by Geof Johnson
“What are we going to do about it?” Rachel asked. “Should we take Sammi somewhere and hide her?”
“Personally, I think she’s safe right here,” Carl said, “but Lisa wants her to stay in the stone house.”
“Just for tonight,” Lisa said. “I’d feel better if she did.”
Larry shook his head. “I’m trying to talk her out of it. I think Sammi’s safe enough here where we can keep an eye on her, and it’ll be really hard for us to get to work on time if we go to that house. Jamie would have to get up at 5:45 to make a doorway for us, and I don’t want to ask him to do that.”
“I’ll do it if I have to.”
“I know you will, but I’d rather not ask you to.”
“Fred has already offered to stay with her tonight at the stone house,” Lisa said, “but I’d feel better if she had an adult with her.”
“I’ll stay with them,” Evelyn said. “I need to talk to Mrs. Tully in the morning anyway. But I’ll need to go to my condo to get a few things first, like some clothes and something for breakfast.”
“I’ll make lunches for you in the morning,” Rachel said. “I can bring them when Jamie makes a doorway for me. It was hot in Rivershiretoday, so it’ll probably be warm tonight in that house. You’ll have to sleep with the windows open.”
Carl shook his head once. “This sure is complicated.”
“But I think we’ll all sleep better tonight.”
“Scoot over, Sammi!” Fred said, “It’s too hot to snuggle.”
“But I’m scared.”
“No you’re not. You just want to snuggle.” They were lying together on the bed in one of the rooms at the stone house, and even though the ceiling fan was turning at full speed, Fred felt sticky and hot. “I’m not used to sleeping without air conditioning in the summer.”
“Mr. Gundy made us sleep without it. He said he didn’t want to run up his electric bill.”
“But I bet it wasn’t this hot. It’s almost July. Hottest time of the year, in Hendersonville and in Rivershire, too, I bet.” Fred threw the sheets off of her body and panted for a few seconds. “Do you feel safer here?”
“I guess. But I wanna stay with your mommy and daddy. They didn’t read to me tonight, and I won’t get to see them in the morning.”
“We’ll probably stay here just this one time so my mom can calm down.”
“I hate Mr. Gundy. I wish he’d go away forever.”
“He will, once Mr. Sikes catches him. Mr. Gundy will probably spend the rest of his life in prison.” Fred fanned herself with one hand and panted again. “You know, this would be kinda fun if it wasn’t so blazing hot.”
“Mrs. Wallace seemed happy to be here tonight. Why is she sleeping on the day bed instead of the other bedroom?”
“That’s where she slept when we stayed here during spring break. She likes it for some reason. She’s probably happy ’cause she’s looking forward to seeing Mrs. Tully in the morning, so they can chat. I think she wants to talk to Mrs. Tully about the upcoming court date for Aiven’s adoption challenge.”
“Aiven’s going to run away if that other family takes him. He told me so. He’ll go back to Mrs. Tully. She’s his mommy now. Everybody knows that.”
“Sometimes we don’t have any control over things like that.” Fred had learned a lot about the hardships of being an orphan, first from Aiven, and then from Sammi. Things that Fred took for granted — a stable, loving family and home — were unattainable dreams for some children. “Don’t worry about Aiven. Mrs. Wallace will convince the judge that Aiven needs to be with Mrs. Tully. Mrs. Wallace is a smart lady, and stubborn, too. She doesn’t like to take no for an answer.”
“Are she and Mrs. Tully going to talk a long time? I don’t want to be late to school. I want to see my friends.”
“You and Aiven can probably go on without her in the carriage and Mrs. Wallace can walk there later. Jamie and his mom are supposed to take Miss Duffy to buy art supplies, so it’ll probably just be you and Aiven riding together. That should be fun. Kinda romantic, huh?” She nudged Sammi in the shoulder. “Tell me, have you kissed him yet?”
“Aiven? Ewww!”
“Don’t you think he’s kinda cute?”
“Ugh. He’s a boy!”
