Ever since Gore Grater had seen the children escape into the forest, he’d been focusing his efforts on the woods and the streets immediately surrounding the Madrona woods. In the time he’d been searching without success, his philosophy had also changed. If Dr. Trace wanted to see the kids use their powers, why wait for them to use them on their own.
Gore wasn’t entirely sure what he’d seen at the fence, but it didn’t look like the little girl unlocked the padlock with a key. It looked like she’d broken it into pieces and then somehow reassembled it. Was that one of them using their powers?
Gore suspected it was. And it didn’t just happen. It happened because Gore himself had pushed them into a corner. Gore intended to find those kids and as many corners as it took to get them to reveal what they could really do.
Gore didn’t enjoy traipsing around in the woods. Despite the shade, he would get sweaty quickly as the paths in the woods crisscrossed the hillside and invariably had him hiking uphill for some amount of time. He’d seen one particular tree no fewer than three times. He knew because its bark was peeling profusely.
“Are you enjoying our woods?”
Gore stopped in his tracks, almost tripping over the old man crouched by the side of the path. “What are you doing in the path? I almost tripped.”
“I’m repairing the path so you don’t trip.” Caleb Adams responded. “So you can enjoy the woods.” Caleb smiled.
“Hmm.” Grater grimaced. He was breathing heavily from all the walking. “Have you seen a bunch of kids running around here?”
“Can’t say that I have.” Caleb had resumed attending to the rocks that had been dislodged from the side of the path. “May I ask why you’re looking for them?”
Grater had to stop for a moment, realizing that he hadn’t prepared for a question like this.
Caleb continued in Grater’s silence. “Maybe, Mr. Grater, if I see them I could tell them you’re looking for them.”
Grater’s hand involuntarily went up to his name embroidered on his pocket, and then went back down as it was too late. The old man knew his name. “I, I, well, it’s official business. Nothing bad of course. Just need to find them.”
Caleb stopped what he was doing, and stood up. Even though his height had started to diminish over the past decade or two, he was still taller than Grater by a couple of inches. Caleb smiled, but his eyes were steel. “Of course. Official business. I understand. But I think you shouldn’t look in these woods anymore. Do you understand? These woods, they scare you. Badly. And besides, there are never any kids in these woods, so you can do your job without ever coming in here.” Caleb paused for a moment and then added, “You should probably go now.”
As the old man spoke, Grater’s eyes darted from branch to branch. His head swiveled suddenly at every tiny animal sound. Beads of sweat formed on Gore Grater’s forehead and started their slow descent down his thick face.
“You’re sure there aren’t any kids here?” Grater asked, his voice filled with dread. “I saw some run into the woods the other day.”
“Oh, I’m quite sure. They might hang out around the edges, but they would never go beyond that. They get too scared in here. Don’t worry, you’ll still be doing a good job even if you never come into these woods again.”
Gore Grater turned on his heel and ran down the path towards the edge of the woods without another word.
§
“We’ve covered the neighborhood twice already. There’s no sign of him.” Zoe said in frustration.
“Rembrandt or Ollie?” Binny asked.
“Both.” Zoe harumphed.
“I’m hungry.” Gabe complained quietly.
As frustrated as she was, even Zoe had to admit they hadn’t eaten in hours.
“I’m hungry too.” Cassie added.
Binny spoke up. “I know it feels awful while Rembrandt is still missing, but we’re not going to have any energy to find him if we don’t eat something.”
“You read my mind.” Zoe said.
“I promise I didn’t.” Binny said.
Despite how serious and sad they all felt, everyone laughed.
“Can we get ice cream?” Gabe sensed the tide turning in his direction.
“It is really hot.” Cassie added.
“Ice cream isn’t lunch.” Zoe said.
Zach raised his eyebrows at Zoe. “I can pay.” Zach let the words hang in the air.
“Alright, alright. Ice cream for lunch. But today only. And no telling Mom and Dad.” Zoe acquiesced.
They were only two blocks from the Madrona commercial district and a few minutes later they found themselves in line at Soul Repair looking over the menu.
