The Beast 2

  Every bone in my body ached. I couldn’t see. I was too weak to scream.

  With what remained of my strength, I fell on the blue lever and struggled to pull it back up.

  “Pull it, James! Pull it!” Ashley croaked.

  “I can’t!” I croaked back. “I can’t!”

  16

  The lever was stuck.

  I couldn’t budge it.

  I opened my mouth and flapped my gums at Ashley, “Help me pull!”

  Her knobby old head trembled, and she smacked her lips.

  “Help me pull it!” I pleaded.

  Ashley lowered her wrinkled, spotted hands over mine.

  “Pull! Pull!” I gasped.

  Finally the lever began to edge back up. A fraction of an inch at a time.

  The needles in the dials stopped twitching.

  The deafening roar of the machine died down to a faint hum.

  I glanced over at my cousin. With a surge of relief I saw that she was getting younger.

  Her wrinkled skin grew smooth and rosy pink, and her teeth popped back into her head.

  Her hair returned to silken, shiny blond.

  Her hands grew plump and strong-looking.

  While all this was happening, I could feel my own spine growing stronger and straighter. My skin tightened on my bones. It was great to feel the teeth in my head once again.

  Our hands fell away from the lever.

  “Whew!”

  “You’re not kidding!”

  I flopped back against the velvet cushions, exhausted.

  “Wow. That was close.” Ashley panted. “Oh, James, I don’t think I ever want to get old.”

  “Me, neither,” I agreed. Then I grinned at her. “You should have seen how gross you looked!” I teased.

  “Me?” She gave an outraged squeal.

  “You looked like a shriveled-up old raisin!”

  “If I was a raisin, James, you were a prune!”

  “Fine,” I said. “We both looked pretty gross. Touch that blue lever again and I’ll break all ten of your fingers.”

  “Okay,” she agreed. “I’ll just try turning this big wheel here, instead.”

  Before I could stop her, Ashley had reached up and spun the heavy wheel above our heads.

  The machine began to rumble.

  We stared at each other. Something was definitely happening.

  The machine began to vibrate. The light dimmed from yellow-green to deep blood red.

  “Whoa!” I braced myself.

  “What’s happening, James?” Ashley cried out.

  The red light began to blink and the vibrations shook us. The machine was shuddering and rumbling.

  “Maybe it’s working!” I called out over the roar of the machine.

  “1990s, here we come!” Ashley exclaimed, pumping her fist in the air in triumph!

  17

  After a few seconds the machine fell silent and still. The lights brightened to green.

  Where had the machine taken us? I wondered.

  My heart beat wildly. Maybe it had worked. Maybe we were back in our time.

  I reached over and unlatched the door.

  But someone else swung the door open before I got a chance.

  Captain Time.

  He stood outside the capsule, wearing a long black satin robe and velvet slippers. His black hair was messy from sleep. But he looked wide awake now.

  And angry.

  He slapped the heavy wooden club into the palm of his hand.

  Slap. Slap. Slap.

  “Come out of there, you two,” he said through gritted teeth.

  Ashley and I exchanged looks of pure dread. She gave my hand a quick squeeze.

  We both knew we were in major trouble.

  We stood before the Captain with our heads lowered. Too bad fear doesn’t send you hurtling through time. My fear could have carried me clear into the next century!

  “Which one of you turned that wheel?” Captain Time demanded.

  After a brief nervous silence Ashley piped up, “I did, Captain. Sir,” she added meekly.

  He chuckled softly. “Thank you, Princess. That wheel sets off the alarm. And the alarm woke me. And here I am. And here you are. What have you to say for yourselves?”

  “Sorry?” I tried timidly.

  “Not good enough!” he bellowed.

  I jumped half a foot.

  “I am not happy,” Captain Time said. “Not happy at all.”

  What did that mean?

  Once again I pictured the boy in the fish tank. I saw myself swimming beside him.

  “We’re really, really, sorry!” I insisted.