“Of course he is. That’s the idea. You mean you haven’t even tried once?”
“No!”
“Really? I can’t believe it. By the time I was your age, I was kissing Jamie every chance I got.” She smiled in the darkness. “He hated it, but I did it anyway.”
“Well, that’s ’cause you were made to be together and everything. That’s different.” They were silent for a moment, and then Sammi said, “You kissed some other boys, too, didn’t you?”
“A senior named Gerald asked me out when I was younger. But he kept putting his hands all over me, so I broke one of his fingers.”
“Ow!” Sammi said, then she giggled. “Did you really?”
“Oh, yeah. But I only went out with him because I was mad at Jamie. He went on a double date with Bryce and his girlfriend, and...I don’t know. I guess I thought I was teaching Jamie a lesson or something. But I was pretty naïve at the time, and I didn’t know what to expect when I went out with Gerald.”
“You kissed Kyle, too. You were talking about it and I overheard you with my magic.”
“Yeah...Kyle. What a mistake.” Fred took a deep breath and held it for a moment. “Jamie wouldn’t ask me out because he was afraid Renn would kill me and all that, so I went out with Kyle. He was such a dud.”
“Your mommy didn’t like him. I heard her say so.”
“You hear too much sometimes. You know that?”
“Sorry. I don’t mean to.”
“I know. But yeah, Mom didn’t much care for Kyle. I broke up with him the very next morning after Jamie first told me he loved me.”
“I didn’t hear that. It must have been at night or when you and Jamie weren’t in a shadow.”
“You probably were asleep. It was really late.” She turned her head to face Sammi. “And you really don’t need to listen in on everything.”
“I’ll try not to. Momma Sue thinks I’ll have more control over my power when I get older.”
“I know. I was there when she said it. By the way, she wants us to come see her and Mrs. Malley this Sunday. Are you up for it?”
“Can we bring Nova?”
“Of course.She’ll probably come over Saturday night. Jamie wants to get the gang together and talk about his new walking stick and some other stuff.”
Is she gonna sleep over again?”
“I don’t know. Maybe now isn’t such a good time with Mr. Gundy still out there somewhere.”
“I’d feel safer with her there.”
“Well, maybe she should stay with us, then.”
“Can I still sleep with you?”
“Sammi, I’m going to sleep with you until the police catch Mr. Gundy.”
“And maybe some more nights even after they catch him.”
Fred laughed. “We’ll see about that. You get up a little too early for my taste. But right now, we need to try to get some sleep. Tomorrow’s going to be another big day.”
* * *
Gundy cruised slowly around the rear of the warehouse complex again, just to be sure he’d found what he was looking for. Sitting under a streetlight along one edge of the lot was a fleet of delivery vans, and a couple of them were plain white, with no company logos or phone numbers painted on them.
The only security camera that could be a problem was mounted on the corner of the roof of the closest building. Gundy parked the Camry in a dark area behind the dumpster, pulled on a baseball cap and got out.
In a nearby pile of construction debris he found a few scraps of wood, each less than a foot long, and he carried them with him as he slunk in the shadows toward the building with the camera.
The closest he could get without being in its field of view was about twenty-five feet awa
y, on the unlit side of the metal warehouse. He set his load of wood on the ground, selected a suitable piece, and hurled it at the camera, but it sailed harmlessly past and landed on the asphalt.
On his second attempt, he over-compensated and the missile struck the side of the building with a resounding clang. Gundy winced and crouched for a minute, looking around to make sure that no one had heard it. When he thought it was safe, he threw a third chunk of wood, striking the camera near its lens and swiveling it sideways on its mounting bracket so that it no longer focused on the vehicles.
Gundy returned to the Camry, retrieved his tools, and casually approached the van he wanted. He slipped a thin bar down through the edge of the window trim, and within seconds, unlocked the door. Then he popped the key ignition assembly off, pulled the wires loose and crossed them. The engine roared to life and he smiled to himself.
