During musical chairs, Myrtle’s remarkable speed made her unbeatable, even when she wasn’t particularly trying. At pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey, the blindfold was useless against Smitty’s X-ray vision and he went on to win every single time. Lily reveled in a cat-and-mouse game that consisted of releasing her balloon into the air and teasing it with thoughts of freedom before telekinetically drawing it back down to her hand. Kimber managed to “toast” all of the marshmallows on the refreshment table until the smoke set off a fire sprinkler and put an end to her covert s’mores operation. Then Daisy’s underhand toss during the dodgeball game shattered a massive window with such force that glass detonated outward like a bomb, and the kids were thereafter restricted to a game of Twister, which was thought to be far less dangerous and unlikely to result in the sudden death of a student, teacher, innocent bystander, or combination thereof.
As usual, Piper’s joy was marred. During the Twister game, Conrad disqualified Piper by kneeing her in the stomach and pushing her off of the mat when no one else was looking.
“Hey, that’s cheating!” Piper held her stomach, winded.
“So what if it is? What are you going to do about it?”
“I’m . . . I’ll . . .” Piper stammered, splitting at the seams from the effort it took to restrain herself. No matter which way she turned, she couldn’t get away from his nastiness and her patience was wearing thinner than thin. “I’ll—” Piper touched her wood bird, which instantly made her remember to take a deep breath and count to ten.
“Just like I thought. You’ll do nothing.” Conrad looked ready to explode.
Violet grabbed Piper by the arm and pulled her away from Conrad. “Piper, c’mon. Dr. Hellion’s just brought Bella. She’s over here.” Violet pointed to where Bella was surrounded by the others, and Piper was startled to see that Bella looked nothing like she remembered. For starters, her long, golden hair had been cut short and her bright yellow uniform had been exchanged for a pair of drab jeans and a gray jersey. She also looked very tired.
“We’ll miss you, Bella,” Lily said with genuine affection. It was impossible not to like Bella.
“Will you write?”
“What are you going to color up first?”
“Hi, Bella.” Piper squeezed through the group to get closer. “Remember me? Piper.”
Bella took a step away and smiled, unsure.
“C’mon, Bella. Just do one more rainbow,” Lily begged.
“Yeah, and make it a big one with every color you got.”
Bella looked between the faces in confusion. “I don’t understand.”
“You know, Bella, your colors!” Smitty persisted.
“Awww, just once more.”
Piper could tell that Bella was genuinely flustered. Whatever damage Conrad had done to Bella, it was clear that she hadn’t completely recovered from it. Yet one more reason that Piper could add to her already long list of why Conrad was trouble and needed to be avoided at all costs.
“Um, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Bella stammered, causing Dr. Hellion to come protectively to her side.
“I’m sorry, but it’s time for Bella to leave now. Her parents are expecting her.” Dr. Hellion eased Bella away from the throng and toward the elevator.
“Does Bella seem right to you?” Piper whispered to Violet. “You think she’s just fooling about her colors ’cause Dr. Hellion’s here?”
Violet shrugged.
“She didn’t smile once. You see that? Not once. When I first saw her, she wasn’t able to last more than a minute without bursting into a smile that’d light up the sky. It’s like she’s not the same person anymore.”
As Dr. Hellion led Bella onto the elevator, Piper pushed forward once again with a last-ditch effort at reaching her. Since Bella’s absence, Jasper had taken care of Princess Madrigal, and almost overnight new blossoms had appeared, and even the stalk that had been severed had regrown. Amazed at the plant’s miraculous recovery, the kids had anticipated Bella’s joy at seeing how it was thriving.
“Hey, Bella, if you want I can go fetch Princess Madrigal for you,” Piper offered, hopefully. “She’s got a new shoot pushing up and you can show her off to your folks.”
“Princess Madrigal?” Something passed behind Bella’s eyes and then she flushed. “No. No, thank you. You can take care of her for me.”
Piper gasped. Bella didn’t want to see her flower??? “But—”
“Elevator, commence,” Dr. Hellion commanded.
“Bye, Bella!”
“Don’t forget about us!”
“Come back and see us soon.”
Bella raised her hand to wave but the doors of the elevator closed before she was able to complete the gesture. Rushing around to the other side of the elevator, the kids were able to see Bella through the glass as she went up, up, up, and finally disappeared to the surface above them. It was the last any of them would ever see of Miss Bella Lovely.
“Sure wish I got to see my parents.”
“Must be nice to go home.”
“Alright then, we’ve got more cake here that needs eating. Back to the party.” Nurse Tolle guided Lily and Jasper back to the refreshment tables.
After a respectful moment the rest of the kids returned to their games; Kimber found another marshmallow to covertly toast, and Nalen and Ahmed reverted to beating each other over the head with balloons. Only Piper remained with her eyes looking upward, her thoughts consuming her. Bella didn’t want Princess Madrigal? She loved that plant. It didn’t make sense that she would leave it behind.
Piper’s deep confusion was so acute that she let her guard down and became oblivious to the people and events around her. Conrad, who had been carefully observing Piper, realized that this moment was exactly the opportunity he’d been waiting for. Piper’s distracted confusion made her into a sitting duck, which was just what he needed to complete his plan!
