Amanda Lester and the Orange Crystal Crisis

by Paula Berinstein

  They weren’t going to try that again. This time they’d be sure to get to the train station properly. For transportation they’d use their skateboards, and to keep their mission secret they’d exit the school through the tunnels, first grabbing a few crystals to light their way in case their phones didn’t get reception. Except for one thing: they’d have to figure out how to get through the gates at the end. That was such a thorny problem that it almost stopped them, until Amanda ran into Clive Ng, who just happened to be telling a fifth-year student about a technique he was developing to levitate things using sound waves. Bingo! Maybe he could help.

  “Hey,” said Amanda.

  “Whazzup?” said Clive.

  “I couldn’t help overhearing what you were telling that kid,” she said.

  “Please don’t spread it around. My method isn’t completely tested and it’s pretty powerful stuff. Not that I don’t trust people around here, except what happened last term . . .” He stopped, somehow aware that he’d raised a sensitive subject. He hadn’t known Amanda or Nick well, but he’d seen what had happened the day Nick had tried to beat up David Wiffle for accidentally kicking Amanda. He could add two and two.

  “How well does it work?” she said.

  “Intermittently.”

  “Would you like to test it in a real-life situation?”

  Clive’s eyes lit up. “Would I. You know of something?”

  “I might,” she said, realizing that she and Simon would have to check Clive out before confiding in him. “You’re interested then?”

  “Absolutely. Hit me.”

  “Give me a little while. I’ll text you.”

  “Cool,” he said. “Can’t wait.”

  When she told Simon, he was ecstatic. “If this works we’ll be out of those gates in no time,” he said. “But you’re right. We have to check him out.”

  “I know just how to do that,” she said. He looked at her quizzically. “Ivy. Fern knows his sister, I think.”

  As it turned out, Fern knew Clive’s sister, Lucky, very well. In fact they were best friends, and when Ivy asked about Clive, Fern told her that he was not only the best guy in the world, but a genius. It almost sounded as if he was another Simon. Amanda imagined the two of them together—Tweedle-Simon and Tweedle-Clive. She hoped they’d get along and not fight the way people who are too alike sometimes do.

  But her fears turned out to be groundless. After she and Simon had explained the mission, the two boys started talking a mile a minute, and soon the three were as tight as Amanda’s pantyhose before she’d lost weight.

  “Do you want me to show you in the lab?” said Clive. “I can do that or we can just go to the gates and give it a try. Do you want to go now? Shall I come to London with you? I’m really excited to see if this works because if it does—”

  “I know how to help you patent it,” said Simon.

  “You’re kidding,” said Clive. “That would be awesome.”

  Amanda gave Simon a look. Not Holmes again. Simon ignored her.

  “Let’s do it now,” said Simon. “But I think it’s best if only two of us go. We’ll patch you in when we get there.”

  “Sweet,” said Clive. “Vamos.”

  When Amanda got on the skateboard that Simon had prepared for her she discovered a new talent. She’d never thought of herself as athletic, but somehow those Lestrade genes had bestowed upon her the ability to maneuver her board perfectly. Of course Simon had rejigged the boards to glide smoothly over ruts and bumps, which helped a lot, and they were able to race through the tunnels at an astounding speed—except for the times when Amanda insisted on trying fancy moves, with Simon and Clive first applauding her skill and then trying to top her. She wondered if they should extend the bumper-broom game so it could be performed on skateboards. Of course, Thrillkill would never allow skateboards in the halls, but the tunnels would work just as well if not better. Simon agreed that the idea was worth pursuing and Amanda stopped to make a note.

  As they breezed through, Amanda wondered about the tunnels they had yet to explore. It seemed that there were more of them than there were veins in the human body. At least that was how it felt. She had no idea how many veins people actually had, but it seemed like a lot. She desperately wanted to get into that secrets trove, whether or not it had anything to do with the missing book.

