The Demon Conspiracy

  ***

  Angie was absolutely determined to have her first Thanksgiving dinner with her family, even if part of the family was missing. She, Granny and I spent the rest of the evening cooking and preparing the big meal for the next day. Angie acted as supervisor and head chef, since neither Granny nor I had any idea how to cook. Travis helped, too, for a bit, because he knew where everything was that they needed to make the meal. But eventually we ran out of things for him to do, so he went into the den and watched TV. We worked until well after ten, at which point we came into the den and crashed on the couch beside Travis. I had no idea cooking was such hard work.

  “I think we’re done,” said Angie, removing her shoes and propping her feet on the ottoman. “I’ll get up early and put the turkey in the oven. Who likes sweet potatoes?”

  Granny gave her the thumbs up, but Travis shook his head. “No, thank you!”

  “Not really,” I said. “They smell good, but they don’t taste anything like they smell.”

  “I’ll cook enough for three. They’re Chris’ favorite, you know.”

  Travis felt very comfortable wedged into the tight space on the couch with me and the new family. There was a sense of security being with Angie and Granny that he hadn’t known for most of his life. I felt it too. We had a home now and we had most of our family together again. Nearly everything felt right.

  All of a sudden Travis was bombarded with waves of warm, loving emotion. It startled him, which startled me. We sat up quickly, confused about who was having the feelings. He looked at me and I scanned the others. He studied Angie and Granny, narrowing down the source.

  It came from Granny! He’d never detected anything like that from her before, and now I sensed she was thinking about something incredibly important to her.

  A moment later she cleared her throat. “Uh, Angie, I have a small favor to ask. Would you mind if I invited a guest to dinner tomorrow?”

  Angie’s eyes burned when she heard the request. “After what’s been happening around here lately I’m not in the mood to have one of your biker friends or some drunken bar fly show up for Thanksgiving dinner. I don’t think I could handle it.”

  “He’s a very nice man, really.”

  “I said no. You’ve only lived here a few weeks. The least you could do is think about the children.”

  “Actually, I am thinking about the children. It’s Mark Parrish.”

  The shock that came over Angie almost knocked Travis off the couch. I felt it too, through him. She glared at her mother in complete surprise, unable to speak for several moments. “How do you know Mark?”

  “I’ve been helping him on his place next door. He’s a wonderful man, you know. Very good with his hands.”

  “We don’t need to hear about that.”

  “I’m talking about woodworking. He’s marvelous.”

  Travis tuned in to both Angie and Granny, greatly confused by their contrast of emotions. It didn’t take him long to figure out how each of them felt. Angie was confused and a little angry. But Granny had other emotions working.

  Granny’s in love with Dr. Parrish! he mentally said to me. Really in love!

  I tuned in to Matilda Price’s more intimate thoughts. Her happy thoughts made me wide-eyed and happy. You’re right! Isn’t it sweet?

  It’s gross! Do you think they get all slobbery, like Jon and Maria?

  I’m sure of it.

  Bleah!

  “Mark Parrish.” Angie said it like the name held some sort of stability in her life. “I’m sorry, Matilda. I didn’t realize you knew each other. Yes, certainly, Mark is always welcome here. Maybe he can bring Chris out of his funk and get him back to teaching.”

  “I hope so, too,” said Granny. “Still no word from the police about Jon?”

  Angie shook her head. “I’m not going to worry about Jon anymore. If he can disappear in the middle of a crowded room with everyone watching he can certainly take care of himself. He always could, I guess. I say we let him do his magic and if it works he’ll get famous. If not, he’ll be home soon enough.”

  “But he said he was staying in New York until New Year’s Eve,” I reminded. “He has something big planned for that night.”

  “That’s over five weeks from now,” said Granny. “What’s he gonna do in the meantime? What about Christmas? Surely he’ll come home for Christmas. At least for a visit.”

