Mom put her hand out to place Zoe on hold. “Lenwood Badger. What a fitting name for a creep.” She grabbed her napkin off her lap, balled it up, and threw it onto her uneaten pizza slice. “I don’t like it, Abram.”
“He’s in custody, Dottie.”
“I know, but how are we going to keep the kids safe this summer with our increased work schedule?”
“Increased work schedule?” This time my pizza slice dropped to my plate. “You already have busy schedules.”
Dad reached over and put his hand on my shoulder. “They just called on your mom to teach a summer session at the college, and I have another stage to design in addition to running Manhattan Doors.”
My mom is an adjunct professor at the local college, and Dad builds sets for Broadway shows. I haven’t been to a Broadway show yet, but I’ve heard that Manhattan Doors is getting rave reviews.
I sat back in disgust.
“We’re just going to have to get creative,” Dad said. “Maybe you can take Zoe with you to work, and I can take Arcade with me.”
Mom shook her head. “I don’t want him staying up that late every night.”
“We can stay at home just fine,” Zoe said. “I’m almost fifteen.”
“OR . . .” Everyone turned and waited for me to finish my thought. “You could send us to Virginia to stay with Aunt Weeda!” The brilliance of it all gave me goosebumps.
“Weeda?” Mom chuckled. “She’s never home. She just started her third job.”
Zoe kicked in some support. “Then we could help her keep up the house, and we could spend some time with Celeste and Derek. I think it’s a great idea.”
Dad shrugged. “At least we know everyone in that neighborhood.”
Mom retrieved her napkin ball and began to eat her pizza again. “Gotta pray about that. But it sounds like it could be a good solution. IF Weeda is up for it.”
“Are you kidding?” Dad said. “She would love for our kids to visit! I’m sure she misses pinching Arcade’s cheeks.”
I put my hand up to my cheek. “Oh, yeah. I forgot about that.” Aunt Weeda has been chasing me around since I was little, pinching my cheeks. It’s embarrassing.
“I really miss Celeste.” Zoe pushed out her lower lip, making the saddest puppy-dog face I’d ever seen.
Mom tilted her head. “I still have to pray about it, but if Weeda is willing, I think it’s a good idea. At least for a couple of weeks. Until we feel better about this Lenwood character. Lenwood . . . where have I met a Lenwood before?”
I turned toward Dad just in time to see him raise his eyebrows at Mom.
I think he knew.
CHAPTER 7
Return to Forest
The trip to Virginia came together without me and Zoe having to cook up a plan. And, better yet, Doug Baker got to join us! Doug is my best friend in New York. He lives with his grandma, who hadn’t been feeling well, but who lately seemed to be on the mend. So, on the last day of school, my parents asked Aunt Weeda if Doug could come too. Aunt Weeda said, “Send as many as you want.” Mom and Dad booked Doug a ticket. And the very next day, we wheeled our carry-ons into the airport to board a plane to Lynchburg, Virginia, which is just a few miles from Forest.
The only frustration was that I didn’t have room to take all the books I wanted with me.
“They have libraries in Virginia, you know.” Zoe hefted her mermaid suitcase up on the conveyor to have it examined by security.
“Yeah, they have libraries in Virginia, you know.” Doug plunked his suitcase up on the conveyor. He tends to repeat people. Kind of like Milo, the cockatoo.
I lifted up Daisy. We’d been through a lot together. After thinking she’d been stolen forever, it felt good to have her with me on another adventure.
Mom handed me the small dog crate with Loopy in it. “Have fun. Be safe. Do whatever Weeda tells you to do.” She bent over the security ropes and kissed me on the forehead.
“Mom! I’m almost twelve. No need to slobber on me in public.”
She put her hand up to cover a smile. “Sorry. Can’t help myself.”
“Zoe,” Dad said, “you keep Celeste under control.”
“Celeste? Who’s that?” Doug was pulling random items out of his pocket and throwing them in a plastic tub.
Zoe rolled her eyes. “She’s not that bad.”