  “Are you really?” He frowned at me. “Well, I’ll forgive you this time.”

  I practically crumpled to the floor. I was so relieved!

  No fish tank. Ashley and I were lucky.

  This time.

  “Now,” he announced as he pulled his gold watch out of the pocket of his robe, “it’s time to hit the hay. And I do mean hay.”

  Ashley and I turned away reluctantly from the time machine.

  “Listen to me,” he told us as he led us back to our little room behind the stage. “I’m not a bad man. I don’t want you to be unhappy. Believe me, I wish I could send you both home. I really do.”

  I wasn’t sure I believed him.

  But it wasn’t like I had any choice.

  We trudged down the long hallway. Gas lamps burned eerily in brackets high on the walls, lighting our way back to our prison.

  With every step my heart sank deeper in my chest.

  “If you keep performing the show and earning me lots of money,” he went on, “I can continue my work. Who knows? Maybe some day I’ll figure out how to send you back to your own time.”

  We paused at the door of our room.

  “Some day?” Ashley repeated.

  The Captain gave a careless heave of his shoulders. “It might take a few years. Now, in you go,” he ordered, and slammed the door behind us.

  “Some day,” Ashley muttered as she tried to make herself a comfortable nest in the straw. “By then our parents will have given up looking for us. Oh, wow. This is terrible. This is worse than being dead.”

  I shivered miserably. In the early morning hours the room had grown chilly.

  As I pulled some straw over my cold and aching bones, I had to agree with her. What a mess. . . .

  Just as I was drifting off into a troubled sleep, I felt someone jab me sharply on the shoulder.

  I opened my eyes and sat up with a start. I looked around me. No one there. No one but other kids sleeping in the straw.

  But someone had been here a moment ago. I knew it. Because someone had left something behind.

  It was lying on the straw pillow I had been sleeping on.

  A fish.

  A dead fish.

  I looked at it in horror.

  I knew it was a message. A message from Captain Time.

  A warning telling me I was going to end up like that fish.

  Dead.

  18

  The next morning Ashley and I escaped.

  “Hurry up, James!”

  I grabbed the ledge of the high window and hoisted myself up. Then I reached down and dragged my cousin after me.

  She slithered over the sill in her silvery suit.

  We landed with a thud in an alley outside the carnival building.

  I took a deep breath of fresh air and blinked in the sunshine. It was midmorning and we were between performances. Ashley had spied the window on our way to breakfast that morning.

  We sneaked away after the last show. Now we had fifteen minutes until the next show. We had to get away before they noticed we were missing.

  Ashley took off down the alley.

  I ran after her and blocked her path. “Wait a minute. You said you had a plan?”

  She batted her long eyelashes at me. “Of course I have a plan, James. Don’t I always have a plan? The plan is to find The Beast.”
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  “That’s your plan?” I asked.

  “Not much of a plan, is it?” she admitted.

  “Well, we found it last year,” she added.

  I nodded. She was right. Last summer, after searching all over Firelight Park, we had finally come upon The Beast.

  The Beast had saved us, whisking us away just in time.

  Maybe The Beast could save us again.

  “I don’t suppose you know where we might find it?” I asked her.

  She answered by pointing to the giant Ferris wheel towering over the rest of the park.

  “The Ferris wheel?” I repeated. “How will the Ferris wheel help us get back to the present?”

  She rolled her eyes. “James, we’ll ride the Ferris wheel.”

  “And the Ferris wheel will—what?” I demanded.

  She rolled her eyes. “The Ferris wheel will give us a view of the entire park. Maybe when we’re up high, we’ll see The Beast. That is, unless you have a better plan, James?”

  I shook my head gloomily. My stomach growled. I almost wished I’d eaten this morning’s breakfast swill. Almost.

  “It’s hard to think on an empty stomach,” I complained.

  I thought of my mother’s pot roast. Her spinach lasagna. Chocolate pie.

  “Let’s go,” I said. I grabbed Ashley and ran down the alleyway toward the boardwalk.