With silent stealth, Conrad crept forward, then quickly darted around to Piper’s side. Oblivious, Piper’s gaze remained upward. Positioning himself just so, Conrad prepared himself mentally and physically and then struck like a cobra. He lashed out and grabbed at Piper’s chest.
“Ahhhh,” Piper yelped, harshly jolted back to reality. Instinctively, she jumped away, but Conrad moved faster. With a violent tug, Conrad broke the ribbon around Piper’s neck and wrenched her wood bird free.
It felt to Piper as though Conrad had ripped out her very heart. Her precious wood bird, no larger than a golf ball, with a monetary value no greater than a dollar fifty to Conrad and all the world, had a meaning and resonance held deep in the very fiber of her DNA. That little piece of wood had been nourished by the soil of her home, where her kith and kin patiently awaited her return. It was a physical piece of her pa’s love, a tiny sliver of the safety, love, and belonging without which she was suddenly cut adrift with no link to her past or key to her future. She needed it like she needed oxygen.
“This is a piece of garbage!” Conrad sneered, twirling the bird out of Piper’s reach. “Your father can’t carve worth crap!”
“You give that back RIGHT NOW, Conrad, or I swear by the stars that I’ll—” Piper’s face was red with fury and her breath was coming in gasps.
“You keep saying that, fly girl, but you don’t do anything. Do you know why? Because you can’t. You’re useless!” Swinging it around above his head, Conrad pumped his arm, causing the bird to move faster and faster until it became a blur in all of the whirling.
“Conrad! Stop that!!” Piper tried to command Conrad, but her voice sounded more like she was begging him, which, of course, was the truth.
Impervious to Piper’s pleas, Conrad bided his time until all eyes were on the bird, and then he flung it at the waste disposal chute. His aim could not have been more accurate—the tiny bird neatly flew through the air. Before Piper’s horror-filled eyes, it was swallowed whole, disappearing forever into the mouth of the filthy pit.
And that was Pip
er’s breaking point.
CHAPTER TWELVE
“AHHHHHH!!” A furious scream rang out, raising the small hairs on the back of the neck of anyone who had the ears to hear it.
Piper catapulted herself at Conrad. Unprepared for the ferocity of Piper’s attack, Conrad crumpled and the two fell in a tangled, wrestling, furious heap on the floor.
“Fight!” Nalen gleefully announced (or maybe it was Ahmed).
“Fight!” repeated Ahmed (or maybe Nalen).
Arms, legs, teeth, and hair went flying.
It took Nurse Tolle and Professor Mumbleby and the attending agent on duty, not to mention all of their considerable strength and tactical effort, to separate the two, and even when she was firmly restrained by the agent’s grasp, Piper was still swinging.
“I want my bird! Get it back!”
“McCloud! Harrington!” Nurse Tolle panted between furious and terrified gasps. “Dr. Hellion’s office. NOW!”
During the elevator ride to the fourth floor, Piper’s eyes threw daggers at Conrad, and all appearances suggested that not only couldn’t Conrad have cared less, but that he was smugly congratulating himself on a job well done. Nurse Tolle deposited Conrad on one side of Dr. Hellion’s waiting room and Piper on the other and sat with them until he was sure that Piper was calm enough to restrain herself. When the meal bell rang, Nurse Tolle left them with strict instructions not to move a muscle, or speak or fight or do anything else that would get on his last remaining nerve until Dr. Hellion’s return.
“What does it feel like to have something so precious taken from you?” Conrad taunted as soon as Nurse Tolle left the room. A smile was playing on his lips and Piper’s hand had an almost irrepressible desire to wipe it clean off of his face.
“Do you think your bird will burn fast or slow? I think slowly,” Conrad baited. They both knew that the disposal system employed suction to draw all waste through tubing to the incinerator room on the fourth level, where it was burned once a day.
“The incinerator’s starting in twenty minutes.”
Suddenly Piper sat bolt upright in her chair as a fragile hope welled in her. If Conrad was right (when was a genius not right?) and the garbage hadn’t yet been incinerated, it meant her bird was still safe and maybe, just maybe, she had time to get to it. Ma always says, “Where there’s a will, there’s a way.” I’m sure willing, so there must be a way. Passionately swearing to herself that she was going to have her bird back, Piper leapt to her feet.
“But the real question is, if a wood bird burns in a garbage heap and no one hears it or sees it, does it really burn?” Conrad mused.
“Aww, stuff a dirty sock in it, Conrad.” Piper made for the door.
“You’ll never make it in time. The incinerator is on the other side of the testing lab and the lab doors have four security safeguards,” Conrad scoffed. “It’s more likely you’ll get struck by lightning than get past those doors.”
“Then I’ll be real careful of that lightning once I’m on the other side of them.” Piper didn’t waste another moment of her precious time on Conrad and slipped out of the waiting room and into the corridor with a plan. All she had to do was find the laboratory doors, and to do that, she followed the garbage ducts. Several breathless minutes later, and after many wrong turns, Piper arrived at two doors painted bright red and labeled MAXIMUM SECURITY—EXPERIMENTAL TESTING LABORATORY. Sure enough, they had four different security measures, just like Conrad said they would.
