Lost & Found: Witherwood Reform School

  Ms. Gulp sighed. “My life is an endless parade of dumb questions.”

  A few orderlies were instructed to grab some wood and board up the window.

  Tobias’s brain clicked and whirled, causing a question to pop out of his mouth without him meaning to ask one. “Will the boards stop that animal from coming in?”

  “Who knows? If they don’t, I suppose we’ll have to come running to your rescue again. You two are far more trouble than you’re worth. Now lie down. Your brains need more sleep to solidify the effect of Marvin’s voice. Sleep, and I’ll get you for kitchen duty first thing tomorrow.”

  “Okay,” Tobias said obediently.

  Orrin entered the room.

  Orrin was short and mostly bald. He had four hairs that he believed were magical and could cover his whole head when combed over. He possessed a pointy chin and two different-colored eyes—one blue, one black. He had tiny feet and a warped-looking nose. He was the one who had first welcomed the Eggers children to Witherwood. He was also Marvin Withers’s right-hand man. Which meant that Marvin Withers had ugly taste in right-hand men.

  Orrin entered the room with two orderlies who were carrying large boards in their arms. They came in and immediately began to cover up the broken window. Orrin took a moment from supervising to talk to Ms. Gulp.

  “My word, these two children have a gift for stirring things up,” Orrin said, his eyes squinting as he spoke.

  “That’s the truth,” Ms. Gulp agreed. “Nothing but trouble. They make rotten kids seem reasonable.”

  “They are most certainly children in need of reform,” Orrin said.

  Ms. Gulp glanced at the kids and then leaned in to whisper something private to Orrin.

  “Really?” he asked with wide eyes.

  “Really,” she said. “It’s concerning, to say the least. That’s why we must strike while the iron rots.”

  “While the iron is hot,” Orrin foolishly corrected her.

  “Sticks and moans might break my bones, but your words will never curse me,” Ms. Gulp said angrily. “I know how to talk. Now you need to know how to move it and pass that message along.”

  “Of course,” Orrin agreed. “I’ll speak with Marvin immediately after things are buttoned up here.”

  Ms. Gulp looked at Tobias and Charlotte. “I’ve wasted enough time here tonight. If I were you two, I’d sleep. We might not be as generous and forgiving tomorrow.”

  She slammed the door with gusto as she left.

  Tobias and Charlotte stood there watching the orderlies finish boarding up the window. When the task was complete, Orrin clapped his pale hands and they all left the room, taking their hammers and nails and locking the door behind them.

  The stuffy room was now stuffier and completely quiet.

  “Why do we stay here?” Charlotte asked. “I think I would prefer something less horrible.”

  “That’s the problem with thinking,” Tobias said.

  Marvin Withers’s voice had really done a number on their brains. The window was boarded up, the cots were a mess, and Tobias looked like he had recently spent time as a lion’s chew toy. Still, the children seemed okay with it all. They straightened up the cots like two obedient robots bent on making the world a more organized place. As Tobias was flipping one of the beds over and back into position, he noticed some words drawn on the underside of the cot. His brain had a hard time reading what was written.

  “There’s something on the bottom of this cot,” Tobias said with very little excitement.

  Charlotte stared at him.

  “It looks important.”

  “Well, then it’s probably best to not worry about it,” Charlotte said. “Ms. Gulp told us to go to sleep.”

  “Right.”

  Had his brain been working properly, there’s no way Tobias Eggers would have ignored the note written in his own handwriting on the bottom of the cot. But his brain wasn’t working properly, and Tobias felt driven to obey. He flipped the cot over, hiding the message. Tobias grabbed his pillow off the floor and moved his cot directly beneath the wood-covered window.

  After a deep yawn, he sat down and lay backward like a baffled vampire who now needed sleep. Charlotte retrieved her pillow in the duck-printed pillowcase and lay down on her cot.

  “Are we safe here?” Charlotte asked.

  “Sure,” her big brother replied.