  We had never been in Firelight Park during the day. The torches standing on top of the poles were out. The sun shone down out of a pale blue, cloudless sky.

  It was a great day to visit an amusement park. The boardwalk was packed with people strolling along to the music of an old-fashioned organ.

  At first we strolled, too, trying to blend in. It wasn’t easy.

  The women wore flowered dresses down to their ankles. The men wore suit jackets. I’d forgotten that in the old days people dressed up to go to an amusement park.

  Was there any such thing as casual clothes?

  A group of kids passed us. They wore long, baggy shorts that fell to below their knees, and baggy shirts. Instead of sneakers they wore heavy brown wooden shoes.

  “Look!” one of them shouted out, pointing at us. “Freaks from the future!”

  The others laughed. Ashley and I picked up our pace. Maybe if we slipped through the crowd like a couple of silver streaks, no one would notice us.

  We ran, losing the kids in the crowd. We passed a building with a sign that said CRITTER CORRAL.

  It looked like a bunch of farm animals—pigs and cows and geese.

  We slowed to a fast walk as we passed a purple and gold tent. Oriental flute music floated out of it. A tall man in a turban stood outside the entrance to the tent. A spotted snake wrapped him from head to toe.

  “Step inside and see the asp that stung Cleopatra.”

  “Gross,” Ashley said, tugging on my arm. “Come on, James.”

  I’d never seen an asp before. And I wasn’t going to see one now. I didn’t have the two cents admission.

  We passed a row of carnival booths. Their red and white lights blinked even in the daylight. The brightly colored pennants flying from their rooftops snapped smartly in the breeze.

  There were beanbag tosses, pyramids of heavy wooden bottles to topple with big, soft balls. There were sitting ducks waiting to be picked off in shooting galleries. There were prizes, too. Rows of stuffed animals and Kew-pie dolls.

  It was amazing how little amusement parks had changed over the years.

  We passed a man throwing daggers at a woman spinning on a big wooden board.

  “Whoa!” I exclaimed as a knife just missed her face.

  We passed a dwarf in a purple tank shirt and striped trousers. He was lying on a bed of sharp nails. His muscular arms were folded across his chest. He looked perfectly comfortable lying there on about a thousand razor-sharp nails.

  He reached out as we ran by and grabbed Ashley’s ankle.

  “Hey, girlie,” he called out. “For a penny I’ll let you step on me.”

  Ashley stared down at him in disgust.

  “I don’t have a penny,” she told him.

  The dwarf grinned. “I’ll let you do it for free. Go ahead. It won’t hurt me. Step on my chest.”

  “No, thanks,” Ashley stammered, backing off.

  We ran on, the dwarfs mocking laughter ringing in our ears.

  Then we passed a food stand and I just couldn’t help myself. I stopped and stared up at the sign, my poor stomach gurgling like crazy.

  CONEY ISLAND DOGS, the sign said. FIT FOR A MILLIONAIRE.

  I peered behind the counter.

  A row of hot dogs sizzled on the grill. I remembered how delicious they had tasted. And they only cost three cents!

  I thought of the mason jar in the bottom drawer of my bureau, filled to the top with pennies I’d never even bothered to take to the bank to trade for bigger money.

  I thought of all the times I had dropped a penny and not bothered picking it up. That’s how little pennies meant to me.

  What I wouldn’t give now for three lousy cents.

  A woman pushing a toddler in a big wicker stroller stopped beside me to order three Coney Island Dogs.

  She hesitated when she saw me staring at her.

  “Make that four,” she called out to the grill man.

  “You poor kid!” she said with a sad shake of her head. “That dreadful Captain Time doesn’t take very good care of you kids. It’s a wonder the authorities aren’t all over him. Here, take it.”

  She thrust one of her hot dogs into my hand.

  I started sputtering thanks, but she waved me away.

  “Don’t thank me. Just run along before my husband catches us. He hates when I give to beggars.”

