It was a little after five o’clock in the evening as Dr. Samantha Trace walked the curving paths of the Luce Laboratories campus. The streak of sunny days had come to a halt. The sky was overcast and everything seemed kind of washed out and gray.
She had been anxious about her son all day, but something inside her had flipped. Samantha had a renewed excitement about spending time with her son. Maybe she would surprise him with dinner out that evening. The zoo was open late that night so maybe cheeseburgers and a visit to the giraffes.
Samantha walked into the greenhouse. “Hi. I’m here for Ollie. Is he ready to go?”
Xander Luce turned on his heel. “Samantha, so good to see you. I’m so sorry, but you missed him.”
Samantha was caught speechless. She’d asked Luce to tell Ollie to wait for her. Her son was only ten years old. Where could he be?
Seeing the look on Samantha’s face, Xander continued, “It’s my fault I’m afraid. I forgot to mention your request to him, and then by the time I’d remembered, he’d already left for his usual afternoon constitutional.” Xander smiled gently. “I’m sure you’ll find him at home by the time you get there. I’m so sorry for screwing up. I feel terrible.”
Samantha saw the regret in her boss’ eyes and swallowed her anger. “It’s okay. You’re not a babysitter. And you’ve already been so generous with your time with him this summer. I think you’ve been a good influence on him. I’m grateful.”
“Of course. Ollie is a talented young man. It’s my pleasure.” Xander said.
“If it’s okay, I’m gonna go find him now.”
“Of course. Of course. Let me know if there’s anything else I can do to help.” Luce smiled.
§
“It’s gonna be okay.” Julie Jordan told the three sad faces plopped down on the couch.
Julie’s reassurances went unanswered.
“You guys must be exhausted. I’m gonna make you a great dinner. Zach you don’t even need to get any ingredients. I’ve got everything covered.” Jay tried to cheer up the kids.
Still no response.
“How about you guys just sit there and don’t say anything. We’ll tell you when dinner is ready.” Jay smiled but found no takers for his jokiness.
Jay and Julie retired to the kitchen. Zach, Binny, and Cassie sat on the couch. The TV was on but the sound was off. They weren’t paying attention anyway. Cassie had fallen asleep curled up in the corner.
Zach’s phone buzzed. Zach reached for it, read the message and his face got suddenly animated. He shoved the phone in front of Binny so she could read the message. Binny’s eyes grew wide as she read.
Zach walked into the kitchen while Binny tried to wake Cassie. “Dad?”
“Dinner will be ready in a half hour. Just sit tight and we’ll get you guys feeling better. It’s taco night!”
Zach smiled and worked up his courage. “Would you be okay if we skipped dinner?”
“What?” Julie put a hand on Zach’s shoulder.
“No taco night?” Jay made a sad face.
Zach took a breath. “We want to go out and look for Rembrandt some more.”
“Honey. You guys are exhausted. Take a break. You’ve already done everything you can. Cassie’s asleep on the couch.” Julie counseled.
“I’m awake!” Cassie wandered into the kitchen with Binny behind her.
Jay sat down at the table in front of the children. “Kids, what you guys are doing is admirable. But you’ve blanketed the neighborhood, what, probably half a dozen times today? There’s nothing more you can do.”
“We think there is.” Zach said.
Jay thought back to the conversation earlier in the day and realized the opportunity that was presenting itself. “You really want to do this?”
“Yes.” Zach said.
Binny and Cassie nodded vigorously behind him.
“OK. I admire your perseverance. But home by nine ok?” Jay said.
“What about dinner?” Julie asked, surprised that Jay had acquiesced.
“We’ll grab peanut butter sandwiches to go.” Zach said.
“Banana in mine please.” Cassie added.
“Hope you’re hungry. We have way too many tacos for just you and me.” Jay joked with Julie.
§
Gabriel Walker’s house sat on a quiet street on the edge of Madrona bordering Seattle’s Central District. Yellow slats of wood were interrupted periodically by white framed windows. James Flowers had painted the house the previous summer before the family had moved in with his father-in-law.
Zoe sat in the white-framed window of her small room in the old house petting her cat. She’d been nervous about leaving her window open with Tango about. Tango was most definitely an indoor cat. Zoe had insisted on that when they got her. As such, she didn’t have a lot of experience outdoors except for the periodic escape out the front door, and the tall tree in front of the house looked like it might be a tempting destination for Zoe’s calico-colored friend.
Zoe wasn’t sure how to think about the day. Her power, such as it was, had finally manifested itself in front of the other kids. Something that had embarrassed and puzzled her for some time was now out in the open. And while it wasn’t as impressive as what the other kids could do, it was at least something that made her feel like she belonged.
Though she still couldn’t do it on command, it had come at the right moment, letting them escape back to the shelter so they could resume their search. But what had that really bought them anyway? The pool and the library basement had been empty. Rembrandt and Ollie weren’t there. As far as she could tell, they had vanished into thin air.