  It seems impossible, but the two children slept very soundly. So soundly in fact, that neither one heard the occasional scratching outside the wooden window.

  Sometimes it’s better not to know.

  CHAPTER 3

  WRITTEN IN THE DUST

  Time and sleep are two things that most people wish they had more of. How boring. I personally wish I had a dragon, or a talking cat, or at the very least a British accent. But I suppose if you are behind on projects and haven’t slept for days, time and sleep would be half-decent things to wish for while you blow out the candles on your birthday cake—half-decent things indeed. (For the record, that last sentence sounds much better if you read it with a British accent.)

  Tobias and Charlotte had gotten plenty of sleep, and they were trapped behind the walls of Witherwood, which gave them a lot of time. A lot of time to work, a lot of time to go to classes, and a lot of time to work some more.

  True to her word, Ms. Gulp entered their room the next morning and woke them both by pinching the backs of their calves and yelling at them. Both children yelped and then immediately hopped up.

  They were allowed a few minutes to wash in the bathroom. Tobias was given a new collared white shirt and gray V-neck sweater to go with his black corduroy pants and red-striped tie. The washroom was big, with large stone showers and fuzzy blue shower curtains. There were a few private stalls, and the sinks in front of the mirrors were shaped like animals. While cleaning up, Tobias looked in the mirror and was once again surprised to see all the scrapes and scratches on his body. When he turned his head, he could also see that a clump of his dark hair was missing in the back.

  “I must be a rough sleeper,” he said to his reflection.

  After leaving the bathroom, the Eggers kids were marched to the kitchen, where they were put to work helping to prepare breakfast and then cleaning up the dishes when it was done.

  Following all the work, Tobias and Charlotte were escorted to Severe Hall and to the classroom of Professor Himzakity. The classroom seemed somber. There were two hanging plants in the corners, and they appeared to have given up on life—their leafy branches hung like loose limbs spilling hopelessly from their pots. The room itself showed respect to the depressed plants by keeping quiet. It also helped that the walls were covered with a thick fabric that muffled noise.

  Professor Himzakity was extremely thin. He was much like a walking stick in a tweed jacket. He also had a little nose and narrow feet to complete his all-over sliver of a look. He was a friendly man, but as obvious as his kind side was, it was equally clear that just below his thin skin there was a side of him people shouldn’t mess with.

  Like all adults at Witherwood, he too seemed to be hiding something.

  Tobias and Charlotte sat down in two front desks. A dark-skinned student with green eyes and a bald head sitting next to Tobias spoke up.

  “I’m called Archie.”

  “Quiet,” Professor Himzakity said sternly.

  “I’m called quiet?” Archie asked, confused.

  “No questions,” the professor insisted. “I should be the only one speaking.”

  Archie kept quiet as everyone listened to the professor give his weekly lesson about how important Witherwood was and how even the best of children need reform. He had a small projector with a slide presentation to go along with what he was saying. He flashed a picture of Witherwood on the wall.

  “Here is the front of the school. Built from stone taken from a quarry fifty miles away. What a fine-looking institution,” he said. “Wouldn’t you agree?”

  Everyone nodded.

&nb
sp; “Look at the beautiful arched windows and the magnificent copper overhang above the front doors. Can anyone tell me where copper comes from?”

  Nobody said anything.

  “I guess we’ll never know,” Professor Himzakity said, having asked the question because he himself didn’t know.

  He clicked a button, and a new picture was projected on the wall. It was an image of the circular cobblestone drive in front of the school with the worn-down statue of a man sitting on a log in the middle.

  “Once you come through the iron gate, you will arrive at this drive. Interesting, that rhymes.” He stopped talking to write the surprise rhyme down. “The statue in the middle of the drive is of a man whose name isn’t important, so don’t think about it.”

  Everyone’s brains were so mucked up there was no need for Himzakity to worry about students thinking. He clicked a button again and a new image flashed on the wall. It was a picture of Witherwood shot from above. The school looked like a giant rectangle with a massive courtyard filling the middle of it.

