“I always knew it. Them McClouds is flighty and unreliable,” Millie Mae Miller declared at the ladies’ auxiliary that afternoon when Betty’s absence was duly noted. It marked the only time in the thirty years since she first joined that Betty had failed to show up. “Can’t say I didn’t see it coming.”
A week after Piper’s return, a new member quietly arrived to join the community of Lowland County. It had always been Betty and Joe’s plan to have a house full of youngens, not to mention the fact that a man can’t help but long for a son, so they welcomed Conrad into their home with open arms. Conrad wasn’t quite what Joe might have expected a son to be. However, both Joe and Betty had started to develop a taste for things not being as they had always been on the farm.
It had been at Piper’s insistence that Conrad come and stay, and he had been extremely reticent. When he finally did arrive, Piper showed him around the place, overjoyed.
“This is your room.” Piper pulled Conrad into a small, plain room next to the one she slept in. “See here, look.” She threw open an old window overlooking green fields. “You’ve got a great view of the sunrise. And Ma put the new quilt on your bed and Pa made this desk for you ’cause I told him you like to sit and think up stuff.”
The room was simple and humble, which was why Conrad found himself surprised by feelings of extreme gratitude and thankfulness. His parents had given him the best of everything and yet it had always struck him as meaningless junk. Betty and Joe had given him next to nothing but each item was bestowed with such care and consideration that it was almost painful for him to accept their generosity. From the moment he set foot on the farm, they opened their house and their arms to him, a virtual stranger, with full hearts. Until Piper, Conrad had never met people who gave with such simple kindness, expecting absolutely nothing in return. In contrast, it was only with threats of a public scandal that Conrad had been able to get his father on the phone at all. Even then, Senator Harrington had not been pleased.
“What is it, Conrad? I don’t have time for this,” he’d snapped when Conrad had called from Letitia Hellion’s office.
“This call is a courtesy, Father. I’m happy to go to the press first,” Conrad fired back.
Senator Harrington simmered down and found courtesy for his tone. “I’m listening.”
“We’ve taken over the facility. Dr. Hellion is no longer in charge. I’m going to expose what is going on here, and I have documentation that proves that you were not only aware of it, but supported it. By my calculation, a conservative estimate of the laws being broken by Dr. Hellion numbers close to twenty. Including murder.”
“Murder?” The senator’s full attention was now focused on his son.
“And you have aided and abetted Dr. Hellion, which makes you an accessory to the crime.” Conrad knew that this could easily take down his entire family. His father’s icy silence on the other end of the line only confirmed the weight of his threats.
“What do you want?”
“You’ll use your connections and influence to get approval today for the facility to be under your authority. As soon as you have the authority, you’ll turn it over to me. We’ll be running it from now on and you’ll see to it that no one interferes with us or gets in our way.”
“Connie, that’s impossible. I’d need to get approval from the Joint Chiefs of Staff. I’ll need—”
“Then do it. I’ll expect confirmation by the end of the day.” When his father had called back, Conrad didn’t take his first call, or his second or third or even fourth. He waited until the messages became increasingly more urgent before finally picking up the phone.
“It’s done.” Senator Harrington had used every favor, every influence, every means available to him by dint of his family, his position, and his wealth to pull off the impossible, just as Conrad knew he would. Unfortunately, there was a caveat, and one Conrad had not been expecting. “But—” The Senator let the word hang in the air.
“But what?” Conrad prompted.
“The deal comes off the table unless you agree to one condition.”
“You’re in no position to negotiate with me, Father.”
“This is nonnegotiable. You get everything you want on the condition that you never contact me or your mother again. We never want to hear from you or see you and you can no longer use the Harrington name. You are no longer our son.”
“I see.” Conrad’s face crumpled and he bit his lip to keep from making a sound. This hurt, hurt so much. “Father . . . ?” Conrad stopped himself, taking a deep breath. How was he to beg his father to be his father? How was he to say all of the things he wanted to say before he no longer had a father and effectively became an orphan? In the end there were no words.