  Clive was amazed when he saw it and said it reminded him of a formation he’d seen on YouTube—some place in the American Southwest. As she once again considered how they might get into the compartments, it struck Amanda that the book might hold the collected secrets all in one place. Simon agreed that that was a possibility, and if that was what the book was about, it would be hugely important. No wonder the teachers were freaking out. All their secrets exposed? Yikes. All this was new to Clive, who kept complimenting them on their discoveries. He knew the teachers had been acting strange but he’d thought it was because of the earthquake.

  Suddenly Amanda stopped so abruptly that she almost flew off her board. “What was that?” she said.

  “What was what?” said Simon, who’d been performing a stunt a ways behind her.

  “I heard a voice,” said Amanda quietly. “That way.” She pointed down a side tunnel.

  “Maybe it’s one of the teachers,” said Simon, whispering. “This might be a chance to gather important intelligence.”

  Amanda agreed. They picked up their skateboards so as not to make noise and snuck down the tunnel, which was a narrow affair, but not so skinny that they couldn’t walk side by side. Still, they hugged one wall so as to remain out of sight. When they had almost reached yet another clearing they stopped. Amanda put her finger to her lips, then pointed. There was Editta, sitting on the ground, sobbing her heart out. In perfect rhythm, Amanda, Simon, and Clive looked at each other as if to say, “Well, what do you know?” Not that Amanda was surprised, except she was. She’d never expected to find Editta hanging around the basements, although when she thought about it, why not? She gestured, “Should we go see her?” Simon shook his head and Clive agreed. She nodded and they tiptoed back to continue their travels.

  When they had reached the three gates that led to the lake, they discovered that the broken one had been repaired. Clive told them that would make it easier to get through because the hardware was all nice and new and should move easily.

  “Now I can’t guarantee this will work,” he said as he removed a weird-looking piece of equipment from his backpack. “I don’t know if the device can lift pins out of hinges. By the way, you never want to do this around dogs. The ultrasound will break their eardrums.”

  “We’ll remember that,” said Amanda. If it came down to a choice between getting past the gates and protecting Nigel, she’d pick Nigel every time.

  “What I plan to do is this,” Clive said. “I’m going to place a reflector behind each hinge I want to loosen. I’ll start with the closest one, obviously, because I’ll be able to reach it.”

  “So you’re going to stick something behind each hinge on the first gate, then zap it,” said Amanda.

  “Correct,” said Clive. “When I’ve lifted all three pins, we’ll be able to move the gate from the edges and slip through. Then I’ll repeat the process until we’ve got through all three gates.”

  “I hope they’re not too rusty,” said Simon. “They might stick.”

  “I thought of that,” said Clive. “I’ve got some good old WD-40 with me.”

  “Excellent,” said Simon.

  “I’ve got a camera here that I’ll leave after you’re gone,” said Clive. “That way I can monitor the gates and make sure no one comes through. Then when you’ve returned we can lower the pins again and voila! Good as new.”

  “Cool,” said Simon. “I’m impressed.”

  “Me too,” said Amanda. “I had no idea you rock people were so versatile.”

  Clive smiled. “Let me just put this reflector . . .” He reached behind the bottom hinge and placed a shiny piece
of metal against the wall of the tunnel. It slipped. He wiggled it and let go. It slipped again. Finally he took a piece of blue tack out of his pack, stuck it on the metal, and pressed the reflector to the wall. “Sometimes you need to get tough with these things,” he said. Then he extracted his WD-40 from his backpack and oiled the hinge. The metallic smell was strong and unpleasant.

  He moved to a spot a few feet away from the hinge and turned on a laser in his acoustic levitator, then aimed at the point it was making. “Now stand back,” he said. “I don’t want any unforeseen effects to hurt you.”

  Amanda and Simon moved to what seemed like a safe distance.

  “Okay, now,” said Clive. “One, two, three.” On three he let go. At first nothing happened, but then they heard the grinding sound of metal on metal and could see the pin rise.

  “It’s working!” cried Amanda.

  “Awesome, man,” said Simon.