  I gave out with a sickly smile.

  First I’m a freak and now I’m a beggar.

  I was coming up in the world.

  I caught up with Ashley and showed her my prize. I tore it in two and gave her half.

  “James! You genius!” she declared as she blew on her half of the steaming hot dog.

  We gobbled the dog in seconds. By the time we were finished, we were standing at the foot of the Ferris wheel.

  We craned our necks, staring up at the many colored seats, swinging in the breeze. The wheel spun around like a giant wire pinwheel. It looked like fun.

  We jumped in line for the next ride, ignoring the stares of the people ahead of us.

  They obviously thought we had no business being there. We belonged in the carnival. We weren’t supposed to be having fun.

  We’re not having fun! I wanted to tell them.

  Our heads turned automatically. We were keeping a lookout for the blue-uniformed guards. Or worse, the Captain’s men in their black bowler hats.

  By this time Captain Time would have discovered we were gone. Maybe he had already sent out a patrol.

  We were both relieved when the wheel started loading for the next ride.

  Ashley nudged me. “James,” she whispered. “What will we do for tickets?”

  “Admission fee covers all rides,” I reminded her. She looked relieved.

  We climbed into a red seat and fastened the buckles on the brown straps. Then up we swung. The car rocked to and fro, and we moved farther up into the air.

  Higher and higher we rose up over the park. The breeze felt wonderful.

  I threw back my head and let the warm sun beat down on my face. I had been indoors so long, I was beginning to feel like a fungus! A fungus in a tacky silver suit.

  Ashley was enjoying herself, too. She shook her hair loose from the silvery cap and let it whip around in the wind.

  The Ferris wheel swung us up to the very top, and there we hung, suspended high above the park.

  “Oh, wow!” Ashley breathed. “Isn’t it awesome!”

  It was awesome.

  Beneath our dangling feet, the park stretched out in all directions.

  “Look!” I shouted to Ashley, pointing. “There’s the Shoot-the-Chu
te.”

  “Cool!” she exclaimed.

  There was the Tilt-a-Whirl, too. Even from way up there, I could hear the screams of its riders, rising and falling like a distant siren. Nearby, the pink and blue merry-go-round spun in the sunshine like a toy top.

  For the first time since we arrived, I felt a little hope. There had to be a way out of here, and we could find it.

  Then my eye fell on the big warehouse that housed the carnival. An artist had painted a giant portrait of Captain Time in his blue blazer and white hat on the roof. He was grinning and holding up a huge pocket watch.

  CAPTAIN TIME’S CHILDREN OF THE FUTURE was written out in fancy script across the bottom.

  Captain Time’s eyes were huge and black and seemed to be staring straight up at us.

  I shuddered.

  Ashley poked me hard in the ribs. “There it is, James!” she cried. “I see it! There’s The Beast! Now we can go home!”

  19

  “Where?” I cried excitedly.

  She pointed.

  Beyond the park’s high wooden fence lay a thick grove of trees.

  It looked so familiar.

  I stared harder at it.

  No doubt about it. On the other side of the fence there seemed to be some sort of wooden scaffolding jutting out of the trees.

  I remembered the last time we had slipped through a wooden fence to get to The Beast.

  And The Beast did run through a thick grove of trees.

  My heart began to beat faster.

  “Yes!” I cried happily. “There it is!”

  The car began to swing back toward the earth.

  “Quick, James!” Ashley cried excitedly. “Let’s memorize the way there from here.”

  Each time we swung around, I did my best to figure out a path. Bumper cars, a pond, a green-and-white striped tent with wild animals pictured on it.

  Finally we fell dizzily back to the earth for the last time. I was almost sorry to step off the Ferris wheel.

  As soon as our feet hit the ground, we were off and running through the crowds.

  Past the bumper cars.

  Past the pond where little kids dressed in fancy sailor outfits raced model sailboats.

  Down the narrow alley between the animal tent and a row of empty cages.