I laughed out loud. “Yeah, right!”
Zoe took Loopy’s crate from me and poked me in the side with her elbow. “You want to go, right? Then, hush up.”
“Move away from the security line!” The TSA agent yelled at my parents. Then he gestured to me, Doug, and Zoe. “Come forward.”
“Bye, kids!” Mom and Dad backed up and waved.
I waved back, and my stomach churned. We were leaving for a month. That’s the longest I’d ever be away from my parents.
Or maybe I’d see them soon on another trip through the elevator doors. I reached down for the token as I walked through the security scanner.
And I set off the alarm.
“Step aside, young man.” The gruff-looking agent directed me to a plastic mat next to the scanner.
Zoe looked back from her cleared position in front of me. “Arcade, what did you do?”
“Yeah, Arcade, what did you do?” Doug had made it through, too, and already grabbed his suitcase off the conveyor.
I held up my hands. “Nothing.”
Zoe let out a big sigh. “We’ll wait for you over there.” She pointed to a bench where people were putting their shoes back on after being cleared.
“Anything in your pockets?” The agent swirled a wand around me.
I reached down and pulled them inside out.
Surprisingly, no.
“Take off your belt.”
“I don’t have a belt.”
“Anything around your neck?”
“Ummm . . . yeah.” I looked behind me.
Where’s Mom and Dad?
They were still back there, staring at me.
I turned toward the agent. “I have this chain.”
The agent walked over to the conveyor and grabbed a round plastic tub. “Drop it in here.”
I pulled it off as fast as I could, hoping Mom and Dad wouldn’t see. But when I did, the golden token caught a reflection that made it look like I had lit a match.
I dropped it in the container.
“Okay, let’s do this thing again,” the agent said, and I turned to go back through the scanner. This time there was no alarm.
I did catch Mom’s eye. She traced a u-shape with her finger under her neck and grinned.
I flashed my toothiest smile and shrugged.
The young woman who was operating the scanning computer examined the token for a couple of minutes. “Are you hot? Cause this little piece of jewelry seems like it’s glowing.”
I fanned myself with my hand. “I’m a preteen boy. We’re all hot.”
She giggled and let the token through. “Happy travels.”
I hurried over to the container, grabbed the chain, and quickly dropped it around my neck. If Mom saw, she didn’t let on, because she just smiled and waved, looking a lot less concerned now that I made it through security.
The poor container though. The plastic had melted and there was a little round indentation where the token had been.
CHAPTER 8
Seeds
Aisle or window?” Zoe shoved her carry-on into the overhead compartment, and then stood there, waiting for me to answer.
“Is that a trick question?” I stuffed Daisy next to Zoe’s mermaids.
“I don’t ask trick questions. That only leads to ridiculous answers. Like zooming sideways in an elevator.”
“Okay, then, I’ll take the window.”
“Good. I like the aisle.”
I stepped past Zoe and scrunched my way over to the window seat. At least a real captain was flying this plane—not like the last one I was in when we traveled through the elevator doors and my friend
Scratchy was at the controls.
Or was someone else controlling that plane? Who knows with this Triple T Token around my neck.
I shoved my black backpack with the pink flamingos under the seat in front of me, secured my seat belt, and felt for the Triple T Token. I pulled it out of my shirt to examine it. On the front, there were three raised Ts, connected together. And on the back, in curved letters on the top and bottom, it said Arcade Adventures.
“Zoe, why do you think they changed the name of that old arcade from Arcade Adventures to Forest Games and Golf?”
Zoe pulled a flavored sparkling water from her backpack and twisted the cap off. “I don’t know. It’s been Forest Games and Golf as long as I can remember.”
“And what do you think that mean guy at the arcade meant when he called Kenwood a rat? And who is Kenwood?”
Zoe chugged her water and stifled a burp. “You’re giving me acid reflux, Arcade. How is it that you ask sooo many questions but you never seem to have good answers?”
