“Are you kidding? That wasn’t settling,” Tobias said. “We need to go.”
“The gate’s locked,” Orrin reminded them. “Please, stay seated.”
“No, really,” Tobias said, grabbing Charlotte’s hand. “We’ve got to go.”
“I wouldn’t if I were you,” Orrin warned. “I’m only trying to help. That’s my job, helping students.”
The sound of someone singing down the hall drifted into the room; large goose bumps ran up the Eggers kids’ backs. Both of them stood.
“Do your toilets sing too?” Tobias said worriedly.
“Please just sit, and I’ll explain,” Orrin started.
Tobias bolted for the door, yanking Charlotte behind him. He pulled the door open and charged out. It was still raining, but the open door lit up the cobblestone drive.
“Come on!” Tobias yelled.
“I’m coming!” Charlotte yelled back. “It’s not like I want to stop and look at things.”
Their feet slapped across the wet cobblestones as they ran past the weathered statue and back toward the gate. It was dark, yet the small glowing rocks showed them the outline of the road. There was no sound of Orrin giving chase.
“There’s the gate light,” Charlotte said, pointing straight ahead. “Keep going!”
In the distance, the broken light flickered. They both sprinted. Charlotte was the first to reach the gate. She grabbed two of the large bars and pulled. Three seconds later, Tobias was right beside her, pulling on some bars of his own.
“Someone really did lock it,” Tobias complained, looking around frantically.
“What was that scream in there?” Charlotte asked. “That was no toilet.”
“I know,” Tobias answered. “And did you see where he filed our card?”
“No.”
“Under E,” Tobias answered. “We didn’t tell him our last name. How would he know it starts with E?”
“Maybe Dad told him,” Charlotte said, confused. “Maybe he really did mean to leave us here. Maybe this is part of the lesson he’s trying to teach us. Or maybe it’s just a coincidence.”
“Whatever it is, I’m not staying.”
“Can you open the lock?” Charlotte asked.
“Not without some tools. Here, get on my shoulders.”
“What’ll that do?”
“Maybe you’ll be tall enough to hop over the gate.”
“Then what?”
“I don’t know,” Tobias said loudly. “Climb down the other side, I guess. At least you’ll be out. Then when Dad gets back, you can point at me trapped in here and make fun of me for being such an idiot.”
“As great as that sounds, even on your shoulders, I still wouldn’t be tall enough to get over this gate. And knowing you, I’d probably get dropped.”
“Fine,” Tobias said, bothered. “What if we just did what we did when they buzzed us in?”
“We didn’t do anything,” Charlotte reminded him.
“Maybe it was our talking.” Tobias stared at the bars and in his friendliest voice said, “We’d like to leave now.”
The gate remained locked, and Charlotte could hear a low growling filling the air behind them. She jumped on Tobias and tried to pull herself up on top of him.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m taking your suggestion.”
Tobias helped Charlotte onto his shoulders, and she stood up, holding the bars for balance. Even standing with her right arm outstretched, she was still a good three feet away from the top of the gate.
The growling behind them turned into a roar.
Tobias wobbled, and Charlotte came crashing down. Her right knee slammed into his face as she rolled off him and onto the cobblestones. There was no time to lick their wounds.
Tobias jumped up. “Get to the trees!”
The sound of large, heavy feet slapping down against the cobblestone road was growing louder and quicker.
“Hurry!” Tobias yelled.
“I’m more worried about you,” Charlotte hollered as she passed him.
Looking back, Tobias could see two huge eyes charging toward them. His heart raced faster than his legs as his eyes searched for help in the darkness.
“Over here!” Charlotte yelled. “There’s a low branch!”
Another terrifying roar ripped through the air.
Tobias reached the low branch and jumped up onto it. Charlotte grabbed a limb above him. Tobias pushed her from below as she pulled herself higher.
“Climb as high as you can!” he hollered.