Zoe absent-mindedly scratched under Tango’s chin and let her eyes go out of focus as she looked down the street and to the sliver of mountains that were visible from her windowsill. But then, as happens sometimes, something interrupted her moment of reflection. A blurry gray blot was walking up the street.
Zoe took a moment to focus her eyes. The smudge at the bottom of her vision sharpened into focus – four kids walking down the street at a brisk pace. Zach, Binny, Penny, and Cassie were walking towards her house! The surprise woke her out of her reverie and gave her a small ray of hope. Maybe they’ve got a clue? Zoe tried to temper her enthusiasm, but couldn’t help shooting down the stairs to greet her guests at the front door.
Zach was about to press the doorbell when the door opened. Zoe stood there, her hair as large as ever, and despite the circumstances, a big smile on her face. She was happy to see them.
“Hey. What are you guys doing here?” Zoe said.
“How did you know to open the door before we rang the bell?” Binny asked.
“Another one of my super powers.” Zoe winked.
“You have another super power?” Gabe made an appearance at the door.
“Or I saw you coming from my window.” Zoe smiled at Binny. “It’s one or the other.”
Zach handed Zoe his phone and showed her the message he’d received. “I tried texting you but you didn’t answer so we came to get you.”
“Zoe, your phone buzzed.” Gabe was holding Zoe’s phone which she’d left downstairs when she went up to her room.
“Thanks.” Zoe said sarcastically to her brother, and then to the others, “OK. Give me a minute to tell my grandfather.”
“Tell your grandfather what?” Gabriel Walker, PopPop as he was known to his family, stood over his grandchildren in the doorway examining the kids standing on the front porch.
“Oh, Hi PopPop. Gabe and I were just going to go out and play with our friends.” Zoe explained.
PopPop pursed his lips. He looked as if he was literally chewing on something. After a moment his pursed lips turned into a look of disapproval. “You haven’t eaten your dinner yet. Your parents left strict instructions.”
“We brought you sandwiches.” Cassie held up a little bag she’d been carrying. “Peanut butter and banana. My Dad makes the best ones.”
“Oh does he?” PopPop scowled at Cassie but it only made her giggle.
“Please PopPop?” Gabe said.
“What exactly are you kids planning on doing running around the neighborhood?”
“We’re getting exercise.” Zoe said.
“Exercise huh? You sure you’re not getting into trouble?” PopPop looked unconvinced.
“You’re the one who always complains that kids these days watch too much TV.” Zoe did her best impression of her grandfather.
Gabe giggled.
PopPop appeared to be making a show of being disagreeable but finally said. “Just make sure and exercise your good judgment. If you’re not back before your parents get home, trouble will have found us.”
“Oh, a kitty.” Cassie squealed with delight. Zoe’s cat was poking its head between the legs of everyone gathered inside the front door.
Zoe said, “Careful, don’t let her out PopPop!” But before the words were out of her mouth, Tango shot out the door and scampered up the closest tree.
PopPop shook his head. “Well that didn’t take long. Looks like you’ve already got some trouble to deal with. Good luck children.” Gabriel Walker went back inside the house to take a seat on his favorite chair and get back to reading his newspaper.
§
The house felt unusually quiet. Whatever excitement Samantha Trace had felt about surprising her son with an evening out doing his favorite things had completely disappeared. The unease she had felt in the morning had blossomed into a thick dread.
Ollie wasn’t anywhere on the regular path he took from the Luce campus to home. Ollie should have been home by now. But he wasn’t. Samantha Trace walked out her front door to search for her son.
§
“You guys should go ahead without me.” Zoe said teary-eyed.
“We need to hurry. We don’t know how long Rembrandt has.” Binny said. Privately she wondered if it was already too late, but she kept that to herself.
The six children were gathered at the base of the Linden tree whose branches reached out to Zoe’s windows. It was in those very same branches that Zoe’s cat Tango was now concealed.
“We’re not going without you.” Zach said.
“We split up before.” Zoe argued.
“We had two destinations before. Now we only have one. And we need everyone there to look out for each other.” Zach insisted.
Zoe’s face was getting tighter and tighter as she kept speaking. “I can’t leave Tango in the tree. I just can’t. I’m sorry.” Zoe was starting to tear up.
Everyone’s eyes followed Zoe’s. Tango was sitting on a branch about thirty feet in the air. As best as any of them could tell, despite Zoe’s pleading, Tango had zero interest in coming back down any time in the near future.
“The fire department usually gets cats out of trees.” Penny offered.
“I’m not thrilled about the idea of calling the fire department.” Zach said.
“It would take too long anyway.” Binny said.
“I’ll climb up and get her.” Gabe volunteered.
“Absolutely not.” Zoe forbade her brother. “You’ll crack your head open if you fall out of that tree.”
“I’ll do it.” Zach volunteered.
Zoe glared at him. “Why not me? It’s my cat after all.”