  “What if we never see ‘im again?” said Travis. “What if he disappears doin’ one of his tricks and nobody ever sees ‘im?” Travis hung his head despondently. I could tell being reminded about Jon’s departure put a real dent in his happy moment. His family was separated all over again, but this time Jon had left them because he wanted to, not because social services said he had to live in a different place. The whole thing was both mind-boggling and numbing at the same time. Travis got up and wandered into the foyer. I stayed discreetly inside his thoughts to make sure he was okay. He gazed out the storm door as if he thought Jon might appear at any moment with a big smile on his face and tell them he’d been kidding about going to New York. What would he do without his big brother?

  TRAVIS

  Travis looked out the door, but of course Jon never showed up. Instead Chris’ reflection appeared in the storm-door glass. Chris was right behind him. Travis turned and looked fearfully into the man’s crazed eyes.

  “Move out of the way,” said Chris gruffly. “I need to go home.”

  “You are home,” said Travis, stepping to the side.

  “My real home.”

  His real home?

  Chris went outside to the edge of the driveway and stood along the curb. Travis decided to follow him, watching every move he made. He thought Chris might try to follow Jon to New York, but instead he just stayed in one place and kept an eye on the far end of the street. So what’d he have in mind?

  Moments later, a yellow taxicab arrived and rolled to a stop in front of the house. Chris clapped his hands excitedly when the driver opened the window and leaned out.

  “Where ya headin’, buddy?” asked the driver.

  “Crystal Creek Park,” said Chris. He reached into his pocket and took out some hundred-dollar bills. He passed the bills to the driver.

  “Crystal Creek Park?” repeated the driver. “Isn’t that where that cave is? What’s it called?” He thought for a moment, then snapped his fingers. “Pandora’s Cave! Is that the place?”

  “Yes,” said Chris. “I’m going home.”

  KELLY

  Travis burst into the house and yelled at the top of his lungs. “Chris is goin’ to Pandora’s Cave!”

  Granny and I ran into the foyer. Angie stumbled in behind us, pulling on her shoes as she went.

  “How do you know that?” asked Granny.

  “I heard ‘im tell the cab driver where to go!”

  “He took a cab?” said Angie. “We’ve got to stop him!”

  We quickly piled into the minivan and flew down the road. Angie had never driven so fast in her life. Even Granny clung to her seat with both hands. “You kids have your seatbelts on, right?”

  I looked at Travis. We were strapped in the back, wide-eyed and scared. The minivan wove in and out of traffic. “You’d better believe it!”

  “She’s gonna get us killed!” said Travis in a low voice.

  “Either that or get arrested! She’s only got one thing on her mind. Chris!”

  “Why would he wanna go back to the cave?”

  “I don’t know, but one thing’s for sure. Chris is all out nuts.”

  Somehow we arrived safely at Crystal Creek Park just after eleven. Sure enough, the taxi drove off when we pulled into the parking lot. But the park was closed and the lights around the cave had been turned off. It was too dark to see Chris or anything else for that matter.

  “Kelly!” said Angie. “Get the ranger! Get those lights turned on!”

  I ran to the ranger station without question. The office was lit up and the TV was on as a fig
ure moved around inside. I got to the door and burst in without knocking. Ranger Ned Taylor sat before the TV with a sandwich and a cup of steaming coffee. I startled him so badly he spilled the coffee on his leg.

  “Ow!” he yelped, setting the mug on the desk. “I thought I locked the door.”

  “Sorry!” I said. I pointed to the cave. “You gotta turn on the lights, fast!”

  “You’re Kelly Bishop, right?” he said, surprised. “What are you doing here?”

  “I’ll tell you! Just turn on the lights!”

  “Hell, I didn’t notice they were off! That’s the third time this week.”

  While I explained what was going on, I followed Ned outside where he opened the breaker box and flipped on the floodlights. The area around Pandora’s Cave lit up brightly enough to look like mid afternoon. But the cave itself was pitch black, as always. I kept a wary eye on it, expecting a host of demons to rush out and grab us at any time. I didn’t like being here, and if Chris had already gone inside the cave, I sure wasn’t going in after him.