“Children, children, welcome.” Kay Athanasios, the proprietor of Madrona’s handcrafted ice cream shrine stood behind the counter as the kids funneled into the shop. Afternoon sunlight snuck into the shop making the pale aquamarine crystals in Kay’s long curly black hair sparkle. Despite the heat of the day, the shop was relatively empty in the early afternoon.
“Hi Kay.” Binny said.
“Hi Binny, Zach, Cassie, Penny. Who are your new friends?” Kay asked.
“This is Zoe and Gabe.” Binny responded.
Zoe and Gabe waved.
Kay leaned in to examine Gabe. “Gabe, you look very familiar to me. Your last name isn’t Walker, is it?”
“No. It’s Flowers.” Gabe explained.
“Walker is our grandfather.” Zoe explained.
“Well that would explain it.” Kay smiled that her hunch had been correct. “You know, when kids come into my shop on a hot day, they’re usually smiling ear-to-ear. Not you six. What’s wrong?”
Zach stepped forward. “A dog we really like has gone missing. We’ve been trying to find him, but we’ve had no luck so far.”
“Oh my. Another one?” Kay pointed at the bulletin board in Soul Repair that was covered in missing pet notices.
“We’re gonna find him.” Zoe said determinedly.
“Of course you are Zoe. Of course you are.” Kay reassured. “But you all look pretty wiped. I think a quick ice cream break might be ok in this case. Just so you can recharge for a bit. Sound good?”
Six heads nodded in agreement.
“But I have a favor to ask.” Kay pursed her lips. “I want to experiment on you today.”
“You too?” Cassie blurted out.
A puzzled look crossed Kay’s face.
Binny put her arm on Cassie’s shoulder. “She’s just kidding.”
Kay continued, “Do you guys like playing baseball on a hot summer day?”
“Not as much as ice cream.” Gabe said, suspicious of where Kay was heading.
“Fair enough Gabe. And points for honesty!” Kay laughed heartily. “And to be quite honest myself, I kind of agree. I know you all have your favorites, but I have some new items I’ve been experimenting with. Would you be willing to be my guinea pigs?”
From the freezer below, Kay pulled out several trays of frozen confections. One tray was filled with what looked like watermelon slices. In reality they were entirely made of ice cream, with little white and dark chocolate ‘seeds’. Summer seemed to be the theme as another tray had little cups filled with what looked like local blackberries but each turned out to be made from Kay’s renowned blackberry sorbet set into blackberry-shaped molds.
The final tray was the oddest of all as it was filled with what looked just like baseballs.
“That’s ice cream?” Penny asked.
Kay’s eyes went large as she nodded, smiling. “Yep.”
“They look just like baseballs.” Gabe said in admiration.
The kids all huddled closer to marvel at Kay’s creations.
“They look so real.” Penny marveled.
“They come in a bunch of flavors. Each one is draped in white chocolate. And I can’t even begin to tell you how long it took me to get the stitching to look so realistic. I was worried by the time I figured it out, baseball season would be over.”
As Kay distributed the last of the ice cream, she added, “And remember, these are for eating, not for playing with. They would just melt all over your gloves and make a big mess.”
Most of the ice cream baseballs were well on their way to being eaten. Cassie was going the slowest as usual. She had taken a watermelon slice and was claiming she wanted it to last cause it was “so watermelonly delicious”. By this time the kids were the only customers in Soul Repair.
“Everyone feeling replenished I hope?” Kay sat down at the table with the kids. “OK. Let’s talk about where you’re going to look next for your furry friend.”
“We’ve been everywhere.” Zoe sounded hopeless.
“Well, you haven’t been everywhere.” Kay said confidently. “Or you would have found him already.”
“We’ve looked in all the parks, the alleys, the woods, everywhere he likes to walk.” Penny said.
“So you’ve looked in all the places you think he should be. Now it’s time for you to look in places he shouldn’t be.” Kay nodded seriously.
“If he’s not where we think he is, then he must be where we think he isn’t?” Zach asked.
