Maggie looked over from her seat. “Hi,” she said.
“Hi,” he replied.
“So where are your friends?”
“Gone.”
“And what about your problems?”
He shrugged. “Gone, too. I think.”
She smirked and shook her head. “See, I told you they didn’t know what they were talking about.”
There didn’t seem to be any sense in explaining how wrong she was, so he just said nothing.
“I am glad things are better,” she said. She paused for a second. “Did those two girls even stay all night on Friday?”
“Why?”
“After I went to bed, Keira was in the bathroom, and I never heard her or Fiona come in. I was just thinking maybe they decided to go home.”
“You don’t remember anything else?”
She thought for a moment. “I had this weird dream about being in their car, but that was about it. Why? Did something happen I should know?”
Eric almost laughed. “No. Nothing.”
The final proof that the Makers were no longer affecting his life came during P.E.
Basketballs were lined up once again at the end of the court.
“Those drills went so well on Friday,” Coach Roberts said, “I thought we’d do them again.”
The team Eric had been on before didn’t want him this time, so he joined a group of guys he’d hung out with in the past. Like on Friday, the line referee was someone from the girls’ P.E. class. Only this time, instead of Fiona and Keira, it was Maggie.
The way things worked out, Eric ended up being the last person in his group. By the time his turn came, his team and the one he’d been part of on Friday were running neck and neck in first place.
Tommy was their final runner. He had a two-second lead on Eric by the time they were both on the court.
For their lap, the ball was at the far end so they had to pick it up and bring it back.
Eric ran faster than he’d ever run. Though his team was in no danger of coming in last and having to do laps, he had no desire of coming in second, either. He wanted to beat Tommy.
By the time they reached the balls, he had actually pulled ahead. He grabbed his basketball, touched his foot on the other side of the line, then began racing back to the finish. He’d gone only a few feet, though, when Maggie blew her whistle.
He glanced over his shoulder, shocked that she would blow it on him when he’d done exactly what he was supposed to do.
Only she wasn’t pointing at him.
“Tommy Bird,” Coach Roberts called out. “Start your lap over!”
Eric streaked ahead, a grin as big as the Rocky Mountains on his face.
As he crossed the finish, his teammates started cheering and clapping him on the back.
Life was definitely back on track.
JOURNAL OF RONAN TROUBLE (MR. TROUBLE No. 10)
BOOK 2
Saturday, September 24th
Aboard the Lady Candice flying home from Tobin, Colorado
Case #3114 is complete, or at least that’s what the file will read. I’m not sure this case is even close to being done. No, I don’t think Eric Morrison, our client, is in danger of another Maker possession attempt. But I fear that something has changed with the Makers themselves.
Without doing a thorough search through the records, we all believe this was the most intense case our family has ever encountered. I wish I could say I was at my best, but that would be a lie. I’m still trying to come to grips with filling Dad’s shoes, and I just don’t know if I’m ever going to be up to it. There were some things I should have anticipated that could have gone really wrong and, in fact, almost did.
As always, I had a few minor spats with my sisters. But by the end of the project, we were pretty much on the same page. Fiona even told me after we took off that she thought I’d done a great job. Of course, she also said if I repeated that, she’d deny it. You gotta love sisters.
About the job itself, I’m still in a bit of shock. The number of Makers involved in this attack (9) was something we had never seen before. We’ve established a new, worst-case ranking: MA3114.
The question is, why this time? Why did they feel the need to work in such a large group? Was it Eric himself? Was he special? Definitely. He has something that kicks in when others are in trouble. I’m not talking about the normal tendency that candidates exhibit. I’m talking about actual, visible power. The first night in front of his friend Maggie’s house, for example, when he was able to physically make a surrogate leave Fiona alone, and then again the next day when he broke the spell of a talisman to help my sisters. We have never seen this before.
As if that wasn’t enough, we also found an intact Maker’s box with its drawers still full. This is a first. The only boxes recovered in the past were empty. In this one, at least six of the drawers contained personal items belonging to our client, things he said he’d lost in the previous couple of weeks.
The three top drawers were sealed. We’ve only opened one so far. Though it didn’t contain anything that belonged to Eric, it was not empty. What was inside is still to be determined. Uncle Colin and Uncle Carl were the only ones who saw the contents because they were wearing the specialized Maker detection goggles. We’re calling what they saw light discs, because that’s how Uncle Colin described them.
We left the other two drawers sealed so we can open them in the lab back home, where we can hopefully contain whatever these discs are and study them. Uncle Carl says he has a theory about what the boxes are for but he’s unwilling to share it at this point. In my opinion, it has something to do with the transfer of the Maker into the candidate’s body. What? You got me.
The other thing that happened has to do with the skill Eric revealed that I mentioned earlier.
To this point in the Trouble family history, our job has always been to try to keep the Makers from increasing in number. Eric showed us something that would allow us to reduce how many of them there are. A full description of our encounter is in the report. It’s possible Eric’s the only one who can end a Maker possession like this. To test it would mean making a conscious choice of putting a client in potential danger. Whether to do that or not is something that we will have to consider very, very carefully.
I’m tired and still somewhat dazed from the events that happened during the night. The thing that keeps poking at my mind, and has kept me from sleeping so far, is not being sure if this job was merely a single instance of increased Maker activity, or if it’s a sign of something more.
I’ll hope for the first, and prepare for the last.
If the Makers are truly getting more aggressive, life for us just got a whole lot harder.
Ronan Trouble
“I’m not sure what to say. Thank you doesn’t seem like it’s enough. I am still worried, though. Not about me, but about you. Good luck. I think you might need it.”
Eric, Colorado