The Hidden Worlds

by Sandra Ingerman

  Rose sighed deeply.

  “Let’s meet up in dream time and make our plan so that our animals can help us,” he said as the class filed down the hall.

  Chapter 19

  The Plan

  That night when Isaiah got to dream time, George was waiting for him. “Hurry! There’s something they have to show us at the school.”

  Isaiah grabbed onto Grizzly and followed George. The girls were hovering above the school, shimmering in the starlight. It was cold in reality, but here he couldn’t even see their breath.

  Magda pointed, and he realized he could see through the roof of the building. Isaiah followed her finger. The night janitor was cleaning the main office. Then they watched as he went through the school, checking to be sure all the doors were locked.

  “This is the same pattern he follows every night,” Octopus said. “Never deviates.”

  “Panther agrees,” Magda said. “Notice that he unlocks, cleans, and relocks every door. He goes to each classroom and every office starting at the cafeteria.” Her finger traced his route through the school.

  Finally, the janitor stepped into a small room off of the main office. There were TV screens on the wall and a computer.

  “What’s he doing now?” asked Rose.

  “Turning the cameras back on and setting the security system,” said George.

  “The cameras are turned off around 3:00 in the afternoon when he comes in to work. Guess he doesn’t want to be filmed as he unlocks and relocks,” said Isaiah. “Notice where the nurse’s office is in his cleaning pattern. He does it around 4:00.”

  The others looked at him. “Why does that matter?” asked Rose.

  “Because I have an idea,” Isaiah answered. “What if I went to the nurse’s office, where there’s a phone, saying I felt an asthma attack coming on at the end of eighth period?”

  “And you make the call? Without us?” Magda said. “No way!”

  “No, we have to make the call together, so keep listening,” Isaiah said. “Every time I’ve been there at the end of the day, the nurse goes down to the office to check her mailbox at about 3:20, right before the bell. I’ve almost missed my bus a couple of times waiting for her to get back to sign me out.”

  “Okay,” said Rose. “So?”

  “So you,” Isaiah said to Rose, “have PE eighth period, right? You need to change really fast and leave early. Come to the nurse’s office and hide under the bed while the nurse is out. She’ll sign me out. I’ll leave. As soon as she leaves, you come out from under the bed and let us in.”

  Isaiah stopped. “Look!” The janitor was circling the building, checking each of the outside doors.

  “He’s on camera,” George said, following the janitor’s movements on the TV monitors in the main office.

  The janitor got into a black Ram pick-up and drove away.

  “So,” Rose said to Isaiah. “I get to be the one who could potentially get caught in the nurse’s office by a guy who drives a big ass truck? Great. Is that because I’m the one with a record?”

  “No,” Isaiah told her. “It’s because PE is the easiest class to leave early.”

  “And because Volcano told you to direct your anger into doing good,” George added, patting her arm. “This is good.”

  Rose smiled.

  Isaiah continued. “So Rose, you let the three of us into the side door, and we make the call together. The only thing I have to figure out is what to tell my mom about why I’m not taking the bus home.”

  Rose said, “Tell her our whole group is going to my house to work on our PowerPoint. My parents won’t be home. My house is only a couple of blocks away.”

  “And I’ll have my mom pick us up there. She can take you and George home,” Magda offered.

  “Perfect!” Isaiah said. Then he remembered that George was grounded. “Will this work for you?” he asked him.

  “I’m okay if it’s for school,” George said. He added, “Good thing the nurse’s door is on the side of the building away from the parking lot. That’s convenient.”

  “Yeah,” Rose said, “Magda, you’d better not forget to bring the 24-hour hotline number with you.”

  “I’ll write it on the side of my lucky soccer shoes,” Magda said. “They’re always with me.”

  Rose asked the animals. “Will this work?” She paused, tilting her head to the side. “Giraffe just said we can do this. You’re right, George. This is good.”

  Chapter 20

  Success—Barely!