“I just thought that you were…” Zach let his words trail off before he finished his sentence. Something about Zoe’s face made it clear that he should stop talking.
Finally satisfied that Zach wasn’t going to say anything else, Zoe turned back to the tree and approached it with trepidation. The kids stayed silent for the next several minutes as Zoe climbed the old branches.
At one point Zach offered advice telling Zoe not to look down. She did and he resumed his silence. Zoe picked her way carefully up the branches. At times she would pause before a particularly large traversal and close her eyes for a moment before she advanced. In those moments they were all holding their breath.
Zoe made it all the way to the branch Tango was inhabiting. She could see into her own window from here. Zoe marveled at how safe and inviting her bed looked from her current location, but tried to shoo that thought from her mind and focus on her current task.
Tango was staring at her now. The cat seemed to be debating what to do. Zoe cooed and made little cat sounds trying to get Tango to come to her. When that didn’t appear to be enough, Zoe started shuffling herself a little closer to Tango every few seconds.
Zoe inched closer and closer to Tango and finally was within arm’s reach. When Tango stood her ground, Zoe decided to make a grab for the scruff of her neck. Tango came to a decision at the very same moment.
Just as Zoe lunged, Tango jumped down to the branch below and scrambled down the trunk of the tree. In her effort to grab her cat, Zoe had not considered that the fur she was aiming for wouldn’t be there when she grabbed. She lost her balance. For a moment it looked like she might right herself.
Five children looked from below, helpless.
“Oh no.” Binny said.
“Zoeeeeee.” Gabe wailed.
And then the scales tipped, Zoe slipped from her perch, and she started the swift journey to the ground below.
§
Samantha Trace had not spent any significant time in Madrona Park for years. When she’d been younger, and Ollie was a toddler she would sometimes bring him there to play. She’d had so much to do between her career and single-parenting her new son, that she didn’t have time to feel sorry for herself. And besides, she had been doing a good job at both and it made her feel good.
Sometimes she would bring Ollie into the flower shop. It was gone now, replaced by some sort of candleholder boutique. Samantha had no idea why anyone would spend forty dollars for a colored glass candleholder but periodically housewives from all over the city with nothing better to do would form a line around the block when they went on sale.
Even though those days when Ollie was younger were hard, they had their moments. As she searched for her son, those moments held special significance in her mind. The old man who ran the flower shop used to make up unique bouquets for her as if he could tell when she needed a pick-me-up. He would see her pushing Ollie’s stroller in the park and motion for her to come in to his shop and show her what he’d made for her.
She had never been particularly into traditional bouquets, but somehow that old man had created combinations that made her feel like he understood her. That wasn’t something that Samantha Trace experienced often. She had been alone then, but not really. Now with Ollie missing, Samantha Trace knew what it meant to feel truly alone.
§
The kids were so focused on Zoe losing her balance that they didn’t notice as Tango shot straight down the trunk and passed them on the way to the front door of the house.
The only thought Zoe found in her head as it dawned on her that she was actually going to fall from the tree, was how glad she was that she hadn’t let Gabe do the climbing and maybe a little part of her also felt vindicated that her fear of heights was not completely baseless.
Zoe’s body fell to the ground at with a sickening acceleration. Rather than flail, she pulled her extremities inward into a sort of cannonball. At some point during the descent Zoe decided keeping her eyes close was the best choice.
Zoe suspected that she might experience the fall in slow motion, but this was getting ridiculous. In fact, it didn’t feel like she was falling anymore at all. Had she not noticed the impact of the ground when she’d hit it? Had her spine been severed and cut off all communication between her brain and her now mangled body? Was she dead?
Zoe Flowers opened her eyes. She hadn’t realized how tightly she had closed them. The first thing she saw was five pairs of legs. She looked up slightly to see the other kids all staring down at her, mouths open. Then Zoe looked down to see the ground she couldn’t feel.
It was there, but not. Zoe’s fall had stopped a full foot before she’d hit the ground. And now she was floating, no longer moving toward the earth. A foot below her, a breeze that only seemed to exist between her and the ground gently swirled blades of grass, dirt and the periodic weed.
Zoe realized she had been holding her breath and took a big gulp of air. Zoe was now gently swaying in place. As she flexed muscles she couldn’t name, still in a reclined position, she rose an inch or two from where she had stopped, and then floated back down, losing the altitude she had gained.
“She’s floating.” Gabe said.
“No,” Zach corrected, “She’s flying.”
Zoe had been lost in the feeling of hovering above the ground, but Zach’s pronouncement brought her out of her dream state. She fell the final foot to the ground with a thud.
“Are you okay?” Binny said, kneeling down to help her.
The front door opened. “Ah, I see you got your cat to come down.” PopPop said as Tango scuttled back into the house through his legs. Tango had been scratching at the door to get his attention. “Maybe next you could teach it to use the doorbell instead of mussing up my front door.”
Gabriel Walker shook his head in disapproval, closed the front door of the house, and went back to his favorite chair.