Tobias jumped from the branch he was on as a large paw swiped at him. The limb cracked and tore. He was now hanging from the higher branch with his legs kicking in the air, frantically pulling himself up as the animal beneath him roared. The creature swiped again. The tip of its claw caught the heel of Tobias’s sneaker and tore off a chunk of rubber.
“Hurry!” Tobias yelled. “Climb!”
Charlotte was already two branches above him and moving even higher. Tobias jumped to the next limb, his hands and elbows scraping and tearing against the bark as he did his best imitation of a frantic monkey.
The animal clawed at the tree, but it was obvious that it was having a difficult time getting any higher. Charlotte reached the top branches and crawled in close to the trunk. She wrapped one arm around the tree and reached out for Tobias with the other. Tobias moved up and sat on a thick branch next to his sister. The two of them held on to each other and listened to the animal. Again and again, the beast could be heard trying to climb and then falling back down to the ground. After a few minutes, it sniffed loudly and stomped off. It was another five minutes before Tobias’s and Charlotte’s breathing had calmed enough for them to speak.
“What was that?” Charlotte finally asked.
“I don’t know. I thought we were dead.”
“I thought we were food,” Charlotte said seriously. “What do we do now?”
Tobias looked down into the dark. He glanced around at the leaves they were hidden under. His hands hurt, and his legs were still burning from the climb.
“I guess we wait up here for Dad.”
In the distance, they heard dogs barking. The noise grew louder and then faded completely, until there was nothing but the plinking of rain against the leaves. Looking down, they could see hundreds of tiny stones glowing softly and making them feel as if they were gazing into space.
“Do you think someone will come to help us?” Charlotte whispered.
“Of course,” Tobias said.
Charlotte became silent as Tobias sat there wondering why tadpoles didn’t come with warning labels.
CHAPTER 7
THE MOURNING MORNING
Some people like to camp. There are also people who enjoy swallowing swords and eating Brussels sprouts. The world is full of kooks. I suppose the version of camping where you stay in a nice hotel with a pool and a free hot breakfast might be bearable. But that wasn’t the case for Tobias and Charlotte. They were camping in the top of a tree, near a strange school, with frightening animals lurking below them. As the sun finally began to rise and their night of impromptu camping came to an end, their view of the world began to change.
What was once darkness below was now a desert floor filled with beautiful flowers and unusual foliage. The top of the mesa was crammed with large, aging cottonwoods that stood like withered soldiers on a tall tower. The tree Tobias and Charlotte were in swayed and creaked under the influence of a light wind. The children had taken turns sleeping, but neither one could relax for fear of falling. Through a break in the branches, they could see the top of the iron gate. The air smelled wet, but the morning sky was yellow and warm.
Tobias’s blue eyes scanned the horizon. His freckles were faint and almost invisible.
The two were frightened, but daylight and the sound of birds chirping turned the top of the mesa into something far less foreboding and almost welcoming.
“I know life’s been kinda strange late
ly,” Charlotte said. “But I didn’t think I’d be waking up in a tree.”
“Yeah, but we’re okay, and I know Dad will come through that gate and take us away.”
“Really?” Charlotte asked skeptically.
“Well, it’s not like they can keep us here,” Tobias said defensively. “Dad might have acted crazy last night, but he’ll be back. He has to.”
Two large red birds with long tails flew overhead, smearing the mustard-colored sky like streaks of feathery ketchup. The birds screamed and circled back.
“This place is weird,” Tobias said, looking out through the branches toward the noisy fowl.
“I know,” Charlotte said. “And what was that thing last night?”
“Orrin?” Tobias joked. “Aw, he’s just short and trying to hide the fact that he’s bald.”
“Not Orrin. The thing that tore up your shoe.”
“I couldn’t see well in the dark. It had huge eyes and smelled like wet carpet.”
The sound of dogs barking in the distance interrupted him. They both sat up tall in the tree and listened carefully.
“Maybe they’re looking for us?” Tobias said hopefully.
“Over here!” Charlotte shouted.