  Tuesday afternoon Isaiah was lying on the bed in the nurse’s office watching the clock. It was 3:30 pm. The bell rang. Where was Rose? She’d better hurry up. What if the nurse got back before she got here?

  He heard the outer door open and watched Rose hurry into the room. “Rose, what took so long?” he asked.

  “I got busted by my PE teacher. She caught me sneaking out of class early.”

  Just then the outer door opened again. Rose jumped into the closet, barely getting the door closed before the nurse bustled in.

  “Are you okay to ride the bus, Isaiah?” the nurse asked him. “You look pretty pale.”

  “I’m okay,” he said, his voice cracking. Now of all times.

  “I can call your mother,” she offered.

  “No, I’m better. Thank you.”

  He walked down the hall slowly in case the nurse was still watching. As he turned the corner, he saw George slip out of the main office.

  “The cameras are off,” George said.

  “How’d you…?”

  “My case manager sent me down to mail something. I was watching for Rose. She wasn’t coming. The bell rang, and the nurse was heading back. Rose owes Magda big time because she stalled the nurse until Rose flew past.”

  We’d better hurry.” They turned the corner and saw Magda tugging on the nurse’s outside door.

  She saw them. “Come help me. It’s stuck.”

  The three of them tugged while Rose pushed from the inside. Finally it flew open. Isaiah looked around before he slipped in to make sure no one was watching them.

  Rose handed the phone to Isaiah.

  “Oh no, Rose. You make the call. They’ll trust a girl more and won’t think it’s a prank.”

  “I want to listen, but I don’t know if I can keep from getting mad,” Rose said. “You do it,” she turned to Magda. “You do great under pressure. I’ve seen you play soccer.”

  Magda took the phone and dialed. “Hello, I need to report some possible violations,” she said. The others listened as she gave the information about finding the dead birds and fish, telling the person on the other end that she and her friends had been off of the school grounds. “That’s why this call has to be anonymous,” she explained.

  She gave the address of the warehouse and told the location of the buried birds. She spelled the partial name on the bag of pellets and reported what they had done to the valve on the barrel. “The fish were all dead in the pond. We also overheard some men talk about dumping six barrels a day and plowing under the pond this week.

  “There’s a skull and crossbones on each barrel,” she said after a pause. “We have pictures of everything and diagrams in a log book.” She wrote down the address of where to mail the evidence.

  She had just finished writing the zip code when there was the sound of a key being inserted into the lock on the nurse’s door.

  “The janitor! He’s early!” whispered Rose. “Isaiah and George, get out of here. I’ll follow with Magda.” He heard the squeak of the janitor’s shoes as he entered the outer section of the office. The light went on. She pulled on Magda’s arm.

  “Ugh. Bye,” Magda blurted as she replaced the phone and quickly hurried to where Isaiah was holding the door open.

  They hurried down the sidewalk, pelted by large snowflakes. When had it started snowing? It was coming down fast.

  “OMG!” Magda said when they got to corner of the building. “Where’s Rose? And look!”

 
; They all looked back at the nurse’s door. Three sets of fresh footprints in the snow came out of the nurse’s door and down the walk. And there was no Rose! Had she been caught?

  “Where is she? She was right behind me,” Magda said, “Panther, quick. We need your help. Find Rose.”

  They watched in amazement as their footprints disappeared and only those of Panther remained. Then he disappeared.

  Magda didn’t even think. She slipped into journey space and floated above the school like in the dream. She noticed Isaiah and George had the same idea. Rose was in the closet. The janitor emptied the trash, swept under the bed and sprayed the surfaces with cleaner. He tugged on the outside door which wasn’t completely closed. The latch clicked as it locked. He went into the other room, sweeping and emptying trash. Then he turned off the lights and locked the door.

  Rose popped out of the closet and ran to the outside door. It was stuck again. Magda immediately pulled on it as Rose pushed. The boys came to help, and the door opened. Isaiah made sure he heard it click when he pushed it closed. He also brushed their footprints away. He looked behind to check his work, and there were Panther’s prints again, covering theirs.