“HEY, ARCADE! Check it out! I’m in the very back row!” I craned my neck to look back at Doug, who unfortunately got one of the last tickets on the plane, so he had to sit in front of the bathroom. “Signal me if you have to go! I’ll save you a place in line!”
“Well, that’s handy.” Zoe laughed. “Can’t wait to see how Celeste deals with Doug.”
“Yeah, I’m a little nervous about that myself. He could end up with a mouth full of dirt.”
“That was a long time ago. She’s chilling out lately.”
Celeste is the toughest girl I know. She can climb any tree she sees, she was on the wrestling team in junior high and beat most of the boys, and she teases everyone mercilessly—everyone except Zoe. One time, she chased a school bully home and told him she wanted to be his friend and she had a piece of candy for him. He just needed to close his eyes and open his mouth. The big guy was dumb enough to do it, and Celeste tossed in a handful of dirt.
“I wonder if Celeste knows anything about the people who are after Derek?” I shivered, thinking that we’d be in his neighborhood in a few short hours to find out what I had to do with all the trouble he was in.
Again, Zoe took a swig of water. “I have no answers for you, bro. Like I said before, maybe you should ask your token for advice.”
It’d be great if the Triple T Token had come with an owner’s manual. I reached down for my backpack, pulled out a green spiral notebook, and began to jot down everything I could remember that had happened to me since that old lady at the library draped the token around my neck and said, “Happy travels.”
I . . .
. . . was thrown from a bull.
. . . operated on and saved the life of a K-9 German Shepherd.
. . . rescued Doug from a disastrous appearance on a food network.
. . . visited Yankee Stadium and got advice from the Babe.
. . . worked on a NASCAR pit crew.
I got so engrossed with my writing that I hardly remember the plane taking off. I scribbled away.
. . . ended up on a plane full of kids flying high over New York City.
That last adventure freaked me out more than any of the other ones! What if the token hadn’t returned? What if Scratchy would’ve had to land the plane? I jotted more thoughts. Questions, actually. Pages of them. When I finally raised my head, a flight attendant was staring at me.
“Pretzels or cookies?”
“Huh?” I took off my glasses, rubbed the fog off them, and squinted at the lady.
“Pretzels or cookies?” She held out two snack-sized bags so I could see them.
Hmmm. I’m not feeling either one.
“Can I have sunflower seeds?”
Zoe choked on either a pretzel or a cookie. “Oh, puh-leeeeeze! Arcade, the choice is pretzels or cookies! Do you think the airline can cater to the whim of every person on the plane? Just pick one or the other.”
I looked up at the flight attendant, who was trying not to laugh.
“Does that mean you don’t have seeds?”
“Let me see what I can do.” She turned and walked back to first class. She was back in an instant, with a little bag of sunflower seeds. “Here’s a cup you can spit the shells into. Enjoy the flight.” Then she pushed the cart to the back of the plane.
I popped a few seeds in my mouth. “Mmmm. Bacon ranch! My favorite!”
I’m glad I asked.
Zoe just glared.
“Aren’t those pretzels a little dry?” I held the bag of seeds out. “Want some bacon ranch?”
“Why do you always do that?”
“Do what?”
“Ask for things that aren’t on the menu?”
“Everyone knows there are things on the menu they don’t tell you about.”
“Uggggh! I’m going to talk to Doug.”
Doug had an empty seat next to him. Zoe sat in it.
Fine with me. I got stuff to read.
I shoved my journal in my pack and pulled out one of my library books: Shaping the Pyramids and Other Engineering Marvels. I had checked the book out to help some of my friends find jobs to research for our sixth-grade, end-of-year career expo. Engineering didn’t really fit me, but I renewed the book anyway because I knew there was something special about pyramids that I still needed to discover. Like something on the menu that I wasn’t seeing yet.
I cracked the book open to the middle, where all the pictures were. There was an envelope with a note in it.
Dear Arcade,
Praying for your adventures in Virginia.
Remember:
Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.
PROVERBS 4:23 (NLT)
I’m proud of you.
Love, Dad
My heart determines the course of my life?
