Max and the Millions
Page 5
Max was stunned. “We’re friends?”
“Sure we are!” said Sasha. “I mean, we both like the same things, we’re both ten…besides, we’re roommates, aren’t we? If that doesn’t make us friends, then I don’t know what does!”
He took Max’s index finger and crossed his own over it, like the fingers were hugging.
“Friends!”
Max was shocked. Deep down, he had always thought Sasha was only being nice to him to be kind. People at school did that all the time. They’d start off asking Max questions and including him in their conversations, but when Max couldn’t keep up, they’d stop trying and leave him behind.
But it looked like Max had had Sasha all wrong. Sasha wasn’t like everyone else. Sasha was…well, he was really nice.
“Er…OK, then,” said Max. “Friends.”
Sasha gave him a huge smile, then let go of Max’s finger and clapped the air. Max jumped.
“What was that?”
“Sorry!” said Sasha. “Just a fly. Got it, though.”
He wiped his hand on his onesie and patted Max on the back.
“So, Max—tell me about this plan of yours.”
Max and Sasha stood in front of the Sparkle Pony Summer Club.
“So that’s the plan,” said Sasha. “Max and I have to leave you alone for a bit, and until we get back, no one leaves this room! Understand? Not to go to the kitchen, not to go to the toilet and especially not to go outside!”
“But, Saaaaaaashaaaaaa.”
A girl shoved her way to the front of the crowd. She looked and sounded exactly like Sasha—she was even wearing an identical purple unicorn onesie. The only differences were that she was half Sasha’s height, had her hair in pigtails and wore an enormous badge on the front of her onesie that said 5 TODAY.
“You said we were going to spend the day with me!”
Sasha looked guilty. “Joy, I know I did, but I’ll only be gone a little while….”
Joy stared at her brother for a moment. Then, very slowly, her mouth began to open. No sound came out at first—her mouth just kept getting wider and wider, until it took up most of her face. It was like watching a solar eclipse.
Then the sound arrived.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA…”
Max’s hearing aids gave an almighty wail of feedback. Sasha didn’t even blink.
“Joy, stop it.”
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA…”
“I said stop—”
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA…”
“Come on, it’s only for a few minutes!”
Joy stopped crying. “You promised you’d spend the whole day with me, remember? You said you’d make my birthday perfect because Mom and Dad can’t…can’t…”
Joy couldn’t go on. Her face crumpled and she burst into tears. Sasha knelt and hugged her close.
“Hey, hey, hey, come on, shhh….Look, I’m sorry, I’m just a silly older brother. Come on, stop crying.”
Tears turned to sniffles. Sasha wiped Joy’s eyes.
“I’ll only be a few minutes, that’s all. I can’t tell you why, but it’s super important. When I get back we’ll do dance routines, make cakes—”
“Can I give you a makeover?” said Joy.
“Not in a million years. But I’ll put on The Sparkle Pony Movie. How about that?”
All the girls gasped. The air pressure in the room dropped considerably.
“How many times?” said Joy.
“Once.”
“It’s my birthday. Twice.”
“Once, Joy.”
“Once, but you sing along with all the songs.”
Sasha rolled his eyes. “Fine.”
The girls lifted Joy onto their shoulders and ran round the room screaming with triumph. Sasha watched with a big proud smile on his face.
“My little sister! Isn’t she cute?”
“Sure,” said Max.
The two boys crept outside and sidestepped round the boardinghouse like spies, checking for any sign of Mr. Pitt. When the coast was clear, they dashed into the bushes.
“You’re good at that, you know,” said Max.
Sasha looked at him. “Good at what?”
“Taking care of those girls.”
Sasha snorted. “You learn fast when you have Joy for a sister! I guess she’s more delicate than usual today, seeing as it’s her birthday and we’re not with Mom and Dad. She nearly screamed her head off this morning when I said I didn’t want to wear the same onesie as her.”
They pushed through the bushes.
“So…why aren’t you with your parents?” asked Max.
Sasha blushed. “The family trip got canceled at the last second. Mom and Dad both work hard—we’ve moved around a lot the last few years. That’s why they sent us to this boarding school. They usually get the summer off to make up for being so busy all the time, but they had some kind of ‘work emergency’ and Joy and I had to stay here.”
Max was shocked. “Sasha, that’s terrible.”
Sasha shrugged. “It’s not so bad. The girls are nice enough—you just have to make sure they don’t have too much sugar or they go crazy. I had to take away all their candy on the first day and hide it in our dorm. You should have heard them scream.”
Max was confused. “But…I don’t get it. Why didn’t you just stay with one of your friends instead?”
Sasha laughed. “Like who?”
Max thought about it. “Well, like any of those people you hang around with. You’re the most popular boy in school!”
Sasha shook his head. “None of those people are my friends, Max—not real friends, anyway. I talk to them, but that’s it. Why do you think I’ve been trying to talk to you all year?”
Max was amazed. He’d always thought he was good at noticing things, but somehow he’d gotten Sasha all wrong.