“I agree.”
The minute the words were out of Conrad’s mouth, the line went dead. The man who used to be his father had hung up and Conrad entered a new life where he was just plain Conrad and no longer Conrad Harrington III.
Tucked up in a tiny room in Lowland County, day by day, Conrad established himself in his new life, where he was expected to do chores every day and was served up three square meals of good country fare. He grew to like it.
It was a good thing that Joe and Betty had taken their first tentative steps in accepting change, because Conrad pushed them to their limits and beyond.
“You don’t say.” Joe shook his head, his brow furrowed.
Conrad pointed to a detailed diagram of the twenty acres of land the McClouds owned. It included charts and graphs. “By planting an early wheat crop and then alternating with corn and barley you can get three crops in one season per field. In addition, I have engineered this hybrid seed that produces three times the bounty and twice the weight. You’ll be able to harvest the same crops as a two-hundred-acre farm with no additional man power.”
Joe shook his head in amazement. Holding up the seed that Conrad presented to him, he turned it over in his hand. “McClouds ain’t never done that before.” He considered Conrad’s words, looking out over his fields, and shrugged. “Ain’t no harm in trying it out, though, I guess.”
Conrad smiled and Joe put his arm around him. Betty rang the bell for dinner and they walked together through the field and across the farmyard to the house. Since Conrad had the house wired for high-speed Internet and built a supercomputer in the kitchen, mealtimes had become an adventure. Conrad and Joe entered the kitchen to find that Betty had been busy downloading recipes, and Moroccan food was on the menu for the evening. Couscous and spiced lamb waited on the table, and Piper excitedly sipped mint tea.
“Wash your hands, Conrad. Sit yourself down, Joe, or the kebabs will get cold.” Betty busily passed around a plate of exotically spiced carrots and lentils. “Wouldn’t you know it but Piper’s got some news to tell and I made her hold off so that we could all enjoy it.”
“You’ll never guess,” Piper burst forth, unable to contain herself any longer. “Smitty cracked that big case. He caught the guys with the virus bomb holed up in an old bank vault in Times Square, so that virus can’t hurt anyone now. They’re making him a first-class detective, youngest one ever. Isn’t that something?”
Betty sniffed and shook her head. “Don’t know what the world is coming to when folks is running around with a bit of virus in a bottle and threatening to make folks sick with it. I’m sure glad we don’t got any of ’em here in Lowland County.”
“Smitty said that in New York, they got more criminals than anywhere else and he couldn’t be happier about it. He says that there just aren’t enough hours in the day for all he has to do.” Like many of the kids, Smitty had the difficult task of balancing his schoolwork with his exciting new job. It wasn’t easy, but he couldn’t have been more fulfilled. Smitty was also one of the lucky ones whose parents welcomed him back with open arms.
“Smitty says that just the other night he went to Cirque du Soleil to see Kimber’s show and it was sold out,” Piper continued. “Folks can’t get enough of her
new act and he says she’s got more voltage in her fingertips than ever.”
“Did Smitty apologize?” Conrad asked between mouthfuls. As per usual, Smitty and Kimber were in the middle of one of their fights. This one started when Kimber caught Smitty, yet again, looking at her underwear, and she’d pumped thirty thousand volts into his left leg. Smitty, of course, pleaded his innocence, but Kimber didn’t believe a word of it.
“Well, Kimber says that she won’t forget but she’ll forgive. Ahmed and Nalen got rid of that tropical storm that was turning into a hurricane off of Cape Canaveral too. They say that now they have the hang of it, there’s nothing to it, and they can’t wait to try their hands at a tsunami. Anyway, Lily landed easy as pie. She told me that after the third or fourth time up to the moon, it’s no different than going to the corner store. She took more pictures for me just the same. Oh, and Myrtle and Daisy faxed that report you wanted, Conrad.” Piper pointed to a stack of papers on the counter.