  A figure charged out of the shadows, running toward the cave. Chris! I pointed, but Ned was confused. We were too far away to do anything. Angie and Travis were getting a flashlight out of the car. Travis also pointed. Nobody was going to stop him in time.

  From out of nowhere a stocky figure sprinted across the lawn. Granny! Before Chris realized she was coming, she closed the gap and tackled him. Chris landed hard as they slid across the grass. He tried to wrestle himself free.

  “Let me go!” he cried. “You can’t do this! Let me go!”

  He nearly got away. But Granny put him in some kind of cradle hold. She wrapped him up and squeezed tight. Chris wasn’t going anywhere.

  “Wow, Granny!” said Travis, running up beside them. “You can fly!”

  “Not exactly,” said Granny. Chris wiggled madly. Granny tightened her hold.

  “Ahhh!” Chris yelped. “You’re breaking my back!”

  “Then stop moving!” said Granny.

  “No! Let me go!” Chris was furious. His eyes flashed yellow. He gnashed his teeth at Granny, but she had him good. He couldn’t bite her and he couldn’t break free.

  Ned arrived and took out some handcuffs. He and Granny rolled Chris onto his stomach. They cuffed his hands behind his back.

  Granny whispered into Chris’ ear. “Now you know what I can do to you, right? So listen to me well. If you don’t stop upsetting my daughter, I’m going to upset you.” Chris hissed at her like a wildcat. Granny released him and stood up, breathing hard.

  Angie ran up with me. “Chris, darling! Why would you want to go back in there?”

  “My work is done! Let me go! My work is done!”

  “You’re not leaving my only daughter so you can go live in a cave,” said Granny. “Even if you are crazy.”

  “What do you want me to do about him?” asked Ned.

  “We can’t leave him here,” said Angie, looking hopelessly at Ned. “You were right, Matilda, he needs help, I see that now. Is there some place we can keep him safe? Can we lock him up?”

  “I could arrest him for trespassing,” said Ned. “It’s only a misdemeanor so they won’t keep him long. But the magistrate will be off tomorrow for the holiday. If we put him in jail, you can get him back out Friday.”

  “Jail?” Angie paled. “I hate to do that to him, especially on Thanksgiving. Isn’t there anything else we can do?”

  “He needs psychiatric help,” said Ned. “I know because my aunt’s going through the same thing. My cousin’s been acting weird ever since he came outta that cave. He just keeps talking about having work to do, and all that.”

  “I did my work!” said Chris. “I have nothing else to do! I want to go back!” He struggled to his feet and tried to run toward the cave. Again, Granny tripped him up, but this time she sat on him. I sat on him, too, and so did Travis.

  “I say put him in jail,” said Granny. “At least you won’t have to worry about him for a night or two. We can find a good shrink on Friday.”

  Everyone looked at Angie, who gazed pitifully at her husband. She slowly nodded. The ranger and Granny hauled Chris back to the station. Ned locked him in a storage room and called the local police. “They’ll be here in a few minutes,” he said.

  “Where’s Ripper?” I asked, noticing that we hadn’t heard any barking since we got there.

  “At the vet,” said Ned. “He choked on a squirrel bone and had to have surgery. I’ll pick him up in a few days and bring him back. I’ll tell you, this place is scary when he’s here, but when he’s not, well, I don’t like working this shift so much anymore. I can’t believe I didn’t lock the door.”

  “Don’t blame you,” said Granny. “But why were the lights turned off?”

  “I don’t know.” Ned scratched his head. “Those lights have been cutting on and off randomly since before the night of the rescue. I’m gonna have to put some kind of alarm on the box, I guess, to warn me.”