  “That was too close!” Rose said. “I thought I was going to have to spend the night in there!”

  “I could smell his after-shave!” Isaiah said, noticing that his hands were shaking, but his breathing was normal. How could that be? And it was really cold outside. Where was his asthma? He felt the ember glowing, the one Grizzly had placed in his chest when they were in the cave.

  “Do you think the janitor heard me say goodbye?” Magda asked.

  “He was wearing headphones when I saw him turn off the cameras,” George said.

  “Oh no!” Rose said, stopping in the middle of the walk. “How are we going to know if the hotline people follow up on our complaint?” Rose asked. “Did you get a chance to ask, Magda?”

  “No. I ran out of time,” Magda answered. “Rose is right. How will we know?”

  A horn honked, and they all jumped. It was Magda’s mom. “Why weren’t you kids waiting for me inside?” she called. “Get in the warm car now.”

  Apparently Magda’s mom hadn’t noticed that there were no footprints leading up to Rose’s porch, Isaiah thought. They hadn’t made it to her house before their ride arrived. Everything was so close! What else could happen?

  Chapter 21

  The Announcement

  The intercom came on the next morning during math. “We need all classes to report to the gym immediately,” the secretary announced.

  “Put your pencils down and line up please,” their teacher said.

  What could this be about? Isaiah sent a look to George as they walked down the hall.

  The principal answered his question as soon as everyone was seated. “Last night we had an intruder in the nurse’s office.”

  Isaiah’s breath caught, and he looked quickly at Magda and Rose. Beside him, George gulped.

  The principal continued, “Actually it was outside of the nurse’s office. The night janitor found the problem when he did his rounds.”

  Time seemed to stop. What will my mother say? Isaiah wondered.

  “The intruder was a large cat,” he heard the principal saying.

  What?

  “We’ve never had this problem before, and we aren’t sure why he came up to the nurse’s door and not the trash bins out back.”

  We know, Isaiah thought.

  “Anyway, the snow stopped about five o’clock last night, so he had to have been there in the late afternoon. We’re having this assembly to let you know that there is a large cat in the area. If you see it, make yourself look really big. Raise your shoulders, wave your arms, and make a lot of noise.”

  The principal continued on about notifying their parents, but Isaiah wasn’t listening. He was trying to slow his heart down, and he was watching that once again in a stressful situation, his asthma hadn’t started up. I wonder why? he thought.

  “I almost wet my pants!” Rose said on their way back to class. “An urge that has happened a lot in the past 24 hours.”

  “I know what you mean,” George said, laughing. “That was intense!”

  “I still want to know how we’re going to know what the hotline does,” Magda said.

  “We’ll have to watch the warehouse to see when it gets shut down,” George said.

  “We can also journey,” said Isaiah. “Hey, did you all notice that there was no dream last night?”

  “You’re right,” George said. “I wonder if we’re done sharing dreams?”

  “We’ll have to wait and see, I guess,” said Isaiah.

  Chapter 22

  Watch

  In language arts, they only had time to decide on their PowerPoint design and format, and then they each worked on their particular animal slides.

  At lunch, Rose asked, “So what’s next?” She sat on the log beside the pond. Today the smell was less intense. Either that or they were getting used to it.

  “To start, we have to mail the evidence,” Magda said.

  “I can do that tonight after school,” Rose volunteered. “George, I’ll need the log book and pictures.” She smiled at George. “I will stop at my parents’ office first and make a photocopy of everything. Want to come?”

  “Sorry I can’t. I’m grounded. Long story. Like I said before, we have to watch the warehouse,” George said.

  They were all looking at Isaiah. “We have to be careful,” Isaiah said.

  “You’re right. People are wondering why we look at each other so much and stuff,” Magda said.

  Once more Isaiah found himself thinking about what it must be like to be popular. To have people notice what you are doing and who you are looking at.

  “We should probably stop meeting at every lunch,” Magda said. “So no one thinks anything.”