  “Steady as she goes,” said Clive. “It’s not out yet.”

  He held the acoustic levitator in place for a full minute, but the pin wouldn’t go any higher. Finally he turned it off, laid it down, and whipped out the WD-40 again. After coating the pin with enough of the stuff to disassemble the Eiffel Tower, he returned to his device and aimed again.

  This time the pin lifted easily, but as soon as Clive turned the machine off it fell right back down again.

  “Okay, it’s time to bring in the big guns,” he said. He withdrew a large magnet from his pack, stuck it to the wall with blue tack, and repeated the entire procedure. This time when the pin rose it stayed up.

  “Wow,” said Amanda. “You’ve thought of everything.”

  “Nice work,” said Simon. “We should do some projects together.”

  “Absolutely,” said Clive, preparing the next hinge.

  Within a couple of minutes, he had lifted all three pins on the left side of the first gate and the three kids had pulled the metal toward them and moved onto the second gate—the one the teachers had repaired. As he had predicted, it was a snap to get through that one and they went on to the third.

  When they got there, they could see out into the cove and beyond. Just as Clive was about to aim the levitator at the first hinge, Amanda cried out. “Stop!” Clive jumped. “Wait,” she said. “There’s a dog out there.”

  Sure enough, a shaggy tan-colored mutt was trotting by. It looked to be alone. Whether it was lost or had just been let out to play they couldn’t tell.

  The dog stopped at the water’s edge to drink. Then, seeing an egret about to land, it got all excited and started jumping around and barking trying to catch the bird, which flew away. Then the dog decided it needed a rest and sat facing the water.

  “We can’t turn the levitator on with the dog around,” said Clive.

  “Maybe we can distract it,” said Simon. “Hey, dog!”

  The dog turned around and looked at the mouth of the tunnel, then went back to whatever it was doing, which was probably attempting to locate the egret.

  “Dog!” yelled Clive.

  “Hey!” yelled Amanda.

  The dog turned around again.

  “Go away,” yelled Simon.

  The dog stood up, stretched, ran to the mouth of the tunnel, and stood there wagging its tail.

  “Oh dear,” said Amanda. “That wasn’t quite what we had in mind.” She reached out to pet it through the gate.

  “No!” said Simon. “If you do that it will never leave.”

  “Scram,” said Amanda. Nothing.

  “Hey, dog,” said Clive. “Chase this.” He reached in his pack and pulled out a small piece of wood.

  “What’s that?” said Amanda.

  “I use it for digging,” said Clive. He reached out through an opening in the gate and attempted to throw the wood. It went about two feet. The dog picked it up and brought it back, laying it on the ground right outside the gate.

  “Oh, brother,” said Simon. “This is going to take a while. Can you throw it farther?”

  “I don’t think that will do any good,” said Clive. “It will just keep bringing the stick back.”

  “I have some gingersnaps,” said Amanda.

  “The last thing you want to do is feed it,” said Simon.

  “Now what?” said Amanda.

  “I guess we wait,” said Clive.

  At this point, the dog sat down facing them, then scrunched down and laid its head on its paws.

  “You’d think three detectives could come up with a solution,” said Simon.

  “I have an idea,” said Amanda.

  She took out her phone and called Ivy. After the two had spoken for a few seconds, Amanda held the phone as close to the dog as she could. Suddenly a loud noise came out of the speaker. The dog stood up, yelped, and ran away.

  “What was that?” said Clive.

  “The devil’s interval,” said Amanda. “I found out about it when I had to open that electronic key lock at the sugar factory last term. It’s a really awful chord that makes people sick. Apparently it works on dogs too.”

  “Sweet,” said Clive.

  Now that the dog had run away, Clive was able to lift the last three pins and Simon and Amanda were on their way.

  “I’m going to install the camera now,” Clive said.

  “Awesome,” said Simon. “We’ll catch up with you later. Thanks, buddy.”

  “Yes, thank you, Clive,” said Amanda. “We couldn’t have done this without you.”