“Exactly.” Kay smiled.
§
Gore Grater felt lucky that he’d met that old man in the baseball cap. He was even feeling kind of happy. The emotion surprised him. The old guy had been absolutely sure no kids ever came into the woods. And that made sense to Gore as the woods made his skin crawl. Gore wasn’t afraid of much, but that place was positively frightening. But thanks to the old man’s assurances that the kids were just as scared of the woods, Gore could avoid them as part of his surveillance.
Gore fished around on his front seat for the ever-present bag of chips, but to his disappointment, it was already empty. It had been so hot out, that chips weren’t what he really wanted anyway. He was still sweaty from his adventure in the woods, and really wanted to cool down.
Gore had driven by Soul Repair, the neighborhood ice cream shop several times already, but had never had the time to stop in. He knew Dr. Trace was eager for him to make progress, but he was human after all and deserved a break. A quick stop into the ice cream shop wouldn’t hurt anyone. Gore eased his black sedan into a parking spot across the street.
As he raised his considerable bulk out of the front seat, he glanced over to the ice cream shop and saw a mass of curly hair sticking out the front door. Several children behind her. That was the girl who had cried over the cat a couple of weeks earlier. Once again Gore Grater had found his quarry when he least expected it. Gore started moving faster.
§
“What are you doing?” Gabe whined as Zoe shoved him back into the shop.
“It’s him!” Zoe said, almost gasping for air.
“Who?” Binny peeked out of the window. “Oh no.” She answered the question herself.
“Everything okay?” Kay appeared by the door.
“There’s a man following us. He’s coming straight here. We need to get away.” Binny said the words as fast as she could.
Cassie and Gabe were trembling. The older kids weren’t doing much better.
If they’d expected Kay to not take them seriously, they were wrong. She didn’t question. She didn’t doubt. She pointed in the direction of the back of the shop and said two words, “This way.”
Kay glided across Soul Repair’s smooth wood floors to the back wall. Centered in the wall with a chimney rising to Soul Repair’s second floor loft area, was a fireplace. When Madrona was icy, the fireplace would be called into action, and Soul Repair would get extra toasty and everyone would want to come in for hot chocolate.
Kay pushed hard on a brick on the right side of the chimney and the entire inner chamber of the fireplace moved to the left a few inches. Kay then grabbed the now exposed edge and pulled the bricks all the way to the left revealing a passage beyond.
“No dallying please. Let’s go. One by one.” Kay ushered each of the six children through the makeshift brick gateway. When the last of them were through, Kay put her index finger to her lips and then pulled the inner portion of the fireplace back into place.
§
Zach found the light switch just in time before the secret sliding fireplace closed them in total darkness. A small table lamp lit the room. Little pale yellow ‘shingles’ made of glass, and outlined in lead covered the surface of the shade. At the bottom of the shade brown, green, and red panes of different shapes seemed to make a ring of owls, silently watching the children.
The lamp sat on a small but tall table. Like what you would see at the entrance to a restaurant. Behind the table was a floor to ceiling curtain in deep burgundy crushed velvet. The space the children were in was small and cramped but none of them dared say a word. Through the recently repositioned fireplace they could hear yelling.
“I know what I saw.” Gore Grater boomed.
“You look like you’ve been working hard. Maybe your eyes are a little tired?” Kay Athanasios responded calmly.
Grater returned from poking his head out the back door off the small kitchen in Kay’s store. He’d seen no signs of anything other than a lone garbage dumpster in either direction down the long alley behind the row of shops. They must be inside.
“We have some new flavors.” Kay said, keeping her voice light.
The children heard Grater’s considerable bulk pounding up the stairs.
“They must have gone somewhere.” Grater sounded deeply frustrated to the children.
“Why don’t we set you up with some ice cream.” Kay’s voice carried gently from behind the wall.
“That sounds great actually, because guess what? I’m not leaving until those kids come out of whatever hole you’ve stuffed them in.”
The next sound they heard was one of Grater plopping down in the big easy chair right in front of the fireplace.