The barking grew louder, and they continued to scream and holler until a pack of dogs were directly beneath them and barking as if they’d treed a couple of coons. Holding on to the dogs was Orrin. Behind Orrin were a few men in long yellow lab coats. Orrin held his left hand above his two-colored eyes and looked up. From where Tobias and Charlotte were sitting, he didn’t look much taller than the dogs. The hounds began to howl.
“Quiet, please,” Orrin ordered the dogs. “No need for all the noise now!”
One by one, the dogs stopped their barking and reluctantly lay down.
“Is that them?” one of the men in yellow asked Orrin.
“Of course that’s them,” Orrin replied. “What do you think, we just have kids scattered around in the tops of trees? Times aren’t like they used to be. Are you two okay?” Orrin yelled up.
“Fine,” Tobias hollered down. “I lost part of my shoe.”
“You’re fortunate you didn’t lose more than that,” Orrin said in a nice sort of way. “It was dark last night.”
“And there was some weird animal out here,” Tobias hollered. “We couldn’t tell what it was.”
“Like I said, it was dark. You should have never left the office. Can you climb down?”
“I think so,” Tobias said.
Charlotte tugged on Tobias’s red hoodie. “Wait, are you sure we should? I mean, we were sort of running from him.”
Tobias looked down at Orrin and the dogs while Orrin looked up.
“Your father’s going to be relieved,” Orrin yelled.
“What?” Charlotte asked. A tiny tinge of hope was beginning to rise from her toes and up through her body.
“Your father,” Orrin yelled. “He’s here. He’s on the other side of the mesa looking for you. You’ve got him worried sick. Poor man.”
That was all the encouragement the Eggers kids needed. Tobias jumped down to the branch beneath him, with Charlotte right behind.
“I told you,” Tobias said as they both started climbing down the tree. “Now, don’t act too happy. We want Dad to pay for this.”
“Right,” Charlotte agreed.
They both descended to the next branch.
“Man, Dad’s gonna owe us,” Tobias said.
“Carefully,” Orrin hollered. “Your father would never forgive me if you got hurt climbing down.”
After a few more swings and one good shimmy, the Eggers kids dropped to the ground right next to the dogs and a couple of broken branches.
“There we go.” Orrin smiled. “You two are pretty brave. I’ve never been able to climb trees. I have the knees of an old man. Now, come on.”
Tobias and Charlotte followed Orrin closely as the men in yellow walked behind them.
“When did our dad come?” Tobias asked.
“It was very late,” Orrin answered. “We tried to find you, but like I said, it was dark. No matter now. All’s good that ends good.”
Orrin stopped walking and handed the dogs’ leashes to the other two men. They took the hounds and walked off in a different direction. Orrin motioned for Charlotte and Tobias to follow him.
“Do you know what that thing chasing us last night was?” Tobias asked.
Orrin cleared his throat—it was not a pleasant sound. He sniffed twice and said, “It was probably just a stray dog.”
“It wasn’t a dog,” Charlotte insisted.
“Sometimes things look different in the night,” Orrin said condescendingly. “One time I thought I saw a person hiding outside my window. It turned out to be a bush. I wasted all that worrying for a bush. Silly me.”
Charlotte looked at Orrin as if he were crazy.
“So maybe what you saw last night was a bush or a loose bag blowing in the wind. Now, come along.”
In no time, they were back on the cobblestone road and walking toward the front of the school. Everything appeared older and more majestic in the daylight. The worn red rocks that made up the cobblestone road were smooth and uneven, and looked like they’d been placed there when the earth was formed. There was also a sort of sparkle to the school, making it look much more enchanting than it did at night.
“Are we on top of a hill?” Tobias asked.
“This is no hill,” Orrin said proudly. “This is a mesa, which is the Spanish word for ‘table.’”
“It feels so high,” Charlotte said.
“It’s quite high and quite spectacular. You should feel lucky to be here.”
They reached the statue at the front of the school, and Orrin stopped. The weathered statue was a bit easier to make out in the daylight. It was shaped like a man with books under his left arm. His right hand was broken off. At his feet were three stone creatures that may or may not have been frogs. The whole thing was worn, and there were thorny weeds growing from the statue’s ears, nose, and backside. A thin trickle of water was dripping from the statue’s mouth, making the man look a bit like a drooling idiot.