  Clive blushed and turned to put his equipment away.

  When they had got through the gates, they waved goodbye to Clive, picked up their boards, and carried them to the dock where the two boats they’d seen before, Bacon and Eggs, were moored. It had always been their plan to take one of them to get to Windermere, but now they weren’t sure which to “borrow.”

  “I think I like the idea of Eggs better,” said Amanda.

  “I dunno,” said Simon. “I think Bacon is in better condition.”

  “How much better is better?” she said.

  Simon got into Eggs and examined it carefully. Amanda wondered how he knew about boats. Perhaps because the UK was an island everyone there did. “Not as bad as I thought,” he said. “It needs paint but it looks workable.” Then he got into Bacon. “Uh oh,” he said. “This isn’t good.”

  “What?” said Amanda.

  “There’s a leak.” He knelt down and poked at something.

  “You’re kidding. Then how come it’s still floating?” She peered over the edge but didn’t see anything, so she got in. She still couldn’t see anything.

  Simon was pointing to a wet spot on the bottom of the boat. “There. It’s just damp now but it’s going to sink eventually.”

  “Oh dear,” said Amanda. “We certainly don’t want that one. It will have to be Eggs.”

  “I like Bacon better,” said Simon.

  “If you like it you can take it, but I’m not getting in,” she said, climbing back onto the dock.

  “Yeah, maybe not. You get into Eggs, and I’ll untie it and follow you.”

  Amanda started to climb into the unleaky boat, tripped, and found herself clinging to Simon to keep from falling into the water. He in turn was so startled that he lost his footing and fell smack onto the dock, elbow first. Both skateboards went skittering down the wooden walkway toward the water. Simon yelled, “No!” and after righting himself, ran after them, only to see his fall into the lake while Amanda’s veered off to do the same from another angle. Without stopping he chased the board that was still rolling and dove for it, grabbing it just as it was about to careen off the dock. Unfortunately in the process he impaled himself on about a dozen splinters and screamed at the top of his lungs. Meanwhile Amanda sprinted to the site of the first disaster, threw off her backpack, and dove into the water after Simon’s board.

  To say that the water was cold would be the type of understatement people roll their eyes at, but it was. Somehow Amanda knew this, but being from Los Angeles she ex
pected bodies of water to be a reasonable temperature, not this, which wasn’t. The good news, however, was that the water was so shallow that she was able to see pretty well. The only problem was that even though she spotted the board in two seconds, it was entangled in a bunch of weeds, and to get it free she’d either have to hold her breath for longer than was comfortable or grab it with her feet.

  She didn’t have time to debate the matter. She was too far from the dock to hold onto it while she worked her feet, so she took a huge breath and plunged her head into the water, then kicked herself down to the board. As she’d expected, her first attempt to pull it out of the weeds was unsuccessful, so she yanked even harder but it still wouldn’t come loose. She was starting to feel like she was going to run out of air so she propelled herself to the surface for a big gulp, but at the same time she was feeling so cold she thought she was going to freeze to death. Suddenly she saw Simon, blood all over his T-shirt, with a long pole, which he was dangling toward her.

  “Grab it,” he said. She did and he pulled her to the dock, then held out a hand. She took hold of it and he boosted her up. “You’ve got to get warm,” he said, running toward Bacon and bringing back a blanket. “I won’t look, but take off your clothes and wrap yourself in this.”

  Amanda didn’t argue. While Simon turned his back she pulled off her sweater, jeans, shoes, socks, and even her underwear and pulled the blanket tight.

  “That’s not enough,” said Simon. He ran back to Bacon and came back with two more blankets. “Try these.”

  That was better. She wasn’t exactly toasty but she could feel the edge come off the chill. When she was no longer shivering, she peeled off the outer layer and dried her hair as best she could.

  “You’re all bloody,” she said.

  “It’s nothing,” said Simon. “I’ll get a T-shirt at the station. The bigger problem is, what are we going to do about your clothes? It will take them forever to dry.”