Keep your wits about you, Piper coached herself. She tried fiddling with the security keypad and the screen, but it had no effect. In desperation, she banged the side of it, hoping to shock the system into releasing the doors. It did no good.
“Hey, Moo, grab the dolly. They’ll be heavy,” a gruff voice shouted from behind the doors. Piper ducked out of sight, and a moment later the red doors swung open and a fat man wearing a utility uniform waited impatiently in the threshold. He tapped his foot until Moo appeared, wheeling a dolly.
“Quit with the rushing. Every week’s the same, Jessie. The new specimens will be ready by five-thirty like always. You get yourself all hyper over nothing.” Moo, who was even fatter than Jessie, had a small stick dangling from his lips that he pressed this way and that out of some sort of nervous habit. Chronically bored and seriously ill-tempered, the two men lumbered through their well-worn routine in a state most closely compared to sleepwalking. It took very little effort on Piper’s part to grab for the red door and slip inside once they ambled down the hall.
As the red doors closed behind her, Piper was amazed to discover that the testing laboratory covered over half of the entire fourth level. Rows upon rows of scientific experiments stretched a considerable distance.
“Geez Louise.” Piper shook her head at the sheer vastness of it all. There were more scientific doohickeys and whatchamacallits than a person could lay a name to. With no time to dawdle, she quickly located the waste tubes coming from a nearby garbage chute and followed their path through the laboratory. Several rows in, Piper’s eyes were suddenly caught by a red rose fastened between the tongs of a specimen stand. She stopped dead in her tracks.
“I remember you!” She’d seen that rose when she first arrived and it had bitten a scientist’s nose!
To test her theory, Piper very carefully extended her hand toward a petal, and sure enough, the petals pulled back to reveal a small mouth with teeth hidden inside.
“Grrrrrr,” the rose growled.
Piper quickly pulled her hand away as the rose snapped at her, biting the air. “You have yourself a real temper.”
“Grrrrrr.” The growling rose was perfectly prepared to bite at anyone who might poke or sniff it. It was gloriously in full bloom and its red petals were positioned in front of a spray gun-like machine. Suddenly the machine whirled to life and a black mist shot out, squarely hitting the flower and also landing on Piper’s forearm.
The rose coughed, spitting out the foul chemical, and Piper found herself coughing too, as the skin on her arm started to painfully burn.
“That smarts!” Piper plucked up a nearby cloth to wipe the chemical off of her skin.
“O! A! A! O!” It was a small noise, the sort of sound you would make at the back of your throat if you were in pain, and it was unmistakably coming from the rose. When only the very smallest touch of the black stuff had burned her own skin, Piper could only imagine its effects on a delicate rose. Despite its tough pretense, this rose was suffering a slow and painful death.
“Here, little fellow. Let me help you.” Piper reached out with the cloth to get at the black coating on the red petals.
“Grrrrr.”
“If you’d hold still a minute, I’ll help you some. I can’t do anything if you’re biting me.”
The rose was unconvinced, perhaps because it was yet to experience a human hand that wasn’t interfering with it in some way. At the same time, it was so weakened by the chemical that it didn’t have much fight in it, and after a short struggle it finally relented to Piper’s ministrations. She carefully cleaned off the wilting petals and then showered the rose off with water. The rose shook itself, gratefully.
“Why are they spraying this stuff on you?” Piper moved the rose a safe distance from the chemical.
“Grrrrr.”
Piper was sure that Dr. Hellion would want to know about this. Obviously Moo and Jessie were up to no good, and the first chance she got she was going to expose them and put things right. In the meantime, time was running out and Piper had to get to the incinerator.
Breaking into a run to make up for lost time, Piper said good-bye to the rose and then sped past several more rows until her sight was arrested by a turtle with a lead block stuck on its back. The block was so heavy that it was slowly crushing the life out of the turtle and its legs were flailing about helplessly.
“What in the name of Jehoshaphat happened to you?”
Piper stopped dead in her tracks, confronted by a critical decision
—if she helped the turtle, there was no way she could get to the incinerator in time. If she left the turtle until later, Moo and Jessie would likely return and she wouldn’t be able to do anything about it without being caught.
“Gosh, darn it all!” Piper’s heart couldn’t leave the turtle to suffer. She was simply going to have to find a way to live without her little wood bird. Once again, Conrad had seen to it that he got his way.
“Hey, little fella, looks like you got the whole world on your back. I reckon you’d appreciate a little bit of help.” Piper unlatched the cage and angled her arm so that her fingers could get at the metal hook that held the lead block in place. Pushing this way and that, she finally managed to snap it free and the heavy block tumbled away.
“That’s better. Isn’t it?”
The turtle happily stretched his legs out and was able to get to his feet. Piper stepped back to admire it, when suddenly the turtle began to leap. It was the fastest, springiest turtle, and the very next thing Piper knew, the turtle leapt right out of the cage.
“Hey, get back here!” Piper jumped after the turtle, but it was leaping ten to fifteen feet into the air, and before she could count to two, it was across the room and had leapt out a window that opened to the central atrium.