“It was different when I was back in the States,” sighed Sasha. “I had tons of friends there—I miss them like crazy. People here are nice, but no one actually wants to get to know me. I’m just ‘the American kid.’ Do you ever get that feeling sometimes, like you’re on show? Like no matter how much people try to include you, you’ll never actually fit in?”
Max stared at him.
“Yeah,” he said. “Yeah, I do.”
There was a moment of quiet. Sasha pointed over Max’s shoulder.
“Is that it? Mr. Darrow’s vegetable patch?”
Max peered from between the bushes—sure enough, they had arrived. The garden was like a lush jungle paradise, filled with every vegetable you could possibly think of. Plants sprouted from deep beds on every side, separated into perfect rectangles with signs saying GET OUT and GO AWAY and IF I CATCH YOU STEALING MY CARROTS AGAIN I’M GOING TO CUT YOUR THUMBS OFF.
“People steal his carrots?” said Sasha.
“Don’t ask,” said Max.
The boys made their way to a wooden shed and threw open the door. Inside, it was dry and sun-warmed and dusty. Tables piled high with dirty gloves and plant pots ran along the walls.
“This is where Mr. Darrow keeps all his tools,” Max explained. “We’ll need a spade—something large enough to scoop up the castle and all the people in one go. We can put them into one of these big seedling trays, carry it downstairs and keep them safe in our dorm until Mr. Darrow gets back!”
Sasha gave him a thumbs-up. “Great! You look for the shovel, I’ll find a tray!”
The boys set to work.
“So,” said Sasha, “you and Mr. Darrow are really friends?”
Max nodded. “We used to model together every day. Sometimes at break and lunchtime.”
Sasha laughed. “No wonder I could never find you!”
Max blushed. �
��Yeah, well, Mr. Darrow’s very serious about making models. He’s probably the best modeler in the world.”
“Then how come he’s so terrible at fixing things?”
“He’s not terrible!” said Max. “He just…gets distracted.”
“Distracted?” said Sasha. “The swimming pool’s been broken since I got here.”
“That’s not Mr. Darrow’s fault!” said Max. “He took out the filter, then decided to make all the new parts himself, and—”
“There’s not a single light switch in school that works properly.”
Max looked uncomfortable. “Yeah, well, he had to organize all those bits of wire into different lengths first—”
“It took him a week to put out that fire.”
Max sighed. “Here, look at this.”
He pulled out one of his hearing aids, which gave a whistle of feedback. There was a small rubber mold that fit inside the ear, and a thin tube that led to a plastic case that fit round the back. Inside the case were a tiny microphone, an amplifier and a battery pack. The case was covered in tiny fault lines, like the cracks in a snowflake.
“See those cracks? That’s where it’s been glued back together. It fell out in phys ed last year and someone stepped on it by accident. I was going to have to send it away to be repaired, which normally takes weeks. I would’ve only been able to hear from one side until it came back, too—and it’s hard enough for me to follow what’s going on as it is.” Max smiled. “I showed it to Mr. Darrow, and he fixed it in one day. He made it ten times better, too. I can hear things I’ve never been able to before. And look!”
Max pointed to a tiny button in the middle of the battery pack, no bigger than the head of a pin. It had a microscopic X chiseled above it. Max pressed the button, and a tinny sound came out.
“Sport radio!” said Max. “Mr. Darrow installed it as a surprise—now I can listen to football in class without anyone knowing!”
Sasha frowned. “Do you like football?”
“Er…no,” said Max. “But it’s better than nothing.”
Max put the hearing aid back in, and it gave another screech of feedback as he did. Sasha grimaced.
“Yowch. Does it always make that sound?”
Max nodded. “When I put it in and take it out. And if it’s loose. With loud noises, too.”
Sasha shook his head. “I had no idea.”
Max smiled. “It’s fine. Most people don’t.”
Max usually hated it when people asked about his hearing aids—sometimes they’d ask before even saying hello. But Max didn’t mind when Sasha did it—in fact, it felt good to talk about it. He grabbed a shovel.
“Well, this should do the trick! Got a tray?”
Sasha held one up. “Let’s go!”
They raced back to the boardinghouse, glancing round every corner to make sure Mr. Pitt was nowhere near. By the time they reached Mr. Darrow’s door, they were panting and covered in sweat.
“We’d better be quick,” said Max. “Mr. Pitt could be back any moment!”
Sasha looked nervous. “You sure we’re not too late already? We’ve been gone a while….”
Max started unlocking the door.
“It’ll be fine. I mean, how much could have happened in twenty minutes?”
Luke stood in the desert, staring at the smoking ruins.
“My…my kingdom.”
There was nothing left of Blue Castle. The city walls had been torn down. The huts had been torched. His people were nowhere to be seen.
A lot had happened in the past twenty minutes.
* * *
Twenty minutes earlier, Luke had arrived at the hideout, a tiny hut without windows on the edge of the desert. The guards had ushered Luke inside, then stood in front of the door and refused to budge.
“How long are we here for?” Luke asked. “When are we going back?”
Silence.
