Evie slowly looked up from the book.
In a flash her memories categorized everything of relevance very nicely for her: the figure outside at night, Erik and his purple-and-pink fish, the little silver fish in the street, the little silver fish in the basement. And the little shark. The relatively little shark.
And now the book. “One of Erik’s.”
Erik.
Evie stood up abruptly. This time she knew she was right. Well, she had known she was right before, but this time she had evidence. Tenuous evidence, but the book…the book was good evidence. Solid. Factual. Boring-but-exciting-at-the-same-time kind of evidence.
She tore through the front door, up the steps, and into the little office. Catherine was still sitting exactly as Evie had left her, though her face was less intense, wearier. She looked up at Evie and gave her a sad smile.
“I figured it out!” announced Evie, breathless.
“You found someone to take us to the town?” Catherine’s eyes got bright and wide.
“Oh. Oh, no. No, I didn’t do that,” said Evie.
“Oh! You solved Alistair’s riddle!” Catherine’s eyes got even brighter and wider.
“Um. No. Uh…not that either.” Evie was now wondering if maybe her attentions were not exactly as focused on what they ought to have been.
Now Catherine furrowed her eyebrows. Her eyes were no longer wide nor sparkly. “Then what did you figure out, exactly?”
Okay, well, now it just felt kind of…unimportant. “Where the little shark went, or at least who removed it. I guess…I guess really this is all kinds of silly. This isn’t something I should be focusing on.” She sat, deflated, on her small chair again.
“Okay, tell me,” said Catherine. Her eyebrows remained furrowed, and she still didn’t look like she believed her, but Evie appreciated being humored. Especially because Catherine wasn’t the humoring type.
“I think Steve is looking for his little shark. I think Steve is trying to find him. That’s why he’s not leaving the cove. I think the little shark was taken, and I think Erik took him. I think he really likes fish and I think he’s been feeding the shark at night, bringing it fish in a wagon. And I think he moved the little shark when he realized I saw it last night.” Saying it out loud like that did suddenly make it all sound a bit far-fetched, but it wasn’t, Evie knew. It really wasn’t.
Or even if it was, that didn’t make it any less true.
Catherine thought for a moment. “Well, I don’t know. Sharks aren’t known for their caregiving skills. Normally when they give birth, they leave the baby to take care of itself from that point on.”
“Really?” asked Evie. She tried to imagine that, being abandoned by one’s parents the moment you were born, no one to teach you or care for you. Just making your own way. Then again it wasn’t so far off from her own lonely situation, but that thought hurt a bit too much, so she pushed it out of her head.
“Then again,” continued Catherine, “nature does constantly surprise us. And great whites do travel in schools. And there doesn’t seem to be any other reason to explain Steve’s presence. So…maybe…I don’t know….I suppose that could be true. But if it is, I don’t fully understand how Erik could possibly contain a great white in a tank. More than that, I’m not sure it’s the best use of our time to investigate it.” She swiveled slowly back to the computer.
“I guess not,” said Evie. “But…don’t you care about Steve at all? And what about the trapped little shark? That’s so sad! Don’t you care about them being reunited?”
Catherine seemed to soften at that, but she didn’t look back at Evie. “I do care. I worry a great deal. It’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot. Do we sacrifice helping our friend to help the shark? It’s hard for me to make such decisions, but I tried to do what I thought Alistair would do: help the team first. I wasn’t always very good at that in the past….” She trailed off.
Evie didn’t want to pry, and she now felt guilty using Catherine’s love of animals as a way to convince her to seek out the little shark. Of course Benedict’s and Sebastian’s safety was worth more. Of course it was.
And then a thought.
“Or maybe…” Evie stopped and pondered for a moment.
Catherine glanced over. “Yes?”
Suddenly Evie looked up at her, grinning widely, her eyes bright and shiny. “Maybe there’s a way to do both!”
“How so?” asked Catherine.
“Steve has ruined this tourist season for the cove, right? You heard Ruby talking to her dad, how she might have to even give up the inn. And her dad obviously was upset for her.”
Evie didn’t need to connect the dots any further. Catherine stood upright in one quick movement. “Evie, you’re right! Helping Steve could very well help us. As it so often does, helping animals ends up helping humans! If we get Steve and this little shark back together, Steve will be happy and hopefully will leave the cove.”
“And,” added Evie, “when Steve leaves the cove, the tourists will come back and Ruby’s business will be saved….”
“And then maybe her father…”
“Yes! Maybe then he’ll help us, to say thank you!”
“So we need to find the shark!” said Catherine. She seemed excited, which was not something Catherine seemed that often.
“What do you mean, ‘Find the shark’?” asked Ruby, standing in the doorway.
“You think Erik has a little shark and that’s why Steve has been stalking our cove?” Ruby repeated the words slowly after Evie had explained it all to her. She mulled over each of them, as if one might reveal whether Evie was totally crazy or not.
“Yes, we do. I think he’s been keeping it in the basement and feeding it fish in the middle of the night, and I think he saw me last night, and I think he took it somewhere,” said Evie, breathless.
“If this is true…If this is true…,” said Ruby to herself. “Is it true?” She looked at Catherine. It was one of those annoying things adults did on occasion, a need to verify the truth of something with another adult, as if all kids were liars or something. Evie really didn’t like it, but right now she just wanted to convince Ruby, regardless of how she did it.
“I believe it’s true,” Catherine answered. “I believe Evie.”
Evie smiled.
“Okay. Then we need to find this little shark and return it to the ocean,” said Ruby, sounding suddenly very sure of herself. “And we need to do it now.”
“We agree,” said Evie.
“Erik gets afternoons off. I guess we just have to go pay him a visit,” said Ruby.
“I guess so,” replied Evie. Besides, she figured wherever Erik was, very likely the little shark was there too.
In no time at all they were piling back into Ruby’s truck and speeding down the highway in the opposite direction from Thom’s place. Evie’s hair whipped around her face, and she felt both exhilarated and scared. What if Erik didn’t have the little shark? What if it had all been a dream after all, the shark in the basement? What if all this helpin
g out didn’t end with Thom helping them?
Then again, what if Erik did have the shark? What then?
So many what-ifs.
Evie held tightly to the seat of the truck as the pickup sped around a corner onto a dirt road, a cloud of dust left in their wake. They were now heading deeper into the jungle again but not uphill this time. Evie looked out to her side. They were passing several single-story houses and even some camping trailers, all brightly painted, with colorful messy front yards. Suddenly Ruby slammed her foot on the brake, and Evie flew forward, saved by her seat belt, and landed back in her seat again with a thud.
“We’re here,” said Ruby.
All three of them stared out the side of the truck at a bright blue single-story house, small but cozy-looking. Stuck into the ground were decorative pieces of metal art, all shaped like various kinds of fish. On the side of the blue house there was even a giant painting of an angelfish.
“Okay, so evidently Erik really likes fish,” said Ruby, stepping out of the car. “I’m not sure how I missed that.”
“Sometimes we miss the things right in front of us,” replied Evie, jumping out of the truck and staring at the house.
“I guess,” replied Ruby. She pushed open the little white gate at the front of the property, and the three of them made their way up the path to the front door.
“Wait,” said Evie as Ruby approached it.
“What?” asked Ruby.
“If Erik moved the little shark because he saw me, then I think we can assume he’s a little nervous. I’m not sure that going up to his front door and just asking him is the way to do this,” said Evie quietly, worried that Erik might be watching her right now.
“So what do you suggest?” asked Catherine.
The Reckless Rescue Page 13
