Chapter Twenty-Seven
Curious Happenings Upstairs
Neil glanced at Jack, and as he did so, his eyebrows shot up in surprise. He had just felt the floor tremble beneath his feet. It had been like a very minor aftershock, following an earthquake.
“Was that my imagination, or did you feel something just now?” he asked.
The bewildered expression on Jack’s face revealed that he had felt something. “I don’t think that was your imagination. Is… the building moving? What was that?”
They looked around, taking in the reactions of their fellow classmates. Many of the schoolchildren seemed to be oblivious as to anything strange that might be occurring, but several of them were also looking around, as if they too had felt something beneath the soles of their sneakers.
Neil lowered himself to one knee and placed a hand flat against the cool, tile floor. For a few seconds, all was calm. But after a moment, he felt his fingertips vibrate as another small aftershock rippled through the building.
“Uh-huh, just as I suspected. There’s definitely something weird going on here,” Neil reported. “Believe me, I know weirdness when I see it. Or, er… feel it, in this case.”
Jack knelt beside his friend and placed his hands upon the floor, gathering his own impressions. The pair of them narrowed their eyes in concentration. Over the constant sounds of murmuring, shuffling students, they thought they could faintly hear something – distant, yet disturbing – that made the hairs on the backs of their necks stand up.
“What do you suppose that might be?” asked Jack, straining to hear more closely.
“I don’t know,” Neil said. “Uh… it sounds a bit like Godzilla or King Kong, don’t you think?”
“Or maybe Jasper’s Mecha-Machine,” Jack suggested.
Neil and Jack had been on edge ever since Jasper had slinked away, and the sisters had departed to follow. They had anxiously been awaiting the return of their friends, but that hadn’t happened. Maria and Sara were still missing, and the boys were worried.
“Hey…” Neil said, as he peered around the museum and the milling, meandering students. “What happened to that guy who was leading this tour?”
“Hmm… Mr. Weatherbee, wasn’t it? The assistant curator?” asked Jack.
“Yeah, he was at the front, but he just sort of blends into everything… and now, I don’t even see him. Who’s leading the field trip?”
Their eyes fell upon Ms. Waffler, who was currently studying her colorful shoes, as if she had perhaps felt the strange vibrations, as well. She placed her hands upon her belly, and after a moment’s consideration, she apparently decided to chalk it up to nothing more than a bit of indigestion.
“Must have been that bean burrito I ate,” the teacher proclaimed. And with that dismissal, she resumed her musical humming, wandering about from exhibit to exhibit with an entranced look upon her face.
Neil and Jack adored Ms. Waffler just as much as Maria and Sara did, but they knew that she was not the best person to be left in charge when it came to emergencies. And the Beans could smell an impending crisis. The place was brimming with the possibility of carnage, they felt.
There were too many strange occurrences for it to be coincidence. Jasper’s odd behavior, plus the disappearance of both curators… and now, this – the vibrations that seemed to be emanating from beneath the museum, coupled with the distorted, muffled bellowing.
Oh, yes, the Beans were sure… something weird was happening.
Neil swiveled his head about to see if they were being observed, but there was so much commotion, nobody was paying them any attention at all. He quickly walked back toward the entrance of the museum, with Jack keeping pace beside him.
Near the front doors of the museum, there was a payphone tucked away in a dimly lit alcove, and Neil approached it. He and Jack squeezed next to one another and quickly read the instructions for operating this rarely seen contraption.
At first, they feared the payphone might actually be a historical artifact that was part of the museum’s collection, but it fortunately proved to be in working order. Between the two of them, they were able to scrounge up enough change from their pockets to place a call.
Neil lifted the receiver as Jack placed coins into the phone, which eagerly gobbled them up. He then quickly punched in a series of digits – the number being for his father’s office, located within the Hollow Oak Sneaker Factory.
What followed was a conversation in which Neil’s dad (known as Big Bob Bandernath, or Coach) seemed rather befuddled as to why his son was calling from a payphone during the middle of a field trip. Neil ran down the reasons for his concerns and suspicions, but Coach still seemed doubtful.
“Is Ms. Waffler there? I’m sure everything’s perfectly under control,” Coach assured his son.
Neil held the receiver of the phone at an angle, so that he and Jack could both hear the conversation, and the two of them exchanged an exasperated look. Ms. Waffler had many exemplary traits, but keeping things under control during a Jasper-sized crisis was not one of them. This was the galoot who had co-founded the Black Hats and designed the nefarious Mecha-Machine, after all.
“Dad, I’m telling you,” Neil pleaded. “Something’s seriously out of whack here!”
“And you say that the floor’s trembling, do you?” Coach asked. “I don’t doubt you, Neil, I just think it’s nothing to be worried about. Why, they’re always conducting some manner of restoration there in downtown Portsmouth. It’s probably just some jackhammers that are being put to use nearby.”
Neil looked worriedly at Jack. He was concerned that they might not get the help they were seeking. He had to convince Coach!
“Listen, Dad, Jasper’s into something real deep here. I can’t tell you what exactly, because I’m not entirely sure. But he’s up to no good! You know how he is with those dastardly deeds of his. Remember what he did at the factory?”
“Jasper’s meddling again, is he?” Coach asked.
His voice had acquired a tone of interest, and Neil could almost imagine his father leaning forward in his office chair, pressing the phone to his ear in concentration. Jasper had recently gotten into heaps of mischief, much of which had resulted in a devastating impact on Coach, the sneaker factory, and the entire town of Hollow Oak. The surly janitor had never been a crowd pleaser, but recently, he had become a first rate scoundrel, and Coach was on high alert against his shenanigans.
“I think he’s totally gone out of his gourd this time, and there’s no telling what he might do. Sara and Maria went off after him, and they never came back, and we’re starting to get really worried. Both of the museum officials have disappeared, and… and I’ve just got a bad feeling about this, Dad. Look, I think we need help. I think we need Nibbler!”
“Nibbler?” Coach asked with incredulity and confusion. “Nibbler? I thought you were calling to ask me for help!”
“Oh, um… yeah! We are, Dad!” Neil sputtered. “We need your help, too! But, uh… if you could see to it that Nibbler finds his way here, that would be really great. I’ve got a feeling that terrific nose of his might come in handy.”
“You know, if I had a nickel for every time that crazed beast ate one of my shoes or socks or pairs of glasses, I would be a wealthy man by now!” Coach lamented. “But you may be right… that dog’s got one heck of a reliable snout, I’ll grant you that.”
“So… can you bring him?”
“Of course. Why, he’s chewing on one of my shoes right now!”
“He is?”
“Yes, I’ve been bringing him to work with me the past couple of days,” Coach explained. “He seems to enjoy it much more than staying at home by himself, and he has a never-ending supply of things to chew on here at the sneaker factory. It’s sort of like a ‘Nibbler Paradise’, if you will. He’s curled up under my desk at the moment, trying to work the shoe from my foot.”
“That’s great, Dad. Can you bring him as soon as possible?”
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“Sure, sure… we can’t have Jasper causing chaos in Portsmouth, tarnishing the good name of Hollow Oak. And I’ll have to bring Chief Fresco, of course. We’ll need him to come along, if his daughters might be in trouble. Plus, we can get there in record time, with that fancy car of his.”
“So, it’s settled then! Oh, and Dad…” Neil said, as he felt the floor tremble beneath his feet, more violently than before. “Not to be too pushy or anything… but can you hurry?”