“I command you to answer me!” said Luke. “I am your king! Almost.”
Nothing. So Luke had sat and listened to the sounds of the desert. There were lots of them: the booming footfalls of the giants as they walked across the Floor, the thunderclap of their voices as they spoke to one another…
After a while, there was another sound, one Luke had never heard before. A low, buzzing drone that seemed to fill the entire sky.
Then came another sound, right outside the hut. Footsteps. Voices. Swords being drawn.
“What is that?” he’d asked the guards.
Without a word, the guards had flown out of the hut. Before he knew what was happening Luke heard yells and clashes, terrible shrieks of pain, bodies hitting the hut walls…
And then, silence.
Luke had waited for what felt like an eternity. When he couldn’t bear the silence any longer—and when it became obvious that the guards were not coming back—he crept to the door and peeked outside.
The desert was empty, stretching out as silent as a cemetery. The giants were nowhere to be seen, and the Bedroom Door was shut.
Luke’s guards lay dead on the sand.
Next to them lay the bodies of eight other soldiers. They weren’t Blue soldiers. Their armor was made of tinfoil, and their swords were giant toothbrush bristles sharpened to points.
They all had green hair.
Luke’s heart raced. Green soldiers had come to kill him. He had to get back home, right away. On the horizon was a thin trail of smoke: it had to be coming from Blue Castle. Grabbing his crown and sword, he set off across the sand.
* * *
And now Luke stood in front of the smoldering remains of his kingdom.
He wandered through the empty streets like a ghost, gazing at the devastation. The only thing left standing was the castle itself, and even that was gouged and battered by catapult fire. No sign of life anywhere, except…
“Excelsior!”
His flea was burrowing through a heap of scorched wood. She was filthy and disheveled, but she squeaked with joy when she saw Luke and hopped over, snuffling his face.
“Oh, girl, what happened here? Where did everybody—”
Luke stopped. Right in front of him were the broken castle gates. All the statues of his father had been toppled and smashed to pieces.
Written above the archway in bright-green paint were the words:
THE AGE OF THE GREEN FLOOR HAS BEGUN
“Your Highness!”
Luke looked up. Hanging from the flagpole on top of the tallest tower was a cage. Malcolm was chained inside it.
“Wait right there!” cried Luke. “I’m coming!”
Luke dashed up the spiral staircase as fast as he could. It was the exact journey he would have made on the way to his coronation, but that seemed like a lifetime away now. He reached the top of the tower and winched down the cage.
Malcolm was a sorry sight—he had been left with only his underpants and his beard to cover him—but Luke had never been so happy to see another person in his life. They embraced through the bars, tears streaming down their faces.
“Oh, Your Highness!” Malcolm cried. “I thought they’d got you, too! I…I…”
“Malcolm, what happened?” asked Luke. “The kingdom—my people—the Green Floor…What is…?”
Luke trailed off. What he had seen over Malcolm’s shoulder was enough to chill his blood.
On the far horizon of the desert was a huge cylinder, with an opening at its front like a vast black moon. Inside was pure darkness. It was the Bin, the kingdom of the Green tribe.
And flying in and out of the Bin were…
“Malcolm,” Luke whispered, “what is that?”
Malcolm didn’t reply at first. When Luke turned back, he was shocked to see that his father’s advisor—the oldest and most sensible man Luke knew—looked even
more frightened than Luke felt.
“That, Your Highness,” he said, “is war.”
Max and Sasha stood in the doorway in silence.
Mr. Darrow’s bedroom was filled with flies. Not just one or two, but hundreds of them. They buzzed around the room in every direction, hovering a few centimeters above the floor.
And that wasn’t even the worst of it.
“The castle!” Max cried.
It was in ruins. A single thread of smoke curled through the air above it. The blue-haired people were nowhere to be seen.
“They’re—they’re gone! What happened? Where could they possibly—”
Sasha pointed across the room. “There!”
Sure enough, on the other side of the room was a crowd of blue people scuttling across the sand like superfast bugs.
Sasha shook his head. “Why are they over there?”
Max frowned. “They’re heading toward that bin in the corner! See? The one on its side, with all the flies coming out of it and—”
Max stopped. He had just seen what was inside the bin.
He hadn’t bothered looking at the bin earlier. All his attention had been focused on the castle.
Now he could see that it wasn’t just a bin.
Inside the bin was a city of tiny buildings and factories and houses made out of rubbish. There were matchbox skyscrapers and drinks-can cathedrals and tinfoil highways with maggots trundling along them like cars. Thousands of tiny people with bright-green hair were living inside it.
Sasha waved a hand to get his attention. “Max?”
“Yes?”
“There are green people in the bin.”
“I’m looking at them, Sasha.”
There was a long pause. Sasha waved again.
“…Max?”
“Yes?”
“You might want to look at the bed while you’re at it.”
Max turned round. Underneath the bed—almost completely hidden from sight—was another city. It was huge, bigger than the castle and the bin city combined. It was filled with thousands of tiny red huts that spread the length of the bed frame, from headboard to footboard.