Funny, it seemed like, lately at least, the token was doing that for me.
Doug plopped down next to me while I was pondering that deep thought.
“Man, you can’t even recline your seat back there ’cause of the dumb lavatory! You want some candy?” Doug held out an apple sucker.
“Nah, thanks. It’ll clash with my seeds.”
Doug’s eyes got wide. “It’ll clash with your seeds? How’d you get seeds?”
“I asked.”
“You asked? Did Zoe ask for somethin’ and not get it? ’Cause she’s awful mad.”
“She’s not mad. She just doesn’t get me sometimes and that drives her crazy.”
“’Cause you two are opposites?”
I looked over at Doug. “Yeah, I guess you could say that. We are opposites. And she drives me crazy too.”
“I wish I had a sister. I wouldn’t care if she was opposite me. It’d be nice to have someone to argue with.”
I reclined my seat. “Do you and your grandma ever argue?”
Doug sat up. “Are you kiddin’? Who in the world would argue with their grandma? Nah, she’s a saint. Plus, I’ve been real worried about her lately. She might have to move into an assisted-living place.”
“Why?”
“She’s been getting sick a lot, Arcade.”
That sent a jolt through me. “Then where would you live, Doug?”
“Don’t have a clue.”
Silence.
Doug popped the apple sucker into his mouth and chewed on it a minute. Then he pulled it out and examined the sticky mess. “I guess I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. At least that’s what Gram always tells me. Can I have some of your seeds?”
I held out the bag. “Sure.”
I’m glad you asked.
CHAPTER 9
Visors Up!
The flight from New York wasn’t long, but I was glad to escape the silver tube and get on solid ground with my sister, Doug, Loopy, and the token, all in one piece. As soon as we exited the terminal, I spotted Derek’s bright yellow visor. He wears it upside-down, but forward on his head. He’s already tall, and the visor adds even more height.
>
“Arcaaaaaade!” Derek ran over and gave me a fist bump, a high-five, and a chest bump. “It’s about time you got here!”
“Dude, your visor!” I pulled it off his head. “That’s not keeping a low profile.”
Derek looked around the baggage claim area. “It’s okay. I just put it on when I got here.”
A hug session complete with squealing was going on between Aunt Weeda, Celeste, and Zoe. Doug stood there watching them, like it was a train wreck or something. “They’re kinda scary,” he whispered to me behind his hand.
Celeste broke away from the hugs and approached Doug with a hand on her hip. Her short black hair was pushed up in a faded red ball cap, and she was madly chomping on her gum. Though she’s Zoe’s age, 14, she only came up to Doug’s chin. She tilted her head to look up at him.
Here it comes. Celeste’s first Doug insult.
She smiled. “Hello. You must be Doug.” She held out a hand. “I’m Celeste. Welcome to Virginia.”
What?
Doug cleared his throat and stood up a little straighter. “Thank you.”
Then Celeste came over my way and whispered, “Hey, Arcade. Is every boy in New York as good looking as your friend?”
Oh, no . . .
I choked on my saliva.
Aunt Weeda bounded over, both her hands holding bags of snacks, just like I remember her.
“Arcade! I’ve missed you sooooo much! You want a snack?” She gave me one of the bags, and then she pinched my cheek. I jumped back.
“Gotcha! I’m sorry, baby, I just couldn’t resist. I won’t do it ever again. Look at you! You’re almost a grown man.”
A grown man? Hardly. But there was that time when I went through the doors and was a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine. And I had one hairy set of arms!
Zoe and Celeste came over to join us. “Mama, can we go out to eat somewhere?” Celeste scrolled through nearby restaurants on her phone.
Doug licked his lips. “I like eating!”
Aunt Weeda checked her watch. “Can’t do it today. I have to be at work in forty-five minutes. But I tell you what, let’s call the Bridgeview Bakery and pick up some chicken pot pies and a cake to celebrate! You kids can eat at home and share all the adventures you’ve had over the last couple of months.”
Arcade and the Golden Travel Guide Page 3