  “This photo was taken from a blimp. You can see that Witherwood is three stories on all four sides and is made up of four connecting halls.”

  The students all smiled. They’d heard this exact same lesson many times before. It wasn’t the first time Professor Himzakity had asked if they knew where copper came from or mentioned the blimp. The teachers at Witherwood seemed more interested in filling time than ever really teaching or reforming anything.

  “The four halls are East Hall, which is the front of the school, Weary Hall, which is the back and the most western. Which is why it is called Weary.”

  Two students clapped.

  “Never Hall is the north building, and Severe is the south building.”

  He clicked, and a new picture appeared. It was a picture of the mesa taken from a long distance. The mesa was standing alone in the desert like a large finger. Its red cliff sides were capped off by a bit of green on top.

  “This is the mesa Witherwood sits on. It is a special place,” Himzakity insisted. “You are lucky to be here, and lucky to have the protection we provide. As you know, there are animals that guard this place at night. They are of no concern during the day, but because we care about you, at night the doors are all chained shut. The animals don’t like music. So we go the extra mile to keep things safe by having staff members sing while patrolling the halls. Any questions? There shouldn’t be.”

  The classroom was half filled with kids all dressed in their school uniforms and eager to be obedient by not questioning.

  “Now, does anyone know the meaning of the word reform?”

  “To be given a purpose?” a short boy answered.

  “Exactly,” Himzakity said, smiling. “Exactly.”

  As a treat at lunchtime, all the students were taken out into the courtyard gardens to eat their food in the fresh air. The gardens were larger than six football fields and stuffed with trees and plants. They were the most beautiful part of the school, filled with plenty of ornate benches and patches of lush grass. There was also a fountain with running water.

  Most of Professor Himzakity’s students sat on the benches and on bits of grass listening to the fountain and eating the food the cafeteria provided them—sandwiches, carrots, and, of course, an endless supply of chocolate pudding. Most of the other classes were out in the gardens as well.

  Tobias sat by his sister and Archie on a long metal bench and worked on eating his lunch. Archie finished his well before the other two.

  “Are you going to eat all your food?” Archie asked.

  “I think so,” Tobias said.

  “Fine, but you really shouldn’t think,” Archie replied. “There are some here who have gotten into big trouble by thinking.”

  “We don’t think,” Charlotte assured him.

  “Do you remember when we were last out here?” Archie asked. “It was Student Morale Day. There was a parade and food. You were really interested in what I was thinking about then.”

  Tobias looked at Archie and shrugged. “I guess I’m no longer interested.”

  “Well, things change,” Archie said. “I can’t remember either.”

  Archie stood up, dusted his hands on his pants, and then walked sideways, as if he were dizzy, toward another group of kids.

  “He’s funny,” Charlotte said.

  Shrugging, Tobias picked up his cup of water. As he brought it toward his lips, his hands began to shake and the water in the cup sloshed into his face. Students nearby began to holler.

  “The ground’s moving!” Charlotte screamed.

  She was right: the mesa Witherwood was sitting on seemed to be trembling and shaking, as if it were trying to balance on a rubber stick. Trees were vibrating, and orderlies and students were falling to the ground, having lost their balance.

  Orrin stumbled by, yelling something about a mesa-quake.

  Tobias dropped his cup and instinctively grabbed his sister and held her safely on the bench. Animals hidden in the trees and bushes screeched and hollered as everything tumbled. It felt and sounded like a nightmare that had come to life.

  When the shaking finally stopped, Tobias let go of his sister. Students were now crying and picking themselves up off the ground.

  “Everyone calm down,” Ms. Gulp said through a bullhorn. “There’s no cause for a charm. It was just a little tremor! Perfectly normal. Stop crying! These things crappen.”

  Before Tobias could get his head to stop shaking, another new set of screams shot down from overhead. Everyone looked up to see a massive red animal streaking across the sky. It circled back around and dove into the courtyard. In less time than it took to blink, the animal reached out its talons and picked up a boy by the shoulders. The boy was screaming as the giant flying beast lifted him into the air and out of sight. People were tempted to just stare in disbelief, but the screams of more flying animals scared that temptation right out of them.