Conrad immediately rose from his seat, but Betty fixed a stern finger on him. “Not ’til you finished up your supper, young man. You knows better than that by now.”
Smiling, Conrad sat down. He might be a supergenius, but he knew better than to cross Betty McCloud when she got that look in her eye.
“Daisy says that new alligator, the one Violet brought back from that tomb in Egypt, got stuck when he was metamorphizing between a snake and an alligator. He had the head of an alligator and the body of a snake, but was as mad as a hornet. Myrtle fetched Jasper at the Moscow Zoo, where he was healing a sick polar bear, and Jasper came right back and cured him. He said it was just a bad case of indigestion.”
Ever since Daisy and Myrtle had taken over running the institute, things had changed drastically. It was decided that the institute would no longer imprison any life-form, but instead provide a safe haven only for those who required assistance or protection. It was also going to direct the vast equipment and research facilities at its disposal to the creation of scientific advances that would benefit all creatures, whether normal or not.
Unfortunately, very few of the inhabitants could be immediately released back to their original homes because they were simply too weak or damaged from Dr. Hellion’s ministrations. Conrad devised a program to wean the drugs out of their systems while Daisy and Myrtle supervised the scientists, who were now tasked with rehabilitating the various creatures and retraining them in their talents. For many, the damage had been great and it was going to be a slow process. Myrtle and Daisy, who were overseeing every step and reporting back to Conrad, were relentless in their efforts to save each and every one.
Every time a rose reclaimed its bloom or a leaping turtle regained the spring in its step, it was a great cause for celebration. Myrtle was, more often than not, the one who ran across the globe to deliver the healed plant or animal back to its home. She was also the one to complete weekly, and then monthly, checkups to make sure that it was flourishing back in its natural habitat.
Conrad took a keen interest in every aspect of the daily reports and ensured that the true nature of the facility was being carefully concealed from the rest of the world. Before Conrad would even consider letting any of the kids leave I.N.S.A.N.E., he instructed them on the arts of discretion, much to Kimber’s chagrin.
“I can do what I want. Who do you think you are, Dr. Hellion?” Kimber snapped.
“No, I think I’m the person who is trying to stop someone like Dr. Hellion from catching us again. The fact of the matter is, Kimber, that we scare a lot of people. They don’t know what to do with us. So all I’m asking you to do is to give them an explanation that they can understand when you have to, and don’t tell them about it when you don’t. I’m not asking you to hide, I’m telling you not to flaunt it.”
Conrad had finally won them over, and when newspaper reporters pressed Kimber for details on the amazing special effects she used in her circus act, she smiled tightly and said, “No comment.” Conrad had negotiated ironclad employment agreements for the others that ensured their protection and privacy. It was an uneasy and potentially dangerous situation, and Conrad kept a close eye on them all to make sure that no one was suddenly going to find themselves on the front page of the New York Times, or the top story on the six o’clock news.
While much progress had been made, it was by no means a perfect solution and was potentially fraught with peril. Indeed, it weighed heavily on Conrad’s mind, and a few months later, when the kids all gathered at the farm for a little rest and relaxation, he made a point of watching them closely to see what progress they had made. As it turned out, he wasn’t the only one.
“There’s something that ain’t right about all them kids,” Millie Mae Miller confidentially sniffed to the minister’s wife. The Fourth of July picnic was in full swing and Millie Mae had cornered the poor woman under the trees. “Have you ever seen the likes of it?” She pointed her finger accusingly.
The minister’s wife nervously cleared her throat. “True, they ain’t from around these parts but . . . they’re just children all the same. Don’tcha think?”
Millie Mae was fit to be tied and squinted her eyes suspiciously. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but something was definitely going on. Over a year ago those fancy suit-types from the institute had explained to the folks of Lowland County that Piper McCloud had played a trick on them and that she couldn’t fly at all. They had called it an optical illusion and said they were going to take the naughty girl away for a while to teach her not to play such tricks. Millie Mae Miller wanted to make sure that Piper McCloud wasn’t up to her old hijinks, because she, for one, wouldn’t stand for it.