“We’ll have you wait inside while the orderlies fetch your father,” Orrin said.
The children followed Orrin to the double front doors under the copper overhang and into the office. The two wood chairs they had sat in the night before were now pushed up against the wall. Orrin closed the doors and locked them. The noise of his key turning and the lock snapping seemed to awaken something in both Tobias and Charlotte.
“Wait,” Tobias asked. “Where’d you say my dad was?”
“On the other side of the mesa. Behind the school. Now, please have a seat.”
Tobias and Charlotte sat in the chairs.
“So our dad finally came late last night?” Charlotte asked.
Orrin nodded and smiled. “It was such a relief for him to show up.”
“What time?” she added.
“I’m not sure,” Orrin replied. “I don’t wear a watch.”
“I didn’t hear any cars,” Charlotte said.
“Perhaps you weren’t listening. Sometimes children don’t listen.”
“She has really good ears,” Tobias defended his sister.
“They do look unusual.”
Tobias looked at Orrin and then back at Charlotte. His sister’s brown eyes were black, and the smile she occasionally sported was upside down and stiff at the corners. It was really a frown. Her ears twitched as if she were a fox on alert.
Tobias ignored Orrin’s comment and said, “I bet our dad’s beard looked funny all wet.”
“Sure,” Orrin replied. “I guess it did. Ha ha. What fun. I never could grow a beard.”
Tobias stood—Charlotte copied him perfectly. They both began to back toward the door.
“What’s gotten into you kids?” Orrin asked. “Please sit down.”
“Our dad doesn’t have a beard,” Tobias shot back.
> Orrin stared at them as his smile faded into a frown. “Oh, I see. Well, how would I know if he did or he didn’t? I’ve never met him.”
“You said he’s here,” Charlotte reminded him.
“I guess I lied,” Orrin replied. “I shouldn’t have, but I did. And now, since that’s cleared up, why don’t you please sit down and we’ll continue where we left off last night.”
Orrin took the same small white card out of the tiny box and pulled a pen from his coat pocket.
“Be reasonable and sit down,” he suggested. “Standing will make you tired. Besides, the door’s locked and there’s nowhere to run.”
“This isn’t right,” Charlotte insisted.
“I don’t think he cares,” Tobias said.
Orrin sniffed and then sat up straight. “I do care. But let’s be reasonable. Your father brought you here. You said yourself that you were ‘dropped off.’”
“It was a mistake,” Tobias said angrily. “It has to be.”
“Mistake or not, you’re here now, and he’s nowhere to be found. Sometimes you play the hand you’re dealt.”
Charlotte stared at Orrin. “Our father wouldn’t leave us.”
“It appears that he did,” Orrin said sadly.
The words were painful to hear. No kids want to know that those who are supposed to care for them no longer do. Besides, bad news like that is best delivered by a note or a friend. Tobias and Charlotte were getting the news from a short bald man with bad breath and hair in his ears. The reality of what was happening made it hard for them to even hold their heads up.
“Have a seat,” Orrin said, scratching his arm harder.
Tobias lifted his eyes and looked around. They were trapped. He shuffled back to his chair and sat down. It took Charlotte a few minutes to comply, but eventually she took her seat right next to her brother.
“Much better,” Orrin said, clicking his pen. “So much better. Now, where were we? Oh yes, you ran off before I was able to formally greet you. Welcome to Witherwood, where caring, community, and character are as important as education. I trust your stay will be rewarding.”
Tobias and Charlotte shivered.
“Excellent,” Orrin said proudly. “As I said before, you’ve come at a great time. The Student Morale parade is only a week away. It’s a gift the teachers give the students. Children line the path in the gardens, and they get to wave at the floats to their heart’s content. Such a special occasion, like Wither Week, or Saint Trimmings Day. Look at me babble. Let’s start where we should. How ’bout you tell me your last name.”