Perfect. Now I need to switch license plates on this van with another vehicle somewhere else. He yawned and shook his head. ThenI’ll head back to the hotel and get some sleep, and wait ’till tomorrow tocome back here and get my car.
Chapter 25
Evelyn waited with Mrs. Tully at the stone house the next morning until Sammi and Aiven had left for school and Jamie had made a doorway for Fred to go home. Then Evelyn and Mrs. Tully sat down at the table to discuss Aiven’s adoption situation.
Mrs. Tully handed Evelyn some sheets of paper and said, “This is all I could get about the laws concerning the process. I copied them from a book at the courthouse. I hope you can read my handwriting.”
Evelyn scanned them quickly and frowned. “This is it? There are only two pages.”
“It is a simple procedure. Whoever can claim the closest blood link to a child can legally call them their own.”
“How can this other family make any stronger claim for Aiven than you?”
“Hersh Beasley’s great-grandparents had twelve children, and some of those children had large families of their own. So Mr. Beasley has many relatives in the county. Not nearly as many as he claims, but it is hard to disprove, sometimes.”
“Don’t they have any kids of their own to help work their farm?”
“Darthy Beasley is barren, but they own many acres of farmland. That is why they’ve adopted so many boys so far.”
“Well, they’re not getting Aiven. You can count on that.”
“I wish I could share your certainty. I can’t bear the thought of losing him, yet it is on my mind constantly.”
“Don’t worry. I have something in mind that the Beasleys probably haven’t seen before.”
“But will it be legal? The judge is strict and does not tolerate shenanigans of any kind.”
Evelyn nodded and shook the papers in her hand. “I still have to look these over, but I believe it will be perfectly legal. Though I doubt that the Beasleys will like it.”
* * *
Jamie stood in the office of the Rivershire School with his mother and Miss Duffy, preparing to make a doorway to Earth.
Miss Duffy had an anxious look in her eyes. “But...what if someone there notices me? What if they can tell that I am different, my dress or manner of speech?”
“We’re going to an art store,” Rachel said. “I’m sure they’ve seen their share of people wearing bohemian clothes, so a woman in a long dress won’t surprise them. If someone asks you about your accent, just say that you are from Ireland and your home town is so small that no one has ever heard of it.”
“But....” She worked her lower lip with her teeth for a moment. “Can’t we do this some other time?”
Jamie shook his head. “I took the morning off just for this. You said you needed more art supplies, so this is your best chance to get them.”
“We can always just pay you in cash for your paintings,” Rachel said, “if you’d rather not go.”
“At least go with us and have a look inside the store,” Jamie said. “If you change your mind, we can turn around and come right back. It’s really a simple thing, going through a magic doorway to another world. Most of the kids here at school have done it.”
Miss Duffy clenched and unclenched one fist and looked back and forth from Jamie to Rachel, then she finally nodded and said, “All right. I shall try it. If the children can do it, then I can, too.”
Jamie traced the outlines of the portal, pushed it open and they stepped through. They found themselves at the far edge of a parking lot, facing a metal building with a sign mounted high on its front wall that said Cheap Joe’s Art Supplies.Miss Duffy gasped softly, then turned and looked at their surroundings. “This is where you live?” she said.
“No,” Jamie said. “This is Boone. We live in Hendersonville. I brought you here so we wouldn’t run into anybody that we know.”
She looked down andstamped her foot on the asphalt. “The ground is so hard.” Then she blinked at the art store with her mouth forming a silent oh. “And...the store...it is so big.”
“And I hear they have lots of great art stuff. Let’s go inside and see.”
Jamie made a doorway back to the boarding house in Rivershire, and he and his mother helped carry Miss Duffy’s new supplies up to her room. She had stacks of watercolor paper, dozens of big tubes of paint in every imaginable color, and several high-quality sable hair paint brushes. Then he walked the two women back to the school.
Miss Duffy seemed exuberant at first, as excited about her trove of new supplies as a kid on Christmas Day, but the closer to the school they got, the more reticent she became.