  Every student dropped what they were doing and ran for cover. The crowd noises were much louder than those of the beasts.

  Another animal tried to grab a small boy with its talons, but an orderly threw a lunch tray at the dragonlike bird and beaned it in one of its big dark eyes. The animal missed the boy and slammed into the ground. Dirt burst up as rocks and leaves shot in all directions.

  Tobias stood fixated and frozen. His body trembled as his eyes and brain tried to properly take in what he was seeing. The creature on the ground had long feathery wings and a furry body that resembled a giant ferret. Its face was flat with a wide beak. The animal stood up and shook its head while another creature streaked across the sky above.

  “Run!” Professor Himzakity yelled. “Everyone inside!”

  Tobias grabbed his sister’s hand and raced toward Weary Hall. An orderly ran by, carrying a long tranquilizer gun. He was loading the weapon with a green feathery dart as he hollered to another staff member.

  “Stop the Protectors!”

  Tobias could see Archie in the distance, running with a huge armful of food he had picked up when others had thrown theirs down. Tobias opened his mouth to yell, but before he could say anything, a wad of blue feathers and limbs swooped into the courtyard and picked up Archie. The beast lifted him as if their overweight friend weighed nothing. Archie dropped all the food he was carrying and screamed.

  Tobias stopped running and bent down to pick up rocks off the ground. He instinctively threw them at the creature, but it was no use. The animal flew off too quickly and Tobias’s rocks were falling and hitting other students in the garden.

  Charlotte just stood there staring into the sky as Archie was taken away. The air around her was filled with noise as students ran like unorganized ants in all directions with no idea of what to do.

  “Move!” Orrin shouted as he directed the heavy flow of human traffic with his arms. “Get indoors. We can’t afford to lose any of you!”

  Charlotte ran and Tobias tried to keep up with her. Overhead, other animals were
hissing as their shadows raced over the fleeing students. The Eggers kids reached Weary Hall and followed the trail of other people into the building. As an alarm continued to ring, a voice came on over the speakers barking out orders.

  “ALL STUDENTS TO THEIR ROOMS! ALL STUDENTS TO THEIR ROOMS. YOU WILL STAY PUT UNTIL FURTHER INSTRUCTION. ALL STUDENTS TO THEIR ROOMS. ANYONE CAUGHT IN THE GARDENS OR HALLS WILL BE PUNISHED!”

  Tobias and Charlotte split off from those they were following and ran down Weary Hall back to their room. They were the only students in Weary, so they were now running alone. The carpeted halls made their movement sound less frantic than it was.

  They reached the seventh door and went inside.

  “What’s happening?” Charlotte asked, her back to the closed door and her muddled brain trying to process what she had just seen. “Is Archie going to be okay?”

  It’s hard to be properly worried when you have so little control over your own thoughts and feelings. If you remember, Marvin Withers’s voice has the ability to make those who hear it do as he wishes. He can make adults bend to his will and children remain docile simply by talking at them. Well, he had talked at Tobias and Charlotte for a long time. Because of that, they thought they were lucky to be there. They had no memory of their father, who had dropped them off, or of their mother, who had died a while back. They knew they were supposed to obey, and they believed they were quite fortunate to be at Witherwood.

  It’s sad what some people believe.

  The two siblings sat down on their cots. They couldn’t see out the boarded window, but they stared at it as if they could. Even if the boards were down, it wouldn’t have been a very nice view. There was screaming and screeching outside as Witherwood experienced its first attack by the very things that were supposed to protect it.

  The school was in a state of unrest.

  Students were racing to their rooms, and the staff was trying to restore order and pretending like everything was okay. It was a messy time, but it was also the perfect distraction for Tobias and Charlotte to attempt an escape.

  “What should we do?” Tobias asked as he sat on the edge of his cot.