With no real evidence, Millie Mae resorted to grasping at straws. “Did I tell you that they wouldn’t even give my Sally Sue the time of day?” She spat. “Sally Sue was standing next to ’em in line and they didn’t say so much as ‘howdy do.’ Rude, is what that is. Bad manners. I’m telling you, I ain’t never seen the likes of it.” Millie Mae crossed her arms in front of her chest. “But they’ll get what’s coming to ’em. It’s always the way.”
Millie Mae waited all day for the strange group of youngens under Betty and Joe McCloud’s care to get ‘what was coming to ’em,’ to no avail. When the baseball game was called to order, she licked her lips, certain that their just desserts would be quickly served up.
The shouting, pushing, and pulling had the normal result of producing two team leaders, but that year there was a strange name in the roster—Rory Ray Miller and Conrad. It wasn’t because Conrad could outthink, out-argue, or out-anything that he scared the bejesus out of everyone in Lowland County. No, their fear was generated for reasons that they couldn’t quite put their finger on, and which prompted them to cut the boy a wide berth. It was for that same reason that Conrad claimed the first draft pick and was quick to snap up the best player in the bunch.
“Piper McCloud.”
Piper moved out of the waiting kids with her head held high and joined Conrad’s team.
“Jimmie Joe,” Rory Ray shouted.
“Lily Yakimoto.”
“Junie Jane.”
“Ahmed Mustafa.”
“Billy Bob.”
Like the rest of Lowland County, Betty and Joe enjoyed the baseball game on the side of the hill, and perhaps cheered louder than any of the other parents. It was a joy for them to see Piper so happy and to have such good friends. They’d watched her all day, laughing and playing. She’d taught Violet to do the jig, and then the two girls had laughed so hard under the trees that their stomachs hurt. Pretty much, they’d spent the whole day laughing, so much so that Violet had spilled strawberry ice cream down the front of her dress. This only made them laugh harder.
Betty could see how much Piper had changed in the last year. Just the week before, Betty had suggested that Piper might like to attend the local school. To her surprise, Piper didn’t think on it long before solemnly telling Betty that she’d had enough schooling for the time being and was
n’t much interested in going to school anymore. And that wasn’t the only change. There were places and parts of Piper that she kept closed now, and things she didn’t talk about. She was more thoughtful and there were periods when she became very silent, like she was deeply grieving something that Betty could only guess at. Betty knew that Piper hadn’t told her everything that had gone on at the institute and Betty guessed that there was a good reason for that too. As a parent, she wanted to know everything, but some things are just too difficult to know. Betty was careful not to press Piper for information further than she was willing to volunteer, and took note of the fact that there was a knowledge and understanding that had grown in her child’s eyes that spoke of wisdom.
But most of the time, like today, Piper was just like she’d always been, which is to say that Piper was full of life and bursting to meet the challenges before her.
“CATCH THE BALL, PIPER!”
Billy Bob hit a doozie. The ball climbed and climbed.
Piper shot Lily a meaningful glance and Lily responded with a mischievous smile. Piper then held her baseball glove calmly above her head and waited for the ball to drop into it. To the startled eyes of the spectators, not to mention the opposing team, it did.
“Awww, man!” Rory Ray sulked. His team threw their hats to the ground and Junie Jane used a few choice words.
Try as she might, Millie Mae couldn’t actually point to a single thing that Piper or anyone else on her team was doing that was out of the ordinary. Sure, it was bad luck that every time someone on Rory Ray’s team was up to bat they had blinding sunlight in their eyes or a suspicious wind roaring past. Not to mention the fact that there was one time that Piper McCloud seemed to linger in the air a bit longer than most kids might when she caught a ball. And even Millie Mae had to admit that the girl could jump amazingly high.