“Miss Duffy,” Jamie said, “I think we still owe you some money for the art work we got from you. We didn’t even spend four hundred dollars today, but my family still wants to buy a bunch of your paintings and sketches for the stone house and the school.”
“We’ve picked out almost twenty pieces, so far,” Rachel said. “Aunt Connie wants to give a couple of them to her daughter, Gina, and I may give one to my half-sister, Sophie. We haven’t showed them to John Paul and Brinna yet. They may want some, too.”
“You do not owe me anything,” Miss Duffy said stiffly.
“Sure we do. Those paintings are worth more than four hundred dollars,” Rachel said. “Much more. You are a very talented artist, Miss Duffy.”
Miss Duffy didn’t answer. Instead, she crossed her arms and stared straight ahead as she walked, her face tight in her familiar pose.
Why does she do that? Jamie thought. She seemed so excited in the art store. He wanted to pull her out of her shell again. “Uh, Miss Duffy? You should do a show sometime.”
“A show?” She glanced at him and wrinkled her brow.
“You know, when you display your paintings all day where people can walk by and see them, like at a festival. You could make some money, I bet.”
She gave her head a tight shake. “I could never do something like that.”
“Why? Don’t you want to make money off of your work?”
She gave her head another small shake and turned to stare straight ahead again.
“Maybe if you saw some other artist’s show you’d change your mind,” Rachel said. “There was an arts festival in Hendersonville about three weeks ago. I wish we had known you then, because we could’ve taken you to it. You would’ve enjoyed it, and you’d realize that you’re good enough to make money from your art. You’re as good as any of those artists.”
“There’s another one in October,” Jamie said. “You can go to that one, if you like. There’s probably one in Asheville even sooner. They’re always having stuff like that on the weekends. It’s not far from Hendersonville, and you can ride with us. Then you can see what we’re talking about.”
Miss Duffy pressed her lips firmly into her mouth and a troubled look clouded her eyes. Finally she said in a low voice, “Why do you try to help me so?”
“Huh?” Jamie glanced at his mother and she arched one eyebrow in return. “Why not? We like to help.”
“Well, thank you,” Miss Duffy said tersely. “I sha
ll consider it.”
She was silent the rest of the way to the school, and once they were inside, she immediately retreated to her classroom to prepare for her next lesson.
Jamie pulled his mother aside and said, “Is she always like this? I mean, one minute she seems happy and outgoing, and the next she’s closed up tighter than a bank vault.”
“She’s not like this when she’s with the children. She’s a completely different person.”
Jamie stroked his chin and stared in the direction of her classroom at the back of the building. “Is Mr. Winston still working out okay?”
Rachel rolled her eyes and tsked. “Oh yes. He’s as happy as a kid in a candy store, seems like. He’s very enthusiastic when he teaches his history lessons, and the rest of the time he’s in the library, arranging books. He’s in there now, I think. If you listen carefully, you can probably hear him whistling.” She put her hand on Jamie’s arm. “That reminds me, we need to order some more books for these kids. Are we going to have enough money in the budget?”
“I need to talk to Granddaddy Pete, but I think we should, especially after this weekend. He’s found a rich couple who want to be our first tourists in Rivershire, and they’re paying twenty thousand dollars to do it.”
“My, that still seems like a lot of moneyfor a weekend trip. Is the inn ready for them?”
“Granddaddy says it is. It supposedly has two rooms now with full baths, remodeled and ready to go. He and Grannie Darla are going to stay with that other couple, both Friday and Saturday night, just to make sure things go smoothly. Granddaddy said he’s got a carriage lined up for them to use, special dinners at the inn, and everything.” Jamie spread his hands and shrugged. “He’s got a whole vacation package arranged for them, and I hardly had to do a thing, except help put in the septic tank. But I used my magic for that, so it only took a little while.”
“Will you have to get them to do the oath?”
Jamie nodded. “I’ll take Fred or Rollie with me to add their magic to it, just to make sure it’s strong enough to be binding. And I’ll have to make doorways for the tourists, early Friday evening and late Sunday afternoon.”