  Angie leaned closer to Ned and placed a hand on his shoulder. “So, Mr. Taylor, what happened to your cousin? Is he…crazy, like my husband?”

  Ned lowered his voice, as if he were afraid somebody else might be listening. “I don’t know what happened exactly. It was like he’d gotten knocked in the head and was suddenly smarter. I’m not talking about a couple of IQ points, here. I mean way smarter! He wasn’t stupid before, you know, but he wasn’t any rocket scientist. He had his associate’s degree from the community college, but he was just a regular guy, you know? The biggest dream he ever had was to own a house, have a family and race his Corvette on weekends. That’s it! Now you wouldn’t believe it.”

  “Try us,” I said. “We’ve got our own stories to tell.”

  Ned looked us over and apparently decided he could trust us. “He came out of that cave saying he had to work hard and fast. He must have said it fifty times that night, I got tired of hearing it. I finally asked him what he had to do that was so important. He said he needed me to drive him to the university in the morning because he forgot how to drive. I figured he just wanted to take some classes, you know? But it wasn’t like that at all.

  “We got to the science department and he walked up to this professor and said he wanted a degree. The professor asked, what kind of degree? And Eric told him he wanted a doctorate in genetics. When the professor found out he didn’t even have a bachelor’s he laughed and told Eric to enroll in some classes. Then Eric spouted off some advanced biotechnology stuff and the professor got all interested. I didn’t understand a word of it, but they went into an office and talked for hours! That week Eric was tested by a whole bunch of professors. The test took days and when they were done, they gave him a Ph.D. in genetics. Go figure!”

  “He got his doctorate in a week?” Granny was astounded. “But how?”

  “Apparently those professors grilled him about everything under the sun and he knew all the answers. But he started telling them things they didn’t even know. They all decided he must have done some original research, so they figured he deserved the degree. One of them is a consultant for 2x-Helix, a technology company, and he suggested that Eric apply for a job there. The next thing I know my ordinary cousin is working for one of the top biotech companies in the world making six figures! My cousin! All because he went into a cave.”

  We were stunned. The next few minutes we told Ned all about Chris and Jon. Ned was much impressed by Jon’s magic skill. He was surprised to learn about Chris’ invention.

  “Majik Juice!” Ned rubbed his chin. “I saw something about that in today’s paper. That drink got FDA approval in record time.”

  “Don’t drink it,” I said. “Unless you like cockroaches and hair. I saw him make it in our basement and those were two main ingredients.”

  Ned made a face. “That’s gross! You know, it looks to me like we’ve got similar problems here. Maybe we ought to keep in touch, you think?”

  “That’s a good idea,” said Granny. “Got somet
hing to write with?”

  Ned and Granny wrote out their contact information on Post-it notes and exchanged it.

  “Mr. Taylor,” said Angie. “Do you have any idea what really happened to the people who went in that cave?”

  “No, ma’am, I don’t. It just doesn’t make any sense. But if you find out anything interesting, please give me a ring. I’ll do the same. By the way, Ms. Price, that was a helluva tackle.”

  Granny grinned. “Thanks, Ned. I played a little rugby in the day.” She looked up as a squad car pulled into the parking lot. “Police are here.”

  After filling out a police report we left the park. Travis asked Angie to drive slower going home since there was no emergency, and she just laughed. “Travis, did I scare you with my driving?”

  “A little.”

  “A little?” Granny rolled her eyes. “You scared the heck out of me, and I don’t scare easy. But, Angie, you did the job. You may have saved your husband’s life.”

  Angie didn’t smile; she was clearly just too tired. As it was we didn’t get home until after one in the morning. Travis had fallen asleep in the car and I woke him up and led him to his bedroom. I plopped him into bed with his clothes still on. Before I got my pajamas on, I heard Angie crying from the room next door. Apparently, Granny was with her, trying to console her. I had a bad feeling about tomorrow. With Jon in New York and Chris in jail, it probably wasn’t going to be such a great Thanksgiving.