  “Okay,” Isaiah said. He looked at George and Rose and wondered if they were feeling as let down as he was about the thought of this group disbanding. It had only been a week and a half, but it had been really nice having friends during lunch and someone to share an adventure with. The adventure isn’t over yet, he thought. Not until the warehouse is shut down. And they were still a group in language arts. “I think George is right. We have to keep tabs, so what about if we each take a week? Once a day the person who is on duty will slip over here at lunch and look around.”

  Isaiah continued, “We have to be really careful not to be seen so stay in the trees and scope out the pond first to see if it has been plowed under. Then stay in the tree line, move toward the fence and listen and look.”

  “Whoever does that can watch for the dog. I’ve been feeding her every night,” Rose said.

  “Nice, Rose.” George smiled at her. “I’ll bring my binoculars, and we can hide them out here.”

  “Great idea, George,” Isaiah said. “Do you want to take the first watch starting tomorrow?”

  “Okay. I’ll take tomorrow and Friday. Then I’ll do next week too. Maybe they’ll jump right on it, and I’ll be the only one who’ll have to watch,” George said.

  “Fat chance!” Rose snorted. “We’re dealing with bureaucracy. It’ll probably take weeks.”

  “It can’t!” Magda shouted. “Hash tag HurryUp! Hash tag Animals Dying!”

  Rose patted her on the arm. “I’m sorry. I’m probably wrong.”

  Isaiah flashed on the fight the two had recently. Things were really shifting between them.

  Magda pulled out her phone. “Let’s trade numbers so we can shoot texts.”

  “I don’t have a smart phone,” Isaiah said. His mother didn’t even have one. She thought the extra expense was unnecessary.

  “That rules out text messages then.” Magda sighed.

  “It’s probably better not to have anything to trace,” Rose responded, patting Isaiah’s back. “Besides we’re not allowed to use them in school, and I’d probably get caught. That’s why I don’t even turn mine on at s
chool.”

  Isaiah smiled at Rose in gratitude.

  “How about a sign of some sort?” George suggested. “Like a yellow ribbon? I’ll tie a yellow ribbon on this tree right here.” He pulled down a branch.

  “Good. We can see that from the school yard,” Isaiah said.

  “What does the ribbon mean?” Rose asked.

  “Oh yeah,” George said. “Details.” They all laughed. “Yellow ribbon means no sign yet. We’re still waiting.”

  “So the day the ribbon is gone means we’ve kicked some serious butt!” Rose kicked at a pile of branches.

  “Who’s next on watch?” Magda asked. She had opened her phone calendar.

  Isaiah thought, She has a schedule that is bigger than my school-home-school schedule.

  “I’ll go,” Rose volunteered.

  “I’ll be third,” Isaiah said thinking that if the agency got right on it, Magda would never have to leave her ‘people’ during lunch.

  “Thanks, Isaiah,” Magda said smiling at him.

  Rose said, “Now remember: if one of us gets caught, we keep the rest of us out of it.”

  George clapped his hands. “That will be our rotation then. Octopus-Giraffe-Bear-Panther.” George chanted, “Octo-Gira-Bear and Pant. Try it,” he said. “It’s a memory technique.”

  “Octo-Gira-Bear and Pant,” the others chanted.

  Rose added, “‘Ribbon up. Nothin’ doin’. It goes down. Trouble brewin”.’”

  Laughing and chanting, they sneaked one at a time back onto the school grounds and dispersed.

  Chapter 23

  Scare

  Isaiah awoke Thursday morning and realized there had been no dream for the four of them again. It made him feel lonely in a new way. Before he hadn’t had friends to miss.

  At the end of lunch, he saw a yellow ribbon waving from the branch George had selected yesterday. In a way he felt sad that the agency hadn’t done anything yet, but he reminded himself that they had just made the call two days before. He noticed that Rose was looking across the school yard at him. She nodded at the ribbon, and he gave her a thumbs-up. She shook her head and did a thumbs-down. He laughed.