In the corridor outside the storeroom, Jessie stopped and looked at Sofie. “What did you see in there?”
“Nothing. I mean nothing.” Sofie replied seriously. “It wasn’t just dark, it was like looking down a deep hole... and…”
“And what?”
“It was just... you know when you open a hot oven door? When you get a blast of heat in your face? It felt like that, except it wasn’t heat... it felt, well, rotten... evil. It was horrible.” Sofie shuddered recalling the event. “So what happened to you?”
“It was like being inside that oven.”
“I think we need to tell our dads. They need to know.” Sofie decided.
“Well… I don’t know.” Jessie said slowly. “It’s kind of like my being able to look at circuit boards. You know the color thing. I never told anybody cause, well, nobody would believe me.”
“I believe you… so you think they wouldn’t believe us?” the disappointment in her voice hit Jessie hard.
“They would listen... and maybe even say they believe us. But what would they do about it?” Jessie looked down.
“I guess you’re right. Anyway, we’d have to explain why we were there in the first place.” Sofie grudgingly agreed.
After a pause Jessie hesitantly said. “I saw Eugene pick something up from that room when he thought we weren’t looking.” Her suspicion of him showed in her voice. “He shoved it in his shirt. It looked like a black pointy stick or something.”
“Do you think he had something to do with... that?”
“There’s something about Eugene… I just don’t trust him.”
“I’m not convinced. I can’t believe he could do something like that.” Sofie defended. “I don’t think he’s smart enough... and he sure isn’t evil.”
Jessie considered for a moment before reluctantly nodding in agreement. “You’ve got a point. He sure isn’t smart enough.”
“Oh, you know when Olivia was talking with you I went in there to look for the gravity inductor. All I found was this.” Sofie handed Jessie a folded sheet of paper.
“What does ‘8x, -3y, 3z’ mean?” She asked reading the paper with Jessie.
“It’s coordinates.” Jessie said. “Dad used to help me with algebra by giving me x-y-z coordinates… to find things. Like a scavenger hunt.” She was too embarrassed to say he did it because she was flunking algebra. “But they won’t do us any good without a point of origin, units and direction.” She flipped the paper over looking for some clue. “Was there anything else?”
“I didn’t see anything. That room was totally empty except for a box on a shelf. I found this in it.” Sofie thought a second. “The box was blue… and…”
“and what?”
“The word ‘WELCOME’ was written on the top of it. I remember thinking it was kind of strange.”
“It’s not an origin, unit, or direction.” Jessie dismissed.
“Wait. You know the new front entrance they just finished remodeling? Isn’t there a big carved WELCOME sign there?” Sofie looked at Jessie. “Do you think that might be the origin?”
Jessie shook her head. “We still need units and directions... you know like which direction x and y points. We know z is up and down.”
“Maybe what we need to know is in the lobby.” Sofie suggested.
Jessie grinned as color returned to her face. “Let’s go.”
They ran through the maze of corridors of the oddly eclectic building on their way to the front lobby. The building had a long history. Years past, it began as a grain mill built next to a pond. It was abandoned as more modern flour mills put it out of business. Over the next few decades it became a general store, an inn and then a school where its first addition was built. In the heart of the depression, a new school in town left this building abandoned, yet again. It wasn’t until after the economy improved that its final inhabitant moved in, a textile mill. During that time there were multiple renovations and additions as the business prospered. But a new automated textile plant near town put it out of business, leaving it empty for the last time. There it remained for the last 10 years until Jessie’s dad discovered it. He fell in love with it… and it was now home of their new anti-gravity business, ‘GraviTych’.
“What brings you girls up here?” Bea Sanders, a middle aged receptionist looked up from her book. She didn’t get many visitors.
“Oh… a scavenger hunt.” Sofie answered rushing past her to the lobby’s center where they turned in circles. The newly remodeled lobby was in the buildings southeast corner. It was once the textile mill’s receiving dock. Its large receiving doors were replaced with floor to ceiling glass panels and entrance doors. Bea sat behind an enormous wooden reception desk set against the back wall, made from those old doors. A modern couch and chairs surrounded a heavy coffee table near the front.
“There’s the sign.” Sofie pointed to a carved wooden plaque floating behind the couch. Jessie jumped on the couch to examine it closer.
Bea looked over her reading glasses. “Can I help you with anything?”
“Did my dad leave anything? Like a sheet of paper or something?” Jessie asked.
Bea knew everything that went on in the company... specializing in gossip. “No… nothing.” She answered as she went back to her reading concluding there was nothing of interest, leaving the kids free to explore.
“I don’t know about you, but these carvings give me the creeps.” Jessie hopped down from the couch and sat looking up at the heads of animals and mythical creatures carved into the beams. She shuddered looking at them, just like she did with Eugene’s bug.
“That’s Eugene’s work.” Sofie stood staring at the carvings stretching to the ceiling 3 stories above. Even the cross beams were carved... with flying creatures. “I heard he did all this all in a day.”
“Ugh. It still creeps me out. They look like sick totem poles.” It seemed to Jessie that everything Eugene did creeped her out.
Sofie sat next to Jessie and surveyed the lobby until her eyes rested on 4 large easels across from them. Jessie followed her stare and saw that the easels held artist’s renderings of the buildings remodeling project along with 3 sets of floor plan drawings; one for each floor of the oddly architected structure. They stumbled over each other trying to be the first to reach them.
“Look!” Sofie pointed to the floor numbers printed on each drawing.
“Bingo!” Jessie pointed to the ‘You are here’ marker on the first floors plan.
“Let’s see… 8x, -3y, 3z, we have ‘z’ and an origin.” Sofie said thoughtfully. “What about ‘x’ and ‘y’?”
“And we have our directions.” Jessie pointed to a compass symbol on the artist’s rendering that lined up perfectly with the buildings dimensions. “If we start in the lobby and head back, in the minus direction… hmmm, I don’t see how -3 would match up with anything.” She said tracing her finger on the floor plan.
“Hold on a sec.” Sofie said staring at the plans over Jessie’s shoulder. She had to stand on her tiptoes to do that; even with Jessie stooped over. “You’re looking at the floor plan for the first floor. 3z is the third floor.” Sofie pointed to the easel farthest to their right.
“Jeez, what was I thinking?” Jessie shook her head. “Look… 3 hallways… that matches the -3y”
“We go to the third floor to the back hallway.” Sofie traced her finger along the map. “Then we go right…. for 8x…. 8 what.”
“8 rooms” Jessie counted out the offices along the hallway. “The eighth office is the corner office.” She pointed to a large office on the northwest corner of the textile mill addition.
“Isn’t that your dad’s new office?” Sofie whispered not wanting Bea to overhear.
Jessie nodded. “I don’t think they moved in yet.” The third floor was still being renovated. Their dads had reserved the prime third floor corner offices overlooking the old mill pond behind the building.